The CR Discworlders Club

let us know how it goes!

where did everyone go?

Crivens! Bigjobs!

notasheep – Was a bit busy finishing a TMA due for tomorrow noon. But I’m back now! Well til Thursday when I’m not sure if I’ll have internet til after Pesach, but hey…

OOM – So we have another Neil Gaiman fan… Whod’ve thunk it…

I started reading Gaiman after reading Good Omens. Interesting author, my favorite book so far is American Gods.

OOM: Don’t misunderstand me- I thought the writing was great. I just wasn’t obsessed with the story. I’ll check those out! (I get this feeling that I started American Gods once- I don’t know what happened.)

Agreed. Coraline was super creepy. His comics are even creepier, but they are very “adult” so not exactly appropriate.

My other favorite Gaiman work, though, is probably his first short story collection (called Candles and Shadows or something like that) that has quite a few non-horror non-fantasy stories which were hilarious and touching.

OOM: He’s writing a Who episode?!?!

Sounds cool! Did he write any others?

Is American Gods the one that starts with a guy getting released from prison? I’m 99% sure I started it…

OOM – Smoke and Mirrors was good, but if I remember rightly there were one or two stories that should be skipped. Fragile Things was much better, but I’ll have to disagree with you and say my favourite was either the zombies in New Orleans or the club where they eat endangered species.

writersoul – I’m also going to recommend getting into Gaiman via Neverwhere, though Stardust is also a good bet for new Gaimanites. Or, as notasheep recommended, Coraline – witty and creepy and not too complicated plot-wise (unlike some of the others…)

Right, so we’ve covered Pratchett, Adams and Gaiman so who else here reads Tom Holt?

Yes, I thought so a bit at one point, but a) he’s reasonably egalitarian in whom he mocks, and actually, monotheism seems to be very low on his list of subjects for satire, and b) he seems to be more of a skeptic than an atheist, like he wouldn’t commit to totally making fun and he did have some respect. The one thing that I think he thoroughly made ridiculous was polytheism, but he’s made fun of practically EVERYTHING. Including, if I remember rightly, some form of atheism, but yeah.

Honestly, though, I feel sometimes like his satires are so satirical they cease to be satirical and then kind of sprout lives of their own, kind of as separated from the real religious beliefs. I’m personally quite ready to believe that the Discworld just has some really weirdo gods swooping up there, but that’s because after a while, when you think of it as a satirized Earth, the satire gets so heavy that you realize- there’s a total disconnect from the real thing.

But most of all, these are Pratchett’s books and the entire point of sci-fi and fantasy is that the author can invent his/her own world. If you want to read, it, do, and if not, don’t. Remember, this is HIS world- YOU are an intruder :).

Gaiman wrote The Doctor’s Wife?

Explains a lot.

OOM: Interesting. Do you agree with the idea of art for arts’ sake? Does this imply that art should not be influenced by moral values?

To my understanding, that would be the opposite of ??? ?????? ???? ?????? ????? ??.

OOM, from your quote: “His business is but to describe those who have been speaking or thinking about God and pessimism, how and under what circumstances. The artist should be not the judge of his characters and their conversations, but only an unbiased observer.”

This is a focus on aesthetics that is associated with ???. I am referring to the concept that we don’t believe that art should be objective, it should be sanctified for kedusha.

OOM: Just took Neverwhere out of the library for Pesach and looked at the flap, so I actually know what you’re talking about! Cool! That furthers my and my friend’s idea that there’s a whole fraternity of sci-fi-fantasy authors who meet in a smoke-filled room and plan Doctor Who episodes :).

OOM – Sorry about the late reply but had no internet over pesach… It’s difficult to know where to start with Tom Holt, maybe his latest, “Life, Liberty and the Pursuit of Sausages” or one of the Paul Carpenter series (though these should be read in order), the first is “The Portable Door”. Or, if you have any sort of slight kind of interest in various forms of ancient mythologies from around the world, some of the earlier ones like “Who’s afraid of Beowulf”, “Expecting Someone Taller” or “Grailblaizers”. Definitely DO NOT start with “Falling Over Sideways” or “Little People”. Apart from that, knock yourself out!

Any word longer than ‘beer’ is a long word for a Nac Mac Feegle

OOM – So I tell you they need to be read in order and you go out and buy the third one first… *sigh*

Yep!

It’s one of those awesome books where each time you read it you find something you missed the first time. Just re- (re- re-) read it and realized I’d completely missed so many cool details that made it even better.

The kind of thing that really makes you feel better about an 8 hour afternoon with the same books you already read three times over Pesach… 🙂

notasheep – Never mind you read Neverwhere, you owned a copy of it… (Well, I yarshened it to you, but still…)

notasheep – BTW, do you know where my copy of Good Omens got to?

I lent it to someone a while back and thought it might have been you… Never mind…