it's so funny how thoroughly wrong I was about what Discworld is. the name always made me think it was sci-fi, like Tron or something? and once I learned a little more about it and started hearing things like "Ankh-Morpork" and "Great A'Tuin the World Turtle" I was like, ah, I see, it's actually very dry high fantasy bullshit! and it turns out that's also wrong
nobody told me Terry Pratchett was funny! I'm a little ways into Mort and I've been laffing my way through this book! it's been a long time, so I can't guarantee that this is a good comparison, but it reminds me of how it felt reading Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy as a teenager. here's a line, for example, describing the Discworld itself:
Scientists have calculated that the chance of anything so patently absurd actually existing are millions to one. But magicians have calculated that million-to-one chances crop up nine times out of ten.
that's great! it's full of so much charming detail that is, much like the kind of stuff Douglas Adams would write, really funny in how it gets hung up on ridiculous little concepts taken to logical extremes. like the "reannual grapes" which grow before you plant them, and can be made into wine that lets you see the future, but gives you a hangover the day before you drink it. or the footnote about a guy who theorized that if monarchy transfers instantaneously on death, that means it travels faster than light, so it might be possible to harness "kingium particles" for FTL communication. it's all completely ridiculous, but there's an internal logic to all of it, and I love that shit
anyway since I'm enjoying Mort so much, I decided to buy a few more. Guards! Guards!, Reaper Man, and Equal Rites. I might become a Pratchetthead. watch this space