My journey with Pratchett really started when I got his younger-children book, Truckers (part of the Bromeliad trilogy) as a birthday present, perhaps when I was in late primary school. I loved that book, loved how the Nomes were so ignorant of human customs, and how they’d capitalize all the unknown words borrowed from the human language and put some obscure importance to them. My copy at home is now well-creased from the re-reading. When I found out that there were 2 more books after it, of course I had to read them!
Then I forgot about him for a while, because I thought the Discworld series was so extensive there was no point starting on them. Then the lovely book rental place in Subang Parade, and YP’s dear friend happened – and I had a ready supply of early Discworld books to read. So I read “The Colour of Magic”, “The Light Fantastic”, “Equal Rites”, and “Mort”.
The saga continues with the ready supply of Discworld books in the libraries around me. It’s a good thing that they’re not to be read in any order, so I can simply borrow any book on the shelf.
Truthfully, I can’t tell you exactly what happens in each book, and I won’t even try (thus the grouped review). BUT they’re really great distractions from life! The humour he injects into each book is novel, and each book covers different topics/issues: “Sourcery” tells of a dictatorship of sorts which could lead to the end of the world; “Wyrd Sisters” introduces witches and plays with plays like those of Shakespeare; “Reaper Man” deals with Death not being able to do his job; “Witches Abroad” reintroduces the witches and mixes them with many fairy tales; “Small Gods” takes a tongue-in-cheek look at religions; “Soul Music” is about that “real” soul music – rock music, and is a really entertaining read!; and “Maskerade” takes a look at opera, with lots of borrowing from “Phantom of the Opera”. Some of the allusions and jibes in the books I didn’t really get, but I guess everyone understands different things differently anyway.
That’s the books so far in a nutshell, really. These books are like candy – you can’t read too many at once, but taken one at a time, at regular intervals, they serve to give you a much-needed laugh and a different outlook to life. Which is a great treat!
Rating: ***out of 5
