I know which one I prefer... I'm glad I'm in the British Isles.
The UKian cover is based on the painting 'The Militia Company of Captain Frans Banning Cocq' more commonly known as 'The Night Watch' and can be seen here: www.ibiblio.org/wm/paint/...-watch.jpg
Patrician with faithful Luggage
(10/20/02 12:10 pm) Reply
Re: Night Watch
NOT FAIR!!!! NOT FAIR AT ALL!!!!!
Why do you guys get the cool cover? It's way better!
*walks off grumbling*
Scarlet Phoenix
Mrs Grim Commandress of the City Watch
(10/20/02 1:33 pm) Reply
Re: Night Watch
Yep- the UK one is much better...what a surprise!
When I first saw the U.S. one, I was like- "Whoa!" I couldnt even believe it was the cover. It is just so... yellow. *shudders* I like the thing with going into the mirror, I guess, but it just doesn't look right.
Mrs Grim
Mrs Grim Commandress of the City Watch
(11/29/02 11:31 am) Reply
The Book
Okay, it took us long enough to start discussing the new book- it's been out for a while now. Okay, what do you all think?
I liked it. It was written in a different style, so to say. It was unlike any of the others books, seeming to be more...deep. All of his books tend to have more meaning than they at first seem to have, but we really got to know about Vimes in this one (and many other people). It's been criticized for not being as funny, but I guess I really didn't mind that. It had plenty of moments ^_^
Oh well, I have to get going, so, discuss whatever!
Mrs Grim
"Well, well," I said. "If it isn't Jack Schitt."~From The Eyre Affair by Jasper Fforde
robcraine Out of mind, be back... sometime
(11/29/02 5:30 pm) Reply
Re: The Book
I have to say I loved it. Okay, I don't think it had as many laughs as any of the previous books, but it had its moments (Mr Safety Catch is one that springs to mind) and I liked all the little bits like dibbler acquiring his catchphrase. We also saw deeper into Sam and his beast (which I've since noticed got a mention at the end of T5E).
I now want to know more about Vetinari's rise to power and Sam's fall to the point at which we first met him in G!G! and also more about Vetinari's aunt.... I certainly can't see her as a prize for dragonslayers. I suspect we'll see more of the past in future books (I certainly hope so, anyway).
I was slightly expecting to see Wonse in the book, as we know he and Vimes had history.
anyway. Bloody good book. I remember saying 'Wow' to myself once I'd finished. At the moment I'd probably say its my favourite, but that's a title that changes depending on what I read last.
Patrician with faithful Luggage
(11/30/02 9:59 am) Reply
Re: The Book
I loved it of course! So it didn't have quite as many laugh-out-loud moments, but it still was incredibly funny. It was deeper than most of his books and just how he combined that with humor, simply wonderful!
Scarlet Phoenix
Mrs Grim Commandress of the City Watch
(12/7/02 1:51 pm) Reply
Re: The Book
I would like to know more history from the books. I thought Vetinari's aunt was a nice touch- I hadn't really expected her to turn up anywhere in other books. It WOULD be most interesting to find out why Vimes was lying in a gutter in the GG and also how Vetinari became Patrician.
I wonder how long TP will continue to write DW books? I guess it's hard to run out of ideas because basically anything can happen. I wonder if he takes requests? ^_^ He prob'ly gets too many as it is...
Mrs Grim
"What's optimism?" asked Cacambo.
"Alas," said Candide, "it's a mania for insisting that everything is right when everything is going wrong."
--Candide by Voltaire
robcraine Out of mind, be back... sometime
(12/8/02 2:49 pm) Reply
Re: The Book
From memory, he's said he'll never officially stop writing dw books, but he might start to slow down a bit. If he gets an idea that would work well on the disc then he'll write another book. There were rumours that The Truth (the 25th novel) would be the last... they were entirely false.
As for suggestions, he doesn't really like that sort of thing. The problem is that if he gets a suggestion/ hears some speculation about future books, and happens to be coincidently using that idea in the next book, then he's open to accusations of steeling ideas. A few years ago there was a case against JK Rowling about something similar that seems to have him a bit nervous.... he knows no genuine fan would dream of doing that sort of thing, but just in case he tries to avoid it.
He doesn't mind fanfiction too much, so long as people are fairly discrete about it.
I have heard an entertaining story (I think posted by TP on afp). Apparently he was at a book signing and someone had a copy of the Pratchett Portfolio with them. she opened the book at Ponder Stibbons pointed at his picture (if you haven't seen Josh's picture of him then he's the one behind the librarian on this picture images-eu.amazon.com/imag...ZZZZZZ.jpg ) and said 'you stole that from harry potter didn't you?' Terry turned to the copyrite information and pointed out the publishing date of 1996. 'Oh' she said 'then it must be a coincidence.'
But I for one wouldn't mind hearing about any ideas you might have for future books.... I think terry's unlikely to see them here.
He does sometimes sell places in his novels for charity (usually orangutan related ones)... so that could be seen as suggestion for a character name he's taken on board.
rob
robcraine Out of mind, be back... sometime
(12/8/02 3:04 pm) Reply
Re: The Book
totally coincidently, elsewhere someone has just pointed out the following two messages from terry.
Re: The Book
How long ago did he type that? He seemed doubtful at the time in the second link, but it worked out great.
Who loved that young Vetrinary part?
"The man who lives by himself and for himself is apt to be corrupted by the company he keeps."
Charles Henry Parkhurst
robcraine Out of mind, be back... sometime
(7/15/03 3:40 pm) Reply
Re: The Book
The first was 1996, the second 1998.
I could tell that by signs too subtle for the uninitiated, but known to Us as 'dates' on the page
I've just re-read them.... I wonder if Terry is going to be sueing himself for steeling his own ideas. Someone told me about a bloke who sued himself on legal aid, won (and lost)... and made a profit out of it.
I think Terry has too much money to qualify for legal aid though... which might make the whole thing unprofitable what with lawyers costs and everything.
I keep hearing about how Night Watch is so much darker than TP's other stuff. Actually, I think it's just that the darkness is more in-your-face. TP likes to gloss over the ugly side of big-city life, he makes it funny, but it's still there.
Incidentally, when I read Bernard Cornwell's Gallows Thief, I kept expecting Sam Vimes to step out of an alleyway and ask Rider Sandman what the heck he was doing. Similar tough cities, similar tough thieftakers.
robcraine Out of mind, be back... sometime
(8/28/03 4:10 pm) Reply
Re: night watch
Well... the word 'darker' has been bandied arround quite a lot... and I'm not entirely sure what people mean by it... certainly the cover was a darker shade than most, but I don't think that's quite the point.
Certainly I found NW made me my horrified than any other TP (that's a comparative thing, I wouldn't say I was horrified... is there a word that means horrified but to a lesser extent? maybe seshat would be the person to ask ) and had some very well done villains. I think the scene in the torture chamber was brilliantly scribed... it had so few details, but brought so much to the imagination.
Hf has also often been decribed as dark... but its never struck me as so.
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