Christmas Reading: 'Hogfather' by Terry Pratchett

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Originally Posted by alicialiv

Yes it was a great book! Death was one of my favorite characters, but the death of mice/rodents/etc. was adorable. Wait death adorable? That's not right....

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Yes but Death is always adorable In/ On Discworld.

Anyway the fact that I didnt know which discworld books were Death books was annoying me as I think I would rather like to read all these as once so I found out
and thought in case anyone else is interested...

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Originally Posted by listmainia, amazon

Death and Susan

Death plays a very important role in the Discworld, beyond all the usual "being a gatekeeper for the dead" jazz. He exists. He has personality. And in 'Mort (Discworld, Book 4)', he tries to take an apprentice to ease his workload. 'Reaper Man (Discworld, Book 11)' finds Death fired from his job by the auditors, so he takes up the only other career where he can work with a scythe: farming.

The next two books feature Susan, Death's granddaughter. 'Soul Music (Discworld, Book 16)' introduces Susan when she inherits the job of Death after her grandfather takes an unexpected vacation, and we also see the insurgence of Rock 'n Roll on the disc. Death takes over for the Hogfather in 'Hogfather (Discworld, Book 20)', the Discworld equivalent of Santa Claus, while Susan goes looking for the real (and kidnapped) Hogfather.

'Thief of Time' technically belongs in this category, but it is less about Susan and Death than it is about a couple of new characters, Lu Tze and his student Lobsang Ludd. The auditors also play a prominent role, and we finally get to see what they are all about.

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I have finally managed to get a copy of Hogfather and started reading (1/5). It is a funny and interesting read; enjoying it more than I expected, which is quite a relief as there are about 10 TP books in the BBC list I need to read!

Could someone please explain how this whole world works? Is this some kind of parallel universe or another one somewhere in space?

The world is called Discworld for it is the shape of a disc that is standing on four elephants that are standing on a giant turtle, however, that is not very important.

Discworld is a fantasy universe. It is quite a freaky one.

Ankh-Morpork is the Disc's greatest city. A metropolis and quite dirty. It has a complex power system and it's tyrant, Lord Vetinari is a very cunning and wise man and diplomate to stop the city from clogging up.
Theft is legalized, as far it is done by a member of the Thieves Guild and there is a system behind that too. Unofficial thieves usually have very painful deaths.

On Discworld we can see a lot of references to our world, and it is a bit of parody also. There are a lot of those annotations.

For example:
"'Did you check the list?' YES, TWICE. ARE YOU SURE THAT'S ENOUGH?"

Thanks for the explanation, Tal! I think I will take some time to get used to the Discworld idea because I keep waiting for some kind of reference which would connect it to this world.

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Originally Posted by Taliesin[/i

Discworld is a fantasy universe. It is quite a freaky one.

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You can say that again! Though I am kind of liking the idea of having guilds for all profession groups... Thieves, assassins... In all that lawlessness, it brings some kind of order to the things... I think? :p

That is not just any lawlessness. It is carefully and precisely ordered system of lawlessness made so on purpose because it was the only way the city could work.
Machiavelli is noone compared to Vetinari.

Scheherazade, the Discworld is full of references to our world, as it's a parody of it.

As to some link to Terra, well... there is a trilogy (so far) called "The Science of Discworld". Search it on the web and you'll find the plot and the link to our dear world :D

For Hogfather, I'm voting "it's a good book" only, because I did not enjoy it as much as other Discworld books, but it IS a good book and I recommend it :)

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Originally Posted by Taliesin

That is not just any lawlessness. It is carefully and precisely ordered system of lawlessness made so on purpose because it was the only way the city could work.
Machiavelli is noone compared to Vetinari.

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Tal, you are the true Yoda of this Forum! Or even a Merlin-in-training! :D

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Originally Posted by LightShade

Scheherazade, the Discworld is full of references to our world, as it's a parody of it.

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I am slowly realising it.

Have to admit, I am taking my time with this book; it is like learning a new language familiarising myself with all the characters and the new world order but it is not a bad read at all.

Susan is Death's adopted daughter? :eek:

NO scher susan is Deaths adopetd daugher's (wierd name) daughter after she ran away and married deaths apprentice Mort at thened of the book Mort.

Death the granddaddy :D Susan's the granddaughter and, by some weird "genetics" (since she's not exactly bone of his bone :p ) inherits his talents. So to speak.

So, I have finished reading Hogfather (well done me! :p)

I cannot say I don't like it; it is very entertaining at times but I found it hard work. There are too many characters to get used to (especially for a novice like me) and the story kept jumping from one scene to the other every other page, which made me feel like as if I was reading small scetches rather than a book.

I like Pratchett's style and sense of humour. I like Susan very much and am hoping that she will be included in other stories as well.

whoever chose Hogfather as a book to read, i love you. Terry Pratchett is the best author ever. especially - the books that have illustrations by Paul Kidby, like the Last Hero and . . . um . . . the one with the "modified" Mona Lisa on the cover.

Hey guess whats on tv this christmas???

:brow: although I dont quite see how anyone can play Death:confused:.

I'm so depressed I won't be able to see to Hogfather, although someone had mentioned on another site that it would be on the Hallmark channel this spring in America so I just have to be patient. They also mentioned that there were a couple of cartoons made of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters. I loved Soul Music, there were a couple of lines in there that just killed me, the general storyline I could take or leave but some of that dialogue was just priceless. However, I went to Netflix and I couldn't find Soul Music but I did find Wyrd Sisters which is on the way to my house as we speak. I'm not a huge fan of the witches but I'm just excited about seeing any Pratchett book onscrean...even if it's a cartoon. :thumbs_up

Sadly I cant watch it either its on sky :eek2: :sick: