I agree with her. But I’d never live my life like that, and it bothers me that so many female characters in books are depicted like this - arrogant, stuck-up, pompous, and above all, not liking sex and normal sexual relationships. i.e., not real women at all.
to the food porn in Tolkien. I’d rather not hear about delicious yummies I can’t even eat. Even IRL, while I like good food, I’d probably be happy with a food pill most of the time.
My favorite Susan book is Thief of Time for this very reason.
Following on from what others have said about various story arcs being wrapped up, I wonder whether Sir Terry is planning on ending the Discworld series…?
Neither his newest book (The Long Earth), nor the next one (Dodger) is a Discworld novel. So presumably, there will be no Discworld novel this year. If he publishes one next year, there would be 40 Discworld novels over a period of 30 years, which would be a tidy place to finish off. (It would also fit in nicely with Sir Terry’s 65th birthday, which is the UK retirement age!)
As mentioned before, Unseen Academicals ties off the Rincewind / wizards arc, and Snuff the Vimes / Watch arc. I Shall Wear Midnight is the end of Tiffany Aching’s story, and Susan Sto Helit’s ended back in Thief of Time. In a way, Carpe Jugulum finished off the witches / Lancre arc, even though Granny and Nanny have made cameos since then.
The only story left unfinished is Moist von Lipwig’s. It was announced several years ago that there would be a book called Raising Taxes, in which Moist becomes Ankh-Morpork’s chief tax collector. Maybe Sir Terry has been holding it back, because he wants it to be the very last one? Perhaps it will end with Moist becoming the new Patrician…?
Anyway, sorry for hijacking the thread!
I really wouldn’t be surprised, given his condition which will only worsen with age. Better to tie things off while he can rather than just stop.
I don’t know that he’ll be Patrician, but Vetinari has definitely been grooming him to be his successor.
Really? Up until “Night Watch”? That surprises me - most Pterry fans I know call “Night Watch” the best Watch novel of all, and arguably Pratchett’s very best. If only one of Pterry’s works is read or taught in schools in 2112 A.D., “Night Watch” would be the one I’d guess.
Not to question your opinon, mind - just that it’s an unusual one, I think. Still, de gustibus 'n all…
Which is why I enjoy Tiffany Aching, and am sorry that story arc seems to be over. I got definite hints that Tiffany could grow up to give Granny a run for her money. With maybe Petulia as her Nanny Ogg.
In any case, I see Granny, Sam Vimes, and Tiffany as Pterry’s best-developed, most fully-realized and interesting characters.
Well, for one thing, when we first meet Susan, she’s 16 in a girl’s-only school. And even so she very much has normal teenage-girl feelings for Imp/Buddy (which are never mentioned again, AFAIK). And then in ToT she gets with Time, so it’s only HF where she’s not sexual, and you know, I’m OK with that. She’s got a lot to come to terms with.
I should add while I’d agree she is (justifiably) arrogant, I wouldn’t consider Susan stuck-up or pompous at all. She is, in fact, exactly the opposite - note how she deals with kid’s fears of monsters, for instance - you don’t get more grounded than that.
That’d be a worse horror story to me than the one where I die and wake up in Narnia shudder
Yeah, I caught that phrasing after the edit time had elapsed. Should have read “through” not “until.”
As for wrapping up arcs, there are still Raising Taxes and Scouting For Trolls in the pipeline. That should wrap everybody up nicely, as I think *Scouting *is a throw-away like Where’s My Cow and The World of Poo. Then A Blink of the Screen collects all the short fiction and he’s done.
:eek:
A new Patrician? Moist?!? Vetinari may or may not be grooming him, but he’s nowhere near operating in that league.
Vetinari has grown so much over the course of the series, from sketchy caricature to deeply realized individual. He’s my favorite character in Discworld.
In both Going Postal and Making Money, Moist has the whole damn city wrapped around his little finger. The Crowd, which is Ankh-Morpork, loves him, and he Makes Things Happen. He’s smart, personable, understands politics and the human mind, and has discovered that he really enjoys using his con artist skills to do some actual good. Frankly I can’t think of anyone more capable or better to lead the city aside from Vetinari himself.
That said, I’d be very surprised if Vetinari plans to step down anytime soon. It’s possible someone might finally successfully kill him (kill, not assassinate, of course), but he’s got a lot to do. It’ll be decades before he’s ready to retire. But given the history Ankh-Morpork has of hideously ineffectual leaders, I’m quite certain he wants to establish a succession he can feel comfortable with as soon as possible, just in case he does, ah, leave office before he’s ready.
I doubt Raising Taxes will end with Moist as Patrician, but I do think Vetinari will make his plans for it known, either to the reader or to Moist directly.
This is basically what I was about to post, with the addition that in Hogfather it is mentioned briefly that Susan has had trouble dating because guys tend to get creeped out by things like her hair’s ability to move by itself. She’s also a (live-in, IIRC) governess to two young children at the time, which can’t leave much time for an active social life.
Personally, I’m happy that Pratchett has major female characters who don’t exist primarily as love interests for the hero. Susan and the Lancre witches all have their own adventures, which sometimes involve a romance plot and sometimes do not – just like his male protagonists.
I really didn’t enjoy UA. I thought it was the worst book since Monstrous Regiment. Then I read a rave review of it on Boing Boing and was shocked Cory Doctorow was such a huge fan… until I got to the second-last paragraph where he revealed his all-time favourite Discworld novel was Monstrous Regiment.
It took me so long to read UA, and I was so disinterested in it, that I don’t remember the plot, the characters or anything much at all. I suspect I’ll never read it again. Fortunately I liked Snuff better, although it was still a decline in quality and not really a book worthy of Vimes.
I found the big problem with MR was that the title gave away the major plot twist. After that it was quite…ordinary.
Provided you’re familiar with the source. That’s not a given.
Well, you have to assume, as an author, that at least some of your audience stayed awake in History. 
I don’t think that was “the” major plot twist, and it’s something one could guess from pretty early on in the book, once Polly realizes that
she’s not the only girl disguised as a boy.The bigger twists are that Jackrum is also a woman, which is not necessarily implied by the title. This revelation, about a character who repeatedly says “I am not an [adjective] man”, is something that many readers probably would have seen coming before it was revealed even if the book had a different title.and also
the whole thing with Wazzer, which I don’t think one could guess from the title alone.
It’s also no secret in the book that the regiment includes a number of monsters (a vampire, a troll, and an Igor), so some readers probably assumed the title was meant literally even if they did recognize the source.