Secrets of The Wee Free Men and Discworld: The Myths and Legends of Terry Pratchett's Multiverse - Softcover

Washington, Linda; Pyykkonen, Carrie

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0312372434 ISBN 13: 9780312372439

Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin, 2008

Synopsis

A fascinating guide to the international bestselling Discworld series and the award-winning The Wee Free Men―soon to be a major motion picture

Before J. K. Rowling became the best-selling author in Britain, Terry Pratchett wore that hat. With over 45 million books sold, Pratchett is an international phenomenon. His brainchild is the Discworld series―novels he began as parodies of other works like Macbeth, Faust, and The Arabian Nights. The Wee Free Men, one of Pratchett's most popular novels, will be made into a movie by Spider-Man director Sam Raimi. It's the story of 9-year-old wannabe witch Tiffany Aching, who unites with the Nac Mac Feegle (6-inch-tall blue men who like to fight and love to drink) to free her brother from an evil fairy queen.

A fun, interactive guide that will explore the land of Discword, Secrets of The Wee Free Men and Discworld is filled with sidebars, mythology trivia, and includes a bio of the fascinating author Terry Pratchett, and an in-depth analysis of his work. This unofficial guide is a great resource for readers of The Wee Free Men and the other books of the Discworld series.

About this title

About the Authors

Linda M. Washington, a freelance writer, has written several books for kids, including Just Plain Mel and Gotta Have God (with Jeanette Dall).

Carrie Pyykkonen has degrees in early childhood education and geography and became interested in Narnia as a young child.

Reviews

Grade 9 Up—This fan-fueled guide to all things Pratchett compares and contrasts the contents of the "Discworld" series with references to popular culture and not-so-well-known science and history. Written in a humorous style with footnotes (in tribute to Pratchett), this is mainly a work for and by devotees of the 35-plus novels. Chapters are themed based on origins of the Discworld or a comparison to other works including the mystery genre and theater. Characters are discussed in depth, including Death, the witches, and wizards. Spoiler warnings are given as major plot points are divulged along the way. Wikipedia and other online sources are heavily relied upon for quotes and references. The book suggests a larger focus on the juvenile series that begins with The Wee Free Men (HarperCollins, 2003), but its audience is really well-versed Pratchett readers.—Corinda J. Humphrey, Los Angeles Public Library
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Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.

Secrets of The Wee Free Men and Discworld

The Myths and Legends of Terry Pratchett's MultiverseBy Pyykkonen, Carrie

St. Martin's Griffin

Copyright © 2008 Pyykkonen, Carrie
All right reserved.
ISBN: 9780312372439

Introduction

Novelist Patrick Rothfuss, when asked “Who do you read?”, replied, “Terry Pratchett. He doesn’t get enough credit for the superbly believable world he’s created. It’s internally consistent, well constructed, and his characters behave realistically.”2 Whether you agree with those words or wonder whether Pratchett would agree, one thing is for certain: The influence of Terry Pratchett in the literary world is obvious. If you don’t believe that, check out the science fiction/fantasy section at your local bookstore or library.

For a long time, Terry Pratchett was pretty lonely at the very top of the British literary food chain—at least until the arrival of a certain author by the name of J. K. Rowling. But with well over fifty million books sold (as of February 2007, according to Wikipedia, the site that seems to know all), Pratchett is still an international phenomenon and a consistent best seller. His brainchild, as if you didn’t know, is the Discworld series, thirty-six books (as of the writing of this book and excluding Where’s My Cow? and the Nanny Ogg Cookbook) strong, and still going like the Energizer bunny. Although this series began as parodies of other works such as Ringworld, Macbeth, and The Arabian Nights, it defies all pigeonholes. Is it science fiction? Fantasy? Mystery? Political intrigue? Romance? (Uh, no to the latter.) It is, to use a phrase often heard on Monty Python, something completely different.

If you’ve been tempted, like many others, to avoid or underestimate the Discworld series because of its parodies and humor, maybe after reading this, you’ll reconsider.

 

Readers of the Discworld Books

Okay, so one of the authors of this book (Carrie) is keenly aware that her parents were born the same year as Terry Pratchett was and that she was born the same year as Pratchett’s daughter, Rhianna, which in some way creates a connection with the author in a strange, paternal way. (The other author, Linda, has absolutely no comment to make about birthdays.) She is also aware that her parents would never open a Terry Pratchett book, especially not a Discworld book.

So who does read Terry Pratchett? His loyal followers range from nuns (unlike the satanic nuns in Good Omens) to the new generation digging into The Wee Free Men and Wintersmith. Pratchett’s audience is hard to fit into a box. Young, somewhat old, Trekkers, Lord of the Rings buffs, Harry Potter fans, our strange friend who loves The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy movie that made me (Carrie) fall asleep, hobbits, maybe a teacher or two, and fools. We were even lucky enough to find a Web site giving Christians advice on which Pratchett books were good and which were dangerous.3 Honestly, it is difficult to really pinpoint what makes a person willing to read Pratchett. Usually the result is to get hooked on the series. Then, of course, the individual tries to read the books quicker than Pratchett writes them (a quite difficult task)!

Discworld is so well received, or at least read, by so many people, because Pratchett is able to make us laugh about everything. He may offend us in one paragraph and then cause us to have a laughing fit in the next, which washes away the initial offense. It is typical for the laughing fit to delay one’s reading for many minutes and can be the cause of interesting looks from one’s spouse.4 If you’re anything like us, it will be almost impossible to explain to onlookers what was so funny that you fell off the couch and rolled around in hysterics. I have found it is best to not try and explain, especially if it was due to reading Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook. Oh, and certainly do not try to explain Unseen University’s orangutan Librarian.

Someone (perhaps you?) is obviously buying millions of copies of Pratchett’s books. If it is not you, we are not quite sure why you picked up this book unless you are Linda’s dad or my grandma.

 

Terry Pratchett in Brief

Terence David John Pratchett was born in 19485 and, according to himself, he is still alive.6 Therefore, if he were an American, he would be considered a baby boomer, which entitles him to our attention. He began his writing career at the age of thirteen, when his short story “The Hades Business” was published in the school magazine; it was sold to a commercially published magazine when he was fifteen. After leaving school in 1965, he became a journalist with the Bucks Free Press and later with the Western Daily Press and The Bath Chronicle.

While between stints at the Bucks Free Press, he published his first novel, The Carpet People (1971). He began writing it at the age of seventeen. This was followed by The Dark Side of the Sun (1976).

His novel Strata (1981) is considered to be the forerunner of Discworld. While he was working as a publicity officer for the Central Electricity Generating Board, he published his first Discworld book, The Color of Magic (1983).

We could tell you that he’s written well over fifty books, including young adult novels like The Bromeliad Trilogy (Truckers, Diggers, and Wings), the Johnny Maxwell books (Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Dead, and Johnny and the Bomb), and children’s books such as The Unadulterated Cat and Where’s My Cow? But you probably already knew that.

 

Why Write a Book on Discworld?

Call us crazy, but we really like Pratchett’s books and are dying to tell you why—hence this book. Collectively, we have read and studied all of Pratchett’s Discworld books—except for Making Money (October 2007). Our deadline didn’t coincide with that one. It is very difficult to read faster than Pratchett writes. By the time our book is published, the prolific writer will probably have at least two more books out. And by the time you find time to read this book, many more titles in the Discworld series will be lining the local bookstores and landing their way on Top Ten readers’ lists.

Does writing a book on Discworld make us experts on Pratchett? Hardly. We aren’t privy to deep, dark wisdom from Terry and his family, nor did we snoop through his garbage like crazed paparazzi (though we wanted to). Although this book doesn’t contain every person, every street, every place, or every event, it does explore some of the mythological, scientific, and pop culture building blocks that correlate with Discworld. If you know and love this series, we hope we inspire you to look at it in a fresh way. If you’ve never read any of the Discworld books, maybe you’ll take a chance. Go on. We dare you . . . right after you read this book.

Well, let’s get on with it, shall we?

 

Copyright © 2008 by Carrie Pyykkonen and Linda Washington. All rights reserved.

Continues...

Excerpted from Secrets of The Wee Free Men and Discworld by Pyykkonen, Carrie Copyright © 2008 by Pyykkonen, Carrie. Excerpted by permission.
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Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

Edition details

• Publisher: St. Martin's Griffin
• Publication date: 2008
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0312372434
• ISBN 13: 9780312372439
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 288