Crap, damnation and fuckitude >.<
I was lucky enough to meet him twice. What a great person he was.
I gave him a gift of a gold-inlaid hourglass from Toledo. I should have got him a bigger one…
Time to re-read everything he wrote.
Thanks for the memories, you magnificent individual you.
He didn’t end his own life? If that is the case, it must have really progressed too rapidly. Is it confirmed he died without his own choice on the timing?
Ah, I just realized the BBC states that he did not end his own life.
It would break the damn shelf!
Maybe not. There might still be something in the pipeline. Scouting For Trolls has been listed as “Upcoming” for quite a bit. Maybe he got it finished. [clinging to any scrap of hope.]
Sad. I have *just started *reading the Discworld books–the only thing I’ve read of his before was Good Omens. This morning I got to the part in *The Light Fantastic *where Rincewind finds Twoflower in Death’s house.
This is what really gets to me. I had hoped for one more installment.
“The author of more than 70 books died at his home ‘with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family.’” There’s a lot worse ways to go out than that.
I’m just glad he was surrounded by his cat’s family at the end.
When I saw the thread title, it took my breath away. Still, I can’t say it was completely unexpected. I’m sad, but I’m also thankful that he lived as long and wrote as much as he did (and that he was fully recognized and appreciated during his lifetime).
Fuck. Wow, this hits hard. RIP, Sir Pterry, and thanks for all the stories.
When Leonard Nimoy passed I thought the only other celebrity death that would hit me that hard would be Sir Terry’s. I didn’t think it would happen so soon.
At least I got to meet him once at a sci fi convention many years ago. I was too nervous to talk much when I had him sign my book, just told him I was a big fan. We stayed in the same hotel on the same floor so I ran into him a couple more times; buying a Darwin fish in the exhibit hall, in the elevator a couple times and at the floors continental breakfast. I was always too nervous to talk so I’d just smile at him and every time he’s smile and nod back. It is still my favorite celebrity encounter.
Indeed.
Alzheimer’s is a bitch. It doesn’t just make you sick and eventually kill you, it takes away who you are. I’d like to think that he remained Pterry until the end.
I would rather it had been a near death experience
A great man with a great mind and a great imagination. A very great influence on me and millions of others.
I had long held the philosophy shown in my former sig line. To see it echoed in Hogfather was very touching and validating.
“Justice and Fairness are Human Ideological Concepts. They do not exist in the real universe.”
One of the few people that I didn’t know personally that I shed tears for on hearing the news.
well Damn Helena, now my sleeves are all wet.
That was fabulous, thank you.
Indeed.
Sadly, my wife is 550 miles away, when I most need to hug her and tell her how much I love her.
A friend of mine is dealing with a form of early onset Alzheimer’s, and it has been heartbreaking seeing his mind whittled away.
My introduction to Terry Pratchett was Good Omens. My best fiend gave it to me as a Christmas present in the early-'90s. Shayna and Spiny Norman gave me three of his Discworld books one year for Christmas. The first one I read was Reaper Man. For my tastes, this was the perfect book to start with. After reading the other gifts, I read the rest of the series in order of publication except for the YA books and the last two. I’ve now ordered Snuff and Raising Steam, the ones I have not read yet.
I feel bad for his cat. 
Surely, you’re not implying you haven’t read the YA books!
Whatever you do, do not skip his young adult books. The Tiffany Aching books are some of his finest writing, particularly I Shall Wear Midnight. They are “young adult” only in their themes.
What was it that Granny Weatherwax had said once? “Evil begins when you begin to treat people as things.” And right now it would happen if you thought there was a thing called a father, and a thing called a mother, and a thing called a daughter, and a thing called a cottage, and told yourself that if you put them all together you had a thing called a happy family.
Crivens!
I saw this earlier today. I hated to hear it. Wonderful author.
I heartily agree, Midnight reduced me to tears more than once, it was a fantasic book.