Portal:Discworld
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Discworld is a comic fantasy book series by the British author Terry Pratchett set on the Discworld, a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which are in turn standing on the back of a giant turtle, the Great A'Tuin. The books frequently parody or at least borrow ideas from J. R. R. Tolkien, Robert E. Howard, H. P. Lovecraft, and William Shakespeare, as well as myth, folklore and fairy tales, often using them for satirical parallels with current cultural, technological and scientific issues.
Since the first novel, The Colour of Magic (1983), the series has expanded, spawning several related books and maps, five short stories, cartoon and theatre adaptations and even music inspired by the series. The first live action screen adaptation for television (Hogfather) was broadcast over Christmas 2006. Another one for the cinema (The Wee Free Men) is currently in development.
Newly released Discworld books regularly top The Sunday Times bestsellers list, making Pratchett the UK's best-selling author in the 1990s. He has since been overtaken by Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling, but still holds the record for the most shoplifted books. Discworld novels have also won awards such as the Prometheus Award and the Carnegie Medal. In the BBC's Big Read, four Discworld books were in the top 100, and a total of fourteen in the top 200.
Cecil Wormsborough St. John "Nobby" Nobbs is a corporal in the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, first appearing in the novel Guards! Guards!.
Nobby Nobbs is the kind of person who joins the army to loot corpses. It is said that there's a field-marshall's baton in every footman's knapsack; Nobby's Army kit generally consists of two warehouses, complete with said batons, other armies' uniforms, golden teeth, other petty valuables and several kilos of boots, some of them still occupied. Despite his kleptomania, he is honest about the big things (at least, the ones too big to steal) and is described as someone that you can trust with your life, although you'd be daft to trust him with half a dollar. Sgt Colon also remarked in Jingo that he had heard of places where the generals looked at which side's uniform Nobby wore at the moment to learn the situation of the battle.
He is described as untidy, smelly, and despite being human, about the same height as a dwarf, and carrying a certificate signed by the Patrician to prove that he's a human being. The text of this note can states that on the balance of probability, he is a human being. A running joke is the inability of others to believe this, despite — or even because of — the evidence. In fact, in Hogfather, even Death himself was unable to discern Nobby's species. He always seems to have a cigarette butt about him, normally stowed behind his ear, which has been described as a nicotine graveyard. Cigarettes quickly become butts in his presence, and stay as such for an apparently infinite amount of time.
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Lancre (pronounced Lanker) is a fictional country from the Discworld series. It is situated in the Ramtop mountains, about 500 miles Hubwards of the city of Ankh-Morpork. It is the best-known of hundreds of tiny countries in the Ramtops, occupying a vertiginous shelf looking over the Sto Plains.
Lancre is based mainly on the North of England (as in Lanc(ashi)re, with strong resemblance to rthe windswept, hilly, northern regions (the only piece of flat, level ground in Lancre is in a museum). However, it is reminiscent of many rural areas in Britain and elsewhere. It also contains elements of the Swiss Alps and the Appalachian Mountains. Pratchett has described the tiny country as "solid folklore"; it is the place all the legends of our world's countryside really happened. Ankh-Morpork serves a similar function for urban folklore, but not as blatantly.
Part of the reason for this is that the Ramtops are a major earthing point for the Discworld's magical field. Headless horsemen and walking trees are part of the landscape, as are witches. Lancre is famous for witches, especially since the publication of The Joye of Snackes (an erotic cookbook) by "A Lancre Witch" (Nanny Ogg). Lancre is also the gateway into the "parasite universe" of the elves. The other thing Lancre is famous for is young people going off and seeking their fortunes (usually in Ankh-Morpork).
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- The Ramkins were more highly bred than a hilltop bakery, whereas Corporal Nobbs had been disqualified from the human race for shoving.
-- Men at Arms - Susan hated Literature. She'd much prefer to read a good book.
-- Soul Music - Assassination was meat and drink to the Hunghung court; in fact, meat and drink were often the means.
-- Interesting Times - No one had asked her [Agnes Nitt], before she was born, whether she wanted a lovely personality or whether she'd prefer, say, a miserable personality but a body that could take size 9 in dresses. Instead, people would take pains to tell her that beauty was only skin-deep, as if a man ever fell for an attractive pair of kidneys.
-- Maskerade - I am Death, not taxes. I turn up only once.
-- Feet of Clay
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Soul Music is the sixteenth Discworld novel, published in 1994, and the third novel to focus on Death. The story of the book follows "The Band with Rocks In" through their short-lived but glamorous musical career. The band consists of the following members:
- Imp Y Celyn, a young lad from Llamedos who sings and plays the guitar. He looks rather "Elvish."
- Lias Bluestone, a troll who does percussion, which in typical troll fashion consists of banging rocks together. He later takes on a more rocky name, Cliff.
- Glod Glodsson, a dwarf that plays horn, and is not ashamed to admit he's in it for the money.
Meanwhile, Death is in one of his philosophical moods, and takes a holiday in search of a way to forget his more troubling memories, such as the recent demise of his adopted daughter Ysabell and her husband Mort. In the meantime, his granddaughter Susan discovers the truth about her heritage when she's forced to stand in for her missing grandfather. Complications ensue when she falls in love with Imp, and tries to save him from his "live fast, die young" destiny as the Discworld's first rock star.
| Preceded by Reaper Man |
3rd Death Story Published in 1994 |
Succeeded by Hogfather |
| Discworld reading order | Full article |
Bast: Cat-Headed God of Things Left on the Doorstep or Half-Digested Under the Bed
- ...that The Wee Free Men is the only Discworld book in which Death (right) does not appear?
- ...that The Luggage is made of sapient pearwood, an almost extinct tree whose wood is impervious to magic?
- ...that Special Sheep Liniment should on no account ever be given to sheep?
- ...that the the significant owl hoots in the night, yet many grey lords go sadly to the masterless men?
- ...that cat singing consists of standing two inches in front of other cats and screaming at them until they give in?
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