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The Truth
The Truth, which is Terry Pratchett's 25th entry into the hopefully never-ending discworld saga, features yet another Ankh-Morpork mystery. Only this time, there's a twist -- Instead of focusing on how The Watch again save the city, The Truth tells the tale from the perspective of William de Worde, founder, editor, and investigative reporter for the city's first newspaper. With the news that The Watch is investigating an attempted murder by the ruler of the city, William's fledgling newspaper quickly grows and just as quickly attracts the attention of many important city citizens.
For those who have yet to encounter Terry Pratchett's Discworld, here's the short version. The Discworld is a fantasy world which is most definitely flat. In fact, it rides on the backs of four giant elephants, who in turn stand atop a giant turtle. Pratchett's world parodies any and every element of our world that he can put his pen on, from movies to music, from fairy tales to opera. All along, Pratchett's razor sharp wit supplies innumerable references to pop culture, and he has a seemingly endless supply of puns.
When recommending any of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels, I'm faced with the issue of continuity. You see, with 25 novels in the series so far, references to earlier novels in the series are practically inevitable, and The Truth is no different. However, thanks to the nature of the narrative, The Truth should be relatively accessible to new readers. Because William and his employees on the newspaper are all characters newly introduced to the Discworld, no prior knowledge is needed. However, the cast of characters with which William deals -- from Lord Vetinari to Commander Vimes to Gaspode the Wonder Dog -- might seem a little shallow if you don't have the background supplied by previous books in the series. Don't let that deter you, however, as there is still a lot in this book to find funny, even without the heaps of background that is assumed.
The entire telling of this tale is solid. From the subtle clues sprinkled throughout as to what is happening to the parodies of cameras and palm pilots, the narrative doesn't have a piece out of place.
The only major flaws in the book are the aforementioned Pratchett learning curve and the eclipsing of our hero, William, by the supporting characters in the novel. From a villain by the name of Mr. Tulip, whose wallet reads "Not a very nice person at all" and believes that a potato will save his soul, to Otto Von Chrek, the newspaper's photographer and a recovering vampire, who occasionally finds himself a pile of dust when his flash goes off, William simply doesn't stand out. William is just an ordinary guy who wants to know the truth about what is happening and wants to share that truth with anyone willing to read or be read to. William is very easy to relate to, and for that reason makes an excellent main character, but when push comes to shove, William is finds himself better suited as an observer than a saviour."
You can purchase this book at ThinkGeek.
This review is terrible. Barely any of it is original and a large section about a third of the way down was lifted directly from Pratchett's own forward without giving him credit. Plagerism is BAD BS
Damn, which $3-crack-smoking moderator called that flamebait? I've been one of Terry Pratchett's biggest fans for many many years, and I pretty much agree with tacpprm's post, which was fair criticism, not flamebait, even if it did include the word "shite". Ever since about 10 books into the Discworld series, he's fallen into a complete rut of "write a book about Rincewind, write a book about the Watch, write a book about the witches". Since The Truth is the 25th Discworld book, that makes 5 repetitions so far.
As an aside, what's with that ass-ugly cover? Don't you get Josh Kirby covers on your Pratchett books in America??
Uhm - do you seriously think that there are that many Slashdot readers who haven't already read, or at least heard a lot about, The Hobbit? C'mon really: the demographic that would enjoy it (people who like fantasy novels) will have already read it, or at least heard enough about it that they won't get anything new out of a review on Slashdot. A fantasy novel reader knowing nothing about Tolkein would be like a Slashdotter not knowing who RMS is. It's just not going to happen.
Don't label something "offtopic" unless you know the topic well enough to tell what's on topic.
No. When Pratchett talks of a flat world, he's not talking of a two-dimensional world (Flatland). He's instead talking of world that's not a spheroid. Discworld, is a disc with mountains on top and elephants and tortoises underneath.
And while the elephant/turtle/snake/flat world concept may originally have been derived from Hindu mythology-- it's basically what schoolchildren were taught as "the predominate belief structure before Columbus/rationalism/"people got smarter"/whatever."
It's a tradition in the states. Book comes out in Britain with a nice cover-- then gets republished here with an awful/tasteless/crude cover.
The American "Harry Potter" titles have rather juvenile covers (fittingly so?) that pale in comparison to the British releases. Supposedly, some American adult readers have bought the British versions, just so they might not be riduculed for reading a more juvenile looking book on the subway, etc.
When Ellis Peter's "Brother Cadfael" mysteries were published in England, their covers looked like illuminated manuscripts, whereas the American versions have pictures of medieval corpses. Rather tasteless, IMHO.
Of course, I'm sure there are counter examples...
I saw that and almost fell out of my chair laughing. Lot's of subtle and not-so-subtle references to late 20th-century pop culture in this one.
Augh! I've been spending too much time on IRC! s/Lot's/Lots.
In the last sequence of Tarantino's Pulp Fiction, Samuel L. Jackson's character is revealed to have a wallet emblazoned with "Bad Mother Fucker".
-- Jeff Paulsen
I've been an avid reader of Terry Pratchett's for quite some time. I very much enjoyed "The Truth", much more so than the last few titles. I think that this is probably because of the introduction of new characters rather than the dependence on old ones, which have seemed a bit stale in their last few outings.
One of his best works, however, is "Small Gods" - a tale of one boy and his tortoise, which I'd heartily recommend to anyone - especially new readers, since it's a story that relies least upon the knowledge of the rest of the series.
Read my online journal: http://chris.carline.org
>...
> PS. Quick review of non-DW books: Having read and
> enjoyed Niven's Ringworld, I found Pratchett's
> Strata to be quite fun. The Dark Side of the Sun
>...
Are you sure this is a non-DiskWorld book. I seem to remember that DiskWorld showed up on the very last page (possibly the one before).
Caution: Now approaching the (technological) singularity.
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.
>That was the only reference I noticed, though, since I'm an anti-fan of Tarantino.
Oh come on.. You had to notice the fact that Tulip's wallet said "Not a very nice person at all." on it.. Either that or you haven't seen Pulp Fiction, which is possible I suppose..
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- Give a man a fire and he's warm for a day, but set him on fire and he's warm for the rest of his life.
Watched the first two scenes (the hit and the date with the boss's dauggirlfriend) and couldn't stomach the rest. So I'd seen the bit about "Do you know what they call a Big Mac in France?"
What does "Not a very nice person at all" refer to?
HA! I don't know of anyone else who noticed it.
"Do you know what they call a sausage in a bun in Quirm? They call it 'le sausage in le bun.'"
That was the only reference I noticed, though, since I'm an anti-fan of Tarantino.
From Witches Abroad
Granny Weatherwax: "She's my sister!"
Magrat: "They're sisters?"
Complete change of scene between those two quotes. Clever (perhaps too clever) bit of writing. One tiny example of why Pratchett is best read.
I liked it. I thought it well up to Terry's usual high standard.
My wife loved it. She thinks it's his best book ever.
Terry was obviously (too obviously at times) drawing on his formative years as a journalist, but he does a good job of exploring the differences between human interest, the public interest, and what people are actually interested in.
It was interesting to see Cmdr. Vimes in a book where he's not the main character. If you hadn't read any of the other books, I can see how Vimes would seem to be somewhat cardboard in this story. For those who know Vimes, this is an insight on what it's like to be the other side of the "Stoneface". Not that anyone should be surprised, but it reminded me that Vimes has an extremely unpleasant outer persona.
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E_NOSIG
Not only serious and pointed, but downright dark. Carpe Jugulum, in particular, startled me with its darkness. Fifth Elephant was a bit better, but again, there was a sense of impending doom, almost what one might expect to feel when being chsed by wolves.
I certianly agree that this is growth. He has matured, and his writing has become more effective on more levels, so that it conveys a point and entertains.
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
Yes, exactly. And while that can theoretically be done in cinema or TV.... It's somehow not the same. But other elements that are best read include things like, in that same book, the gollum joke. Of course you can do it with a visual gag, but it's the way he writes.
Also pretty strong are his metaphors, which are sooo outlandish.... none come to mind, but they're usually pretty good.
Finally, the footnotes are cute. The play adaptations have a guy dressed as asterisk reading those bits, but I think the effect is different.
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
Are you talking about Strata? That one is of course a prototype of the Disc concept, but I don't know if he went any further. I don't think so.... (you know, it took me three readings to figure out that those people were our ancestors. I don't pay close enough attention 8) )
;)
If you're referring to Dark Side of the Sun, I can't recall. It very well may have. That was a zany book. Even though "only redheads in 50s sitcoms are zany."
Or was that wacky? It's been a while since Equal Rites...
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
Hehehe... that's entirely possible. He does that occasionally.
One instance comes to mind... I believe he was mocking the shorthand phrase "IMHO." Some Ankh-Morporkian aristocrats are having a discussion, and Lord Rust "reflects on the fact that there is really no such thing a humble opinion."
That Pratchett. What a guy.
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
yes yes, I know, I just wasn't sure what the parent post was referring to.
;)
I finally found Dark Side of the Sun this summer (in London) and rather liked it. However, I'm not sure I would recommend it to a lot of Discworld fans, because it doesn't have a lot of the same liveliness. And no, it's certainly not DW.
I've lost track of how many times I've reread Strata, but it took me a look through the Annotated Pratchett File to confirm that yes, it was a Ringworld parody of sorts.
It's got some cute stuff, like the Reman empire and the ships disappearing off the edge of the world. But the grander concept of fossils and history and past civilizations screwing with our minds was definitely food for thought. It's like time travel; think about it enough and your head starts to hurt.
Have ye read The Carpet People? That was definitely... an experience.
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
For me, one of the funniest parts is where he's interviewed for a job as a farmhand. ("Do you know how to use a scythe?/ YES...")
Soul Music is about a new (magical) form of music, created by a band which includes a stone golum. Rock music. Obviously a take-off on (among other things) the music industry.
Pyramids includes a take-off on Egyptian history.
The Wyrd sisters start with a version of Shakespeare's 3 witches.
Sourcery starts with the idea of a Seventh Son of a Seventh Son being a wizard -- except that on discworld it's the eighth son of an Eighth son of an eighth son. The other majour character is death's grand-daughter who "takes over the family business", but -- having been trained as a tooth fairy, she keeps being mistaken as one.
Hogfather is about the christmas season gone mad (it includes the demi-god of hangovers).
In any case, just about every Pratchet story plays on various pieces of myth and history. Very little of it survives unscathed.
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Free Software: Like love, it grows best when given away.
TP does seem to be running low on original jokes, but his books have been getting increasingly plot-driven. He's human, but I don't think he's stagnating.
Am I sounding too negative? I don't really *hate* his stuff. I own everything up to about "Guards Guards" (a classic), but he has lost it.
That depends on what 'it' is. There are some books of his that are just plain forgettable, but he's got some real gems among his later stuff as well. Reaper Man, Hogfather, Small Gods, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Maskerade, and The Fifth Elephant come to mind. I believe those are all post-Guards! Guards!.
The truth shall make ye fred.
huh? you mean like the offhand comment that carrot is the true king or agnus is a werewolf? The cold air thing is a part of Detrius's charecter and has been played out consistently and well, IMHO. The "requirement" that he use trolls as trolls is no more stifling then that he continue to portray vampires as having a sun allergy.
Kahuna Burger
...will work for Chick tracts...
Even though there are 25 discworld books available, it's been fairly difficult to get ahold of the early books..
Recently, There have been a set of reprints of the first 3 books, (Colour of Magic, Light Fantastic and Equal Rights)...
The next 3 books were just rereleased (Mort, Wyrd Sisters and Sourcery)
There's still a gap of around 5-6 books between these reprints and the current in-print pratchett books, but these can be found at a number of online sellers for decent prices..
I'd recommend DreamHaven Books...
Not only are they cheap, but they've got a GREAT selection.. including the Nanny Ogg Cookbook..
Not really pink, I feel I should point out, but bright glaring day-glo orangish-pink!
And I didn't like the actual book as much as most others. I fact, I thought he had been really going downhill with the last several (didn't like Last Continent, Carpe Jugulum was ho-hum). The Truth managed to restore my faith though. :)
The last American publisher made dull covers; the current one makes them just plain awful. (The Fifth Elephant was pink, for Om's sake.) I order them from Amazon.co.uk just so I can appreciate decent art. Used to be I ordered them from overseas just so I could get them in time, but Pratchett finally seems to have landed a deal so that his books are released at the same time in America as they are in the rest of the world.
Sure you can, and for probably $6.50 at your local book shoppe. Think if it... The truth for under ten bucks, such a deal, when you consider the price of lies. ;-)
I just started reading Discworld, late last year, with Reaper Man. Great book, love the Death of Rats. Since then, Carpe Jugulem, Small Gods, Eric and Hogfather, currently on The Last Continent. Terry is the prolific writer many of us wish Douglas Adams was. He's got a great sense of off the cuff humor and his characterizations of today's trends, parody of other fiction and people is a joy.
My friends hassled me about reading Pratchett for years, I picked up a few of the books and just tucked them in the bookshelf with all the other works I plan to get to eventually and forgot about them. Nice to have a small pile of them now that I find I like them. I'm still trying to find a chronological order for the books, but it's not hugely important, as the books work well in whatever order (which is the order I'm currently working my way through them, in as straight a line as a drunk walks the streets of Ankh-Morpork.) Call me cattle, but all the book review I need is to hear that Terry has put another one together. Cheers.
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A feeling of having made the same mistake before: Deja Foobar
"The Truth" is definitely the best of the last, say, 3 Pratchett books ("The Fifth Elephant" was just plain awful--I almost swore off Pratchett entirely), but I wouldn't give it 9/10. Compare it to classic Terry: "Mort", "Small Gods", "Equal Rites", etc. Now THOSE are 9/10. TT is maybe 7/10.
If Terry intends to continue this series (and he shows no signs of slowing down) he needs to do a few things:
1) Re-read all of his existing books. This will remind him what a good book looks like AND it will refresh his memory on all the now-tired devices he's so-overused ("...through X and out the other side...", for instance).
2) Do something completely new with the series. Write a story set in a completely different area. Don't use existing characters--they have become cardboard cutouts of themselves (with the possible exception of Vetinari and Carrot). This includes CMOT Dibbler, unless it's VERY subtle.
3) Screw continuity. There's no way to reconcile many of the events that have already occurred anyway. Off-hand comments in previous books are putting more and more absurd requirements on new books (cf trolls thinking better in cold air).
Of course, if he is going to leave the Known Disc behind and scrap continuity, it might just be easier to write a book NOT in the series...
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Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
Pratchett is Adams-ish only in that they are both quintessentially British Humour Writers. However, Adams is more absurd whereas Pratchett is more satirical. If you are an American then liking one (or Monty Python, if you haven't read either) pretty much guarantees you'll like the other.
Start with the one that has the earliest copyright date you can find. It'll probably be higher quality AND it won't have so many in-jokes.
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Non-meta-modded "Overrated" mods are killing Slashdot
(Hey Ryan! Here's your proof!)
Er, um, I seem to have missed it. What was it?
There's no "we" in team, only "me"
A great deal of this book is a parody of Quentin Tarantino.
While this is funny for the first few chapers, it gets pretty old, pretty quick.
"Why is your partner always saying 'Ing'?"
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Now I've been a reader of T. Pratchett's Discworld series, ever since I found a copy of Sourcery in my mom's book case. Now, with the recent novels focusing on The Watch, Lancre, and practically everyone else in the universe except our favorit inept wizard Rincewind. Last book I remember reading of him was his trip to the counterweight continent. Now, I'm all for new charicters, but following Pratchett's track record, there's going to end up being 3 more books about this new charicter. And dangit, I miss Rincewind.
just a imho comment.
blah
No, we get ugly ass covers... And I think this one's an *improvement* over what they used to look like... And I really like the Kirby covers, too...
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http://www.mp3.com/revlogik
Terry Pratchet is hard to pin down -- is this humor? Unadulterated absurdity? Clever satire? More real than real?
This statement really drives home the existence of Anglo-American divide to me. Pratchett's a funny writer, but "hard to pin down"? Come on.
Disclaimer: I'm ashamed to admit it, but it was a couple of weeks before I noticed the pun in the title of "The Fifth Elephant"...
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It's fun surveying the field of intelligent, post-modernist fantasy, which has a sense of humor that ranges from the low parody and groaner (Aspirin's Myth books), through Pratchett's prototypical British comedies, to the delicate sarcasm leavened with moments of slapstick that mark Stephen Brust's Phoenix Guards (light) and Taltos series (dark), to the truly dark and nihilist humor of authors like Jonathan Lethem.
All modern fantasies are necessarily referential; they harken back to our extended common history of myth, folk tale, and legend. And any reference is a potential source of humor. Even Tolkien's works contain jokes, though they happen to be of the extremely subtle linguistic and etymological variety. But Fritz Lieber's Swords of Lankhmar series is probably the first great series which combined a classic heroic style with many elements of humor, from the subtle to the surprisingly silly.
Fantasy is such a rich field for humor, in all its varieties, including Douglas Adams's absurdist works, and the modern American fabulists, like Tim Powers and James P. Blaylock (I just checked on Amazon, and surprise surprise! People who buy Blaylock buy Tim Powers), whose books point the way for fantasy to take place in the modern world, without descending into self-serious allegory or just relying on the tired "lonely grad student/librarian/RPG player/fantasy reader analogue finds a dimensional portal/gets caught in a spell/tornado/satanic plot and finds himself in a fantasy world in which he/she is a master wizard" trope.
Going out on a limb, some other unusual and brilliant fantastic authors and books include Italo Calvino's Invisible Cities and Geoff Ryman's The Child Garden: or a Low Comedy, which really falls into the SF camp, but is a child of both the best fantasy and SF. But it's a very weird and complicated book; I don't know what my reaction to it would have been if I were younger. But anyone who thinks Douglas Adams is funny, and knows at least who Dante and Marx were, and what Europe went through during the World Wars, will probably find this book an entrancing tale. At its heart it's a classic story of adolescence and lost innocence.
For a more straightforward take on the same themes, Philip Pullman's "His Dark Materials" series is miles and miles better than the other currently popular young adult British schoolchild wizardry and adolescence series, starring a certain Hogwarts student. Please read these, as these are near-perfect moving, exciting, and deeply affecting books that can inspire the young and allow the old to remember what it was like to be young. I could be wrong, but I suspect this series is the kind which adults overestimate the minimum age to appreciate these books--kids who can read Potter and Dahl and Narnia and Tolkien can read these. Also, the only reason people think these are kid's books is that the author made his name as a children's author. These are no more and no less kids books than the Lord of the Rings or Discworld or the Foundation Series.
Finally, for Pullman meets Powers and Zelazny, check out Tom De Haven's Chronicles of the King's Tramp.
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Make mine methylphenidate.
I'm a big Pratchett fan (my summer trip to London finally let me complete my book collection), and eagerly awaiting the Thief of Time (April 2001). However, what worries me is concepts like cartoons and movies of DW.
OK, Pratchett's got the British humor and slapstick thing down pat, and he's really funny, but the "low humor" elements are NOT what make the writing. For me, the best part of Pratchett is his masterful command of the English lanugage, his clever wordplay and creative methods. All stuff that translates poorly into theatre and worse into a cartoon.
Pratchett is not just about things like "The Hedgehog can Never be Buggered at All." You can amek a cartoon with that, a cartoon with pahllus jokes, with all sorts of visual gags and one-liners. But that's not what his work is about. It's about ideas (Small Gods is brilliant), it's about society (Soul Music, The Truth, etc.), and it's about the writing. Espiecally intersting his ability to make his own unique style mimic, chameleon-style, a genre like the cop thriller or th travelogue.
Well, I had been working on a review of The Truth for my school online paper (silverchips.mbhs.edu), but other stuff had gotten in the way. I guess I'd bvetter get back to it.
PS. Quick review of non-DW books: Having read and enjoyed Niven's Ringworld, I found Pratchett's Strata to be quite fun. The Dark Side of the Sun is sort of a Foundation parody, and not as engaging as DW, but still fun. The Carpet People is VERY early Pratchett, and astute readers of his work will notice many prototype ideas and jokes. Finally, Good Omens (co-written with Neil Gaiman) is a very enjoyable book about the apocalypse. A bit more of the "low-humor" there, but that's not a bad thing. The former three are out of print in the US, but you never know....
-J
Karma: T-rexcellent.
The Truth is somewhat different than his earlier novels. He's getting more serious, and more pointed, in his satire. While previous novels, like Soul Music and Moving Pictures parodied the music industry and the motion picture industry, they did so in a very light, almost fluffy way.
The Truth is different. His wit has been sharpened, and he has far more to say about modern society in this novel than in previous ones.
He has grown from being merely a well- spoken humorist to a clever commentator on modern society. His background as a reporter for a newspaper has served him well in this book.
The truth shall make ye fret.Never play leapfrog with a unicorn. Or a juggernaut.
Whenever a writer establishes a long and successful history with a particular universe, there are always, always, fans who insist that the writer needs to write more books exactly like their first one or first few. Pratchett is one of the few "enterprise" writers who sticks to his existing universe, yet is always trying to come up with something new to do in it. He doesn't make it new every time -- he often returns to Ankh-Morpork, the three witches and Lancre, and of course Death -- but every few novels he's managed to produce something genuinely new from the nearly unlimited creative potential that is the Disc.
Feel free to post reviews, critiques, and opinions. But please don't take it upon yourself to tell him how to do his job.
exists in an improbably universe on the shores of the bell curve of reality. It it a largish disc, with a central mountain range, with the impossibly large 'Cori Celesti' mountain in the center. It rotates on this axis as it sits on the head of four elephants. (The fifth elephant is thought to have impacted the disc in a Yucatan-style asteroid impact, leaving massive seams of fat and ivory deep beneath the Uberwald Mountains) The elephants in turn sit on the back of the Great A'tuin, the 'world turtle', as often mentioned in asian mytholgy. There is obviously no such thing as cardinal directions on the disc. Instead, they have radial directions, Hubwards, Rimwards, Spinwise, and Widdershins. The disc has a high magical field due to the existence of vast amounts of 'octiron', a magical element, in the crust of disc. The counterwieght continent (inhabited by Asian peoples) is thought to consist largely of gold and octiron. Due to the high density of the magical field, the speed of light is much slower in the atmosphere of the disc. One can watch light fill a valley as if it was water. Pratchet's stories about the Discworld cross back and forth between fantasy and satire. 'The Colour of Magic' and 'Equal Rites' are both mostly fantasy adventure books while 'Small Gods', for example, is a look at religous persecution as carried out during the Spanish inquisition. 'Masquerade' was a parody/satire on modern opera. They're worth reading, but have gotten repetitive in the last five books or so.
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I really like Tolkien (note that this is the correct spelling) and I really like Pratchett too. Ranking one over the other is like trying to decide whether Linux is better than a Corvette. They ain't in the same category.
The Truth isn't the best of Pratchett's novels. Try Small Gods for a nasty take on authoritarian religion, classic Greece, and turtle soup.
I think it's safe to say that Tolkien would've hated computers along with all other embodiments of the "modern." He didn't like automobiles, for instance. "ash nazg" & all that.
For a real geek novel, read Neal Stephenson's Cryptonomicon. (I'm not saying I spelt his name right.
Slightly off-topic, but if you're new to Pratchett, there are a couple of things to know.
Pratchett has a couple of different subjects that he bases his books on. I break them up into 5 categories: Death, Witches, Rincewind, the Watch, and Miscellaneous.
Starting points for each category:
Death: "Mort" - The "Death" storylines tend to focus on Discworld's Death and his (adopted) grand-daughter, Susan. Death gets notions into his head regarding humans and wackiness ensues.
Witches: "Equal Rites" - The "Witches" storylines focus on a trio of small-town witches and their escapades. I consider these to be the least interesting.
Rincewind: "The Color of Magic" - Rincewind is the worst wizard in the world. He and whatever companions he can find go on, once again, wacky misadventures and tend to save the world. Rincewind is the definitive Pratchett character; he's a craven, cowardly wizard who keeps inadvertently doing the right thing while trying to save his own hide. Definitely my favorites.
Guards: "Guards! Guards!" - Commander Vimes and his watchmen solve the mysteries of Ankh-Morpork, the primary city of Pratchett's books. The character evolution in these books is incredible. I love all of these books.
Miscellaneous: I liked "Good Omens" (written with Neil Gaiman) a lot. There are lots of others, though.
Enjoy your Pratchett experience; I'm very happy that I accidentally discovered him in a used bookstore.
Tolkein is well and good, but Pratchett's Discworld is NOT un-rich or un-believable. Ankh-Morpork has an actual economy. There are people with actual jobs, making the city run. Golems, trolls, dwarfs, gnomes, vampires, werewolves, and witches all interact in a plausible network, doing valuable work with a sensible division of labor.
Hardly. The "Guards" stories, Feet of Clay being my favorite, are technically police-procedural mysteries, worthy of favorable comparison to Ed McBain's 87th Precinct books - but the stories would not work outside of a fantasy setting. The "Witches" story arc broke new ground in the genre with practically every book, deconstructing fantasy cliche after fantasy cliche, and giving new life to some very tired ideas. The fantastic elements of the stories are integral and necessary, not a "marketing gimmick".
Pratchett is unquestionably in the vanguard of fantasy authors, having inheirited that position from the late Avram Davidson. There's more to Fantasy than Tolkein (although, again, I am not dissing Tolkein - he produced great stuff, which is none the worse for its age). Great new works are still being produced, and should not be dismissed just because they are popular and funny.
-- Jeff Paulsen
Let's try doing this properly (minor SPOILERS ahead):