Fantasy

This year I've been reading a lot (I know, no big surprise, right?). There are a smattering of different authors and genres, but 2 stand out. I think this year will be my year of biographies and fantasy. It's an interesting combination, isn't it: real life and pure fiction. They seem to balance each other nicely. The biographies I've spoken of frequently (and will write more about as I read more), so today is for the fantasy.

What I've been reading is a lot of Terry Pratchett. I started reading his books a year or so ago (I don't really remember when I started). One of my teachers had borrowed Thud from a mutual friend and was reading it at work. I took it away; the official reason was to keep him focused on work but really so that I'd have something to read. The teacher wasn't much interested in the book (it wasn't his brand of humor) so he didn't object much. I loved it. It made me laugh from the start. When I finished, I believe I lent it to another friend, who also loved it (just so you know: it did eventually make it back to its owner).

If you like British humor and fantasy (or even just British humor) you should really try Terry Pratchett.

Anyway...I read one or two of his books over the course of the following months, but I was reading a lot of other stuff as well. I didn't really get into Pratchett until this year. I've been reading them at a rate of 1 or so a month (borrowing them from a friend (who borrowed them from a friend) or the library). They take place on Discworld, a flat, round world that is carried on the backs of 4 elephants who stand on a giant turtle. There are witches, wizards, heroes (who usually aren't much use), trolls, dwarfs (and Captain Carrot of the Night Watch, who was raised as a dwarf and was fully grown before they told him that he was a human), and an assortment of other people and beings. Oh, and we can't forget DEATH, who shows up frequently. He once adopted a daughter, then got an apprentice who eventually married the daughter. Now DEATH has a granddaughter who inherited many of her grandfather's abilities.

And yet...it's remarkably like here (pre-industrial revolution, which is a much better setting for fantasy). Just take all the weirdness of life and people, and magnify it, make metaphors literal, and bring things to their natural conclusion, exaggerate everything, and you'll get close to Discworld. They deal with the same issues we do (hence the frequent appearance of DEATH), only in their own way (it helps that most crime is very organized, with guilds and everything). 

Yes, it's pure escape literature. When I'm reading Terry Pratchett I can't worry about what's happening at work or the school assignments looming before me or the future or anything. I can just relax and laugh.

One word of advice: if you insist on reading Terry Pratchett in public, be prepared for the looks (and slight edging away) from people when you start to laugh suddenly.