Reading is surprisingly time consuming

[drakyndra]

Sorry, anime, but I had to put you off for a couple of hours. Fannishness of a higher priority called.

Namely, reading Nation, Terry Pratchett's most recent book.

I'll admit that when I initially heard the next book from Pterry wasn't going to be a Discworld one, I was a bit disappointed. Mainly because, though all his books are good, with the exception of Good Omens, I've never liked the non-Discworld ones quite as much.

Boy, do I feel stupid now. Because holy fuck, did Pratchett demonstrate exactly why he's my favourite author.

Srsly. That was brilliant.

It's still not my favourite Pratchett book - Night Watch is always going to be hard to beat on that score, but it has the advantage of having books and years to build attachment to the characters. Nation didn't, and for a book that is apparently considered Young Adult - well, lets just say I am a little jealous of kids that get to grow up to this sort of reading matter.

I'm not going to spoil anything, 'cos I highly recommend reading it for yourself, but I will say it's mostly set on a tiny tsunami-devasted tribal island in the pseudo-Pacific, in a pseudo-Victorian era of the world. And it has characters making tough but smart decisions, rather wonderful leads (both male and female), and bags and bags of awesome.

Reviewishness done, is there anywhere suitable online to discuss it? Meta-posts, that sort of thing (I'd ask for fic, but I think this is going to be one of those stories badfic would actually pain me to read. Goodfic in the Nation-verse would be awesome, though. Especially exploring the greater world, post book-Events)

Comments

Just had to say,

[thewinteroak.livejournal.com]

Love the icon. Very Nightwatch. :D

Re: Just had to say,

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

It amuses me muchly.

[cat-empress.livejournal.com]

I got nothing on the fic front, but the Book Show on Radio National was playing Terry's interview at the Edinburgh book fest, I think it was last week. They should still have the audio on their website here.

Haven't read Nation yet, but have it in my posession. Am glad to have a guarantee that it is awesome.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I certainly hope you like it when you read it.

[neadods.livejournal.com]

I was raving about this one at length at my LJ. "Bags and bags of awesome" sums it up.

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

I actually remembered reading that. The book just took a bit longer to show in Australia.

[doyle_sb4.livejournal.com]

Just finished it, thought it was fantastic - and yes to fic set in the same universe. I'm probably going to be asking for that for yuletide. (I have horrible images of teenybopper fic turning up on the Pit of Voles where Mau comes back to England with Daphne and they get married and have a dozen babies and Daphne shops at Hot Topic.)

[drakyndra.livejournal.com]

yuletide is about the only place I could think of for potential fic (unless some popular ficcer starts something), and yeah, not happening for a while yet.

And don't even joke about that.