Just DISCovered

...while reading through some old email, and finally looking over three months worth of Terry Pratchett Fan Club messages...this website.

I'd really like to try the beers.

Further: http://www.discworldstamps.com/

And:

Review: Once More* With Footnotes Reviewed by Jason Anthony...not me, finding it's way to me through Discworld Monthly. I'm posting it here so I can find it when I'm ready to try and order it.

I say unto thee...Oook.

Once More* With Footnotes was created as a Guest of Honour book for Terry at the Noreascon Convention in September 2004 and as such is only available from the Nesfa web site located here.

The book is thus far the most complete compilation of Terry's short stories ever published. There are still a couple of notable omissions, which I suspect may be due to copyright reasons, namely Night Dweller and History in the Faking. The book also features lots of short pieces of prose written by Terry for various and diverse entities. Pieces range from The Story of Thud via forewords for Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable and The Wyrdest Link to the excellent No Worries that is basically an Australian tour report from the author's perspective (with only the names changed to protect the innocent) and A Word About Hats. I expect the short stories will be of most interest to Terry's fans and it is great to see so many in one place. I suspect many fans will have read one or two of Terry's short stories (we included Incubus in full in Issue 6 way back in October 1997) and will have heard of a couple more. Seeing so many in one location reminds us just how prolific a writer Terry is.

My first desire upon receiving the book was to read The Hades Business (Terry's first published short story, written when he was only 13). Terry's introduction leads us to believe he is quite embarrassed by the cliches used within it (but I guess any professional will look back at something produced over 40 years ago with slight trepidation). When reading this story you have to keep reminding yourself that it was written by a 13 year old as part of a school project. I wish I had half the skill now that Terry had at 13. I have read stories by established and much older authors that can't match the quality of the writing. I did find the Discworld short stories, The Sea and Little Fishes, Troll Bridge and Theatre of Cruelty, more enjoyable that the others, mainly because that universe is already well defined leaving Terry more room for the story. Whist I enjoyed most of the short stories, I think Terry's work is much better suited to full novels, as this appears to give him much more room to expand his ideas.

This book is a must for any fan. You could spend several years and lots of money trying to track down half the material in this book. Which is why it represents such excellent value for money.