Terry Pratchett Has Died

terry-pratchett

Science fiction and fantasy humor writer Terry Pratchett has died. This is not unexpected as he has been ill for some time, but it’s still sad to see the end.

As I said on my livejournal: I don’t believe in an afterlife, though I wish I did sometimes. I don’t believe in reincarnation, although I’d love for Terry Pratchett to get to come back as something ridiculous and awesome and wonderful. But I do believe in legacies, and he left wonderful books and humor, and I’m so glad to have them.

Some of my favorites:

Night Watch

Going Postal

Small Gods

Lords and Ladies

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9 Responses to Terry Pratchett Has Died

  1. 1
    EAH says:

    I would add Hogfather to that list, but otherwise I agree wholeheartedly. He has left an amazing legacy.

  2. 2
    Pesho says:

    One of the very best, if not the best fantasy writer, ever. One of the few who could preach tolerance, rationality and humanism, without alienating almost anyone.

    I do not believe in afterlife, either, but I do believe that he will keep influencing people, for the better, for a long time to come. Night Watch and Small Gods are amongst my five favorite fiction books. I must have bought each a dozen times, if not more.

  3. 3
    Myca says:

    The first book of his I read was Good Omens. I was 17, in high school, and I picked it up because I loved Neil Gaiman, who co-authored. I bought it at The Other Change of Hobbit in Berkeley, a shop which is now, like Sir Terry, gone.

    It was more than 10 years later that I read Small Gods. I was unemployed at the time, and trying to lose weight, so I ordered every Pratchett book I could from the library, and I read them as I walked around town all day long. I once fell, skinning a knee rather badly because i was too engrossed in Men At Arms to notice the curb.

    I found a Discworld reading order guide somewhere online and was very careful to read everything in order. The Night Watch novels were my favorite, but it was all great, even the early stuff.

    I haven’t kept up with Discworld as much as I’d like, but from time to time, I’d go back and find the latest version of the reading guide and catch up.

    And of course, I followed the story of his Alzheimer’s and his furiously articulate will to commit suicide rather than let the disease take who he was away.

    It appears that neither happened. He died of natural causes, and he died fully articulate and himself. I can’t possibly express how sad I am that that reading order guide isn’t going to need an update any longer.

    —Myca

  4. ah absolute,y hugest Pratchett fan which is why i also wrote this in honour of him: https://brettfish.wordpress.com/2015/03/12/death-becomes-him-ode-to-terry-pratchett

    i think Moving Pictures was still my absolute favourite with ‘Blown Away’ as a parody of ‘Gone with the Wind’ but all the ones you mentioned are classics.

    He will be missed
    brett fish

  5. 5
    Copyleft says:

    Proudly atheist, too.

  6. 6
    Tamme says:

    @Copyleft: Even when identifying as an atheist, Terry always expressed the utmost respect and consideration for religious people. Hardly “proudly atheist”.

    But like many other people, he discovered a belief as he neared death.

  7. 7
    Myca says:

    @Copyleft: Even when identifying as an atheist, Terry always expressed the utmost respect and consideration for religious people. Hardly “proudly atheist”.

    There is no conflict here. There’s a difference between “proud atheist” and “total jerk.” You can be one and not the other.

    But like many other people, he discovered a belief as he neared death.

    Citation? I haven’t sen any evidence that this is true, and if it’s not, I’d really prefer that people not repeat such a vicious and disrespectful lie about a good man.

    —Myca

  8. 8
    Copyleft says:

    Proudly atheist doesn’t require one to be disrespectful of believers. And tales of ‘deathbed conversions’ by outspoken atheists have been dreamed up by religious liars for as long as outspoken atheists have existed. There were similar claims about everyone from Darwin, Darrow, and Ingersoll to Sagan, Hitchens, and Asimov

  9. 9
    Mandolin says:

    The assertion may be coming from here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/celebritynews/2094509/Terry-Pratchett-hints-he-may-have-found-God.html

    It sounds like a trumped up claim by an author with an agenda, though. Clearly, he’s not saying he believes in a god as commonly defined.

    And feh on this “you can’t be proudly atheist if you are respectful of believers” thing. Religion is a factual claim, for heaven’s sake. I am proudly atheist; I do not believe the claim.

    People suck so much when talking about atheism sometimes.