Bromeliad is also called the Nome trilogy. The books are Truckers, Diggers, and Wings. (and the XKCD tribute to Sir Terry when he died spoils a quote from it). Hope that helps!

I wrote up a lengthy comment yesterday not realizing it was going to be a Q & A. :D So, a reminder and a question.

On April 21, 2014, Mark finished reading The Color of Magic and concluded his review, “With that, I can’t believe I’ve already finished my first Discworld book, I get to write my first Discworld predictions post, and THIS BOOK ENDED ON AN ENTIRELY UNFAIR CLIFFHANGER. Wow, this is unreal, and I had so much fun reading this. I’m glad that people were wrong, that I ended up enjoying the first book in this fictional universe as much as I did. That means that somehow, there are better books than this one? SOMEHOW???”

Truly, you were not prepared. :D :D :D

The question: someone asks you how to describe Discworld. What is it about? What is it like?

How do you respond?

I’m so glad the afterward of The Shepherd’s Crown was included in the final commission. (The only one of my copies of the books in which the author bio on the back is in past tense [sobs]). Of all the books Terry didn’t get to, I’m saddest that we never got “Twilight Canyons.” I want to know how "the old folk solve the mystery of a missing treasure and defeat the rise of a Dark Lord despite their failing memories." It would have been so powerful for people living with dementia (or traumatic brain injury, or stroke) to read a story like that, written by someone with Alzheimer’s. I know that as someone who loves someone with dementia it would have been very special for me.

Now Mark knows why it is so difficult to name one’s favorite Discworld book. Now he knows why when someone asks which Discworld book to read, fans starting quizzing them about the types of stories they like (or rattle off a list of 5 books in short order).

My personal favorite “series” or the Witches books and the Watch books; I genuinely think Granny Weatherwax and Sam Vimes are among my favorite characters in literature. These books speak to Terry Pratchett’s love of story, and belief in justice. My favorite standalones are Small Gods and Monstrous Regiment. They speak to both how characters move in their societies and how they can change those societies, degree by degree.

I think of Tiffany: “I’m made up of everyone I’ve ever met who’s changed the way I think.” Discworld has certainly changed the way I think, and I will carry the worlds it opened to me in my thinking and writing. So many Discworld quotes speak to me in my life.

When I try to explain what travel means to me, I again quote Tiffany: “Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.”

When I think of the afterlife I can only hope to someday walk the dark sand with my beliefs, and meet Death, who loves cats, and handled my sweet Pumpkin, Shadow, and Chookie gently.

Among the many things I am thinking now, in this heartbreaking spring of 2020, is Vimes’ insistence that a watchman is a civilian.
*
I do hope that someday in the future, Mark reads Nation and the Bromeliad Trilogy. Not necessarily for this site even, he’s given this single author plenty of his time. But in a year of two, it could be very special to encounter Sir Terry’s mind again, to smile over another footnote. They are very special books to me.

Many thanks to Mark for sharing this journey with us. To quote another giant of fantasy: “I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”

GNU, Sir Terry, and thank you.

In keeping with Pratchett's habit of toying with an idea in one book and returning to it in a later book in a much more expanded and full way, there's a very similar "elderly witch waiting for her appointment with death [Death]" in an early chapter of Mort.

And I love the quote that Mark highlighted, but I would start it slightly sooner. "Tiffany sat on a stump and cried a bit, because it needed to be done." I always think of that when I think about allowing oneself to grieve. (That, and Gandalf's “I will not say: do not weep; for not all tears are an evil.”)

It is a mark of skilled writing to know a character for only four chapters, but to know her and grieve her so well as Miss Treason. May she enjoy her ham sandwich (regardless of the missing mustard).

I'd love that, but would also respect him taking a break from Pratchett.

That's lovely, thanks for sharing.

Interesting... despite Mark feeling there was no humor in the Walk, I indeed read it as humor- an exaggerated bit of slapstick. tbh I've never really cared for slapstick because of how it laughs at people getting hurt, but stepping on a roller-skate or in some dog poop definitely feels analogous. I read the heightened, dramatic language as one way Pratchett finds humor (in juxtaposing tones).

The funniest part for me are the "postman's oaths" (which I see someone else noted above). You'd expect in a ritual like this for the oaths to be solemn statements about the postperson's duties, gloom of night and such, and instead the "oaths" are the expletives from day to day hassles.

I don't think Moist was ever in much danger of more injury than the knocked-head/stubbed toe variety (not to belittle those injuries- they really hurt!), except perhaps from the dogs. Though as people have noted, dogs respond to tone and to confident calm. It's a nice little sequence that is pretty accurate to dog behavior, while simultaneously furthering both Moist's luck and his ability to talk himself out of dicey situations.

Editing to add: I would just love for live commentary on the Walk from Gaspode. :)

Life has been a bit overwhelming as of late, but I had to pop in for one of my favorite chapters. Mr.Pump's eloquent analysis of the harm of financial crimes ranks right up there with the Sam Vimes "boots" theory of economic unfairness.

I find myself charmed by Moist-his cleverness, his ability to read people- even knowing he's ruined lives and of his transactional approach to relationships. That is some excellent character development by Terry Pratchett.

And Mark's reaction to GNU was lovely. It is sad, but knowing Terry Pratchett lives on through his books, his fans, and in the very code of the internet brings sweetness to the sadness.

Not a terribly exciting cover, but since I haven't seen it yet.... My copy is a US paperback that combines Wee Free Men and Hat Full of Sky into 1 book they call "The Wee Free Men: The Beginning."

I’m going to repeat the quote again, because it’s so meaningful to me, and honestly one of my favorite quotes in all of Discworld:

Why do you go away? So that you can come back. So that you can see the place you came from with new eyes and extra colors. And the people there see you differently, too. Coming back to where you started is not the same as never leaving.

I’ve had the privilege to travel far. I’ve lived in a vibrant large city 6000 miles from the town where I was born (10000 km for sensible metric people on the site), and gotten pleasantly lost for a while in places where I don’t speak the local languages and few people speak mine. Yet now, I live an hour’s drive from my hometown. And just like Tiffany says that anyone who’s ever changed the way she thinks is part of her, all those miles and cities are now a part of me.

I’ve come back (close) to where I’ve started, but going away and coming back again has been so integral to my development as a person. And I’m so grateful to Terry Pratchett for putting it into words.

(I don’t think I’m in for the Science book, but looking forward to Going Postal in a couple weeks).