Quibble: The Librarian and Death preceede Granny W. She’s the fourth oldest. And Death is the only character who’s shown up in every Discworld book.
Oh goddamn it–preview first then post. :smack:
Sorry. Carry on. 
I first read Discworld back in 1987, when Equal Rites had just hit the shelves, though I was inspired to read them from reading an excerpt in a magazine from Colour of Magic. The appeal was that it was really orignal and funny and nobody was doing anything like it at the time. True, compared to his later works, they’re quite bad, but when you had nothing to compare them with then they were masterful entertainment.
I read a few other comedy fantasies soon afterward, one by Robert Rankin, and a whole series by Craig Shaw Gardener, and they were both awful. Pratchett was king even then simply by being not as horrendous as the competition.
I’m sure Bad Ass is mentioned frequently. I think it might even be in Hat Full of Sky. One of my favourite jokes is how the explanation of the name didn’t turn up in a footnote until about the fourth book that mentioned it (I think it might have been Maskerade).
Also, that’s not Granny’s village. She’s a Lancre witch, but lives on its outskirts. Bad Ass is beyond a mountain track.
A-ha!!!
Bad Ass is a village in Lancre. I’m not at far enough in Wyrd Sisters, and the village does get mentions in later books, but not as Granny’s village. The impression is that she lives on the outskirts of Lancre town, with Gytha Ogg living in the town proper.
Bad Ass is, by far, the village closest to Granny’s cottage, and as such is the village she’s most associated with. It’s on the other side of the Kingdom and the Lancre River from Lancre Town, closer to the Dancers, The Rock & The Hard Place, and The Place Where The Sun Does Not Shine. Slice is even further up the mountains.
So no, Granny doesn’t live on the outskirt (I’m sure Lancre Town only has the one ). There’s a lot of woods, and a lot of up-and-down before you get there. I say “a lot”, but according to the tourist guide, the whole place has a border of 100 miles, so no more than 10 miles as the broomstick flies from end to end, as it seems about as wide as it is long . Still, it might be 30 miles as the boots walk to cover that 10 miles.
Granny does live in the Town, though.
Nothing wrong with Strata. It may not be particularly funny in its own right, but as a lightweight parody of Larry Niven’s Ringworld, it’s a good read.
I mean Nanny , of course… :smack:
Nanny Ogg and her relations ARE the Town.
Just managed to finish this one last night. Still a very quick read though I’ll mention that the most drama I had in reading the book was wondering if the library copy was going to lose all its pages or just a few while I read it.
Well. I enjoyed the read, really, but in a very disposable way. I won’t remember this book six months from now.
And I found the Steven Spielberg reference incredibly distracting.
That’s all I’ve got.
I think that Granny we see in the later books, Granny 1.5 as you say, would never have become so great if she had not been through it all with Esk. Would she have been so ready to face her sister in Genua if she had not spent time in Anhk-Morpork? I think by getting out of Lancre and out of what she felt comfortable, she found out that she could take on new challenges without looking the fool and she was reminded that just because she knows more than most does not mean she doesn’t have a lot to learn.