#And Discworld Death was the judge

[magpiesketchins]

OOHH I KNOW I KNOW what i want to see drawn by you the most is Mort! I know you haven't reread his book yet but like, maybe you have some memory of how you imagined him, maybe you've even drawn him before 🥺

A boy for you!

Another character I didn't have a design for yet! It's been a while since I've read beyond the first few pages but I imagine him all gangly - hasn't grown into his limbs, his features or his clothes yet 😂

[davastationart]

“Yes but people have got to believe that, or what’s the point—“

“MY POINT EXACTLY”

-Terry Pratchett, Hogfather

Was watching The Devil Judge and could not get this concept out of my head…

(Images under the cut)

[noahsbookhoard]

📚November 2024 Book Review📚

November was a bit less busy that October and varies from jawdropping to very meh.

Everyone In My Family Has Killed Someone (Ernest Cunningham #1) by Benjamin Stevenson

That one is definitely in the jawdropping category. A great murder mystery in which you have all the keys and the author is right there telling you to "go ahead and solve it". I didn't. I had fun anyway. Just as darkly funny as the title announces.

Wintersmith (Discworld #34) by Terry Pratchett

I think sofar it is my favorite Tifanny Aching story: she is growing up and that shows, she is more responsible, she owns up to what she does wrong, she is still whip smart and I never get tired of the Nac Mac Feegle.

Dracula by Bram Stoker

This count as a novel read since I completed Dracula Daily like everyone on nov 8. The audio drama version by Bloody FM production is so good and a great plus because some of Van Helsing lecture at John are really just too long.

Une belle vie by Virginie Grimaldi

I don't know why but I ended up reading 3 Grimaldi in as many months, maybe because they are rather easy to read, funny and generally have a hopeful vives even when dealing with heavy themes. This one is the story of two estranged sister who reconnect by coming for one last vacation in their grand mother house before they sell it. They rebuilt their relationship and draw back childhood memories, some good and some bad. The part where I got confused is that the author tries to tackle a lot of subjects (bipolarity, depression, domestic violence and cancer are the ones I remember but there are many) instead of just one are two. It was a lot to handle at times but a good read nonetheless.

The Restaurang at the End of the Universe (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy #2) by Douglas Adams

Book 2 is just as crazy as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, but I found it a little more coherent, as in I knew approximately where we were going (a restaurant) and the convoluted adventure that leads to and from it made more sense to me than in book 1. I'm really excited for the rest of the series.

L'amant by Marguerite Duras

I admit, I don't see the appeal. The writing is good but not incredibly so. The story itself is rambling, I guess it was intentional but it makes it harder to follow. The relationship between the author as a girl and her lover at least 10 years older is very disturbing when judge by modern standards and I was a little put off by the casual way she talks about her brother's death. I must have missed the literary qualities here but I might try another of her novel later on.

La Dame du manoir de Wildfell Hall (The Tenant of Wildfell Hall) by Anne Brontë

I felt so much fucking rage reading this novel! It has some of the most heinous male characters I have ever read and even the main love interest has a hell of a journey to stop being an entitled jealous violent piece of shit. That said it is very well written otherwise I would have either given up or thrown the whole thing through the window. Helen, the main character is strong minded and brave, I loved her from the start and grew even warmer. I strongly recommend it.

Tw for domestic abuse and alcoholism.

The Sword Catcher (Chronicles of Castelane #1) by Cassandra Clare

This was an indulgence: I said I wanted to read less traditional medieval heroic fantasy and it falls right into it. It is good tho! I liked the concept of the Sword Catcher and the Ragpicker King amd especially how the two characters interact. I really hope the relationship between Connor and Kel is explored more too in the future books because the homoerotic subtext deserve to be more text than that!

Somewhere Beyond the Sea (Cerulean #2) T J Klune

I loved The House in the Cerulean Sea so I was excited for the sequel, but a little weary too. I was afraid not to find what made book 1 so dear to me. But there it was! The kids and their shenanigans, Arthur and Linus being their lovey dovey selves, Zoey and Helen are all the village had kept its newly opened mind from the end of book 1 and that was very comforting. The story is hard, the hate and fear they face hits a little too close. But they overcome it and everything ends well which is just what I wanted to read.

The kids calling Arthur and Linus Dad and Papa was extremely cute. I really loved David and how he bonded with Lucy. Not a comfort book as much as the first one but I had a great time reading it

My Roommate is a Vampire by Jenna Levine

I stumbled upon this one because I watched this video of a person who read all the Rylo fanfic turned novels out of morbid curiosity and this one seemed intriguing enough for me to try, open mind and all that. I was promised some whimsy, a shopping montage and a heist.

Well there's comedy (an kumquats for some reason) The shopping montage wasn't much of a montage, they just went and tried t-shirts on. But the end was just stupid: female lead went ahead with a plan she deems stupid and unlikely to work, us reader with even the tiniest bit of social media experience know that the plan is stupid and can't possibly work. And it works. Just genuinely first degree work. When you go with that in a comedy setting at least make your stupid plan work in a funny way, WWDITS style! Some bits are tedious, I understand your 400 year old don't know how to use Instagram but I do and I don't need a full chapter of tutorial (same chapter as my newest fight with my nemesis, the possessiveness trope, you don't get to storm off and brood just cause she posted bikini pics dude!)

Overall it was quite fun if you don't think to much about it.

When Among Crows by Veronica Roth

I listen to the audio book and the accents were *chef kiss*: it is a novella with slavic folklore creatures in an modern setting and I wasn't expecting to love it so much!! It's a story about monsters and family and duty. Angsty, a bit gay, the characters relationship work very well. It will be a reread in the future.Greatest of news for me today! I discovered by googling the spelling of characters names that a second book is coming this year!

[fictional-library-tournament]

Prelims round 2, poll 4

Propaganda

Death's library, the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett

Death’s library contains the life stories of every person, living or dead. They write themselves.

Justice Strauss' library, A Series of Unfortunate Events by Lemony Snicket:

Library that saved an orphan from an arranged marriage, owned by a kind and well-meaning judge.

[ohulancutash]

Tag Meme

Tagged by @chameleonsallinvermillion - ahh thank you! (be cool ohulan, be cool, you might have a tumblr friend) :).

Last Song: I think it was Beeswing by Grace Petrie. (Note: Bee's Wing, not Bee Swing, but it's still good). If anyone doesn't know Grace Petrie already you should check her out, she does singer/songwriter, folk and protest songs and a lot of them are very queer.

Last Book: Last book I read was Emily Wilde’s Compendium of Lost Tales by Heather Fawcett, but I’m still halfway through. The last book I finished was Emily Wilde’s Map of the Otherlands, also, as you might expect, by Heather Fawcett. They’re very good, especially the first one (Emily Wilde’s Encyclopedia of Faeries) – I do recommend.

Last Movie: The other day my partner and I watched Now You See Me on Netflix. I enjoyed it. Would also recommend. It’s a heist film where the heist-ers are all stage magicians.

Last Game: I re-opened Wildermyth for the first time in a few months just a couple of hours ago, and started a new story with two of my old favourite heroes: Posy, brave, disillusioned, an almost undefeatable warrior, looks like an actual god with great crows' wings, glowing eyes and a coronet of bone, and Quinitha the cowardly mystic who is the only one who sees Posy for the soft person she really is and once came within an inch of death by Posy's own possessed hand to save her. AND. THEY. FINALLY FELL IN LOVE. Only took me five stories of desperate shipping to get them there. My OTP. I adore them. Wildermyth is possibly the best game and the only tragedy is that you end up with incredible favourite characters that nobody else can ever have heard of. ...But honourable mention to Spellcaster University because I’ve been playing a lot of it recently and but for that whim earlier this evening it would have been my answer. You build a wizard college classroom by classroom to train up students and defeat the Lord of Evil. It has a goofy sense of humour and Discworld references. I like it a lot.

Last TV Show: I’m… I’m rewatching How I Met Your Mother. Don’t judge me. I needed background noise to crochet.

Sweet/Spicy/Savoury: I was always a sweet-tooth person but I would take most savoury dishes that my partner cooks over pretty much anything else.

Relationship: I’m married to my best friend and the love of my life. He is absolute sunshine and when we go out together to do anything from grocery shopping to trips up to Scotland we call them adventures. When my Nan first met him she said he has kind eyes and she was right. I realise very strongly that I am unbelievably lucky.

Favourite Colour: Probably a dark, rich navy blue.

Last Internet Search: "Dino Rawr Decals" – I was advertised at scrolling Instagram on my phone. I googled on my laptop to bookmark them into my ‘To Buy Later’ folder, which is the main line of defence between my ADHD and my bank account. Things go in there and I forget about them unless I really do have a need to get them.

Tagging two of my favourite people @morrismorristhehandyman and @disfordemise :).

[syrupwit]

BIOGRAPHY OF THE LIFE OF MANUEL: A QUICK-START GUIDE

Between 1901 and 1929, Richmond, Virginia-born writer James Branch Cabell composed a series of novels, short stories, poetry, and essays tracing the career of the character Dom Manuel and his relatives and associates in the fictional French province of Poictesme. The 18 works in the Biography are a churning mulch of literary criticism, meta-fiction, fantasy, satire, and chivalric romance. I like what I've read so far, and it's possible that you might, too -- depending on, and I say this with regret, your tolerance for wife jokes, as well as your susceptibility* to the author's charm.

Though he'd been in print since 1901, Cabell first gained fame in 1920, when the New York Society for the Suppression of Vice seized from his publisher the plates and pages for his 1919 novel Jurgen on account of its "offensive, lewd, lascivious, and indecent" content. This kicked off a two-year court case and inspired his short stories "The Judging of Jurgen" and "Taboo." Also borne from the legal struggle were Jurgen and the Censor (1920), an effort of other authors in support of Cabell, and Jurgen and the Law (1922), which collects some documents from the case.

If you're already sick of hearing about Jurgen, get in line! Or take a look at Notes on Jurgen (1928), a fan book capturing its references.

Where was I going with this again? Right. Here are some entries in the Biography and things I think about them. Readers' Advisory -- be advised of the following:

Jurgen: A Comedy of Justice (1919). Read at Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg.

Poet-turned-pawnbroker Jurgen speaks well of evil, attracting the gratitude of divers persons. As one among several rewards, he spends a year in the guise of his own youth, wandering around fantasy lands, Heaven, and Hell and picking up wives here and there. Very horny book.

When I warned you above about wife jokes, I was talking about Jurgen. Jurgen's original wife, Dame Lisa gets the brunt of them.

It's a comedy of justice because Jurgen resolves, often humorously, to deal justly with everyone.

The High Place: A Comedy of Disenchantment (1923). Read at Project Gutenberg.

A satire on "Sleeping Beauty" set in 1723. As an idealistic boy of 10, Florian de Puysange spies the princess Melior in her enchanted sleep. As a noble gentleman of 35 whose crimes shame Bluebeard, he jilts the betrothed who would have been his fifth wife and makes a deal with a devil to awaken Melior. Unfortunately, Florian's ideals of beauty and holiness are no match for the corrupting powers of flesh and blood.

The subplot involving Florian's patron saint, Hoprig, a pagan priest who accidentally got canonized due to an eroded "R" on a tombstone, reads like something out of Small Gods or idk one of the Death books from Discworld, but subtler.

If you're sensitive to misogyny, I'd maybe skip this one.

It's a comedy of disenchantment because Florian disenchants the sleeping castle, and because Florian is himself disenchanted.

Beyond Life: Dizain des demiurges (1921). Read at Internet Archive.

This is just sort of some essays. The character John Charteris, an older author who likes to talk, figures prominently here.

It's a dizain of demiurges because there's a lot of discussion about creation and romance.

Straws and Prayer-books: Dizain des diversions (1924). Read at Project Gutenberg.

Here are also some essays about literature and such, plus more John Charteris. There are fantasy stories, but I haven't gotten to them yet. If you like the way Cabell writes -- and, if you can't tell, I do -- you will probably like this.

It's a dizain of diversions because the young play with straws; the old with prayer-books; and the literary artist with common sense, piety, and death -- according to this Cabell.

Figures of Earth: A Comedy of Appearances (1921). Read at Standard Ebooks, Project Gutenberg.

The history of Dom Manuel the Redeemer, Count of Poictesme. I haven't really read it yet beyond a few chapters. Thus, discovering why it's a comedy of appearances will have to wait.

The Silver Stallion: A Comedy of Redemption (1926). Read at Project Gutenberg.

The sequel to Figures of Earth, addressing the aftermath of Dom Manuel's death, the legends that spring up in his absence, and the doom of the nine remaining members of the Fellowship of the Silver Stallion -- knights, wizards, etc. I'm going to read this again after I read Figures of Earth, and I'm probably going to cry. The way old age and decline are dealt with is. Affecting.

It's a comedy of redemption because Dom Manuel, who was really pretty wicked, becomes a Christ-figure with a cult dedicated to him.

__ * I am highly susceptible to it, as you might have picked up. But I am one syrup.

[karen-carlisle-off-the-artboard]

Nullus Anxietas 9 - Australian Discworld Convention Announcement

https://karenjcarlisle.com/2024/03/30/nullus-anxietas-9-australian-discworld-convention-announcement/

I’m a long-time attendee of our Aussie Discworld Conventions. They’re held every two years and alternate between Adelaide, Melbourne, Sydney. 2024 is Adelaide’s turn. I booked as soon as tickets became available.

I came to Discworld by a different route than my Dearheart. He’d always loved the books, and we have all of them on our shelves. I first came to them via a chance meeting with Sir Terry at the 1999 World Con (Science Fiction) in Melbourne. We attended the event as part of our honeymoon.

Since then, I’ve learnt more about Sir Terry’s work and his ‘quirky omniscient narrator’ style via writing courses, after which I read some of his books. (Death is my favourite character. Writing his dialogue in ALL CAPS is genius at directing my internal narrator.)

I met Sir Terry again in Sydney 2011, at the last Australian Discworld Con he attended. To my shock, I’d won the ‘raffle’ for those booking early attendence, and got to sit with him at the gala dinner. What a conversation! He was an insightful and intelligent man, and I’m honoured to have met him personally – not once, but twice. So I suppose you could say I became a fan of the author and his writing before his Discworld characters.

I’ve been invited to be a Guest Author! So I was a bit surprised (and totally excited) to be asked to be one of this year’s guest authors for Nullus Anxietas 9. (Squee!) We’re still working out the details, but I thought I’ll tell all my patrons first! I’m definitely a judge for the Masquerade. It looks like I’m also doing an author talk (or workshop)- mostly likely on world building, aimed for those who write stories or create roleplaying worlds. I’ll be on an author panel (I’m just a tad excited about who may also be on the panel – shh… spoilers) and possibly hosting a Klatch (I’m more comfortable in smaller groups). I also hope to have my books available to purchase. If you’re a Pratchett fan, you can book your ticket HERE.

Patron Celebration Treat

To celebrate, I’m also inviting top-tier patrons (Adventurer Extraordinaires and Time Travellers) who are in Adelaide over/around 12-14th July to join me for lunch or dinner; my treat.

[davastationart]

2024 Art Wrapped post no one asked for ✨

I did a lot of art I really liked this year so ima post about it again cause I want to XD

53 (ish) total pieces posted

(I think ? I counted twice and came up with 2 different numbers and I’m not doing it again XD)

650 hours spent drawing (ish…plus wips)

31 characters/actors

14 series

Yes it was all fanart

(Almost) all of it was gay XD

Here are the top 10 most popular ones:

1. 1st Jack & Joker piece (194 notes)

Posted before the series released (rank is kind of a technicality since I posted it twice -did a slight redraw-and I’m combining the notes)

2. Imaginary Jack Joke kiss (170 notes)

Posted after the emotional devastation of ep 7 😅 Fastest scribbliest piece I think I’ve ever done in my life XD

3. Femme Phoenix (151 notes)

Honest to god still one of my favorites (there’s also a phone bg version if anyone’s interested 💋)

4. Golden Hour Juwon (151 notes)

Started as a light study… got out of control 😁

5. Namaste Vegas/Bible (134 notes)

Fun with light and color (There’s a phone bg of this one too)

6. “Tie me up” Joke (133 notes)

This has to be one of my favorites ever ❤️‍🔥🪢

7. Femslash VegasPete (126 notes)

(or is it PeteVegas? 😘) Had to do it

8. Zolu kiss (118 notes)

🏴‍☠️❤️ .

9. 30’s femslash PhayaTharn (117 notes)

Another all time fave tbh 🔥

10. Film Noir Beyond Evil (92 notes)

I stand by it 🎞️

MY favorite lower popularity ones:

1. Femslash JackJoke

I do not need to explain this one 🔥🔥🔥

2. Kitsune Vee

Or this one really ❤️‍🔥🦊

3. Vampire Pavel

I maintain that we deserve this. Also drawing Pavel’s jewelry was SO much fun.

4. Devil Judge/Discworld Death

Coolest thing I’ve done in a while

5. Soft JWDS

Shut up they’re cute 😭

Some thumbnails if you don’t feel like clicking for the original posts but I would recommend it if you want to see their full glory (minus the devil judge one since that one is a gif)

If you’re an artist and you want to do this too please do! 😃 (if I’m feeling annoying later perhaps I’ll tag some of you 😘)

[noahsbookhoard]

📚December 2024 Book Review📚

Happy New Year everyone! And to end it up with only one day of delay here's the last reviews for 2024!

Alias Grace by Margaret Atwood

It was interesting but not my favorite Atwood so far. Grace's point of view was sometimes hard to follow, but the change of writing style to mark the difference of class and education between her and the doctor was a meaningful choice. I liked the mystery, the contradicting versions of what happened and the confusion of the poor doctor trying to unravel all this.

I am not opposed to open endings so the lack of answers at the end was not a problem to me but I understand that it can bother others. When you write about real events it's delicate to whether someone is or isn't guilty, better to let the readers judge by themselves.

Le Père Porcher (Chroniques du Disque-Monde #20) by Terry Pratchett

I wanted to reread it for Christmas season and, for a twist, to read the french translation by Patrice Couton. I don't credit translator enough but I always heard the highest praise for his work on the Discworld Novels. They are well deserved, the translation is amazing! Incredible work on the names, hilarious translations of the puns, it works so well! The story itself is just as good as I remembered, Death is really an amazing character.

Soie by Alessandro Baricco

I don't see the appeal. There is some nice writing, the repetitive aspects give it a nice fairy tale vibe but that's it. It barely mention the journey to Japan, barely mention silk. Which is the damn title. Instead you have a guy that travels across Europe and Asia to cheat on his wife. This wasn't was I hoped for from the title and blurb, I am just disappointed.

A Day of Fallen Night (Root of Chaos #0) by Samantha Shannon

I loved The Priory of the Orange Tree when I read it three years ago so I was excited to read the prequel. If you are like me and picked if long after reading book 1, I strongly recommend catching up on the lore before reading and if you haven't read book 1 yet DO NOT start with A Day of Fallen Night: this might be a prequel but it is not an introduction.

That said I loved it, convoluted and lore heavy as it is: it brings back all the places I loved in book 1 with even more details put on the world building and tradition. The multiple point of views are well used and they come together in really satisfying ways. Even if the threat is more or less the same as in The Priory of the Orange Tree the way they figure a solution and the fight was so good!

Retour à St Mary (Cosy Christmas Mystery #1) by Carine Pitocchi

Plain bad, and that's not the just me saying it, that's 100% of my local book club. Don't hope for a whodunit, the mystery barely qualifies as a police novel, the investigation is confusing and the culprit, obvious. This is also half of a Christmas cheesy hallmark romance. The bad half that is, because at the end Unsufferable Female Lead takes a train and just leaves behind Secretly In Love Childhood Best Friend Who Happens To Be An Anglican Priest For Some Reason Male Love Interest. It just sucks. Don't bother.

The Haunting of Hill House by Shirley Jackson

I really liked it, the main character spiralling down pulled me down two and at several moments I was genuinely spooked. I read it a little too quickly to fully appreciate it tho I think, I will need to reread it again!

Prince Caspian (The Chronicles of Niania #02) by C S Lewis

I don't really have much too say. Just like the first book I had watched the movie a hundred times before and I was just too old for it. It is a cute story tho, I love the talking animals, especially Reepicheep.

Winter Spirits short story collection

Overall a nice read: this is an anthology featuring 12 different authors which means 12 different spin on the spooky christmas ghost story. There's only one I actively didn't like and four where I went to check what else the author had done because I needed to study how their brain worked. I originally picked the book because it features a story by Stuart Turton, who wrote The Seven Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle. His story is good but I especially loved those by Laura Shepherd-Robinson, Andrew Michael Hurley, and Natashe Pulley.

The Agatha Christie Book Club #1 by C A Larmer

This was fun but not as good as reading an Agatha Christie novel. The investigation is a little convoluted, with clues that aren't really clear to the reader. And honestly if I were the characters being interviewed by the book club member twenty seven times in one week I too would have been annoyed and slammed the door. It was a bit frustrating that the pay off required to have biographical knowledge of Christie's life. It was all explained in the end but you couldn't really follow along. The book is good but my expectations were miscalculated, I'll adjust when reading the rest of the series.

The Stardust Grail by Yume Kitasei

This wouldn't be enough to call it Indiana Jones And The Last Crusade In Space but this is very much what it is. And more. It has some really cool element of world building and alien species with complex history and dynamics. The characters were very good too, the relationship between Uncle and Maia I was especially fond of, medic is touching too, I just took most of the book to warm up to Will. Emotional, action packed, full of twist and investigation and museum heist. Very warm recommendation.

Summer Sons by Lee Mandelo

Gut punches galore. It had been a long time since I read a horror novel that genuinely scared me and boy was I scared. I have next to zero knowledge of the US South but the description were so vivid I could feel the heat. Also a gold star for most fucked up gay relationship to Andrew and Eddy, this should be so hot but somehow it is, good luck to Sam unpacking this mess.

A Local Habitation (October Daye #2) by Seanan McGuire

This. Was. Wild. Never saw so many deaths and especially main characters narrowly avoiding death I was SO SURE I had figured it out and in the end I was barking at the wrong tree. What a ride. I am growing very fond of October Daye and I hope we get to see more of Quentin too because he's a good kid. I was promised by

[cultivating-wildflowers]

Note that I've read all but the last of Tiffany Aching's arc (long story), as well as all of the City Watch and Moist von Lipwig books.

This incredibly complicated graph suggests I begin with The Color of Magic, which I tried to read years ago and couldn't get into (I hear that's a common thing). Maybe it's time to try again.

[tousey-mousey]

I suggest an alternative which is identifying yourself by which Animorphs and/or Discworld character you most closely identify with. If you don't get this reference, go read both series - Animorphs is younger reader fiction but is applicable to everyone and WILL make you feel things towards people who are going to suffer Just The Worst Trauma, while Discworld is largely adult-oriented fiction that is aesthetically fantasy but actually is most accessible if you like science-fiction.

Mistakes you can make when reading Discworld:

Please don't read Equal Rites until you've read other several books first. Please, at the very least, read Wyrd Sisters and The Wee Free Men first.

Please don't read Raising Steam or The Shepherd's Crown until the very end of your journey with the series. They are a farewell to the universe and to several of our favourite characters, and... well, they don't work unless that's true. Also, please read them with the context that The Shepherd's Crown was published shortly AFTER Terry's death, and both books were essentially a co-authorship project with his daughter Rhiannon and their family friend Stephen Briggs.

Discworld is not only very good as audiobooks, but the audiobooks sometimes make certain jokes easier to spot (especially if you are not English-first-language). My advice is that, if you want to, it can be very fun to listen to the audiobook ALONGSIDE reading the text, especially for ESL and autistic readers.

Discworld is VERY heavily based on puns, wordplay, idioms, and certain humour elements that are exceptionally British. If you are not British, or if you are not natively fluent in English, there is no shame in googling a joke you don't understand. You are not the first person to feel this way and nobody will judge you.

The Dutch translations of the novels are so fucking good it's actually bonkers. Use the translation if that's your first language and you want a "comfort read". They're EXCEPTIONALLY good translations, possibly the best translation work of any modern novel, and in places where a joke wouldn't work the translator would spend literal days talking back and forth with Terry, working out together how to make a joke hit the same in Dutch. The German translations are also apparently extremely good but I don't read German so I can't confirm.

Don't stress about book order, seriously. Buy the books second-hand when you find them. Order them online when they're on sale. Rhiannon and her family aren't hurting for money, they strongly support second-hand book sales and have always showered love on libraries and second-hand bookshops.

Also

Terry Pratchett never explicitly gave his opinion on a great many topics, including trans rights, but he once said in an interview that a trans reader had told him how much the dwarfish gender sub-arc meant to them and he said how thrilled he was that they thought so. After his death, some TERFs have tried to "claim" Pratchett as their own knowing that he can't fight back, and Rhiannon has been... I think the best word is "vicious" in her rejection of everything they stand for and emphatic in how much they stand against what her father would have wanted. Trans people are welcome in the Pratchett-lovers community.

[thevalicemultiverse]

"It's not fair!" "NO, IT IS NOT." "Then fix it, Father!"

"I get the feeling this is one of those 'life is unfair' things that the father can't fix himself," Alice comments, observing.

"Yes, but. . ." Victor worries his lower lip. "There's something about the way the dad talks that -- really w-worries me. . ."

[dedicatedfollower467]

for the artist asks: 1, 4, 25!

1. Show your most recent wip

mm this is pretty much done but i haven't posted it anywhere yet:

(i’m writing an undertale fanfic and this is an illustration for it)

4. Favourite things to draw?

Okay, you're gonna think I'm pulling an undertale bullshit thing here but genuinely... skeletons. I've been drawing skeletons since, like, 2009/2010, way before undertale came out.

i would show you proof but basically all of my sketchbooks from that time period got moldy last year and i had to throw them away, but i do still have this oil painting i did in 2011:

(it’s about 2 feet tall)

in addition to skeletons i really enjoy drawing formal suits, butch women, and fat people. especially all three of those things together.

25. Based on your recent reference searches, what would the FBI assume about you?

hm. probably that i am a religious woman who has an obsession with cats, women's suits, fantasy armor, and/or skeletons.

[noahsbookhoard]

📚July 2024 Book Review (Part 2/3)📚

Part 1 had a common theme, this one is color coded! Otherwise they are quite varied in genre and theme but all three are really really good

Cinq petits cochons (Five Little Pigs) by Agatha Christie

Hercule Poirot is asked to work a very peculiar case: a 16 year old murder. The wife of famous painted Amyas Crale had been found guilty of poisoning her husband but left her young daughter Carla one last letter before her death, claiming her innocence. Now grown up, Carla wants the truth, did her mother really commit this crime? To answer Poirot only has the recollection of five witnesses, and potential suspects.

This book has climbed all the way to be my second favorite Christie, just behind The Murder of Roger Acroyd. I love the particular narrative based on letters and interviews, even though it is the same story (more or less) repeated five times over, it was never tiring because the minute details and differences between the testimonies keep you on your toes.

What is also nice specificallly in this book is the fact that there was already a culprit judged and sentenced to prison, the five witnesses have no reason to doubt the trial except for Carla and she was just a child at the time of the murder. The question Poirot asks each character is "What do you remeber of that day? Do you think Caroline (Carla's mother) really killed Amyas Crale?" But as always he is opened to every hypothesis and so is the reader. What he really wants to know is "In the event Caroline were not the killer, who else could it be?"

Once again I saw nothing coming. I only noticed a small incoherence but it was merely a detail and the really important clue went right under my nose, not once but five times and I completely missed it! I never thought I would like failing to solve a puzzle so much.

Going Postal (Discworld #33) by Terry Pratchett

Soon-to-be hanged con artist Moist Von Lipwig is given one last chance to escape the gallows: revive the Ankh-Morpork Postal Service, fallen to disrepair with the advent of the much quicker Clacks System.

The Discworld novels who take place in Ankh-Morpork generally bring back some of my favorite characters: Vimes, The Librarian, CMOT Dibbler, in this one specifically Vetinari and a new Little Guy With Issues for the collection: Moist Von Lipwig.

I love him, he is such a typical Discworld protagonist: he is Just A Guy, there is A Situation and he isn't being particularly brave about it but he is clever/runs fast and that will have to be enough. Terry Pratchett write this kind of character masterfully well and I love that Moist Von Lipwig is more on the smart and cunning side of the scale.

The balance between modernity and magic works particularly well here, and as always the satire is on point and surgeon level of precision (that's why I always love the scene with Vetinari do much)

And the secondary characters are very endearing : the Post employees are just so funny and Adora is really cool. I was wary of the romance with her and Moist at first but Moist is cute when he is all fluttered by a lady with a strong opinion on the rights of Golem postal employees so by the end I was rooting for him.

I can see why it is a fan favorite. It is a solid top 5 of my favorite Discworld novel, what a wonderful book! I haven't established the official list yet as I haven't finished the series. Honestly I'm scared of finishing it, of having them read all for the first time. I know I will reread them (Hogfather is on the December TBR) but that's not the same...

Celle qu'il attendait by Baptiste Beaulieu

He is a doctor, an openly gay man, married, with a child and just a good person overall! I follow his Instagram account and although I don't know him, he seems like a deeply likable man, invested in helping people and unafraid to express his opinions. Additionally a friend had already read it an recommended this book to me so I dived in with only a modicum of hesitation.

Eugenie is an inventor of eccentric machines, Josephin is a quiet taxi driver. They both have been hurt deeply before, they are cautions, they are clumsy; but they will love each other from the moment they meet at the train station to the very end. They will learn to open up, to trust again, to see the beauty the other sees in them.

I am awfully prejudiced toward contemporary literature: is it a more academic author? It's gonna be boring and hard to read. Is it a more mainstream author? It's gonna be a lame feel good book. I'm working on proving myself wrong, in the first case with my Goncourt cherry picking but sofar I had not dipped into the more popular literature. I decided to start with an author I like as an individual: Baptiste Beaulieu

This is a sweet but sad story. The characters are very lonely, desperate to make a connection tonight but they are so shy, so afraid to fail and be even sadder to have been disappointed than they already are. The title means "The one he was waiting for": it is a sort of love at first sight but Josephin and Eugenie tip toe around it, afraid of what might happen. The pace is pretty slow but it suits the story, it treat its characters gently. Sometimes in the middle of relating Eugenie's self depreciating thoughts the narrator pauses and adresses her, telling her that she is not how she thinks and that she shouldn't say this about herself. it was really touching and caring and nice.

They both have baggage, some heavy ones, but slowly they get to talk and trust each other. When Josephin finally invites Eugenie to a concert, my heart flutters for them!

And then he gives the date and location. The Bataclan. On November 13, 2015.

Those outside of France probably don't know/remember it: there was several shooting on that night, including just outside several bars and in the Bataclan concert hall. There was 130 casualties.

So much for the lighthearted love story.

It isn't graphic or overly violent, the style is still soft and talk around the event rather than about it. Still there is grief, for the reader who guesses beforehand what will happen and for the characters when it actually does. And yet hope remains, the story isn't over and someone is left to keep going, even alone. And always the book is soft and gentle and does not rush the one that survive out of the grief.

Not an easy book to read but a touching one. I certainly defied my idea of contemporary lit being all sunny feel good novel because that sure wasn't but I liked it a lot. His newest book, Tous les silences ne font pas le même bruit (All silences don't sound the same) is just out and the only reason I don't have it yet is that I'm stuck at work.

[bookandcantina]

The Official Reading Guide To Terry Pratchett’s Discworld (designed by Maggie Searcy, from Epic Reads/Harper)

This is so great, and I love that the chart is on the disc itself! I think this can really help people who don't know where to start in this 40+ book series (hint, it doesn't have to be at the beginning!) If you’re new to Discworld, below are some thoughts on where to start in the series:

The are several "schools of thought" about the proper way to read Discworld books: you can read them in publication order, you can pick each sub-series to read entirely and separately (i.e. read all the Wizards books in order, then all the Death books, then the Watch etc.) or you can just read whatever ones sound best to you, or whichever you can get your hands on from the library. Truly, it's up to you. (I started with Hogfather, the 20th novel in the series and the 4th Death book, and it's great.) That being said, let's continue...

The Colour of Magic is the first Discworld book published, but many view it as "not-the-strongest", either in the series or as a starter. Pratchett himself said that Sourcery is a better starter, for both the "Wizards" books and the series as a whole! (Don't get me wrong though, they are good books. The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic are also the only two novels that directly relate to each others' storylines, so if you do start with TCOM, then you must read TLF next as they are like part 1/part 2.)

Death is one of my favorite characters, so Mort is also a great first-read. Death is a recurring character in almost the whole series, so getting familiar with him before diving into other sub-series might be a good idea.

Though I've only read two of the "Watch" books, it might be favorite sub-series so far, I always recommend Guards! Guards! as a great starter for first-timers. You get a good sense of city politics and its' machinations, as well as the kind of magic you can expect throughout the Disc. (and who doesn't love Carrot?)

I've only read one "Witches" book so far, and I started with Wyrd Sisters as I was 1. told it's the first the feature all three witches that carry on in the rest of the series, and 2. familiar with Macbeth, of which this book is a parody. Most of the "Witches" books are parodies and trope-twisters of famous stories, so if that's your thing start with Wyrd Sisters! (I personally can't wait to get to Carpe Jugulum...)

I didn't realize until this chart that the "Moist Von Lipwig" books are considered part of the "Industrial Revolution" sub-series, so I read Making Money after seeing the movie for Going Postal. I think starting with GP would be fine, but if you want a better sense of the world and how everything operates in it (like who the Patrician is, for example) starting with any of the books listed above might be best.

I've not yet read any "Ancient Civilizations" books (though I'm starting Pyramids soon!) the "Science" or the "Tiffany Aching" books so I can't judge how they are for starters.

Personally, I jump around the Disc for every novel I read. As I said, I started with Hogfather, then read TCOM & TLF. I think I read Mort after that, then Guards then Reaper Man then Wyrd Sisters and so on. So I'm kind of reading the sub-series in their order, but jumping between series after I finish a book. All I can recommend to anyone is to read the synopses of the starters, pick one, then go wherever you like from there. Happy reading!

[ampersandlore]

"All right," said Susan. "I'm not stupid. You're saying humans need... fantasies to make life bearable." REALLY? AS IF IT WAS SOME KIND OF PINK PILL? NO. HUMANS NEED FANTASY TO BE HUMAN. TO BE THE PLACE WHERE THE FALLING ANGEL MEETS THE RISING APE. "Tooth fairies? Hogfathers? Little—" YES. AS PRACTICE. YOU HAVE TO START OUT LEARNING TO BELIEVE THE LITTLE LIES. "So we can believe the big ones?" YES. JUSTICE. MERCY. DUTY. THAT SORT OF THING. "They're not the same at all!" YOU THINK SO? THEN TAKE THE UNIVERSE AND GRIND IT DOWN TO THE FINEST POWDER AND SIEVE IT THROUGH THE FINEST SIEVE AND THEN SHOW ME ONE ATOM OF JUSTICE, ONE MOLECULE OF MERCY. AND YET—Death waved a hand. AND YET YOU ACT AS IF THERE IS SOME IDEAL ORDER IN THE WORLD, AS IF THERE IS SOME...SOME RIGHTNESS IN THE UNIVERSE BY WHICH IT MAY BE JUDGED. "Yes, but people have got to believe that, or what's the point—" MY POINT EXACTLY. ° ° ° This year I plan on reading every Terry Pratchett book all over again, from the beginning of Discworld through the odds and ends elsewhere. I won't finish it this year, but I'll certainly try my best. ° ° ° What are your reading goals for this year? — view on Instagram https://ift.tt/fZ8kAxm