(no subject)

[theweaselking]

The 41st - and final - Discworld book comes out next month.

Quoth torrain:
Goodnight, sweet Discworld.
May you ride into the distant stars on the back of the Great A'Tuin, and may your light--honey-slow, as it is in the presence of magic--linger on in our lives. You will not be missed, as your past remains with us, to be ever picked up and revisited. Full of cardboard-soled boots, and extremely practical witches, and even the occasional hero who has the light glint off his sword, ting.

Comments

[scifantasy.livejournal.com]

GNU Terry Pratchett.

[skington.livejournal.com]

To be fair, Robert Jordan made sure someone finished the books after he died because so many people wanted to know how the hell the books ended. If George R R Martin has a sudden heart attack before he's wrapped up his monster series, I'm sure his estate will take a similar view.

The difference is that the author said "this is how I plan on ending it" and it was mostly a matter of a competent craftsman filling in the gaps, much as Mozart's pupils finished his Requiem.

Whereas nobody particularly asked for a whole bunch of extra Tolkien books, and even fewer people asked for more Dune books, given that the series took a nose-dive either after God Emperor, Children or Dune Messiah, depending on who you ask.

[theweaselking.livejournal.com]

I also think that if the Wheel Of Time or Song Of Ice And Fire were partway through *book 41* when the author dropped dead there would be a significantly different attitude towards them.

[skington.livejournal.com]

Well, yes and no. There have been a shedload of Discworld novels, in the same way that Simenon wrote a whole bunch of Maigret novels or Wodehouse wrote a whole bunch of Jeeves and Wooster novels. They're pretty much standalone so that's fine. Nobody really expected Pratchett to reveal What The Discworld Was All About, and this will blow your mind. This isn't Author existence failure (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/AuthorExistenceFailure).

On the other hand, if Pterry had been planning on writing the Death of Esme Weatherwax, in a way that was somehow Important and would make sense of all that he'd written, then yes, you'd want his estate to finish it off from his notes.

[torrain.livejournal.com]

Personally, I found that one of the things I loved about Discworld was that almost every novel had a bit about What The (Disc)world Was All About, and I could sit down with nearly any one of them and expect to have my mind blown.

(Not over some flashy table-upending in-world plot thing, it's true, but oh my god the writing. The writing and the ringing bell of true-things-set-down.)

If I'd had to wait around to novel 41 to get my mind blown, I think it's much less likely that I would have cared enough to keep up, and probably wouldn't have any strong feelings about uncertainty versus published notes versus an estate-arranged write-up.

ETA: A good series is something that I want to end properly. Discworld, I just wanted it to be.

[skiriki.livejournal.com]

I, uh... damn. Who is cutting onions in this room!?

Excuse me, I gotta go and wipe away some liquid sorrow and joy.

[sparkindarkness.livejournal.com]

I am going to wallow in denial a bit more

[calankh.livejournal.com]

Maybe that means we'll get a complete discworld collection series soon? I look forward to putting it on my christmas list.

(I got into these in high school/college and used the library heavily. I own probably half but they are a variety of editions and bindings, so they don't go together. Getting a pretty set of all the things would be fantastic for the library I will have, someday.)