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WOSSNAME -- Main issue -- June 2014
WOSSNAME
Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion
June 2014 (Volume 17, Issue 6, post 1)
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INDEX:
01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
02) EDITOR'S LETTER
03) THE LONG EARTH SERIES: NEWS AND REVIEWS
04) ODDS AND SODS
05) REVIEW: DODGER'S GUIDE TO LONDON
06) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
07) REVIEW: THE LONG WAR
08) DISCWORLD ARTS AND CRAFTS NEWS
09) DISCWORLD CONVENTION NEWS
10) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
11) ACTION REPLAYS
12) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
13) CLOSE
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01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
"I have been blessed with good fortune in my life. I've turned a passion into a profession."
– Terry Pratchett, on accepting his first non-European honorary doctorate
"I'm sorry. I know that I am a small, weak man, but I have amassed a large library; I dream of dangerous places."
– AE Pessimal in Snuff (p. 186, Doubleday hardcover)
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02) LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR
All my life, I've taken my job seriously. Whether the work was paid (e.g. career) or unpaid (e.g. WOSSNAME), I always applied myself to the best of my ability. That application had much to do with why I did well in my former career, and I've continued doing my best to *do* my best as editor/publisher of the WOSSNAME newsletter even though my physical health is dodgy, my financial situation dodgier, and my mental health generally a Don't Arsk. But although I took on WOSSNAME as a favour to Joe-the-founder and have kept it going with less and less volunteer "staff" since his death a few years ago, my promise to Joe isn't the only reason I carry on here – I do WOSSNAME as a thank-you to Terry Pratchett, the man and the brand, for bringing so much delight and so much satisfaction to my life through his writings and for being one of the most awesome and influential popular philosophers of our time.
When I tell people Terry Pratchett ruined me for almost all other authors' work, I am not only dead serious but am also making that claim on the basis of a vast amount of comparative study: I've read many thousands of books over the decades. No, really. I taught myself to read at an early age, have ever been a fast reader with comprehensive, long-lasting content retention, and truly did spend much of my childhood inhaling every library I could get my eyes on (most of the rest of my time was spent marathoning and nature- watching; I may not have been the world's only child XD runner with a rucksack full of books, but I suspect we're a fairly rare occurrence), so by my early teens I had all the seminal and mid- period science fiction and fantasy "giants", long lists of other genre fiction, forests-worth of big-L Literature and vast mountains of pulp – not to mention far greater amounts of nonfiction – under my reading belt. And unsurprisingly, as the years went on and the list of authors sampled grew, my expectations rose with the height of my Already Read That pile.
And then came Terry Pratchett.
I used to think Wodehouse was the pinnacle of jaunty wit – until Pratchett. I used to think Tom Sharpe was the apex of trenchant social satire – until Pratchett. I even used to think Robert Rankin rather rocked – until Pratchett. And so on. I fell in love with the Discworld series and grew more and more wide-eyed as the power of Pratchett's writing kept on increasing, as he slipped more and more powerful characterisations and observations into the novels without ever losing the weirdly innocent charm of the Discverse itself. And then he wrote Night Watch, and pretty much blew away all the other science fiction writers. And then he wrote Nation, and moved me so with its story – and most of all with its magnificently real characters – that I cried myself sick on my first three readings of it, and yearly re-readings still choke me up something rotten. And then he wrote Dodger, and transported us to the muck and magic of nineteenth-century London in the most rollicking picaresque since Fielding's Tom Jones romped across the public imagination some 250-odd years ago.
Terry Pratchett's ability to draw us a living, breathing character in the space of a sentence or two continues to amaze me. Even the most secondary characters, from long-ago Mended Drum owner Hibiscus Dunelm to minor Agatean bureaucrat Six Beneficent Winds, from "Bill Door"'s fellow farm labourers to the least memorable member of the Silver Horde, from Tawneee the unworldly stripper to "winkle-stall queen" Verity Pushpram, spring instantly into fully realised 3-D on the mental screen. Consider Roland's father, dying Baron of the Chalk: we hardly got to "see" him in the Tiffany Aching books, yet his presence was so vibrant, so *alive* – and his death so filled with light and hope and welcome resolution – that it gutted me. Consider Angua's mother: sketchily drawn yet real enough that we could see in her the sources of so much of Angua's personal anxieties and Wolfgang's over-indulged arrogance. Consider goblin Billy Slick's great-grandmother, the alcohol-soaked but needle-sharp Regret of the Falling Leaf. Consider Brick the foundling troll, overwhelmed by life in the big city, drug-addled and none too bright yet sensitive enough to recognise the subtle distinctions of moral conflict. Consider Mrs Colon, never seen but easily pictured. Or Miss Healstether. Or the Smoking Gnu. Or Kelda Jeannie. Or the rat- catchers in TAMAHER, real enough to smell and far more menacing than any throwaway comedy villains have a right to be. Or... the list goes on and on. Pratchett's greatest strength, and many agree with me on this, lies in his ability to present all those living, breathing, utterly sympathetic characters in a way that feels effortless, straight out of his imagination into our hearts.
And then I read The Long War, and Terry Pratchett's writing brought me to tears again, but this time for a very different reason.
All of the above is my long-winded way of saying that I simply cannot, in conscience, write a truthful review of The Long War because I can't find anything good to say about it, despite having promised last month to include a review in the June issue. I feel awful about this. I feel like some kind of traitor. I feel like I'm biting the hand that's fed my Happy Reading Place for almost thirty years. But I can't squeeze out enough juice to make the proverbial lemonade, because The Long War feels nothing like Terry Pratchett's writing and nothing like a book I'd wish to recommend to friends or strangers. I found it even drier and more lifeless than The Long Earth. I found the characters even more cipher-like, with not the slightest touch of the *aliveness* that pervades all the rest of Pratchett's creations. And no, it's not a matter of different genres, as I suggested in my review of The Long Earth two years ago, nor is it a matter of time and PCA changing the author's style – as far as I'm concerned, Snuff and Raising Steam and all the rest of his recent work still fills my world with shining, sparkling wordcraft.
So I've bowed out of this one, Readers, even though it breaks my heart. I've decided to repost my review of The Long Earth, as just about every criticism I offered in reviewing the first book of the series holds for the second, and have passed reviewing duties for The Long War over to one of WOSSNAME's few remaining staff members (see item 7).
Dear Sir Pterry and Team Pratchett, please don't hate me, 'k? I shall continue to do my best to pay respects to that enormous body of awesome work. The flame still burns!
*
And the flame *does* still burn, in the form of WOSSNAME's review of Jack Dodger's Guide to London. It's a bit of a love letter from the heart, and no lemons required squeezing in its making. See item 5...
*
As an ever greater number of amateur dramatic companies and student drama projects choose to present Discworld plays, the quality of the productions continues to rise. I normally present Discworld plays without concentrating on any particular productions, but I have to say that Australia's "Unseen Theatre" company deserves an extra nod of appreciation for their presentations, and now, to judge by reviews and other reactions, the Lifeline Theatre of Chicago deserves a nod as well for their current staging of Monstrous Regiment. Do be sure to read the reviews for that production and for Unseen Theatre's recent production of Thief of Time, below in section 6!
And speaking of Unseen Theatre, auditions are continuing for their forthcoming production of The Last Continent. Many roles were filled during yesterday's auditions, but not all of them. Director Pamela Munt writes, "Unfortunately we didn't quite fill all of the roles that we have for "The Last Continent" at auditions today. So we will be holding a second round of auditions next Sunday 7th July. We do have enough females. We are now just looking for a couple more males. If you would like to audition please contact Pamela by email at pamela@unseen.com.au This time you will need to make a specific appointment for your audition."
If you're an aspiring Fourecksian luvvy, and want more details, go to:
http://www.unseen.com.au/shows/auditions-round-2-sunday-july-7
*
This seems a good time to remind everyone that the gorgeous Gollancz Discworld Collector's Edition reissues of earlier Discworld novels are almost all, erm, reissued! Still to come in July are the rest of the Lancre Witches books (Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade), and in August, the reissues finish with The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. These smaller-format hardcovers are still priced at £9.99 each, and so worth it – I don't know about you, but my own early Discworld paperbacks are now several steps beyond dog-eared, foxed, badgered, wolved and Things from the Dungeon Dimensions-battered. As these reissues remain unavailable for purchase in USA/Canada due to the frustrating niceties of the publishing industry, but there's always that handy internet whatchmajig that might prove helpful... according to the official Gollancz blog, "Many of you are asking whether the series will continue after Jingo. The short answer is: we don’t know. The slightly longer answer is that we do not control rights in any of the Discworld books after Jingo; they are published by Transworld. At the moment, we know of no firm plans on their part to continue the Collector’s Library, but if that changes we’ll certainly note it on the Gollancz blog."
For a full list of the published and about to be published reissues, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/n7zvr6k
And now it's on with the show...
– Annie Mac, Editor
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03) THE LONG EARTH SERIES: NEWS AND REVIEWS
3.1 THE LONG MARS: THE BLURB
"2040-2045: In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang are all involved in this perilous work when, out of the blue, Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But Sally soon learns that Willis has ulterior motives ...
"Meanwhile U. S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman has embarked on an incredible journey of her own, leading an expedition to the outer limits of the far Long Earth.
"For Joshua, the crisis he faces is much closer to home. He becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the super-bright post-humans who are beginning to emerge from their 'long childhood' in the community called Happy Landings, located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear are causing 'normal' human society to turn against the Next - and a dramatic showdown seems inevitable
The Long Mars has been released this week in the UK. The hardcover version is priced at £9.00 on amazon.co.uk:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Long-Mars-Earth/dp/0857521748
...or at £12.99 via the far less morally grey Waterstones:
http://terrypratchett.co.uk/index.php/books/the-long-mars
3.2 THE LONG WAR: OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK
"A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth ? but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind ...
"A new 'America', called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth ? and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government...
"Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity?s thoughtless exploitation...
"Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before."
For more information, and to order:
http://terrypratchett.co.uk/index.php/books/the-long-war
3.3 THE LONG MARS: REVIEW
By Beth Wyatt on London 24:
"The Long Mars, the third in a bestselling series by fantasy genius Terry Pratchett and science fiction star Stephen Baxter, follows the subsequent years through a variety of narrative threads. US Navy commander Maggie Kauffman leads her crew along the Long Earth on two airships, in an attempt to surpass the Chinese record set five years previously of 20 million 'stepwise' Earths. An expedition is also to be had for Sally Linsay, who is contacted out of the blue by her father Willis, the inventor of the original Stepper device, with a tantalising offer to go where none have dared dream of – the Long Mars. But will they find anything worth discovering? And what are Willis' motives? Meanwhile, Joshua Valiente is alerted to the existence of a new civilisation of super-smart humans and becomes pulled into the resulting conflict. Each of the threads, which eventually begin to pull together at the end of the novel, are equally as gripping. The discoveries made on the expeditions are jaw-dropping and, as you would expect from a science fiction novel, are intelligently explained rather than just shoehorned in... Pratchett's trademark playful wit combines with Baxter's science fiction expertise later on with creatures such as a dog-human species, a murderous crustacean and a flying reptile. Not many other writers could introduce such wacky creations and make them believable... With a collaborative novel, there is a worry that the tale may not flow, but Pratchett and Baxter's voices blend seamlessly..."
http://tinyurl.com/ofm7qz2
3.4 STEPHEN BAXTER ON THE COLLABORATIVE PROCESS
Stephen Baxter discusses his collaboration with Sir Pterry on the Long Earth books:
"It quickly emerged that we had quite different writing styles. The Long Earth (as it became) is a kind of extended landscape which you could map, and as the series went on it evolved a history spanning decades, so from the beginning I showed up with sketch maps and timelines, all subject to revision but settings for the stories we would tell. This was 'hard SF' after all, SF of the kind I'd always written, where you stick to the laws of physics (given the odd tweak such as the existence of the parallel worlds in the first place) and you convince the reader through internal consistency. Whereas Terry likes to find his way into a story by following the people: give him two characters sitting in a room and the story will come, he says. As it's worked out, the tensions between the two methods have basically been constructive... I remember a moment when it came together. We sat before his voice-recognition computer system and worked through a revision of Terry's early material, as our Daniel Boone-like hero Joshua Valiente is summoned to the presence of the mysterious artificial intelligence Lobsang for the first time. Terry veered off unexpectedly into a flashback to Joshua's past, when he was a troubled thirteen-year-old on 'Step Day', the day when the Long Earth suddenly opened up for mankind. Terry likes to drill down into the heads of his characters; I think young Joshua had something in common with Tiffany Aching. We had Joshua saving other, less capable kids who got lost in the forests of the parallel worlds – and then I took over, thinking of my world mappings, and had Joshua go off alone deeper into the Long Earth... I think we became confident that this had worked; we had put Terry's characterisation, humour and wisdom together with my sense of the hard-SF structure necessary for establishing the universe of the Long Earth..."
http://www.terrypratchett.co.uk/?p=5098
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04) ODDS AND SODS
4.1 REPEAT: FOURECKS HONOURS SIR PTERRY
Nice coverage of that newest honorary degree:
"UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor David Lloyd, who presented the award to him in the United Kingdom, says Terry Pratchett is a clear example of someone who has stayed true to his passion. 'Terry brings his immeasurable talent and intellect to doing what he loves – he has produced an enormous body of work that continues to delight and inspire millions of readers and writers around the world,' Prof Lloyd says. 'His contribution not only to literature, but also to the causes about which he is passionate, is enormous and has been rightly acknowledged in literary prizes, through sales and in awards such as this one.' Prof Lloyd says the University is delighted that Terry has accepted the title of Honorary Doctor, his first award of this type from outside the UK and Ireland. 'This brings Terry into the UniSA community in a more personal way and brings our students and the wider University closer to the life of a great writer and a great man,' Prof Lloyd says..."
http://w3.unisa.edu.au/unisanews/2014/June/story3.asp
4.2 REVIEW: THE FOLKLORE OF DISCWORLD
Reviewed by Kate Padilla on Authorlink:
"What a treat for a book reviewer to receive a book in a genre not normally sought and embark on a literary journey. English author Terry Pratchett, who created the Discworld Series (40 volumes with sales up to 85 million copies) has just released, 'The Folklore of Discworld,' co-written with British folklorist Jacqueline Simpson. It is a detailed reference book of legends, myths and customs from 'planet earth' that Pratchett links to his fantasy world... The sensational core of the series are characters who live on Discworld — dwarfs, witches, vampires, gods and other creatures... I discovered Discworld can lead you along a path of laughter and a trip into a joyful magical mystical world."
http://tinyurl.com/lcnxgse
4.3 BEWARE: HERE BE ELVES!
Does Iceland need to put up Dancers? They certainly have Lancre's gnarly ground...
"Plans to build a new road in Iceland ran into trouble recently when campaigners warned that it would disturb elves living in its path. Construction work had to be stopped while a solution was found... Surveys suggest that more than half of Icelanders believe in, or at least entertain the possibility of the existence of, the Huldufolk – the hidden people. Just to be clear, Icelandic elves are not the small, green, pointy-eared variety that help Santa pack the toys at Christmas – they're the same size as you and I, they're just invisible to most of us. Mainly they're a peaceable breed but if you treat them with disrespect, for example by blasting dynamite through their rock houses and churches, they're not reticent about showing their displeasure.
"Iceland's rugged landscape is no bucolic idyll – the very ground boils and spits irrationally, the surrounding craggy, black mountains fester menacingly and above, the sky is constantly herniated by the iron-grey clouds it strains to hold up. It's a visceral, raw and brutal beauty which makes Heathcliff's Wuthering Heights look like a prissy, pastoral watercolour. "You can't live in this landscape and not believe in a force greater than you," explains Professor of Folklore Adalheidur Gudmundsdottir..."
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27907358
4.4 INTERVIEW: RHIANNA PRATCHETT
"We spoke briefly about her father, Terry Pratchett. Did having such a famous author as a father influence her at all? 'I'm not sure how much he influenced me to go into writing. He certainly didn't actively encourage it. I guess it was just in the blood.' Indeed, the relationship between Rhianna and her father is much more complex than a literary dynasty: 'I'm immensely proud of what my father has achieved in his career, but I see him as being my dad first and foremost, not 'Terry Pratchett' [the] famous author. He's the man who built me Moomin Valley out of papier-mache, taught me how to milk goats and who took me out of bed in the middle of the night to see glow worms and Halley's comet...'"
http://tinyurl.com/kjld9ma
4.5 LEARNING: LANGUAGES AS A HEDGE AGAINST DEMENTIA
A University of Edinburgh study has shown that learning a second language, even in late adulthood, might delay the onset of dementia by several years:
"The findings indicate that those who spoke two or more languages had significantly better cognitive abilities compared to what would have been expected from their baseline test. The strongest effects were seen in general intelligence and reading. The effects were present in those who learned their second language early, as well as later in life."
So... hands up, all you over-40s who want to learn how to speak fluent Nac Mac Feegle!
If you wish to read the full article, it's here: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27634990
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05) REVIEW: DODGER'S GUIDE TO LONDON
By Annie Mac
I'm not sure what astonished me more about Jack Dodger's Guide to London – the realisation that I never got around to posting a review of it in WOSSNAME, or the discovery that hardly anyone else out in the wider world appears to have reviewed it. Oh, woe! And waily waily! And I can't be having with this! So...
As we sit in our comfortable homes with all the "mod cons" we take for granted now – well-caulked roofs, good insulation, hot and cold running water, mains gas and electricity, working flush toilets – and our easy access to effective medical treatment, fresh food and clean clothing (and let's not forget the vital work of the refuse collectors, street-sweepers and all the other municipal toilers who make even relatively low-income neighbourhoods far more salubrious places to be in than anywhere anyone but the richest, most powerful people could manage two centuries ago), it can be hard to imagine just how dirty and dangerous London life was in the days of Dodger and his contemporaries. Jack Dodger's Guide to London, filled with historical facts, legends and anecdotes and enlivened by frequent quotes from Sir Jack Dodger himself (based, it says on the cover, on his "original notes"), goes a long and entertaining way towards showing the differences between then and now. The book's 138 pages and twenty-four chapterlets cover many areas of everyday life amongst the high and low of Victorian London: coin of the realm, street vernacular, the Ragged Schools, the Royal Family, underwear and outerwear; details of shopping and housekeeping, crime and the law, and what it was like to live in the slums; transport, public works, entertainments of the time; and various other aspects of Victorian London – including of course the lives of sailors, Seamstresses, dock-workers... and toshers. Special highlights for me were extracts from the actual works of the real Henry Mayhew, and reprints of news items of the time (none of them, sadly, written by Charlie Dickens).
Apart from its oodles of info, Dodger's Guide is a visually delightful piece of art in its own right, styled to match the previous entry in the series that now includes Where's My Cow? and The World of Poo. From the old-fashioned, gilt-decorated matte covers and equally old-fashioned-looking (and Greenpeace approved) renewably sourced paper to the new illustrations by Paul Kidby plus a wealth of reproduced 19th century images and beautifully varied layouts and fonts – as it says at the front of the book, "Considered trifles courtesy of The Discworld Emporium, Wincanton, Somerset... Text design by Lizzy Laczynska... Picture research by Liane Payne" – the book is worth owning for its aesthetic qualities alone, never mind the fun and cheerful faux-Victorian stylings of its content.
The penultimate and final pages of Jack Dodger's Guide to London offer a bibliography and list of internet sources for those of you who might like to take your 19th-century London researches further. I would also recommend some books I own and websites I visit, that provide contemporary-to-us sources of London images and information that fit in nicely with the theme of Dodger's Guide – particularly Geoffrey Fletcher's exquisite short book The London Nobody Knows, which was first published at the end of the 1950s and gives a very good picture, via Fletcher's descriptions and sketches of the remnants of Victorian and Edwardian London, of what life was like in times closer to Dodger's era; Paul Talling's Lost Rivers of London (Talling also runs the excellent if heart-rending, at least to us former London residents, website Derelict London); the website http ://the-east-end.co.uk/and its Twitter account, @The_East_End; and Catharine Arnold's very engaging factual histories of London, including "Necropolis (London and its Dead)", "City of Sin (London and its Vice)", and "Bedlam (London and its Mad)". Another related group of interest is the Ragged Victorians, a sort of social-history Peeled Nuts who assemble in costume, "Using original resources, and the works of Henry Mayhew and Charles Dickens..." to "achieve the most authentic impression, of what life was like in the 1840/50s"; their website can be found at http://www.raggedvictorians.co.uk/
Jack Dodger's Guide to London is a Small but Perfectly Formed(TM) gem of the first water. It shines like golden sovereigns embedded in a tosheroon. If you haven't read and collected it yet, I suggest you do so without delay!
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Here be a review of Dodger's Guide on SFF World, by Mark Yon:
http://tinyurl.com/kww4hjm
...and one at concatenation.org by Peter Tyers:
http://www.concatenation.org/frev/pratchett_dodger_guide.html
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06) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
6.1 NEW: "THE LAST CONTINENT"...ON THE LAST CONTINENT!
"Our next play, (by popular vote) will be a return to "The Last Continent" which was a world premiere for us back in 2009... It's actually quite appropriate as it turns out that we are doing a play about Ecks, Ecks, Ecks because Terry has been awarded an honorary doctorate from UniSA."
When: 19th September through 4th October 2014
Venue: The Bakehouse Theatre, 255 Angas Street, Adelaide, South Australia 5000
Time: TBA
Tickets: Pricing TBA
http://www.unseen.com.au/
6.2 REVIEWS: THIEF OF TIME IN ADELAIDE
More reviews of Unseen Theatre's latest production...
By Benjamin Orchard for Adelaide Theatre Guide:
"Pamela Munt, in adapting the novel for the stage, provides newbies like myself with just enough world-building exposition to get by… but only just. I found the first ten minutes or so of this play to be a bit of a jumble, and I would have appreciated a somewhat more detailed explanation as to the intricacies of this world. Fortunately, once the main plot kicks into gear, the play becomes somewhat easier to follow and Munt's script captures Pratchett's greatest strength as a writer, namely his gift for dialogue that is at once gleefully absurd and bitingly witty. This sublime wordplay is buoyed by an impassioned cast, ensuring that many scenes are hilariously entertaining to watch, even if they don't completely make sense and serve no purpose in driving the narrative forward.
"The talented ensemble assumes multiple roles, Monty Python style, with chameleonic finesse, but a few performances stand out more than others. Leighton James is endearingly adorkable as both the naive clockmaker, Jeremy, who is unwittingly recruited by malevolent otherworldly beings to construct a doomsday device and as novice monk, Lobsang, who is entrusted with the daunting quest of preventing the apocalypse. Philip Lineton has laconic charm to spare as Lobsang's aging mentor, Lu-Tze, whose sage wisdom is often filtered through bizarre 'Karate Kid' style housework metaphors. Hugh O'Connor is surprisingly amiable as Death, and together with the other Four Horsemen (Lewis Baker, Tony Cockington, Daniel McInnes, Samuel Creighton) generate an off-kilter chemistry reminiscent of an over-the-hill rock band on a reunion tour. Amelia Lorien is deliciously snarky as Death's granddaughter, Susan, and the filmed narration by Melanie Lyons is a hoot, her relaxed, casual tone adding an extra layer of humour to many life or death situations in the story..."
http://tinyurl.com/pamhylz
By Peter Bleby on aussietheatre.com.au:
"Pamela Munt and The Unseen Theatre Company are to be commended on even attempting to bring this world premiere to the stage. It is not their first either, but this 26th novel in the Discworld series is a particularly difficult one, perhaps especially if you have not read several of its predecessors. Pratchett's writing, though very popular, is not necessarily everybody's cup of what-you-will. But there is always genuine humour, serious inquiry, and crazy fantasy, and these elements are well portrayed in this adaptation... Naturally, this play is surreal, disjointed, quirky and full of non–sequiturs, which must have made learning the lines a bigger challenge, which this cast has mastered well..."
http://tinyurl.com/qctb5jc
By Stephen Davenport for Indaily:
"As usual, the production combines all the best elements of the company to produce a satisfyingly paced piece that ranks among Pamela Munt's, and her players', best episodes. It is an enjoyable romp. Discworld fans – and many round-world patrons – will find it an absolute treat. This is an impressive play with a good deal of aptitude in the troupe; and each performer is truly striking. It's surprising what substance in presentation can do to bring complex plots, entire continents, and even the whole of space and time, to life. Of course, the play is a quest with comical heroes, sagacity, and satire, but this time, it comes with an unusual philosophical outlook, that fortunately doesn't detract from the hilarity. Much of the success is due to the hearty direction by Munt who's adaptation gives the piece a suitable depth and yet doesn't ignore the essence of Pratchett's humour. She delivers a fairy-tale for adults, utilising the author's astonishing work of imagination to yield fastidious absurdity and soul in every particular, impeccably produced scene..."
http://www.unseen.com.au/shows/thief-time/reviews/thief-time-0
6.3 REVIEWS: MONSTROUS REGIMENT IN CHICAGO
Rave reviews – quite savvy ones as well!
Kelsey Jorissen in the Chicago Reader:
"Hainsworth has done a fine job of translating Pratchett's amiable cynicism into sharp theatrical language. His adaptation is witty on its own account and only slightly overlong at two and a half hours. But it's Theis's ensemble that bring even the undead to vivid, entertaining life. Starting out jet-set smooth and uber-vampire confident, Michaela Petro suffers amusingly when severe caffeine deprivation brings Maladict this close to breaking his blood- temperance oath. Justine Turner acts her way through thick layers of gray foam costuming to create a droll troll. And Katie McLean Hainsworth steals a whole slew of scenes as Igor the, uh, Igor. Robert Kauzlaric builds an engagingly clueless lieutenant out of air quotes, while Christopher M. Walsh supplies unexpected nuance and a large measure of heart as the squad's tough, genial NCO. Sarah Price's Polly is as plucky as she needs to be — and yet her main virtue isn't heroism or even likability, but the way she invites us into her adventure..."
http://tinyurl.com/nwtpcl4
By Barbara Vitello in the Chicago Daily Herald:
"Taking its title from John Knox's 16th-century tirade against female sovereigns ('The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women'), in which he argues gender makes women unsuitable leaders, the play satirizes gender roles. It also serves as a caustic rebuke of war, blind patriotism and persistent stupidity – all of which make this 'Regiment' resonant... Facing defeat and with their ranks depleted, army recruiters seek out young soldiers willing to enlist in Borogravia's latest struggle against neighboring Zlobenia. Among them is Polly Perks (Sarah Price, a winningly winsome waif), who cuts her hair, dons a pair of breeches, changes her name to Oliver and joins the army to find her wayward brother (also a recruit) and bring him home. She's assigned to a ragtag regiment, whose recruits are as green as she is. Among them is aristocratic vampire Maladict (Michaela Petro, all refined menace), who swore off blood in favor of coffee; Igor (great work from Katie McLean Hainsworth), a hunchback medic with a talent for stitching together bodies; and the slightly dim troll Carborundum (the affable, amusing Justine C. Turner), who enlists under the army's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. This motley band of "brothers" includes Melissa Engle's pious Wazzer, a Joan of Arc-like character who hears the voice of Borogravia's revered Duchess... Rounding out the regiment dubbed monstrous is the self-contained Lofty (Mandy Walsh) and the defiant Tonker (passionately played by Kim Boler), who expresses in simple terms the frustration of the powerless... Leading the untrained, poorly outfitted regiment is the gruff, battle-hardened, unfailingly decent Sgt. Jackrum, played with equal parts compassion and ruthlessness by Christopher M. Walsh. Walsh brings real pathos. Also on hand is Jackrum's weaselly corporal Strappi (John Ferrick) and their commanding officer, the dapper, befuddled Lt. Blouse (the hilarious Robert Kauzlaric), a dandy eager for glory... At two and a half hours including intermission, the play is overly long and needs trimming. But that's a minor point in what is a major delight from a company renowned for its page-to-stage translations..."
https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140612/entlife/140619664/
By Kerry Reid in the Chicago Tribune:
"I've yet to get my literary passport stamped for Terry Pratchett's "Discworld." But after seeing Lifeline Theatre's marvelous production of "Monstrous Regiment," the 31st novel in Pratchett's hugely popular series about life on a flat planet whose inhabitants' foibles are suspiciously similar to our own, I'm ready to book passage on the S.S. Pratchett... As I've not read the source novel, I can't vouch for how much adapter Chris Hainsworth had to leave on the cutting-room floor, but from reading online summaries, my guess is 'a lot.' My judgment is that it doesn't matter. As a Pratchett newbie, I had no problem entering into this topsy-turvy world for two-plus hours and following the ins and outs of its backstory... The best thing about Hainsworth's script and director Kevin Theis' crackerjack staging is that it manages to fully inhabit the realm of the ridiculous while tipping its hat to Pratchett's essentially humanist/feminist concerns. Somehow, as Iraq falls into even greater sectarian violence, a play rife with grotesque absurdity (soldiers dining on horsemeat and clothed in the blood-soaked uniforms of dead comrades) about a never-ending war waged on behalf of the probably- dead duchess of the aforementioned Borogravia seems wholly apropos... The anti-war and anti-violence sentiments in the script, updated by Hainsworth with references to 'shock and awe' and 'don't ask, don't tell,' are handled with offhanded aplomb that keep them from feeling like cheap sloganeering... If there has been a more accomplished comedic ensemble on a Chicago stage this year, I've not seen it..."
http://tinyurl.com/lzmfbut
By Mary Shen Barnidge for the Windy City Media Group:
"Those familiar with the literary career of Terry Pratchett (who commands his own yearly international conference in the UK) know to expect sly social commentary in the guise of a mock-epic fantasy structured with the slapdash glee of a Dungeons and Dragons tournament. For those encountering the exhaustive Discworld series for the first time (like me), Chris Hainsworth's adaptation deftly avoids becoming bogged down in arcane backstories from previous volumes to locate us firmly in the present, the Balkanesque conflicts providing a canvas for discussion of war's eternal stupidity. This is no windy allegorical polemic, however. Under Kevin Theis' direction, this motley band of, uh, brothers emerges as a gang of live-action cartoons, with smart, slapstick antics always grounded in individual personalities... The wordplay likewise brims with the delight of an author who obviously loves his language, replete with puns and allusions inserted so unobtrusively as to register without stopping the flow of the action, as well as a dry humor ('I've starved before,' Sgt. Jackrum warns his troops, 'There's no future in it') refreshingly devoid of the juvenile snark too often infecting sword-and-sorcery satire. The swift physical pace would mean nothing without verbal agility as well, but Lifeline's dream-team ensemble never misses a step..."
http://tinyurl.com/kuzo2g4
Also, a piece about the genesis of the production, by Myrna Petlicki for Sun-Times Media:
"Kevin Theis had never heard of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels when Lifeline Theatre asked him to direct 'Monstrous Regiment.' 'I only became a fan of the series as a result of working on this play,' the Oak Park resident said. Theis read the source novel and one other book in the series and was drawn to the author's humor. 'He's a really, really funny writer,' Theis said. 'The world he's created is so freeing to an author. He basically says there are no rules. In Discworld if you believe in something strong enough, it comes true... Chris Hainsworth, who did the adaptation, is a big fan,' Theis noted. 'He has read all the Discworld books and is a repository of all Discworld knowledge...' Theis believes that this satire on war is especially relevant to our situation in America. 'We're about to come to the end of our longest war in history,' he said of the combat in Afghanistan. 'And the idea that we must stop this war is a huge theme of 'Monstrous Regiment.' Satire is an important element in the books of Discworld and there's lots of humor in this play but Theis insists that the show goes deeper than that..."
http://tinyurl.com/pt9j38l
6.4 MONSTROUS REGIMENT IN CHICAGO: EXTENDED SEASON
The Monstrous Regiment production has created such a sensation that its season is being extended into August due to demand! Read all about it in Broadway World:
"To accommodate extraordinary ticket demand, Lifeline Theatre announces ten added performances of its Jeff Recommended, critically-acclaimed world premiere adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment, by ensemble member Chris Hainsworth, directed by Kevin Theis (two-time Non-Equity Jeff Award nominee)... Monstrous Regiment now runs through August 3 at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. (free parking and shuttle; see below). Performance times are Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. Note: there is no performance on Friday, July 4."
http://tinyurl.com/nefve5c
When: now, and up until 20th July 2014
Venue: Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N Glenwood Ave, Chicago, IL, 60626 Telephone 773-761-4477
Time: evenings at 7.30pm on Thursdays and Fridays and at 8pm on Saturdays; matinees at 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The production runs two and a half hours with one intermission. The book will be on sale in the lobby.
Tickets: $40 for regular single tickets, $30 for seniors, $20 for students (with I.D.), and $20 for rush tickets (available half hour before show time, subject to availability). Group rate for 12 or more is available upon request. Tickets may be purchased at the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477, or by visiting www.lifelinetheatre.com
6.5 REVIEW: MORT IN CHESHAM
A review of Mort at The Little Theatre by the Park, Chesham, by Rita Carpenter for the Bucks Free Press (Sir Pterry's old workplace):
"With a great many fairy tale characters, some superb costumes and strong performances the play went along at a cracking pace. Produced by Katherine Coburn and directed by Jonathan Coburn the group is very family orientated and this was evident by how many family members were taking part. The lighting and sound effects were superb and with 26 scenes it was amazing how well everything flowed. With a minimalistic set the scenes were depicted by clever lighting and props which appeared and disappeared swiftly adding to the magic of the production. There were not many youngsters in the audience indeed there were more on stage and I would have liked to have seen more but the ones I spoke to during the interval all agreed that they were really enjoying the play..."
http://tinyurl.com/od3hu6l
6.6 REVIEW: WITCHES ABROAD IN BIRMINGHAM
Last month's Jadis Shadows production of Wyrd Sisters at Old Joint Stock, Birmingham, reviewed by Selwyn Knight on The Public Reviews:
"As with many of Pratchett's stories, themes from this world are skilfully placed into the Discworld to provide entertainment and comic effect. In The Wyrd Sisters, there are several Shakespearian themes, most noticeably from King Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth, though Pratchett superbly debunks the witches' scenes as the older, more experienced witches play down any need for melodrama when invoking magic... This is quite a wide ranging story and there are some potentially questionable directorial decisions: it's made clear that all female characters in the travelling players' troupe are traditionally played by men, but it's not obvious what the director hoped to achieve by casting a male duchess alongside female witches. The set is also very busy with unused items littering the back wall, some of which only make a single appearance, but remain in vision throughout. Indeed, the scene changes lack fluidity, and, unless it is mentioned in conversation, it is rarely obvious in which location we find ourselves. This lack of fluidity is a factor in the show's main weakness – it is simply too long... The finest performances come from the three witches, with Granny Weatherwax maintaining her sardonic demeanour exceptionally well throughout, Nanny Ogg giving every indication of enjoying the drunken life of loose morals and Magrat remaining idealistic and naive, even as she and the Fool take their first tentative steps towards romance. Indeed, the Fool is a lynchpin of the whole piece and clearly rather more intelligent than first meets the eye..."
http://tinyurl.com/kzfnkf3
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07) REVIEWS: THE LONG EARTH, THE LONG WAR
7.1 THE LONG EARTH: THE LONG REVIEW, REPOSTED
By Annie Mac
A few weeks ago, I went to see The Avengers, the Joss Whedon- scripted and directed superhero film. I like superhero films as a rule, I grew up reading and loving Marvel comics, and I have been in awe of Joss Whedon's writing and directing skills for many years now, so my expectations were fairly high. And here's a funny thing: I said, as my friends and I watched the closing credits, "That may well be the definitive superhero movie"; I was sufficiently impressed to go back to see it again (with mostly different companions) two weeks later; I intend to buy the DVD of it and watch it repeatedly over the years... and yet my one-sentence summary of The Avengers was "Joss Whedon is such a genius that he *almost* managed to make a silk purse." – because for all its clever writing, fantastically witty dialogue and exquisite direction, cinematography, editing and special effects, it simply did not touch my heart as completely as the X-Men films have done.
So what has this to do with The Long Earth?
Well. In a brief mention in last month's issue, shortly after my first reading of the book, I described The Long Earth as "a fast, exciting piece of storytelling" containing "fascinating ideas, great imagery, and some very memorable characters". All of that is true, but The Long Earth also is not without its flaws, and those flaws mean that this unquestionably well-crafted and clever novel ultimately failed to lift and fill my heart in the way that Terry Pratchett's other work always does.
Before I go any further, Reader, I'll stop right here and acknowledge that some things I perceived as flaws may not be considered flaws by some of you – read on to the section about characters – but no, it isn't a matter of The Long Earth being in a different genre. There has been much trumpeting here and there along the lines of "Terry Pratchett's writing is taking a new direction: he's doing science fiction now!"; but for many of us, this announcement sounds daft, because we know that Terry Pratchett has been writing – and releasing – some fine, fine science fiction novels and shorter pieces for decades, among them The Dark Side of the Sun and Strata (early-career but promising), the Johnny Maxwell trilogy (especially the first and third books), Night Watch (science fiction plus Literature-quality sociopolitics and psychology, cleverly disguised as a fabulous Discworld novel), and one of my own all-time favourite science fiction short stories, *#ifdef DEBUG + "world/enough" + "time"* (which I rate at least as highly as Robert Heinlein's classic "By His Bootstraps").
Let's be honest: there's no way to critique a new Pratchett novel, in any genre, without comparing it to his extant body of work – or, for that matter, without comparing it to any previous Pratchett collaborations – and by that yardstick The Long Earth doesn't quite measure up to most of the author's previous brilliance. But given what we already know of Terry Pratchett's mighty writing-fu, I cannot help but lay the blame this time at the feet of co-writer Stephen Baxter.
Baxter's strong suit has always been the Big Idea, most notably that of a technological advance that effectively rewrites human society at a fundamental level, and he does it well, but he suffers from the typical science fiction writer's weakness when it comes to putting flesh on the bones of the story. A good example would be The Light of Other Days, another collaborative novel (written, or at least co- created, with Arthur C. Clarke): fabulous ideas set down masterfully but let down somewhat by flat, poorly realised characters. In the case of Baxter and Clarke, you have two bone-dry ideas men with little grasp of how to create living, breathing characters, so this is unsurprising. In the case of Baxter and Pratchett, you have a bone-dry ideas man and a master of character depth, character motivation and sparkling dialogue exchanges – and yet the end result lacks that depth and sparkle that I expect from anything Terry Pratchett has a hand in.
But that doesn't mean this review is a negative one. It really doesn't. So let's start with the general and the positive, shall we? To wit:
The Long Earth is a science fiction novel, very much so, well into the realm of ideas-driven "hard" science fiction, and it delivers the aforementioned fascinating ideas and great imagery. It gives excellent new twists to well-trodden speculative concepts. It also presents what has to be one of the most, if not the most, bizarre accoutrements to interuniversal travel and demonstrates likely social and political changes in a well-thought-out manner. The actual wordcraft is miles above almost all other science fiction (not that we would expect any less here). In short, it does what it says on the tin, and on that level it works very well indeed.
Plot is not a particularly strong point, but this is often the case with ideas-driven fiction. As most of you already know from The Long Earth's long promotional run-up, the story revolves around a homemade device, freely and anonymously released on the internet, that allows its user to "Step" to and from alternate Earths in alternate universes, and the ways this simple technology changes, well, everything. We are shown the chaos, terror and joy of "Step Day", the attempts of various nations' authorities to deal with the opening of this ultimate frontier, the ways in which human nature asserts itself in the same old manner even in the face of the new, and the desolation of those who for unexplained reasons are physically unable to Step. Beyond that, The Long Earth is the story of two entities who set out together on an exploring trip to the furthest reaches of the "High Meggas", a million or more Earths beyond our own "Datum Earth" – Joshua, a hyperintelligent, talented, methodical and rather obnoxious young man who was born under very unusual circumstances, prefers his own company to the extreme, and craves the Silence (no, not what you Doctor Who fans are thinking), and Lobsang, an even more intelligent, talented, methodical and rather obnoxious AI who is legally human (and yes, he has a certificate of sorts to prove it; now where have we read that one before, hmm...) – and whom and what they find along their way.
There is humour, though much of it feels slightly out of place and does not meld as well as it could have with the rest of the "feel" of the narrative. There is drama, though precious little of it. Some guns of the Chekhov variety (Anton, not Pavel, in case you wondered) are drawn but never fired – though in fairness, this is the first of a multi-volume tale, so the reader has no way of knowing whether the unfired guns are an oversight or merely a long-term, teasing set-up for later parts of the story arc. Oh, and the book ends on a cliffhanger. A big cliffhanger. A really big cliffhanger. Argh!
Speaking of guns, there aren't any on the alternate Earths, at least not until settlers construct the necessaries to mine and refine metals. But guns are hardly the only source of danger amongst humans. The Long Earth seemed to have an unrealistic dearth of violence – yes, the idea of having one's own unspoilt and possibly untenanted (by humans, at any rate) planet would charm many, but human nature is illogical at best and "I was here first!" would surely take precedence, with people preferring to fight for *this* or *that* Earth rather than to move along to the next empty planet. There are mentions of crime at first, but not many; instead, we get a "room and privacy solve everything" scenario that rings a bit false for me.
When it comes to fiction reading, I expect – demand! – characters I can take into my heart, or at the very least figuratively invite home for a cuppa, whether they are likable people or not. The Lancre witches, the various Watchpersons and denizens of Ankh-Morpork, Johnny Maxwell and his cohorts, Maurice and the Clan, Mau and Daphne, almost all the characters in Good Omens... I cared about them all. The characters in The Long Earth, on the other hand, *should* have engaged me but never did. Creating characters worth caring about can be done in science fiction. Larry Niven did it, in his Known Space stories and even more so in his tales of the Warlock and decline of magic as a natural resource. Neal Stephenson does it almost all the time. I tried to find a reason to care about any of the characters in The Long Earth, but did not succeed, and this lessened my enjoyment of the story.
On a side note, Pratchett readers are already familiar with the humble potato as an object of power (as seen in The Truth). This time around, having your potato doesn't help you safely reach the next life... or no, wait, it does. The easy to assemble Stepper is strangely personal. Each would-be traveller has to finish assembling their Stepper with their own hands; otherwise the device will not work, unless you are one of the small but measurable number of people who can "Step" without mechanical assistance (again, a teaser that is not resolved in this first volume). Any sort of potato will do, apparently – which to this reviewer's mind is itself a figurative can of worms that could have been addressed or at least mentioned. For instance, does the freshness of the potato count? Does it matter if it's cooked? Is it possible to travel to an alternate Earth with a Stepper powered by, say, a nice hot bag of chips? Did the authors gather around a pub table at some point discussing exactly those questions? Enquiring minds want to know, for after all, science fiction is all about enquiring minds... also, I think we finally know who came up with the weird nuns in Good Omens. That part (weird nuns in The Long Earth) worked, even though we never actually met the most unusual of them.
In summation:
Is The Long Earth a good book? Certainly! Am I looking forward very, very eagerly to the next instalment? Definitely! The Long Earth does disappoint in some crucial areas, but that doesn't change the fact that, when it comes to hard science fiction – or what-if fiction – created in collaboration, The Long Earth is as good as it gets.
Final verdict 1: it's not a Discworld novel, but we already knew that, so don't expect it to be.
Final verdict 2: a very good book that I feel should have been a great one.
Final final verdict: flawed but compelling, and therefore highly recommended.
7.2 REVIEW: THE LONG WAR
By Steven D'Aprano
In "The Long War" (TLW), Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter pick up ten years after the events of "The Long Earth". In that time, many significant changes have taken place, any one of which could have been the major plot of a novel: Datum USA is controlled by a mildly fascist government hostile to the steppers; at least two more intelligent species have been discovered, the humanoid kobolds and the dog-like beagles; the Long Earth colonies have not only established peaceful relations with the trolls, but have become dependent on their labour; Joshua and Lobsang have fallen out, and the protagonist Joshua is married and has a son of school age. I was greatly disappointed that the authors failed to show us any of these events, instead they just told us they had happened, violating one of the most important rules of good fiction: show, don't tell.
I normally don't like to give away significant plot points when reviewing books, but from time to time I come across something so remarkable that, spoiler or not, no responsible reviewer should fail to mention it. In TLW, Pratchett and Baxter set up the possibility of no fewer than three possible wars: Datum USA versus rebellious stepper colonies, Datum Earth extremists versus the steppers, and humankind versus assorted non-humans. And then... nothing. There was no Long War at all, not even a Long Battle, or a Short Police Action. There was a detachment of Marines who took a firm-but-friendly stroll down the main street of one of the colonies to show the flag, but it was over in eight pages without any real sense of tension or jeopardy, and the chapter ends with "the Long War was over". One might have added "without ever starting, or even being noticed".
I cannot help but contrast this unfavourably with Pratchett's "Jingo". When the threatened war between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch is averted at the last minute (but not before a few clashes between the opposing forces), it was because the protagonists struggled hard to avert the war. There was a real and ever increasing sense of tension due to the the near-certainty of war. But in TLW, the threat was nothing more than a mild sense of trouble brewing as the story progressed, just one of many things going on, and barely noticed by the characters. If not for the novel's title, it would have been barely worthy of a mention, just another of the oh-so-many disconnected and minor events taking place.
I find it difficult to believe that an author of Pratchett's stature could have such an inappropriate and misleading title foisted on him against his wishes, so I can only imagine that Pratchett, at least, was happy with it. So what happened to the war? I wasn't expecting this to be a Tom Clancy novel by any means, but neither was I expecting such a blatantly inaccurate title. It was as if I had bought a book titled "Sherlock Holmes In New York", only to discover that Holmes was not in New York and barely appeared in the book at all. Ironically, if I had known that there was no war in The Long War, I might have bought the book much sooner.
I'm a great admirer of Pratchett's writing, so it is disappointing that so little of his style shows in TLW. I don't just mean the lack of comedy – there were attempts to include some Pratchettesque humour in "The Long Earth", such as the magic potato that powers the stepper boxes, but they felt completely out of place and tacked on. So the lack of humour in TLW is actually a positive development. But even more so than the prequel, TLW does not feel like Pratchett writing: the style is bland and unengaging, not terrible by any means – I've read far worse by some demi-gods of the science fiction genre – but it lacks Pratchett's usual wit and sparkle. There's little sense of plot or pacing, and far too much happens off-stage.
One of the things keenly missed is the lack of Pratchett's skills with characterisation. A few manage to feel like decent secondary characters, fleshed out enough that you know they're real people, but not enough to really come to know them well. Perhaps the closest to Pratchett's usual standard is Sally, and what we come to know her as is mostly taciturn.
Joshua Valiente, I think, suffers badly from this lack. He's curiously passive for somebody intended as the protagonist, and even Rincewind the wizard, Pratchett's oldest and least fully-rounded protagonist, feels like more of a person than Joshua. Part of the problem is that we're told how skilful and clever Joshua is, but we aren't shown it. The authors take the time to tell us that he is a skilful hunter, butcher, artificer, blacksmith, smelter and teacher, but none of these are relevant to his role in the book, and we see hardly any sign of his skilfulness and cleverness. We're shown him having to be rescued himself after he goes to the aid of a crashed airship. As is typical for the series so far, the episode is rushed through in a handful of pages. Another time, Joshua comes to the aid of someone being attacked by elves, screws up badly, but nothing of any consequence comes from his mistake. Yet another time, he finds himself in a very similar situation as Sam Vimes in "The Fifth Elephant", being hunted by hostile, intelligent non-humans. Unlike Vimes, who survives by virtue of his grit, determination, skill and intelligence, Joshua survives because the hunters have a sudden, unexpected and unexplained spirit of mercy.
It seems to me that TLW's lack of detailed characterisation is a symptom of a larger problem with the series: there's too much going on, so everything gets short shift. We're briefly told that something is happening, dark hints of a serious problem brewing are dropped, the characters seem barely aware of the danger, and then the climax of the event is rushed through in a few pages. I get the feeling of "Whew, well that's another disaster averted, good job chaps, anyone fancy a cuppa?"
Pratchett's previous career as a newspaper writer has given him the ability to fit the maximum heart and soul of story into the minimum amount of novel, but TLW shows no sign of this tight focus. It's a long, rambling book, with too many side-shows and too little main feature. There are so many things happening that it's hard to care about them, and the story lacks drama or tension. Joshua being hunted was one of the few exceptions, and that was over in five pages. And like its prequel, TLW ends with something which in real life would be of incredible significance, but like the terrorist's nuclear attack on Madison, it feels like yet another side-show, an afterthought, glued on and with no real connection to anything else. It's not a cliffhanger, its an anti-climax.
Some of the perplexing mysteries of "The Long Earth" remain unanswered. Why do stepper boxes fail to work unless assembled by the person who will use it? That sounds like magic, completely out of place in a hard science fiction novel. What is the significance of the potato? Why was a minor character in the first book given the same name [Percy Blakeney – Ed.] as The Scarlet Pimpernel? TLW doesn't answer any of these, or even hint at answers. Perhaps the authors have wisely dropped them as bad ideas to be ignored rather than mysteries to be solved. One can hope.
When all is said and done, TLW isn't an awful novel, but even as an ideas-driven story as opposed to a plot-driven or character-driven one, it fails to engage. It's hard for me to see why I should bother to continue with the series, especially given that the next book is set on Mars. Billions upon billions of Earths, and there's not enough of interest to explore without moving the story to Mars? I feel this does not bode well for the rest of the series.
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08) DISCWORLD ARTS AND CRAFTS NEWS
DISCWORLD EMPORIUM UPDATES
"Greetings Discworld devotees! We've a delightful crop of additions to our bookshelves this week, as new editions from publishers Gollancz and Transworld further expand the Terry Pratchett collection.
"The latest books in the Discworld Collector's library have arrived – Feet of Clay (_http://tinyurl.com/lxyubor_) and Jingo (_http://tinyurl.com/ntvey79_) are the final instalments in the City Watch collection, and have some of our favourite covers yet! ... The next books from the Collector's Library will be Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, and Maskerade – coming to a Discworld Emporium near you on July 3rd!
"The Ankh-Morpork Post Office has colluded with the honourable Guild of Thieves to produce the latest releases from Discworld Stamps. The Thieves' Guild 3p (_http://tinyurl.com/laab9vm_) features a stunning illustration of the famous Guild Hall with its iconic Thieves' Kitchen – a hive of licensed crooks and ne'er do wells. Being an enterprising bunch, the guild have also introduced a surcharge stamp (_http://tinyurl.com/p79rxsz_) that, for a small fee, will protect your letters and parcels from pilfery. Both issues are available to collect as single stamps or as beautiful whole sheets.
"Both new issues are also available in every one of our latest Little Brown envelopes. The Thieves' Guild 'LBE' (_http://tinyurl.com/lzfjyrd_) contains an assortment of current Discworld stamps, plus the chance to find 'sports' and rarities. If you're unlucky enough not to find anything rare then your envelope may well have fallen victim to an opportunistic robber – of course a discerning thief will always leave a receipt, and an array of dockets for all manner of pinched items await the unfortunate!
"The second issue in the Wonders of the World Minisheet Collection has also arrived – the Light Dams of The Great Nef minisheet (_http://tinyurl.com/pl8y8or_) celebrates the 'illuminating' constructions of Goldeneyes Silverhand Dactylos and local tribes in Discworld's dryest desert. Each sheet features six illustrated stamps, and is accompanied by an explanatory post card.
"For more information about the wonderful world of official Discworld Stamps, and to discover how it all began, visit the Discworld Stamps bit of our website where you'll find a beginners guide, glossary and current issues from all over the Disc:
http://www.discworldemporium.com/discworld-stamps
"For all our latest wares and releases have a browse through our New Products page – it's mostly harmless!"
http://tinyurl.com/l8ztg9n
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09) DISCWORLD CONVENTION NEWS
9.1 NADWCON 2015:
http://sasquan.org/
http://www.worldcon.org/
9.2 WADFEST 2014
"This year's theme is heroes and villains. This means you get the chance to dress up as the hero or villain that you have always wanted to be. You can take your inspiration from comics, films and cartoons, or invent a new character for yourself. There will be trophies for the best dressed villain and best dressed hero, so get your sewing machine out and give it a go! If you're no good at sewing and you don't have anyone to help out, you can always hire a costume for the weekend. As well as special themed hero and villain games there will be all your usual Wadfest favourites, including smack the penguin. If it's your first time at Wadfest, why not take a look through the photos of Wadfests past to get an idea of what to expect?
"The X-Men's blackbird? Batman's batmobile? Green Goblin's glider? If you're feeling really adventurous why not turn your vehicle into the kind of transport a hero or villain would have? Perhaps you're more interested in a permanent base like Superman's Fortress of Solitude or He-Man's Castle Greyskull? If so, why not dress your tent up as your lair? There will be a prize for the best one. There are no limits to what you can do with your costumes. Be as inventive as you like or faithfully recreate your favourite character's costume."
When: 15th to 17th August 2014
Venue: Wood Green, The Animal Charity, King's Bush Farm, London Road, Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire, PE29 2NH
Tickets: £25.00 per adult for the weekend including Camping and Events. Children under 16 go free when accompanied by a paying adult. To purchase tickets online, go to http://www.wadfest.co.uk/page2.html
http://www.wadfest.co.uk
9.3 AUSDWCON 2015
Nullus Anxietus V is coming! Some early details:
When: 10th to 12th April 2015
Venue: Novotel, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia
Tickets: current ticket prices are $80-$140 per Attending Member, $400 per Family, $30 per Supporting Membership. To purchase at these rates, go to http://ausdwcon.org/shop/
"Previous Conventions have had Guilds. For Nullus Anxietas V the Guilds are replaced by the Studios of Holy Wood and Convention members (who choose to join a "guild") will be randomly assigned to one of the five studios for activities. Can't sing? Can't dance? Can handle a sword a little? Then Holy Wood beckons, and the clickies want YOU." – Daniel Hatton, Guildmeister
"The date of the convention is still too far distant for us to start negotiating room rates but we will have the upper hand if we can go into the discussion with an estimate of how many we would likely need. We'd like to convince them to be the cheapest rate in all of Parramatta and make their money by booking every room rather than them charging a lot for a few rooms. If at all possible, please give us an indication if you will be booking accommodation at the venue and what sort of room you would like. You do not need to be registered to fill in the survey, we would just like an idea of how many rooms we will need for the weekend. Rest assured we will not hold you to this – it's just an estimate. Your name will only be used to ensure you're not on the spreadsheet twice. You will still need to book your own accommodation." – the organisers
http://ausdwcon.org/
9.4 CABBAGECON 2015
Cabbagecon 3, the third Dutch Discworld Convention, will take place in June of next year. Among the special guests will be Venugopalan Ittekot, Dutch translator of the Discworld novels.
When: 27th and 28th June 2015 Venue: Tulip Inn Hotel Val Monte in Berg en Dal (near Nijmegen) Tickets: Membership of Cabbagecon 3 for the whole weekend is priced at €40,00, with a €5 discount for children, seniors and students. For the Saturday only or the Sunday only, the price is €25,00, with the same discounts as above applying. To book online in advance, go to http://www.dutchdwcon.nl
Apparently Cabbagecon 2 was a great success on the fun front. The organisers say of next year's event, "It will be a happy occasion for fans of Sir Terry Pratchett from the Netherlands and abroad to meet each other again and have fun. We hope to see you too!"
9.5 IDWCON 2015
""Hear ye, hear ye, lads and lasses. We're pleased as punch, and so very proud, to announce that the 4th Irish Discworld Convention will be held from the 2nd to the 5th of October, 2015... We hope to see you all at the Cork International Airport Hotel..."
Confirmed guests so far include Bernard Pearson (the Cunning Artificer himself), Isobel Pearson, TSoD co-author Jack Cohen, folklorist (and Discworld myth-checker) Jacqueline Simpson, and the ever-excellent Colin Smythe.
The new IDWcon webpage is truly gorgeous! Go have a look and a wander, in the meantime, here's an internal memo from Captain Shivers of the A-M City Watch, Irish Precinct:
To: Potential New Recruits
Re: The Theme!
People of Roundworld, we're very pleased to announce that the theme of the Irish Discworld Convention 2015 will be the Watch Open Weekend. Watch this space for further details! If you would like to know more about the Convention, please see our FAQ page. And if you would like to know more about what happened last time, please see the Previous Conventions section. If you have ideas for events you'd like to run, or see us run at the convention, please email: programme@idwcon.org. If you have any other questions, feel free to email us on: info@idwcon.org.
http://idwcon.org/
https://twitter.com/IDWCon
https://www.facebook.com/groups/idwcon/
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10) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
The Broken Drummers, "London's Premier Unofficially Official Discworld Group", meets on the first Monday of every month at the Monkey Puzzle, 30 Southwick Street, London W2 1JQ: "We welcome anyone and everyone who enjoys Sir Terry's works, or quite likes them or wants to find out more. We have had many visitors from overseas who have enjoyed themselves and made new friends. The discussions do not only concern the works of Sir Terry Pratchett but wander and meander through other genres and authors and also leaping to TV and Film production. We also find time for a quiz. The prize is superb. The chance to set the quiz the following month."
Next meeting: Monday 7th July 2014, from 7pm onwards.
The Drummers' most recent meet report:
"We did indeed meet on Monday 2nd. Apologies for the late report. We've just moved and only got the phone line sorted out yesterday meaning we've had to survive without a home internet connection for a few weeks. It has been tough. However the lack of temptation meant that I finally finished writing the Wadfest murder mystery yesterday. I'll send profiles out to those who have signed up. Meanwhile, I'm still looking for another two cast members (three would be even better but not essential). The two remaining characters are the leader of a pressure group that opposes superheroes (this character is a woman) and a parody of Superman (this one has been written as male but could become female if necessary). Anyone interested please buy a ticket to Wadfest and send me your ticket number. Anyway Drummers met this month. I came late as I had another meeting first. I can't remember much now beyond the fact that the Monkey Puzzle made sure I got a meal even though the kitchen was closing as I arrived."
For more information, go to http://brokendrummers.org/ or email BrokenDrummers@gmail.com or nicholls.helen@yahoo.co.uk
*
The Pratchett Partisans are a new fan group who meet monthly at either Brisbane or Indooroopilly to "eat, drink and chat about all things Pratchett". For more info about their next meetup, go to http://www.meetup.com/Pratchett-Partisans/ or contact Ula directly at uwilmott@yahoo.com.au
*
The City of Small Gods is a group for fans in Adelaide and South Australia: "We have regular monthly dinner and games nights, longer games days, plus play outings, craft-y workshops, and fun social activities throughout the year. For more info and to join our mailing list, visit":
http://cityofsmallgods.org.au
*
The Broken Vectis Drummers meet on the first Thursday of every month from 7.30pm at The Castle pub in Newport, Isle of Wight.
Next meeting: Thursday 5th June 2014, probably, but do email to check.
All new members and curious passersby are very welcome! For more info and any queries, contact broken_vectis_drummers@yahoo.co.uk
*
The Wincanton Omnian Temperance Society (WOTS) meets on the first Friday of every month at Wincanton's famous Bear Inn from 7pm onwards. "Visitors and drop-ins are always welcome!"
Next meeting: Friday 4th July 2014 (probably).
*
The Northern Institute of the Ankh-Morpork and District Society of Flatalists, a Pratchett fangroup, has been meeting on a regular basis since 2005 but is now looking to take in some new blood (presumably not in the non-reformed Uberwald manner). The Flatalists normally meet at The Narrowboat Pub in Victoria Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire, to discuss "all things Pratchett" as well as having quizzes and raffles.
Details of future meetings are posted on the Events section of the Discworld Stamps forum:
http://www.discworldstamps.co.uk/forum/
*
Sydney Drummers (formerly Drummers Downunder) meet on the first Monday of every month in Sydney at 3 Wise Monkeys, 555 George Street, Sydney,2000.
Next meeting: Monday 7th July 2014 at 6.30pm (probably). For more information, contact Sue (aka Granny Weatherwax): kenworthys@yahoo.co.uk
*
Perth Drummers meet on the first Monday of the month, subject to holidays.
Next meeting: Monday 7th July 2014 (probably).
"Please note we have moved to Carpe Cafe from 5.30pm Carpe Cafe, 526 Murray Street, Perth, WA. Meeting at a cafe means we are under-18 friendly!"
For details follow Perth Drummers on Twitter @Perth_Drummers and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/Perth.Drummers/ – otherwise message Krystel directly at khewett@live.com
*
Western Drummers (that's two groups for the Sydney Pratchett fans now) meet at The Rowers, Bruce Neal Drive, Penrith at 6.30-7.30pm for food, 7.30pm for games, quizzes and chat.
Next meeting: TBA. The latest meeting took place on 24th June.
For more information, contact Nanny Ogg – lewis_oz@bigpond.com – or visit their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/westerndrummers
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11) WORTH AN ACTION REPLAY
From pop-up shops and restaurants to pop-up book benches – Paul Kidby is among the illustrators who will be making London a more magical place to read:
"Bloomsbury is set to play host to a range of literary classics, from Peter Pan to The Wind in the Willows, as a series of painted 'BookBenches' will soon pop up all over town. The benches will feature images from novels dating back to the 19th century, including Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, right through to modern favourites such as How to Train your Dragon by Cressida Cowell. Renowned artists and illustrators will be picking up a paintbrush and bringing some classic characters to life, including Ralph Steadman who famously worked with Hunter S Thompson, will be replicating characters from his 1973 children's classic take on Alice Through the Looking Glass, and Paul Kidby who designed the images in Terry Pratchett's Discworld..."
http://tinyurl.com/lpzukgx
*
RAISING STEAM: IN PAPERBACK
Lynsey from Transworld says: "Raising Steam in paperback has a whole new cover look! Coming your way in the UK on 9th October 2014!"
http://bit.ly/raisingsteam
And the new cover image: http://tinyurl.com/nv8zvjw
*
My Independent Bookshop site itself:
"There's nothing more magical than a bookshop. A bookshop is more than just a shop – it's a gateway to brand new worlds. It lets you visit places you'd never normally go, live lives you'd never normally live and feel things you'd never normally feel. And now you can create your own virtual bookshop, discover new books and be inspired... There's no end to our rewards. With My Independent Bookshop, you'll get the first word on the latest giveaways, competitions and exclusives from some of the best authors around... We love bookshops, and we know you do too. That's why we've teamed up with hive, to ensure that for every book you buy, a percentage of the sale is shared with a local, independent bookshop."
How to make your own virtual bookshop:
http://www.myindependentbookshop.co.uk/register
http://www.myindependentbookshop.co.uk/
http://www.myindependentbookshop.co.uk/TerryPratchett
*
A BEAUTIFUL, CROWDFUNDED MARC SIMONETTI ART BOOK
You may recall French illustrator Marc Simonetti's stunning art for the cover of Turtle Recall. Now he is offering the world his first collection in book form, titled "Coverama". With 63 days left on his crowdfunding page, "Coverama" has already surpassed its goal total of $10,000, but that's no reason to stop supporting it. Discworld fans dug deep for Snowgum's "Troll Bridge" crowdfund appeal, and we all know how successful that drive was!
Crowdfunding for "Coverama" ends on 15th July 2014...
www.itsartmag.com/features/projects/coverama-by-marc-simonetti/
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12) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
FOUND AT LAST! Photo of Sir Pterry dressed as Just William for the Oxford Story Museum:
http://tinyurl.com/k5vdv86
The Long Mars cover facsimile:
http://tinyurl.com/kzj7c42
Another great shot of Archchancellor, that is, Vice Chancellor David Lloyd giving Sir Pterry his honorary degree from the University of South Australia:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BopWpJcCYAEZGN8.jpg
The Lifeline Theatre's excellent-looking cast of Monstrous Regiment:
http://tinyurl.com/kxwdhma
YES YES PLEASE WE WANT THIS NOW!!!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqKXDLrCMAAsyvr.jpg
Nice ink:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bpsa8rPIUAEjyBd.jpg
...and finally, a photo of the cast of TAMAHER: the Musical, as performed by the ACT Youth Theatre this week in Carlisle and Penrith:
http://tinyurl.com/kcx7u67
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13) CLOSE
A few bits to finish with...
Fourecksian fans of Pratchett – and all manner of fantasy, science fiction, crime and the rest – might want to make a trek to Canberra's Gaslight Books in the coming weeks:
"Gayle Lovett, who opened Gaslight Books in 1989, said she was closing up shop after 25 years. The bookshop – which has operated from the same spot in Fyshwick since it opened in 1989, aside from its six years in Woden – has specialised in crime, mystery, science fiction, fantasy and horror. It has hosted many talks and signings by Australian and international genre writers including Terry Pratchett, Ian Rankin, Peter Corris, Ed McBain and Kerry Greenwood. 'Terry Pratchett was so popular we had people out the door waiting in the queue,' she said of the British creator of the Discworld series. 'He was a delightful man to talk to.'... For the month of June all stock – new and secondhand – will be 25 per cent off with further discounts in July. No more books will be bought, no more newsletters will be sent out and current gift vouchers and valid credit notes should be used by June 28. The store will close on August 2... Although she had not worked out all the details, Lovett said she intended to maintain an online presence selling first editions, signed books and collectable paperbacks and magazines... She said she had more than 8000 books in stock, most of them secondhand. So perhaps the only mystery now is: how many will she be able to sell before the shop closes?
"Gaslight Books is at 10/83 Wollongong Street, Fyshwick. Opening hours are Thursday-Friday 10am to 5.30pm and Saturday 10am to 3pm. Website: gaslightbooks.com.au"
http://tinyurl.com/nlm2ml3
*
Magdalena Schamberger, of the charity Hearts & Minds, suggests five ways to engage with a relative or friend with advanced dementia:
"1. Take time and just be: be in the moment, make gentle eye contact and allow for silence, stillness and breathing together. Spend time with no pressure, no agenda, no tasks (such as dressing, clothing or feeding), no judgment and no expectations. Allow the person to be who they are now.
"2. Don't ask questions: questions can be distressing at the best of times and can put pressure on people. But repetition can be good. As a way of creating a connection, repeat the name of your relative or friend gently to a well-known melody or song that they love. They can feel and may realise that you mean them.
"3. Focus on physical activity and memory: remember physical activities you used to do together, such as baking, gardening, storytelling or DIY. If the person is physically still able, try to do them together. Even though they may not remember these activities later, they may well remember the physical experience and the positive feelings they had when they were doing them.
"4. Be kind, caring and compassionate: physical contact is important. Although people with dementia may seem distant or confused at times, they have emotions and feelings. Hold their hand, give them a hug. Show them compassion and care.
"5. Look at the person, not the illness: remember to laugh, sing and dance together. Get out of the daily routine. Explore fresh things and create shared moments together."
http://tinyurl.com/nllk4ur
And that's the lot for June. Enjoy your summer sunshine – and the residents of XXXX can join me in digging out winter wear, as winter seems to have arrived at last... see you next month!
– Annie Mac
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The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: interact (at) pearwood (dot) info
———————————————————————————————————
Copyright (c) 2014 by Klatchian Foreign Legion
Newsletter of the Klatchian Foreign Legion
June 2014 (Volume 17, Issue 6, post 1)
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INDEX:
01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
02) EDITOR'S LETTER
03) THE LONG EARTH SERIES: NEWS AND REVIEWS
04) ODDS AND SODS
05) REVIEW: DODGER'S GUIDE TO LONDON
06) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
07) REVIEW: THE LONG WAR
08) DISCWORLD ARTS AND CRAFTS NEWS
09) DISCWORLD CONVENTION NEWS
10) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
11) ACTION REPLAYS
12) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
13) CLOSE
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01) QUOTES OF THE MONTH
"I have been blessed with good fortune in my life. I've turned a passion into a profession."
– Terry Pratchett, on accepting his first non-European honorary doctorate
"I'm sorry. I know that I am a small, weak man, but I have amassed a large library; I dream of dangerous places."
– AE Pessimal in Snuff (p. 186, Doubleday hardcover)
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02) LETTER FROM YOUR EDITOR
All my life, I've taken my job seriously. Whether the work was paid (e.g. career) or unpaid (e.g. WOSSNAME), I always applied myself to the best of my ability. That application had much to do with why I did well in my former career, and I've continued doing my best to *do* my best as editor/publisher of the WOSSNAME newsletter even though my physical health is dodgy, my financial situation dodgier, and my mental health generally a Don't Arsk. But although I took on WOSSNAME as a favour to Joe-the-founder and have kept it going with less and less volunteer "staff" since his death a few years ago, my promise to Joe isn't the only reason I carry on here – I do WOSSNAME as a thank-you to Terry Pratchett, the man and the brand, for bringing so much delight and so much satisfaction to my life through his writings and for being one of the most awesome and influential popular philosophers of our time.
When I tell people Terry Pratchett ruined me for almost all other authors' work, I am not only dead serious but am also making that claim on the basis of a vast amount of comparative study: I've read many thousands of books over the decades. No, really. I taught myself to read at an early age, have ever been a fast reader with comprehensive, long-lasting content retention, and truly did spend much of my childhood inhaling every library I could get my eyes on (most of the rest of my time was spent marathoning and nature- watching; I may not have been the world's only child XD runner with a rucksack full of books, but I suspect we're a fairly rare occurrence), so by my early teens I had all the seminal and mid- period science fiction and fantasy "giants", long lists of other genre fiction, forests-worth of big-L Literature and vast mountains of pulp – not to mention far greater amounts of nonfiction – under my reading belt. And unsurprisingly, as the years went on and the list of authors sampled grew, my expectations rose with the height of my Already Read That pile.
And then came Terry Pratchett.
I used to think Wodehouse was the pinnacle of jaunty wit – until Pratchett. I used to think Tom Sharpe was the apex of trenchant social satire – until Pratchett. I even used to think Robert Rankin rather rocked – until Pratchett. And so on. I fell in love with the Discworld series and grew more and more wide-eyed as the power of Pratchett's writing kept on increasing, as he slipped more and more powerful characterisations and observations into the novels without ever losing the weirdly innocent charm of the Discverse itself. And then he wrote Night Watch, and pretty much blew away all the other science fiction writers. And then he wrote Nation, and moved me so with its story – and most of all with its magnificently real characters – that I cried myself sick on my first three readings of it, and yearly re-readings still choke me up something rotten. And then he wrote Dodger, and transported us to the muck and magic of nineteenth-century London in the most rollicking picaresque since Fielding's Tom Jones romped across the public imagination some 250-odd years ago.
Terry Pratchett's ability to draw us a living, breathing character in the space of a sentence or two continues to amaze me. Even the most secondary characters, from long-ago Mended Drum owner Hibiscus Dunelm to minor Agatean bureaucrat Six Beneficent Winds, from "Bill Door"'s fellow farm labourers to the least memorable member of the Silver Horde, from Tawneee the unworldly stripper to "winkle-stall queen" Verity Pushpram, spring instantly into fully realised 3-D on the mental screen. Consider Roland's father, dying Baron of the Chalk: we hardly got to "see" him in the Tiffany Aching books, yet his presence was so vibrant, so *alive* – and his death so filled with light and hope and welcome resolution – that it gutted me. Consider Angua's mother: sketchily drawn yet real enough that we could see in her the sources of so much of Angua's personal anxieties and Wolfgang's over-indulged arrogance. Consider goblin Billy Slick's great-grandmother, the alcohol-soaked but needle-sharp Regret of the Falling Leaf. Consider Brick the foundling troll, overwhelmed by life in the big city, drug-addled and none too bright yet sensitive enough to recognise the subtle distinctions of moral conflict. Consider Mrs Colon, never seen but easily pictured. Or Miss Healstether. Or the Smoking Gnu. Or Kelda Jeannie. Or the rat- catchers in TAMAHER, real enough to smell and far more menacing than any throwaway comedy villains have a right to be. Or... the list goes on and on. Pratchett's greatest strength, and many agree with me on this, lies in his ability to present all those living, breathing, utterly sympathetic characters in a way that feels effortless, straight out of his imagination into our hearts.
And then I read The Long War, and Terry Pratchett's writing brought me to tears again, but this time for a very different reason.
All of the above is my long-winded way of saying that I simply cannot, in conscience, write a truthful review of The Long War because I can't find anything good to say about it, despite having promised last month to include a review in the June issue. I feel awful about this. I feel like some kind of traitor. I feel like I'm biting the hand that's fed my Happy Reading Place for almost thirty years. But I can't squeeze out enough juice to make the proverbial lemonade, because The Long War feels nothing like Terry Pratchett's writing and nothing like a book I'd wish to recommend to friends or strangers. I found it even drier and more lifeless than The Long Earth. I found the characters even more cipher-like, with not the slightest touch of the *aliveness* that pervades all the rest of Pratchett's creations. And no, it's not a matter of different genres, as I suggested in my review of The Long Earth two years ago, nor is it a matter of time and PCA changing the author's style – as far as I'm concerned, Snuff and Raising Steam and all the rest of his recent work still fills my world with shining, sparkling wordcraft.
So I've bowed out of this one, Readers, even though it breaks my heart. I've decided to repost my review of The Long Earth, as just about every criticism I offered in reviewing the first book of the series holds for the second, and have passed reviewing duties for The Long War over to one of WOSSNAME's few remaining staff members (see item 7).
Dear Sir Pterry and Team Pratchett, please don't hate me, 'k? I shall continue to do my best to pay respects to that enormous body of awesome work. The flame still burns!
*
And the flame *does* still burn, in the form of WOSSNAME's review of Jack Dodger's Guide to London. It's a bit of a love letter from the heart, and no lemons required squeezing in its making. See item 5...
*
As an ever greater number of amateur dramatic companies and student drama projects choose to present Discworld plays, the quality of the productions continues to rise. I normally present Discworld plays without concentrating on any particular productions, but I have to say that Australia's "Unseen Theatre" company deserves an extra nod of appreciation for their presentations, and now, to judge by reviews and other reactions, the Lifeline Theatre of Chicago deserves a nod as well for their current staging of Monstrous Regiment. Do be sure to read the reviews for that production and for Unseen Theatre's recent production of Thief of Time, below in section 6!
And speaking of Unseen Theatre, auditions are continuing for their forthcoming production of The Last Continent. Many roles were filled during yesterday's auditions, but not all of them. Director Pamela Munt writes, "Unfortunately we didn't quite fill all of the roles that we have for "The Last Continent" at auditions today. So we will be holding a second round of auditions next Sunday 7th July. We do have enough females. We are now just looking for a couple more males. If you would like to audition please contact Pamela by email at pamela@unseen.com.au This time you will need to make a specific appointment for your audition."
If you're an aspiring Fourecksian luvvy, and want more details, go to:
http://www.unseen.com.au/shows/auditions-round-2-sunday-july-7
*
This seems a good time to remind everyone that the gorgeous Gollancz Discworld Collector's Edition reissues of earlier Discworld novels are almost all, erm, reissued! Still to come in July are the rest of the Lancre Witches books (Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade), and in August, the reissues finish with The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic. These smaller-format hardcovers are still priced at £9.99 each, and so worth it – I don't know about you, but my own early Discworld paperbacks are now several steps beyond dog-eared, foxed, badgered, wolved and Things from the Dungeon Dimensions-battered. As these reissues remain unavailable for purchase in USA/Canada due to the frustrating niceties of the publishing industry, but there's always that handy internet whatchmajig that might prove helpful... according to the official Gollancz blog, "Many of you are asking whether the series will continue after Jingo. The short answer is: we don’t know. The slightly longer answer is that we do not control rights in any of the Discworld books after Jingo; they are published by Transworld. At the moment, we know of no firm plans on their part to continue the Collector’s Library, but if that changes we’ll certainly note it on the Gollancz blog."
For a full list of the published and about to be published reissues, go to:
http://tinyurl.com/n7zvr6k
And now it's on with the show...
– Annie Mac, Editor
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03) THE LONG EARTH SERIES: NEWS AND REVIEWS
3.1 THE LONG MARS: THE BLURB
"2040-2045: In the years after the cataclysmic Yellowstone eruption there is massive economic dislocation as populations flee Datum Earth to myriad Long Earth worlds. Sally, Joshua, and Lobsang are all involved in this perilous work when, out of the blue, Sally is contacted by her long-vanished father and inventor of the original Stepper device, Willis Linsay. He tells her he is planning a fantastic voyage across the Long Mars and wants her to accompany him. But Sally soon learns that Willis has ulterior motives ...
"Meanwhile U. S. Navy Commander Maggie Kauffman has embarked on an incredible journey of her own, leading an expedition to the outer limits of the far Long Earth.
"For Joshua, the crisis he faces is much closer to home. He becomes embroiled in the plight of the Next: the super-bright post-humans who are beginning to emerge from their 'long childhood' in the community called Happy Landings, located deep in the Long Earth. Ignorance and fear are causing 'normal' human society to turn against the Next - and a dramatic showdown seems inevitable
The Long Mars has been released this week in the UK. The hardcover version is priced at £9.00 on amazon.co.uk:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/The-Long-Mars-Earth/dp/0857521748
...or at £12.99 via the far less morally grey Waterstones:
http://terrypratchett.co.uk/index.php/books/the-long-mars
3.2 THE LONG WAR: OUT NOW IN PAPERBACK
"A generation after the events of The Long Earth, mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth ? but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind ...
"A new 'America', called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth ? and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government...
"Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity?s thoughtless exploitation...
"Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has waged before."
For more information, and to order:
http://terrypratchett.co.uk/index.php/books/the-long-war
3.3 THE LONG MARS: REVIEW
By Beth Wyatt on London 24:
"The Long Mars, the third in a bestselling series by fantasy genius Terry Pratchett and science fiction star Stephen Baxter, follows the subsequent years through a variety of narrative threads. US Navy commander Maggie Kauffman leads her crew along the Long Earth on two airships, in an attempt to surpass the Chinese record set five years previously of 20 million 'stepwise' Earths. An expedition is also to be had for Sally Linsay, who is contacted out of the blue by her father Willis, the inventor of the original Stepper device, with a tantalising offer to go where none have dared dream of – the Long Mars. But will they find anything worth discovering? And what are Willis' motives? Meanwhile, Joshua Valiente is alerted to the existence of a new civilisation of super-smart humans and becomes pulled into the resulting conflict. Each of the threads, which eventually begin to pull together at the end of the novel, are equally as gripping. The discoveries made on the expeditions are jaw-dropping and, as you would expect from a science fiction novel, are intelligently explained rather than just shoehorned in... Pratchett's trademark playful wit combines with Baxter's science fiction expertise later on with creatures such as a dog-human species, a murderous crustacean and a flying reptile. Not many other writers could introduce such wacky creations and make them believable... With a collaborative novel, there is a worry that the tale may not flow, but Pratchett and Baxter's voices blend seamlessly..."
http://tinyurl.com/ofm7qz2
3.4 STEPHEN BAXTER ON THE COLLABORATIVE PROCESS
Stephen Baxter discusses his collaboration with Sir Pterry on the Long Earth books:
"It quickly emerged that we had quite different writing styles. The Long Earth (as it became) is a kind of extended landscape which you could map, and as the series went on it evolved a history spanning decades, so from the beginning I showed up with sketch maps and timelines, all subject to revision but settings for the stories we would tell. This was 'hard SF' after all, SF of the kind I'd always written, where you stick to the laws of physics (given the odd tweak such as the existence of the parallel worlds in the first place) and you convince the reader through internal consistency. Whereas Terry likes to find his way into a story by following the people: give him two characters sitting in a room and the story will come, he says. As it's worked out, the tensions between the two methods have basically been constructive... I remember a moment when it came together. We sat before his voice-recognition computer system and worked through a revision of Terry's early material, as our Daniel Boone-like hero Joshua Valiente is summoned to the presence of the mysterious artificial intelligence Lobsang for the first time. Terry veered off unexpectedly into a flashback to Joshua's past, when he was a troubled thirteen-year-old on 'Step Day', the day when the Long Earth suddenly opened up for mankind. Terry likes to drill down into the heads of his characters; I think young Joshua had something in common with Tiffany Aching. We had Joshua saving other, less capable kids who got lost in the forests of the parallel worlds – and then I took over, thinking of my world mappings, and had Joshua go off alone deeper into the Long Earth... I think we became confident that this had worked; we had put Terry's characterisation, humour and wisdom together with my sense of the hard-SF structure necessary for establishing the universe of the Long Earth..."
http://www.terrypratchett.co.uk/?p=5098
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04) ODDS AND SODS
4.1 REPEAT: FOURECKS HONOURS SIR PTERRY
Nice coverage of that newest honorary degree:
"UniSA Vice Chancellor Professor David Lloyd, who presented the award to him in the United Kingdom, says Terry Pratchett is a clear example of someone who has stayed true to his passion. 'Terry brings his immeasurable talent and intellect to doing what he loves – he has produced an enormous body of work that continues to delight and inspire millions of readers and writers around the world,' Prof Lloyd says. 'His contribution not only to literature, but also to the causes about which he is passionate, is enormous and has been rightly acknowledged in literary prizes, through sales and in awards such as this one.' Prof Lloyd says the University is delighted that Terry has accepted the title of Honorary Doctor, his first award of this type from outside the UK and Ireland. 'This brings Terry into the UniSA community in a more personal way and brings our students and the wider University closer to the life of a great writer and a great man,' Prof Lloyd says..."
http://w3.unisa.edu.au/unisanews/2014/June/story3.asp
4.2 REVIEW: THE FOLKLORE OF DISCWORLD
Reviewed by Kate Padilla on Authorlink:
"What a treat for a book reviewer to receive a book in a genre not normally sought and embark on a literary journey. English author Terry Pratchett, who created the Discworld Series (40 volumes with sales up to 85 million copies) has just released, 'The Folklore of Discworld,' co-written with British folklorist Jacqueline Simpson. It is a detailed reference book of legends, myths and customs from 'planet earth' that Pratchett links to his fantasy world... The sensational core of the series are characters who live on Discworld — dwarfs, witches, vampires, gods and other creatures... I discovered Discworld can lead you along a path of laughter and a trip into a joyful magical mystical world."
http://tinyurl.com/lcnxgse
4.3 BEWARE: HERE BE ELVES!
Does Iceland need to put up Dancers? They certainly have Lancre's gnarly ground...
"Plans to build a new road in Iceland ran into trouble recently when campaigners warned that it would disturb elves living in its path. Construction work had to be stopped while a solution was found... Surveys suggest that more than half of Icelanders believe in, or at least entertain the possibility of the existence of, the Huldufolk – the hidden people. Just to be clear, Icelandic elves are not the small, green, pointy-eared variety that help Santa pack the toys at Christmas – they're the same size as you and I, they're just invisible to most of us. Mainly they're a peaceable breed but if you treat them with disrespect, for example by blasting dynamite through their rock houses and churches, they're not reticent about showing their displeasure.
"Iceland's rugged landscape is no bucolic idyll – the very ground boils and spits irrationally, the surrounding craggy, black mountains fester menacingly and above, the sky is constantly herniated by the iron-grey clouds it strains to hold up. It's a visceral, raw and brutal beauty which makes Heathcliff's Wuthering Heights look like a prissy, pastoral watercolour. "You can't live in this landscape and not believe in a force greater than you," explains Professor of Folklore Adalheidur Gudmundsdottir..."
http://www.bbc.com/news/magazine-27907358
4.4 INTERVIEW: RHIANNA PRATCHETT
"We spoke briefly about her father, Terry Pratchett. Did having such a famous author as a father influence her at all? 'I'm not sure how much he influenced me to go into writing. He certainly didn't actively encourage it. I guess it was just in the blood.' Indeed, the relationship between Rhianna and her father is much more complex than a literary dynasty: 'I'm immensely proud of what my father has achieved in his career, but I see him as being my dad first and foremost, not 'Terry Pratchett' [the] famous author. He's the man who built me Moomin Valley out of papier-mache, taught me how to milk goats and who took me out of bed in the middle of the night to see glow worms and Halley's comet...'"
http://tinyurl.com/kjld9ma
4.5 LEARNING: LANGUAGES AS A HEDGE AGAINST DEMENTIA
A University of Edinburgh study has shown that learning a second language, even in late adulthood, might delay the onset of dementia by several years:
"The findings indicate that those who spoke two or more languages had significantly better cognitive abilities compared to what would have been expected from their baseline test. The strongest effects were seen in general intelligence and reading. The effects were present in those who learned their second language early, as well as later in life."
So... hands up, all you over-40s who want to learn how to speak fluent Nac Mac Feegle!
If you wish to read the full article, it's here: http://www.bbc.com/news/health-27634990
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05) REVIEW: DODGER'S GUIDE TO LONDON
By Annie Mac
I'm not sure what astonished me more about Jack Dodger's Guide to London – the realisation that I never got around to posting a review of it in WOSSNAME, or the discovery that hardly anyone else out in the wider world appears to have reviewed it. Oh, woe! And waily waily! And I can't be having with this! So...
As we sit in our comfortable homes with all the "mod cons" we take for granted now – well-caulked roofs, good insulation, hot and cold running water, mains gas and electricity, working flush toilets – and our easy access to effective medical treatment, fresh food and clean clothing (and let's not forget the vital work of the refuse collectors, street-sweepers and all the other municipal toilers who make even relatively low-income neighbourhoods far more salubrious places to be in than anywhere anyone but the richest, most powerful people could manage two centuries ago), it can be hard to imagine just how dirty and dangerous London life was in the days of Dodger and his contemporaries. Jack Dodger's Guide to London, filled with historical facts, legends and anecdotes and enlivened by frequent quotes from Sir Jack Dodger himself (based, it says on the cover, on his "original notes"), goes a long and entertaining way towards showing the differences between then and now. The book's 138 pages and twenty-four chapterlets cover many areas of everyday life amongst the high and low of Victorian London: coin of the realm, street vernacular, the Ragged Schools, the Royal Family, underwear and outerwear; details of shopping and housekeeping, crime and the law, and what it was like to live in the slums; transport, public works, entertainments of the time; and various other aspects of Victorian London – including of course the lives of sailors, Seamstresses, dock-workers... and toshers. Special highlights for me were extracts from the actual works of the real Henry Mayhew, and reprints of news items of the time (none of them, sadly, written by Charlie Dickens).
Apart from its oodles of info, Dodger's Guide is a visually delightful piece of art in its own right, styled to match the previous entry in the series that now includes Where's My Cow? and The World of Poo. From the old-fashioned, gilt-decorated matte covers and equally old-fashioned-looking (and Greenpeace approved) renewably sourced paper to the new illustrations by Paul Kidby plus a wealth of reproduced 19th century images and beautifully varied layouts and fonts – as it says at the front of the book, "Considered trifles courtesy of The Discworld Emporium, Wincanton, Somerset... Text design by Lizzy Laczynska... Picture research by Liane Payne" – the book is worth owning for its aesthetic qualities alone, never mind the fun and cheerful faux-Victorian stylings of its content.
The penultimate and final pages of Jack Dodger's Guide to London offer a bibliography and list of internet sources for those of you who might like to take your 19th-century London researches further. I would also recommend some books I own and websites I visit, that provide contemporary-to-us sources of London images and information that fit in nicely with the theme of Dodger's Guide – particularly Geoffrey Fletcher's exquisite short book The London Nobody Knows, which was first published at the end of the 1950s and gives a very good picture, via Fletcher's descriptions and sketches of the remnants of Victorian and Edwardian London, of what life was like in times closer to Dodger's era; Paul Talling's Lost Rivers of London (Talling also runs the excellent if heart-rending, at least to us former London residents, website Derelict London); the website http ://the-east-end.co.uk/and its Twitter account, @The_East_End; and Catharine Arnold's very engaging factual histories of London, including "Necropolis (London and its Dead)", "City of Sin (London and its Vice)", and "Bedlam (London and its Mad)". Another related group of interest is the Ragged Victorians, a sort of social-history Peeled Nuts who assemble in costume, "Using original resources, and the works of Henry Mayhew and Charles Dickens..." to "achieve the most authentic impression, of what life was like in the 1840/50s"; their website can be found at http://www.raggedvictorians.co.uk/
Jack Dodger's Guide to London is a Small but Perfectly Formed(TM) gem of the first water. It shines like golden sovereigns embedded in a tosheroon. If you haven't read and collected it yet, I suggest you do so without delay!
*
Here be a review of Dodger's Guide on SFF World, by Mark Yon:
http://tinyurl.com/kww4hjm
...and one at concatenation.org by Peter Tyers:
http://www.concatenation.org/frev/pratchett_dodger_guide.html
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06) DISCWORLD PLAYS NEWS
6.1 NEW: "THE LAST CONTINENT"...ON THE LAST CONTINENT!
"Our next play, (by popular vote) will be a return to "The Last Continent" which was a world premiere for us back in 2009... It's actually quite appropriate as it turns out that we are doing a play about Ecks, Ecks, Ecks because Terry has been awarded an honorary doctorate from UniSA."
When: 19th September through 4th October 2014
Venue: The Bakehouse Theatre, 255 Angas Street, Adelaide, South Australia 5000
Time: TBA
Tickets: Pricing TBA
http://www.unseen.com.au/
6.2 REVIEWS: THIEF OF TIME IN ADELAIDE
More reviews of Unseen Theatre's latest production...
By Benjamin Orchard for Adelaide Theatre Guide:
"Pamela Munt, in adapting the novel for the stage, provides newbies like myself with just enough world-building exposition to get by… but only just. I found the first ten minutes or so of this play to be a bit of a jumble, and I would have appreciated a somewhat more detailed explanation as to the intricacies of this world. Fortunately, once the main plot kicks into gear, the play becomes somewhat easier to follow and Munt's script captures Pratchett's greatest strength as a writer, namely his gift for dialogue that is at once gleefully absurd and bitingly witty. This sublime wordplay is buoyed by an impassioned cast, ensuring that many scenes are hilariously entertaining to watch, even if they don't completely make sense and serve no purpose in driving the narrative forward.
"The talented ensemble assumes multiple roles, Monty Python style, with chameleonic finesse, but a few performances stand out more than others. Leighton James is endearingly adorkable as both the naive clockmaker, Jeremy, who is unwittingly recruited by malevolent otherworldly beings to construct a doomsday device and as novice monk, Lobsang, who is entrusted with the daunting quest of preventing the apocalypse. Philip Lineton has laconic charm to spare as Lobsang's aging mentor, Lu-Tze, whose sage wisdom is often filtered through bizarre 'Karate Kid' style housework metaphors. Hugh O'Connor is surprisingly amiable as Death, and together with the other Four Horsemen (Lewis Baker, Tony Cockington, Daniel McInnes, Samuel Creighton) generate an off-kilter chemistry reminiscent of an over-the-hill rock band on a reunion tour. Amelia Lorien is deliciously snarky as Death's granddaughter, Susan, and the filmed narration by Melanie Lyons is a hoot, her relaxed, casual tone adding an extra layer of humour to many life or death situations in the story..."
http://tinyurl.com/pamhylz
By Peter Bleby on aussietheatre.com.au:
"Pamela Munt and The Unseen Theatre Company are to be commended on even attempting to bring this world premiere to the stage. It is not their first either, but this 26th novel in the Discworld series is a particularly difficult one, perhaps especially if you have not read several of its predecessors. Pratchett's writing, though very popular, is not necessarily everybody's cup of what-you-will. But there is always genuine humour, serious inquiry, and crazy fantasy, and these elements are well portrayed in this adaptation... Naturally, this play is surreal, disjointed, quirky and full of non–sequiturs, which must have made learning the lines a bigger challenge, which this cast has mastered well..."
http://tinyurl.com/qctb5jc
By Stephen Davenport for Indaily:
"As usual, the production combines all the best elements of the company to produce a satisfyingly paced piece that ranks among Pamela Munt's, and her players', best episodes. It is an enjoyable romp. Discworld fans – and many round-world patrons – will find it an absolute treat. This is an impressive play with a good deal of aptitude in the troupe; and each performer is truly striking. It's surprising what substance in presentation can do to bring complex plots, entire continents, and even the whole of space and time, to life. Of course, the play is a quest with comical heroes, sagacity, and satire, but this time, it comes with an unusual philosophical outlook, that fortunately doesn't detract from the hilarity. Much of the success is due to the hearty direction by Munt who's adaptation gives the piece a suitable depth and yet doesn't ignore the essence of Pratchett's humour. She delivers a fairy-tale for adults, utilising the author's astonishing work of imagination to yield fastidious absurdity and soul in every particular, impeccably produced scene..."
http://www.unseen.com.au/shows/thief-time/reviews/thief-time-0
6.3 REVIEWS: MONSTROUS REGIMENT IN CHICAGO
Rave reviews – quite savvy ones as well!
Kelsey Jorissen in the Chicago Reader:
"Hainsworth has done a fine job of translating Pratchett's amiable cynicism into sharp theatrical language. His adaptation is witty on its own account and only slightly overlong at two and a half hours. But it's Theis's ensemble that bring even the undead to vivid, entertaining life. Starting out jet-set smooth and uber-vampire confident, Michaela Petro suffers amusingly when severe caffeine deprivation brings Maladict this close to breaking his blood- temperance oath. Justine Turner acts her way through thick layers of gray foam costuming to create a droll troll. And Katie McLean Hainsworth steals a whole slew of scenes as Igor the, uh, Igor. Robert Kauzlaric builds an engagingly clueless lieutenant out of air quotes, while Christopher M. Walsh supplies unexpected nuance and a large measure of heart as the squad's tough, genial NCO. Sarah Price's Polly is as plucky as she needs to be — and yet her main virtue isn't heroism or even likability, but the way she invites us into her adventure..."
http://tinyurl.com/nwtpcl4
By Barbara Vitello in the Chicago Daily Herald:
"Taking its title from John Knox's 16th-century tirade against female sovereigns ('The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women'), in which he argues gender makes women unsuitable leaders, the play satirizes gender roles. It also serves as a caustic rebuke of war, blind patriotism and persistent stupidity – all of which make this 'Regiment' resonant... Facing defeat and with their ranks depleted, army recruiters seek out young soldiers willing to enlist in Borogravia's latest struggle against neighboring Zlobenia. Among them is Polly Perks (Sarah Price, a winningly winsome waif), who cuts her hair, dons a pair of breeches, changes her name to Oliver and joins the army to find her wayward brother (also a recruit) and bring him home. She's assigned to a ragtag regiment, whose recruits are as green as she is. Among them is aristocratic vampire Maladict (Michaela Petro, all refined menace), who swore off blood in favor of coffee; Igor (great work from Katie McLean Hainsworth), a hunchback medic with a talent for stitching together bodies; and the slightly dim troll Carborundum (the affable, amusing Justine C. Turner), who enlists under the army's 'don't ask, don't tell' policy. This motley band of "brothers" includes Melissa Engle's pious Wazzer, a Joan of Arc-like character who hears the voice of Borogravia's revered Duchess... Rounding out the regiment dubbed monstrous is the self-contained Lofty (Mandy Walsh) and the defiant Tonker (passionately played by Kim Boler), who expresses in simple terms the frustration of the powerless... Leading the untrained, poorly outfitted regiment is the gruff, battle-hardened, unfailingly decent Sgt. Jackrum, played with equal parts compassion and ruthlessness by Christopher M. Walsh. Walsh brings real pathos. Also on hand is Jackrum's weaselly corporal Strappi (John Ferrick) and their commanding officer, the dapper, befuddled Lt. Blouse (the hilarious Robert Kauzlaric), a dandy eager for glory... At two and a half hours including intermission, the play is overly long and needs trimming. But that's a minor point in what is a major delight from a company renowned for its page-to-stage translations..."
https://www.dailyherald.com/article/20140612/entlife/140619664/
By Kerry Reid in the Chicago Tribune:
"I've yet to get my literary passport stamped for Terry Pratchett's "Discworld." But after seeing Lifeline Theatre's marvelous production of "Monstrous Regiment," the 31st novel in Pratchett's hugely popular series about life on a flat planet whose inhabitants' foibles are suspiciously similar to our own, I'm ready to book passage on the S.S. Pratchett... As I've not read the source novel, I can't vouch for how much adapter Chris Hainsworth had to leave on the cutting-room floor, but from reading online summaries, my guess is 'a lot.' My judgment is that it doesn't matter. As a Pratchett newbie, I had no problem entering into this topsy-turvy world for two-plus hours and following the ins and outs of its backstory... The best thing about Hainsworth's script and director Kevin Theis' crackerjack staging is that it manages to fully inhabit the realm of the ridiculous while tipping its hat to Pratchett's essentially humanist/feminist concerns. Somehow, as Iraq falls into even greater sectarian violence, a play rife with grotesque absurdity (soldiers dining on horsemeat and clothed in the blood-soaked uniforms of dead comrades) about a never-ending war waged on behalf of the probably- dead duchess of the aforementioned Borogravia seems wholly apropos... The anti-war and anti-violence sentiments in the script, updated by Hainsworth with references to 'shock and awe' and 'don't ask, don't tell,' are handled with offhanded aplomb that keep them from feeling like cheap sloganeering... If there has been a more accomplished comedic ensemble on a Chicago stage this year, I've not seen it..."
http://tinyurl.com/lzmfbut
By Mary Shen Barnidge for the Windy City Media Group:
"Those familiar with the literary career of Terry Pratchett (who commands his own yearly international conference in the UK) know to expect sly social commentary in the guise of a mock-epic fantasy structured with the slapdash glee of a Dungeons and Dragons tournament. For those encountering the exhaustive Discworld series for the first time (like me), Chris Hainsworth's adaptation deftly avoids becoming bogged down in arcane backstories from previous volumes to locate us firmly in the present, the Balkanesque conflicts providing a canvas for discussion of war's eternal stupidity. This is no windy allegorical polemic, however. Under Kevin Theis' direction, this motley band of, uh, brothers emerges as a gang of live-action cartoons, with smart, slapstick antics always grounded in individual personalities... The wordplay likewise brims with the delight of an author who obviously loves his language, replete with puns and allusions inserted so unobtrusively as to register without stopping the flow of the action, as well as a dry humor ('I've starved before,' Sgt. Jackrum warns his troops, 'There's no future in it') refreshingly devoid of the juvenile snark too often infecting sword-and-sorcery satire. The swift physical pace would mean nothing without verbal agility as well, but Lifeline's dream-team ensemble never misses a step..."
http://tinyurl.com/kuzo2g4
Also, a piece about the genesis of the production, by Myrna Petlicki for Sun-Times Media:
"Kevin Theis had never heard of Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels when Lifeline Theatre asked him to direct 'Monstrous Regiment.' 'I only became a fan of the series as a result of working on this play,' the Oak Park resident said. Theis read the source novel and one other book in the series and was drawn to the author's humor. 'He's a really, really funny writer,' Theis said. 'The world he's created is so freeing to an author. He basically says there are no rules. In Discworld if you believe in something strong enough, it comes true... Chris Hainsworth, who did the adaptation, is a big fan,' Theis noted. 'He has read all the Discworld books and is a repository of all Discworld knowledge...' Theis believes that this satire on war is especially relevant to our situation in America. 'We're about to come to the end of our longest war in history,' he said of the combat in Afghanistan. 'And the idea that we must stop this war is a huge theme of 'Monstrous Regiment.' Satire is an important element in the books of Discworld and there's lots of humor in this play but Theis insists that the show goes deeper than that..."
http://tinyurl.com/pt9j38l
6.4 MONSTROUS REGIMENT IN CHICAGO: EXTENDED SEASON
The Monstrous Regiment production has created such a sensation that its season is being extended into August due to demand! Read all about it in Broadway World:
"To accommodate extraordinary ticket demand, Lifeline Theatre announces ten added performances of its Jeff Recommended, critically-acclaimed world premiere adaptation of Terry Pratchett's Monstrous Regiment, by ensemble member Chris Hainsworth, directed by Kevin Theis (two-time Non-Equity Jeff Award nominee)... Monstrous Regiment now runs through August 3 at Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N. Glenwood Ave. (free parking and shuttle; see below). Performance times are Thursdays and Fridays at 7:30 p.m., Saturdays at 4 and 8 p.m., and Sundays at 4 p.m. Note: there is no performance on Friday, July 4."
http://tinyurl.com/nefve5c
When: now, and up until 20th July 2014
Venue: Lifeline Theatre, 6912 N Glenwood Ave, Chicago, IL, 60626 Telephone 773-761-4477
Time: evenings at 7.30pm on Thursdays and Fridays and at 8pm on Saturdays; matinees at 4pm on Saturdays and Sundays. The production runs two and a half hours with one intermission. The book will be on sale in the lobby.
Tickets: $40 for regular single tickets, $30 for seniors, $20 for students (with I.D.), and $20 for rush tickets (available half hour before show time, subject to availability). Group rate for 12 or more is available upon request. Tickets may be purchased at the Lifeline Theatre Box Office, 773.761.4477, or by visiting www.lifelinetheatre.com
6.5 REVIEW: MORT IN CHESHAM
A review of Mort at The Little Theatre by the Park, Chesham, by Rita Carpenter for the Bucks Free Press (Sir Pterry's old workplace):
"With a great many fairy tale characters, some superb costumes and strong performances the play went along at a cracking pace. Produced by Katherine Coburn and directed by Jonathan Coburn the group is very family orientated and this was evident by how many family members were taking part. The lighting and sound effects were superb and with 26 scenes it was amazing how well everything flowed. With a minimalistic set the scenes were depicted by clever lighting and props which appeared and disappeared swiftly adding to the magic of the production. There were not many youngsters in the audience indeed there were more on stage and I would have liked to have seen more but the ones I spoke to during the interval all agreed that they were really enjoying the play..."
http://tinyurl.com/od3hu6l
6.6 REVIEW: WITCHES ABROAD IN BIRMINGHAM
Last month's Jadis Shadows production of Wyrd Sisters at Old Joint Stock, Birmingham, reviewed by Selwyn Knight on The Public Reviews:
"As with many of Pratchett's stories, themes from this world are skilfully placed into the Discworld to provide entertainment and comic effect. In The Wyrd Sisters, there are several Shakespearian themes, most noticeably from King Lear, Hamlet and Macbeth, though Pratchett superbly debunks the witches' scenes as the older, more experienced witches play down any need for melodrama when invoking magic... This is quite a wide ranging story and there are some potentially questionable directorial decisions: it's made clear that all female characters in the travelling players' troupe are traditionally played by men, but it's not obvious what the director hoped to achieve by casting a male duchess alongside female witches. The set is also very busy with unused items littering the back wall, some of which only make a single appearance, but remain in vision throughout. Indeed, the scene changes lack fluidity, and, unless it is mentioned in conversation, it is rarely obvious in which location we find ourselves. This lack of fluidity is a factor in the show's main weakness – it is simply too long... The finest performances come from the three witches, with Granny Weatherwax maintaining her sardonic demeanour exceptionally well throughout, Nanny Ogg giving every indication of enjoying the drunken life of loose morals and Magrat remaining idealistic and naive, even as she and the Fool take their first tentative steps towards romance. Indeed, the Fool is a lynchpin of the whole piece and clearly rather more intelligent than first meets the eye..."
http://tinyurl.com/kzfnkf3
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07) REVIEWS: THE LONG EARTH, THE LONG WAR
7.1 THE LONG EARTH: THE LONG REVIEW, REPOSTED
By Annie Mac
A few weeks ago, I went to see The Avengers, the Joss Whedon- scripted and directed superhero film. I like superhero films as a rule, I grew up reading and loving Marvel comics, and I have been in awe of Joss Whedon's writing and directing skills for many years now, so my expectations were fairly high. And here's a funny thing: I said, as my friends and I watched the closing credits, "That may well be the definitive superhero movie"; I was sufficiently impressed to go back to see it again (with mostly different companions) two weeks later; I intend to buy the DVD of it and watch it repeatedly over the years... and yet my one-sentence summary of The Avengers was "Joss Whedon is such a genius that he *almost* managed to make a silk purse." – because for all its clever writing, fantastically witty dialogue and exquisite direction, cinematography, editing and special effects, it simply did not touch my heart as completely as the X-Men films have done.
So what has this to do with The Long Earth?
Well. In a brief mention in last month's issue, shortly after my first reading of the book, I described The Long Earth as "a fast, exciting piece of storytelling" containing "fascinating ideas, great imagery, and some very memorable characters". All of that is true, but The Long Earth also is not without its flaws, and those flaws mean that this unquestionably well-crafted and clever novel ultimately failed to lift and fill my heart in the way that Terry Pratchett's other work always does.
Before I go any further, Reader, I'll stop right here and acknowledge that some things I perceived as flaws may not be considered flaws by some of you – read on to the section about characters – but no, it isn't a matter of The Long Earth being in a different genre. There has been much trumpeting here and there along the lines of "Terry Pratchett's writing is taking a new direction: he's doing science fiction now!"; but for many of us, this announcement sounds daft, because we know that Terry Pratchett has been writing – and releasing – some fine, fine science fiction novels and shorter pieces for decades, among them The Dark Side of the Sun and Strata (early-career but promising), the Johnny Maxwell trilogy (especially the first and third books), Night Watch (science fiction plus Literature-quality sociopolitics and psychology, cleverly disguised as a fabulous Discworld novel), and one of my own all-time favourite science fiction short stories, *#ifdef DEBUG + "world/enough" + "time"* (which I rate at least as highly as Robert Heinlein's classic "By His Bootstraps").
Let's be honest: there's no way to critique a new Pratchett novel, in any genre, without comparing it to his extant body of work – or, for that matter, without comparing it to any previous Pratchett collaborations – and by that yardstick The Long Earth doesn't quite measure up to most of the author's previous brilliance. But given what we already know of Terry Pratchett's mighty writing-fu, I cannot help but lay the blame this time at the feet of co-writer Stephen Baxter.
Baxter's strong suit has always been the Big Idea, most notably that of a technological advance that effectively rewrites human society at a fundamental level, and he does it well, but he suffers from the typical science fiction writer's weakness when it comes to putting flesh on the bones of the story. A good example would be The Light of Other Days, another collaborative novel (written, or at least co- created, with Arthur C. Clarke): fabulous ideas set down masterfully but let down somewhat by flat, poorly realised characters. In the case of Baxter and Clarke, you have two bone-dry ideas men with little grasp of how to create living, breathing characters, so this is unsurprising. In the case of Baxter and Pratchett, you have a bone-dry ideas man and a master of character depth, character motivation and sparkling dialogue exchanges – and yet the end result lacks that depth and sparkle that I expect from anything Terry Pratchett has a hand in.
But that doesn't mean this review is a negative one. It really doesn't. So let's start with the general and the positive, shall we? To wit:
The Long Earth is a science fiction novel, very much so, well into the realm of ideas-driven "hard" science fiction, and it delivers the aforementioned fascinating ideas and great imagery. It gives excellent new twists to well-trodden speculative concepts. It also presents what has to be one of the most, if not the most, bizarre accoutrements to interuniversal travel and demonstrates likely social and political changes in a well-thought-out manner. The actual wordcraft is miles above almost all other science fiction (not that we would expect any less here). In short, it does what it says on the tin, and on that level it works very well indeed.
Plot is not a particularly strong point, but this is often the case with ideas-driven fiction. As most of you already know from The Long Earth's long promotional run-up, the story revolves around a homemade device, freely and anonymously released on the internet, that allows its user to "Step" to and from alternate Earths in alternate universes, and the ways this simple technology changes, well, everything. We are shown the chaos, terror and joy of "Step Day", the attempts of various nations' authorities to deal with the opening of this ultimate frontier, the ways in which human nature asserts itself in the same old manner even in the face of the new, and the desolation of those who for unexplained reasons are physically unable to Step. Beyond that, The Long Earth is the story of two entities who set out together on an exploring trip to the furthest reaches of the "High Meggas", a million or more Earths beyond our own "Datum Earth" – Joshua, a hyperintelligent, talented, methodical and rather obnoxious young man who was born under very unusual circumstances, prefers his own company to the extreme, and craves the Silence (no, not what you Doctor Who fans are thinking), and Lobsang, an even more intelligent, talented, methodical and rather obnoxious AI who is legally human (and yes, he has a certificate of sorts to prove it; now where have we read that one before, hmm...) – and whom and what they find along their way.
There is humour, though much of it feels slightly out of place and does not meld as well as it could have with the rest of the "feel" of the narrative. There is drama, though precious little of it. Some guns of the Chekhov variety (Anton, not Pavel, in case you wondered) are drawn but never fired – though in fairness, this is the first of a multi-volume tale, so the reader has no way of knowing whether the unfired guns are an oversight or merely a long-term, teasing set-up for later parts of the story arc. Oh, and the book ends on a cliffhanger. A big cliffhanger. A really big cliffhanger. Argh!
Speaking of guns, there aren't any on the alternate Earths, at least not until settlers construct the necessaries to mine and refine metals. But guns are hardly the only source of danger amongst humans. The Long Earth seemed to have an unrealistic dearth of violence – yes, the idea of having one's own unspoilt and possibly untenanted (by humans, at any rate) planet would charm many, but human nature is illogical at best and "I was here first!" would surely take precedence, with people preferring to fight for *this* or *that* Earth rather than to move along to the next empty planet. There are mentions of crime at first, but not many; instead, we get a "room and privacy solve everything" scenario that rings a bit false for me.
When it comes to fiction reading, I expect – demand! – characters I can take into my heart, or at the very least figuratively invite home for a cuppa, whether they are likable people or not. The Lancre witches, the various Watchpersons and denizens of Ankh-Morpork, Johnny Maxwell and his cohorts, Maurice and the Clan, Mau and Daphne, almost all the characters in Good Omens... I cared about them all. The characters in The Long Earth, on the other hand, *should* have engaged me but never did. Creating characters worth caring about can be done in science fiction. Larry Niven did it, in his Known Space stories and even more so in his tales of the Warlock and decline of magic as a natural resource. Neal Stephenson does it almost all the time. I tried to find a reason to care about any of the characters in The Long Earth, but did not succeed, and this lessened my enjoyment of the story.
On a side note, Pratchett readers are already familiar with the humble potato as an object of power (as seen in The Truth). This time around, having your potato doesn't help you safely reach the next life... or no, wait, it does. The easy to assemble Stepper is strangely personal. Each would-be traveller has to finish assembling their Stepper with their own hands; otherwise the device will not work, unless you are one of the small but measurable number of people who can "Step" without mechanical assistance (again, a teaser that is not resolved in this first volume). Any sort of potato will do, apparently – which to this reviewer's mind is itself a figurative can of worms that could have been addressed or at least mentioned. For instance, does the freshness of the potato count? Does it matter if it's cooked? Is it possible to travel to an alternate Earth with a Stepper powered by, say, a nice hot bag of chips? Did the authors gather around a pub table at some point discussing exactly those questions? Enquiring minds want to know, for after all, science fiction is all about enquiring minds... also, I think we finally know who came up with the weird nuns in Good Omens. That part (weird nuns in The Long Earth) worked, even though we never actually met the most unusual of them.
In summation:
Is The Long Earth a good book? Certainly! Am I looking forward very, very eagerly to the next instalment? Definitely! The Long Earth does disappoint in some crucial areas, but that doesn't change the fact that, when it comes to hard science fiction – or what-if fiction – created in collaboration, The Long Earth is as good as it gets.
Final verdict 1: it's not a Discworld novel, but we already knew that, so don't expect it to be.
Final verdict 2: a very good book that I feel should have been a great one.
Final final verdict: flawed but compelling, and therefore highly recommended.
7.2 REVIEW: THE LONG WAR
By Steven D'Aprano
In "The Long War" (TLW), Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter pick up ten years after the events of "The Long Earth". In that time, many significant changes have taken place, any one of which could have been the major plot of a novel: Datum USA is controlled by a mildly fascist government hostile to the steppers; at least two more intelligent species have been discovered, the humanoid kobolds and the dog-like beagles; the Long Earth colonies have not only established peaceful relations with the trolls, but have become dependent on their labour; Joshua and Lobsang have fallen out, and the protagonist Joshua is married and has a son of school age. I was greatly disappointed that the authors failed to show us any of these events, instead they just told us they had happened, violating one of the most important rules of good fiction: show, don't tell.
I normally don't like to give away significant plot points when reviewing books, but from time to time I come across something so remarkable that, spoiler or not, no responsible reviewer should fail to mention it. In TLW, Pratchett and Baxter set up the possibility of no fewer than three possible wars: Datum USA versus rebellious stepper colonies, Datum Earth extremists versus the steppers, and humankind versus assorted non-humans. And then... nothing. There was no Long War at all, not even a Long Battle, or a Short Police Action. There was a detachment of Marines who took a firm-but-friendly stroll down the main street of one of the colonies to show the flag, but it was over in eight pages without any real sense of tension or jeopardy, and the chapter ends with "the Long War was over". One might have added "without ever starting, or even being noticed".
I cannot help but contrast this unfavourably with Pratchett's "Jingo". When the threatened war between Ankh-Morpork and Klatch is averted at the last minute (but not before a few clashes between the opposing forces), it was because the protagonists struggled hard to avert the war. There was a real and ever increasing sense of tension due to the the near-certainty of war. But in TLW, the threat was nothing more than a mild sense of trouble brewing as the story progressed, just one of many things going on, and barely noticed by the characters. If not for the novel's title, it would have been barely worthy of a mention, just another of the oh-so-many disconnected and minor events taking place.
I find it difficult to believe that an author of Pratchett's stature could have such an inappropriate and misleading title foisted on him against his wishes, so I can only imagine that Pratchett, at least, was happy with it. So what happened to the war? I wasn't expecting this to be a Tom Clancy novel by any means, but neither was I expecting such a blatantly inaccurate title. It was as if I had bought a book titled "Sherlock Holmes In New York", only to discover that Holmes was not in New York and barely appeared in the book at all. Ironically, if I had known that there was no war in The Long War, I might have bought the book much sooner.
I'm a great admirer of Pratchett's writing, so it is disappointing that so little of his style shows in TLW. I don't just mean the lack of comedy – there were attempts to include some Pratchettesque humour in "The Long Earth", such as the magic potato that powers the stepper boxes, but they felt completely out of place and tacked on. So the lack of humour in TLW is actually a positive development. But even more so than the prequel, TLW does not feel like Pratchett writing: the style is bland and unengaging, not terrible by any means – I've read far worse by some demi-gods of the science fiction genre – but it lacks Pratchett's usual wit and sparkle. There's little sense of plot or pacing, and far too much happens off-stage.
One of the things keenly missed is the lack of Pratchett's skills with characterisation. A few manage to feel like decent secondary characters, fleshed out enough that you know they're real people, but not enough to really come to know them well. Perhaps the closest to Pratchett's usual standard is Sally, and what we come to know her as is mostly taciturn.
Joshua Valiente, I think, suffers badly from this lack. He's curiously passive for somebody intended as the protagonist, and even Rincewind the wizard, Pratchett's oldest and least fully-rounded protagonist, feels like more of a person than Joshua. Part of the problem is that we're told how skilful and clever Joshua is, but we aren't shown it. The authors take the time to tell us that he is a skilful hunter, butcher, artificer, blacksmith, smelter and teacher, but none of these are relevant to his role in the book, and we see hardly any sign of his skilfulness and cleverness. We're shown him having to be rescued himself after he goes to the aid of a crashed airship. As is typical for the series so far, the episode is rushed through in a handful of pages. Another time, Joshua comes to the aid of someone being attacked by elves, screws up badly, but nothing of any consequence comes from his mistake. Yet another time, he finds himself in a very similar situation as Sam Vimes in "The Fifth Elephant", being hunted by hostile, intelligent non-humans. Unlike Vimes, who survives by virtue of his grit, determination, skill and intelligence, Joshua survives because the hunters have a sudden, unexpected and unexplained spirit of mercy.
It seems to me that TLW's lack of detailed characterisation is a symptom of a larger problem with the series: there's too much going on, so everything gets short shift. We're briefly told that something is happening, dark hints of a serious problem brewing are dropped, the characters seem barely aware of the danger, and then the climax of the event is rushed through in a few pages. I get the feeling of "Whew, well that's another disaster averted, good job chaps, anyone fancy a cuppa?"
Pratchett's previous career as a newspaper writer has given him the ability to fit the maximum heart and soul of story into the minimum amount of novel, but TLW shows no sign of this tight focus. It's a long, rambling book, with too many side-shows and too little main feature. There are so many things happening that it's hard to care about them, and the story lacks drama or tension. Joshua being hunted was one of the few exceptions, and that was over in five pages. And like its prequel, TLW ends with something which in real life would be of incredible significance, but like the terrorist's nuclear attack on Madison, it feels like yet another side-show, an afterthought, glued on and with no real connection to anything else. It's not a cliffhanger, its an anti-climax.
Some of the perplexing mysteries of "The Long Earth" remain unanswered. Why do stepper boxes fail to work unless assembled by the person who will use it? That sounds like magic, completely out of place in a hard science fiction novel. What is the significance of the potato? Why was a minor character in the first book given the same name [Percy Blakeney – Ed.] as The Scarlet Pimpernel? TLW doesn't answer any of these, or even hint at answers. Perhaps the authors have wisely dropped them as bad ideas to be ignored rather than mysteries to be solved. One can hope.
When all is said and done, TLW isn't an awful novel, but even as an ideas-driven story as opposed to a plot-driven or character-driven one, it fails to engage. It's hard for me to see why I should bother to continue with the series, especially given that the next book is set on Mars. Billions upon billions of Earths, and there's not enough of interest to explore without moving the story to Mars? I feel this does not bode well for the rest of the series.
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08) DISCWORLD ARTS AND CRAFTS NEWS
DISCWORLD EMPORIUM UPDATES
"Greetings Discworld devotees! We've a delightful crop of additions to our bookshelves this week, as new editions from publishers Gollancz and Transworld further expand the Terry Pratchett collection.
"The latest books in the Discworld Collector's library have arrived – Feet of Clay (_http://tinyurl.com/lxyubor_) and Jingo (_http://tinyurl.com/ntvey79_) are the final instalments in the City Watch collection, and have some of our favourite covers yet! ... The next books from the Collector's Library will be Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, and Maskerade – coming to a Discworld Emporium near you on July 3rd!
"The Ankh-Morpork Post Office has colluded with the honourable Guild of Thieves to produce the latest releases from Discworld Stamps. The Thieves' Guild 3p (_http://tinyurl.com/laab9vm_) features a stunning illustration of the famous Guild Hall with its iconic Thieves' Kitchen – a hive of licensed crooks and ne'er do wells. Being an enterprising bunch, the guild have also introduced a surcharge stamp (_http://tinyurl.com/p79rxsz_) that, for a small fee, will protect your letters and parcels from pilfery. Both issues are available to collect as single stamps or as beautiful whole sheets.
"Both new issues are also available in every one of our latest Little Brown envelopes. The Thieves' Guild 'LBE' (_http://tinyurl.com/lzfjyrd_) contains an assortment of current Discworld stamps, plus the chance to find 'sports' and rarities. If you're unlucky enough not to find anything rare then your envelope may well have fallen victim to an opportunistic robber – of course a discerning thief will always leave a receipt, and an array of dockets for all manner of pinched items await the unfortunate!
"The second issue in the Wonders of the World Minisheet Collection has also arrived – the Light Dams of The Great Nef minisheet (_http://tinyurl.com/pl8y8or_) celebrates the 'illuminating' constructions of Goldeneyes Silverhand Dactylos and local tribes in Discworld's dryest desert. Each sheet features six illustrated stamps, and is accompanied by an explanatory post card.
"For more information about the wonderful world of official Discworld Stamps, and to discover how it all began, visit the Discworld Stamps bit of our website where you'll find a beginners guide, glossary and current issues from all over the Disc:
http://www.discworldemporium.com/discworld-stamps
"For all our latest wares and releases have a browse through our New Products page – it's mostly harmless!"
http://tinyurl.com/l8ztg9n
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09) DISCWORLD CONVENTION NEWS
9.1 NADWCON 2015:
http://sasquan.org/
http://www.worldcon.org/
9.2 WADFEST 2014
"This year's theme is heroes and villains. This means you get the chance to dress up as the hero or villain that you have always wanted to be. You can take your inspiration from comics, films and cartoons, or invent a new character for yourself. There will be trophies for the best dressed villain and best dressed hero, so get your sewing machine out and give it a go! If you're no good at sewing and you don't have anyone to help out, you can always hire a costume for the weekend. As well as special themed hero and villain games there will be all your usual Wadfest favourites, including smack the penguin. If it's your first time at Wadfest, why not take a look through the photos of Wadfests past to get an idea of what to expect?
"The X-Men's blackbird? Batman's batmobile? Green Goblin's glider? If you're feeling really adventurous why not turn your vehicle into the kind of transport a hero or villain would have? Perhaps you're more interested in a permanent base like Superman's Fortress of Solitude or He-Man's Castle Greyskull? If so, why not dress your tent up as your lair? There will be a prize for the best one. There are no limits to what you can do with your costumes. Be as inventive as you like or faithfully recreate your favourite character's costume."
When: 15th to 17th August 2014
Venue: Wood Green, The Animal Charity, King's Bush Farm, London Road, Godmanchester, Cambridgeshire, PE29 2NH
Tickets: £25.00 per adult for the weekend including Camping and Events. Children under 16 go free when accompanied by a paying adult. To purchase tickets online, go to http://www.wadfest.co.uk/page2.html
http://www.wadfest.co.uk
9.3 AUSDWCON 2015
Nullus Anxietus V is coming! Some early details:
When: 10th to 12th April 2015
Venue: Novotel, Parramatta, New South Wales, Australia
Tickets: current ticket prices are $80-$140 per Attending Member, $400 per Family, $30 per Supporting Membership. To purchase at these rates, go to http://ausdwcon.org/shop/
"Previous Conventions have had Guilds. For Nullus Anxietas V the Guilds are replaced by the Studios of Holy Wood and Convention members (who choose to join a "guild") will be randomly assigned to one of the five studios for activities. Can't sing? Can't dance? Can handle a sword a little? Then Holy Wood beckons, and the clickies want YOU." – Daniel Hatton, Guildmeister
"The date of the convention is still too far distant for us to start negotiating room rates but we will have the upper hand if we can go into the discussion with an estimate of how many we would likely need. We'd like to convince them to be the cheapest rate in all of Parramatta and make their money by booking every room rather than them charging a lot for a few rooms. If at all possible, please give us an indication if you will be booking accommodation at the venue and what sort of room you would like. You do not need to be registered to fill in the survey, we would just like an idea of how many rooms we will need for the weekend. Rest assured we will not hold you to this – it's just an estimate. Your name will only be used to ensure you're not on the spreadsheet twice. You will still need to book your own accommodation." – the organisers
http://ausdwcon.org/
9.4 CABBAGECON 2015
Cabbagecon 3, the third Dutch Discworld Convention, will take place in June of next year. Among the special guests will be Venugopalan Ittekot, Dutch translator of the Discworld novels.
When: 27th and 28th June 2015 Venue: Tulip Inn Hotel Val Monte in Berg en Dal (near Nijmegen) Tickets: Membership of Cabbagecon 3 for the whole weekend is priced at €40,00, with a €5 discount for children, seniors and students. For the Saturday only or the Sunday only, the price is €25,00, with the same discounts as above applying. To book online in advance, go to http://www.dutchdwcon.nl
Apparently Cabbagecon 2 was a great success on the fun front. The organisers say of next year's event, "It will be a happy occasion for fans of Sir Terry Pratchett from the Netherlands and abroad to meet each other again and have fun. We hope to see you too!"
9.5 IDWCON 2015
""Hear ye, hear ye, lads and lasses. We're pleased as punch, and so very proud, to announce that the 4th Irish Discworld Convention will be held from the 2nd to the 5th of October, 2015... We hope to see you all at the Cork International Airport Hotel..."
Confirmed guests so far include Bernard Pearson (the Cunning Artificer himself), Isobel Pearson, TSoD co-author Jack Cohen, folklorist (and Discworld myth-checker) Jacqueline Simpson, and the ever-excellent Colin Smythe.
The new IDWcon webpage is truly gorgeous! Go have a look and a wander, in the meantime, here's an internal memo from Captain Shivers of the A-M City Watch, Irish Precinct:
To: Potential New Recruits
Re: The Theme!
People of Roundworld, we're very pleased to announce that the theme of the Irish Discworld Convention 2015 will be the Watch Open Weekend. Watch this space for further details! If you would like to know more about the Convention, please see our FAQ page. And if you would like to know more about what happened last time, please see the Previous Conventions section. If you have ideas for events you'd like to run, or see us run at the convention, please email: programme@idwcon.org. If you have any other questions, feel free to email us on: info@idwcon.org.
http://idwcon.org/
https://twitter.com/IDWCon
https://www.facebook.com/groups/idwcon/
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10) DISCWORLD MEETING GROUPS NEWS
The Broken Drummers, "London's Premier Unofficially Official Discworld Group", meets on the first Monday of every month at the Monkey Puzzle, 30 Southwick Street, London W2 1JQ: "We welcome anyone and everyone who enjoys Sir Terry's works, or quite likes them or wants to find out more. We have had many visitors from overseas who have enjoyed themselves and made new friends. The discussions do not only concern the works of Sir Terry Pratchett but wander and meander through other genres and authors and also leaping to TV and Film production. We also find time for a quiz. The prize is superb. The chance to set the quiz the following month."
Next meeting: Monday 7th July 2014, from 7pm onwards.
The Drummers' most recent meet report:
"We did indeed meet on Monday 2nd. Apologies for the late report. We've just moved and only got the phone line sorted out yesterday meaning we've had to survive without a home internet connection for a few weeks. It has been tough. However the lack of temptation meant that I finally finished writing the Wadfest murder mystery yesterday. I'll send profiles out to those who have signed up. Meanwhile, I'm still looking for another two cast members (three would be even better but not essential). The two remaining characters are the leader of a pressure group that opposes superheroes (this character is a woman) and a parody of Superman (this one has been written as male but could become female if necessary). Anyone interested please buy a ticket to Wadfest and send me your ticket number. Anyway Drummers met this month. I came late as I had another meeting first. I can't remember much now beyond the fact that the Monkey Puzzle made sure I got a meal even though the kitchen was closing as I arrived."
For more information, go to http://brokendrummers.org/ or email BrokenDrummers@gmail.com or nicholls.helen@yahoo.co.uk
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The Pratchett Partisans are a new fan group who meet monthly at either Brisbane or Indooroopilly to "eat, drink and chat about all things Pratchett". For more info about their next meetup, go to http://www.meetup.com/Pratchett-Partisans/ or contact Ula directly at uwilmott@yahoo.com.au
*
The City of Small Gods is a group for fans in Adelaide and South Australia: "We have regular monthly dinner and games nights, longer games days, plus play outings, craft-y workshops, and fun social activities throughout the year. For more info and to join our mailing list, visit":
http://cityofsmallgods.org.au
*
The Broken Vectis Drummers meet on the first Thursday of every month from 7.30pm at The Castle pub in Newport, Isle of Wight.
Next meeting: Thursday 5th June 2014, probably, but do email to check.
All new members and curious passersby are very welcome! For more info and any queries, contact broken_vectis_drummers@yahoo.co.uk
*
The Wincanton Omnian Temperance Society (WOTS) meets on the first Friday of every month at Wincanton's famous Bear Inn from 7pm onwards. "Visitors and drop-ins are always welcome!"
Next meeting: Friday 4th July 2014 (probably).
*
The Northern Institute of the Ankh-Morpork and District Society of Flatalists, a Pratchett fangroup, has been meeting on a regular basis since 2005 but is now looking to take in some new blood (presumably not in the non-reformed Uberwald manner). The Flatalists normally meet at The Narrowboat Pub in Victoria Street, Skipton, North Yorkshire, to discuss "all things Pratchett" as well as having quizzes and raffles.
Details of future meetings are posted on the Events section of the Discworld Stamps forum:
http://www.discworldstamps.co.uk/forum/
*
Sydney Drummers (formerly Drummers Downunder) meet on the first Monday of every month in Sydney at 3 Wise Monkeys, 555 George Street, Sydney,2000.
Next meeting: Monday 7th July 2014 at 6.30pm (probably). For more information, contact Sue (aka Granny Weatherwax): kenworthys@yahoo.co.uk
*
Perth Drummers meet on the first Monday of the month, subject to holidays.
Next meeting: Monday 7th July 2014 (probably).
"Please note we have moved to Carpe Cafe from 5.30pm Carpe Cafe, 526 Murray Street, Perth, WA. Meeting at a cafe means we are under-18 friendly!"
For details follow Perth Drummers on Twitter @Perth_Drummers and Facebook https://www.facebook.com/groups/Perth.Drummers/ – otherwise message Krystel directly at khewett@live.com
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Western Drummers (that's two groups for the Sydney Pratchett fans now) meet at The Rowers, Bruce Neal Drive, Penrith at 6.30-7.30pm for food, 7.30pm for games, quizzes and chat.
Next meeting: TBA. The latest meeting took place on 24th June.
For more information, contact Nanny Ogg – lewis_oz@bigpond.com – or visit their Facebook page:
https://www.facebook.com/westerndrummers
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11) WORTH AN ACTION REPLAY
From pop-up shops and restaurants to pop-up book benches – Paul Kidby is among the illustrators who will be making London a more magical place to read:
"Bloomsbury is set to play host to a range of literary classics, from Peter Pan to The Wind in the Willows, as a series of painted 'BookBenches' will soon pop up all over town. The benches will feature images from novels dating back to the 19th century, including Arthur Conan Doyle's Sherlock Holmes, right through to modern favourites such as How to Train your Dragon by Cressida Cowell. Renowned artists and illustrators will be picking up a paintbrush and bringing some classic characters to life, including Ralph Steadman who famously worked with Hunter S Thompson, will be replicating characters from his 1973 children's classic take on Alice Through the Looking Glass, and Paul Kidby who designed the images in Terry Pratchett's Discworld..."
http://tinyurl.com/lpzukgx
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RAISING STEAM: IN PAPERBACK
Lynsey from Transworld says: "Raising Steam in paperback has a whole new cover look! Coming your way in the UK on 9th October 2014!"
http://bit.ly/raisingsteam
And the new cover image: http://tinyurl.com/nv8zvjw
*
My Independent Bookshop site itself:
"There's nothing more magical than a bookshop. A bookshop is more than just a shop – it's a gateway to brand new worlds. It lets you visit places you'd never normally go, live lives you'd never normally live and feel things you'd never normally feel. And now you can create your own virtual bookshop, discover new books and be inspired... There's no end to our rewards. With My Independent Bookshop, you'll get the first word on the latest giveaways, competitions and exclusives from some of the best authors around... We love bookshops, and we know you do too. That's why we've teamed up with hive, to ensure that for every book you buy, a percentage of the sale is shared with a local, independent bookshop."
How to make your own virtual bookshop:
http://www.myindependentbookshop.co.uk/register
http://www.myindependentbookshop.co.uk/
http://www.myindependentbookshop.co.uk/TerryPratchett
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A BEAUTIFUL, CROWDFUNDED MARC SIMONETTI ART BOOK
You may recall French illustrator Marc Simonetti's stunning art for the cover of Turtle Recall. Now he is offering the world his first collection in book form, titled "Coverama". With 63 days left on his crowdfunding page, "Coverama" has already surpassed its goal total of $10,000, but that's no reason to stop supporting it. Discworld fans dug deep for Snowgum's "Troll Bridge" crowdfund appeal, and we all know how successful that drive was!
Crowdfunding for "Coverama" ends on 15th July 2014...
www.itsartmag.com/features/projects/coverama-by-marc-simonetti/
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12) IMAGES OF THE MONTH
FOUND AT LAST! Photo of Sir Pterry dressed as Just William for the Oxford Story Museum:
http://tinyurl.com/k5vdv86
The Long Mars cover facsimile:
http://tinyurl.com/kzj7c42
Another great shot of Archchancellor, that is, Vice Chancellor David Lloyd giving Sir Pterry his honorary degree from the University of South Australia:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BopWpJcCYAEZGN8.jpg
The Lifeline Theatre's excellent-looking cast of Monstrous Regiment:
http://tinyurl.com/kxwdhma
YES YES PLEASE WE WANT THIS NOW!!!
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/BqKXDLrCMAAsyvr.jpg
Nice ink:
https://pbs.twimg.com/media/Bpsa8rPIUAEjyBd.jpg
...and finally, a photo of the cast of TAMAHER: the Musical, as performed by the ACT Youth Theatre this week in Carlisle and Penrith:
http://tinyurl.com/kcx7u67
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13) CLOSE
A few bits to finish with...
Fourecksian fans of Pratchett – and all manner of fantasy, science fiction, crime and the rest – might want to make a trek to Canberra's Gaslight Books in the coming weeks:
"Gayle Lovett, who opened Gaslight Books in 1989, said she was closing up shop after 25 years. The bookshop – which has operated from the same spot in Fyshwick since it opened in 1989, aside from its six years in Woden – has specialised in crime, mystery, science fiction, fantasy and horror. It has hosted many talks and signings by Australian and international genre writers including Terry Pratchett, Ian Rankin, Peter Corris, Ed McBain and Kerry Greenwood. 'Terry Pratchett was so popular we had people out the door waiting in the queue,' she said of the British creator of the Discworld series. 'He was a delightful man to talk to.'... For the month of June all stock – new and secondhand – will be 25 per cent off with further discounts in July. No more books will be bought, no more newsletters will be sent out and current gift vouchers and valid credit notes should be used by June 28. The store will close on August 2... Although she had not worked out all the details, Lovett said she intended to maintain an online presence selling first editions, signed books and collectable paperbacks and magazines... She said she had more than 8000 books in stock, most of them secondhand. So perhaps the only mystery now is: how many will she be able to sell before the shop closes?
"Gaslight Books is at 10/83 Wollongong Street, Fyshwick. Opening hours are Thursday-Friday 10am to 5.30pm and Saturday 10am to 3pm. Website: gaslightbooks.com.au"
http://tinyurl.com/nlm2ml3
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Magdalena Schamberger, of the charity Hearts & Minds, suggests five ways to engage with a relative or friend with advanced dementia:
"1. Take time and just be: be in the moment, make gentle eye contact and allow for silence, stillness and breathing together. Spend time with no pressure, no agenda, no tasks (such as dressing, clothing or feeding), no judgment and no expectations. Allow the person to be who they are now.
"2. Don't ask questions: questions can be distressing at the best of times and can put pressure on people. But repetition can be good. As a way of creating a connection, repeat the name of your relative or friend gently to a well-known melody or song that they love. They can feel and may realise that you mean them.
"3. Focus on physical activity and memory: remember physical activities you used to do together, such as baking, gardening, storytelling or DIY. If the person is physically still able, try to do them together. Even though they may not remember these activities later, they may well remember the physical experience and the positive feelings they had when they were doing them.
"4. Be kind, caring and compassionate: physical contact is important. Although people with dementia may seem distant or confused at times, they have emotions and feelings. Hold their hand, give them a hug. Show them compassion and care.
"5. Look at the person, not the illness: remember to laugh, sing and dance together. Get out of the daily routine. Explore fresh things and create shared moments together."
http://tinyurl.com/nllk4ur
And that's the lot for June. Enjoy your summer sunshine – and the residents of XXXX can join me in digging out winter wear, as winter seems to have arrived at last... see you next month!
– Annie Mac
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The End. If you have any questions or requests, write: interact (at) pearwood (dot) info
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Copyright (c) 2014 by Klatchian Foreign Legion