Has Death Paid A Visit?

TheSonOfBattles

Okay people, what the hell happened to this forum. The first week or two I was in Boards, this forum was my favourite place. People were constantly posting and threading, now there's a new post every two days or so. Wake up!!!!

Reply, post, as Havelock said "it's to quiet."

I say, Wake up, or I'll send the librarian and Detritus round.

And I know technically this should just go straight into the It's to quiet thread, but this way more people are likely to look at it, so....

superconor

yeh really its to quiet. wheres all the nerdy discussions??

Finished Interesting Times there, am currently on maskerade and just started Feet Of Clay today. all very excellent!

i love the way Gytha and Esme are constantly pointing the others faults out, and the way Sir Samuel is trying to rebel against the aristocracy.

on another note, i know terry pratchett is the only person to succesfully take the piss out of an entire country (re: Australia, The Last Continent) but did he do the same with China in Interesting Times?

AL][EN

yea i know its weird isnt it!!!

/que: tumble weeds blows past in the wind

im just started nightwatch now, im trying to read all the books in order IE, the death books, guards books rincewind books

they make alot more sence if you do that
just finishing the guards books now and i must say there my new fav books!! best charachters best stories

TheSonOfBattles

Yeah, the Guards books are his best work so far, as least his best work that i've read. Have yet to read a few of the books. Am just after starting Carpe Jugulum, which I believe is the last witches book to date. Yes/No/Maybe?

Nanny Ogg is another favourite character of mine, her unfallibly amiable attitude is so unbelievably funny, as is her penchant for making herself at home, and liking everyone except her daughter in laws.

AL][EN

I only read one maybe two of the witches book so im not fimilar with the charachters at all!

once im finished the guards books im moving onto the witches books! another friend of mine has read them all and she says there great so i'll have to see will be worth seeing which are better the guards books or the witches books

Havelock

On the topics of the which series of the books is best, I find the Guards the best, as there has been alot of chacater development through out the books. If he wrote more Witches, Death, Rincewind or De Word novels I'd enjoy them more I think. Espically the DeWord, i really enjoyed The Truth. More of Susan D'Eath as well. To be honest I just want more Discworld.

It was a bit of China, but just not enough so there is no war.

As for it being so quite, it is a problem I shall deal with momentarily.

jongore

Anyone read The Free Wee Men? It was supposed to be a kids book but I enjoyed it as I have all of Terrys books.

The Times was a great book and William DeWorde is supposed to be in the new book.

I'm drooling with anticipation over the forthcoming Monstrous Regiment. (Why can't Terry write faster:D )

shock

i definitly think that the guards books are the best in the series, followed by the death and rincewind books. By the way, i havent read all the books yet but are there any where death doesnt make at least one appearence?

AL][EN

I dont think so. Deaths a natural part of life (more so on the disc than anywhere else) so i think the charachter death has been in most if not all the books. I havent read all the DW books yet but all the books ive read he's been in!!

*edited

actually i dont think death is in pyrmiads i could be wrong but thats the only one im hazy one! id have to re-read it!!

Silent Bob

Originally posted by jongore
Anyone read The Free Wee Men? It was supposed to be a kids book but I enjoyed it as I have all of Terrys books.

Yup. Good book (the Hodges-Figgis guy didn't appreciate me telling him that it should also be in the adult section...)

Thanx 4 The Fish

Originally posted by AL][EN
actually i dont think death is in pyrmiads i could be wrong but thats the only one im hazy one! id have to re-read it!!

Death in Pyramids

The late King Teppicymon XXVII opened his eyes.
'I was flying,' he whispered, 'I remember the feeling of wings. What am I doing here?'
He tried to stand up. There was a temporary feeling of heaviness, which suddenly dropped away so that he rose to his feet almost without any effort. He looked down to see what had caused it.
'Oh dear,' he said.
The culture of the river kingdom had a lot to say about death and what happened afterwards. In fact it had very little to say about life, regarding it as a sort of inconvenient prelude to the main event and something to be hurried through as politely as possible, and therefore the pharaoh reached the conclusion that he was dead very quickly. The sight of his mangled body on the sand below him played a major part in this.
There was a greyness about everything. The landscape had a ghostly look, as though he could walk straight through it. Of course, he thought, I probably can.
He rubbed the analogue of his hands. Well, this is it. This is where it gets interesting; this is where I start to really live.
Behind him a voice said, GOOD MORNING.
The king turned.
'Hallo,' he said. 'You'd be-'
DEATH, said Death.
The king looked surprised.
'I understood that Death came as a three-headed giant scarab beetle,' he said.
Death shrugged. WELL. NOW YOU KNOW.
'What's that thing in your hand?'
THIS? IT'S A SCYTHE.
'Strange-looking object, isn't it?' said the pharaoh. 'I thought Death carried the Flail of Mercy and the Reaping Hook of Justice.'
Death appeared to think about this.
WHAT IN? he said.
'Pardon?'
ARE WE STILL TALKING ABOUT A GIANT BEETLE?
'Ah. In his mandibles, I suppose. But I think he's got arms in one of the frescoes in the palace.' The king hesitated. 'Seems a bit silly, really, now I come to tell someone. I mean, a giant beetle with arms. And the head of an ibis, I seem to recall.'
Death sighed. He was not a creature of Time, and therefore past and future were all one to him, but there had been a period when he'd made an effort to appear in whatever form the client expected. This foundered because it was usually impossible to know what the client was expecting until after they were dead. And then he'd decided that, since no-one ever really expected to die anyway, he might as well please himself and he'd henceforth stuck to the familiar black-cowled robe, which was neat and very familiar and acceptable everywhere, like the best credit cards.
'Anyway,' said the pharaoh, 'I expect we'd better be going.'
WHERE TO?
'Don't you know?'
I AM HERE ONLY TO SEE THAT YOU DIE AT THE APPOINTED TIME. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT IS UP TO YOU.
'Well . . .' The king automatically scratched his chin. 'I suppose I have to wait until they've done all the preparations and so forth. Mummified me. And built a bloody pyramid. Um. Do I have to hang around here to wait for all that?'
I ASSUME SO. Death clicked his fingers and a magnificent white horse ceased its grazing on some of the garden greenery and trotted towards him.
'Oh. Well, I think I shall look away. They take all the squishy inside bits out first, you know.' A look of faint worry crossed his face. Things that had seemed perfectly sensible when he was alive seemed a little suspect now that he was dead.
'It's to preserve the body so that it may begin life anew in the Netherworld,' he added, in a slightly perplexed voice. 'And then they wrap you in bandages. At least that seems logical.'
He rubbed his nose. 'But then they put all this food and drink in the pyramid with you. Bit weird, really.'
WHERE ARE ONE'S INTERNAL ORGANS AT THIS POINT?
'That's the funny thing, isn't it? They're in a jar in the next room,' said the king, his voice edged with doubt. 'We even put a damn great model cart in dad's pyramid.'
His frown deepened. 'Solid wood, it was,' he said, half to himself, 'with gold leaf all over it. And four wooden bullocks to pull it. Then we whacked a damn great stone over the door . . .'
He tried to think, and found that it was surprisingly easy. New ideas were pouring into his mind in a cold, clear stream. They had to do with the play of light on the rocks, the deep blue of the sky, the manifold possibilities of the world that stretched away on every side of him. Now that he didn't have a body to importune him with its insistent demands the world seemed full of astonishments, but unfortunately among the first of them was the fact that much of what you thought was true now seemed as solid and reliable as marsh gas. And also that, just as he was fully equipped to enjoy the world, he was going to be buried inside a pyramid.
When you die, the first thing you lose is your life. The next thing is your illusions.
I CAN SEE YOU HAVE GOT A LOT TO THINK ABOUT, said Death, mounting up. AND NOW, IF YOU'LL EXCUSE ME-
'Hang on a moment-'
YES?
'When I . . . fell, I could have sworn that I was flying.'
THAT PART OF YOU THAT WAS DIVINE DID FLY, NATURALLY. YOU ARE NOW FULLY MORTAL.
'Mortal?'
TAKE IT FROM ME. I KNOW ABOUT THESE THINGS.
'Oh. Look, there's quite a few questions I'd like to ask-'
THERE ALWAYS ARE. I'M SORRY.

shock

Origionally posted by Silent Bob
the Hodges-Figgis guy didn't appreciate me telling him that it should also be in the adult section...

I saw it in the adult section of Waterstones but didnt have the money to buy it( it was the hard back edition). Any one know when its coming out in paper back?

AL][EN

Originally posted by Thanx 4 The Fish
Death in Pyramids

Ahhh see thats what i though when the king died i couldnt be quiet sure if death appeared to him or not i couldnt quiet remember well i know now!

Thanks for that Fish

the question still remains can you name a book that does not death appear in?

Silent Bob

Originally posted by AL][EN
the question still remains can you name a book that does not death appear in?

Death appears in every Discworld book, 'twas mentioned in an interview with Terry at one stage

Chowley

Originally posted by TheSonOfBattlesI say, Wake up, or I'll send the librarian and Detritus round.

Is that supposed to be a threat?
Please send them to my place I love those two, imagine going o a piss up with them.PM for my adress, send them as soon as you can.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Originally posted by Silent Bob
Death appears in every Discworld book, 'twas mentioned in an interview with Terry at one stage

I dont recall death showing up in the wee free men, or monstrous regiment although my memory is crap for these things.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

he was in MR

remember perks was told 'death would be her constant companion. and then at some point *dont remember where* she noticed death hanging around and asked him to be a little more invisible and a little less er.. something . but he was def. there for a few lines

JohnK

Quote from Monstrous Regiment

Polly shivered, and was aware that someone was walking beside her. She looked up and groaned.
‘You’re a hallucination, right?’
OH, YES. YOU ARE ALL IN A STATE OF HEIGHTENED SENSIBILITY CAUSED BY MENTAL CONTAGION AND LACK OF SLEEP.
‘If you’re a hallucination, how do you know that?’
I KNOW IT BECAUSE YOU KNOW IT. I AM SIMPLY BETTER AT ARTICULATING IT.
‘I’m not going to die, am I? I mean, right now?’
No. BUT YOU WERE TOLD THAT YOU WOULD WALK WITH DEATH EVERY DAY.
‘Oh . . . yes. Corporal Scallot said that.’
HE IS AN OLD FRIEND.YOU MIGHT SAY HE IS ON THE INSTALMENT PLAN.
‘Do you mind walking a bit more . . . invisibly?’
OF COURSE. HOW’S THIS?
‘And quietly, too?’
There was silence, which was presumably the answer. ‘And polish yourself up a bit,’ said Polly to the empty air. ‘And that robe needs a wash.’
There was no reply, but she felt better for saying it.

Havelock

On that topic, anyone offer me a lend of MR? My library has it pre-booked till January, It wouldn't take me more than 2 days to read. PM me if you can.

shock

I would but i dont have it. the list of books i have to read is growing longer than both my arms.

Nevyn

aahhh that my dear Havelock is why you need to have the right minions; for copies of MR and the Lone drow where offered up for my pleasure last weekend

TheSonOfBattles

/me missed the announcment that this forum had been changed to a bulletin board for braggin rights between witches and patricians/Thaed and Havelock.

Still funneh though

Nevyn

ah not it is only the game played in never multiverse there is of " your not what you think "

anyone can play if you have a deserving target.