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"Discoworld Novels are for natty waistcoat wearers?"

What is the appeal that Pratchett holds, heh? He has the sort of humour that only people, who drink real ales and wear "comedy" waistcoats to demonstrate that they are indeed a character (John Virgo you should be ashamed, and also shot), find amusing. I've read several of his books (Colour of magic was one if i remember rightly) because I had to find out what the fuss was about, so no one can accuse me of not giving them a go, and they were as lame as a paralysed snake.

Oook not funny, luggage not funny, Rincewind not funny, Pratchett not funny.

And he has a beard.

The sagacious one wrote:

> I have a confession to make, that concept made me chuckle.

Does this mean you may give another book a try?

To be fair, the Rincewind ones generally aren't as good.

I read Equal Rites once. Twas reasonably hilarious, mostly.

The sagacious one wrote:
> What is David Feintuch's Seafort Saga about?

Basically it follows one man, Nicholas Seafort, on his traumatic journey through life in the Navy of the future. Most of the books are written as if he is dictating them to you and, for me, this is very appealing.

I've read all but the last in the series so far but will hopefully get that one for my birthday on Thursday.

For a decent freview of the first five books (out of seen in the series) go to:-

http://pages.prodigy.net/aesir/tss.htm

Ineedsleep wrote:

> Or even just the ridiculous situations. The classic being Death
> having to play the part of Father Christmas. It's all to do with the
> way my imagination interprets what he writes.

I have a confession to make, that concept made me chuckle.

The sagacious one wrote:
> No one has answered my question: what do you find funny about
> Pratchett's style? I genuinely want to know the answer to this. I know
> it's hard to explain humour I admitt.

I've read quite a few of his books now and am familiar with his main characters so I have a mental image of what they look like and how I imagine them reacting to certain situations. The books do not make me laugh all the way through but every so often I get what can only be described as 'a mental image' that just cracks me up.

Or even just the ridiculous situations. The classic being Death having to play the part of Father Christmas. It's all to do with the way my imagination interprets what he writes.

Maybe that's not too clear. I cannot seriously put it into words so that's as close as I can get.

The sagacious one wrote:
> No one has answered my question: what do you find funny about
> Pratchett's style? I genuinely want to know the answer to this. I know
> it's hard to explain humour I admitt.

Yes, it's very difficult to explain why I find a particular style amusing, but as I have a few of the books at home, and I get home this weekend, I'll see if I can put forward something of an explaination then.

TIM-MAY!! wrote:

I just enjoy his books. I'm no critic and I like what I like; other
> books I like include Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern series, David
> Feintuch's Seafort Saga, Arthur C Clarke's Odyssey series (but not the
> last one) and the Red Dwarf books amongst others.

Arthur C Clarke is a good author, his style isn't that exciting but his ideas are revolutionary. What is David Feintuch's Seafort Saga about?

I know I said I'd left this discussion but I couldn't resist having a peak to see what people were still saying.


The sagacious one wrote:
> No one has answered my question: what do you find funny about
> Pratchett's style? I genuinely want to know the answer to this. I know
> it's hard to explain humour I admitt.

I just enjoy his books. I'm no critic and I like what I like; other books I like include Anne McCaffrey's Dragons of Pern series, David Feintuch's Seafort Saga, Arthur C Clarke's Odyssey series (but not the last one) and the Red Dwarf books amongst others.

I can't say I really enjoyed all the Discworld books but once I'd gotten familiar with the style and the world he'd created I enjoyed the series more; the one's I enjoyed most featured the City Watch and Death.

A lot of people have said that his books are formulaic and a lot of the latest ones have been whodunnits but not everyone needs to read totally original and groundbreaking books all the time.

I think a lot of his popularity is due to a hardcore fanbase who will have nothing bad to say about him (I know I'm guilty of this and I apologise) and the odd casual reader.

Still, I shall be buing a copy of Night Watch when it come out in paperback ...

No one has answered my question: what do you find funny about Pratchett's style? I genuinely want to know the answer to this. I know it's hard to explain humour I admitt.