Ankh-Morpork had dallied with many forms of government and had ended up with that form of democracy known as One Man, One Vote. The Patrician was the Man; he had the Vote.
Terry Pratchett
Mort
Tag Archives: Terry Pratchett
Quote of the Day – Terry Pratchett – Good Omens
God does not play dice with the universe; He plays an ineffable game of his own devising, which might be compared, from the perspective of any of the other players, to being involved in an obscure and complex version of poker in a pitch dark room, with blank cards, for infinite stakes, with a dealer who won’t tell you the rules, and who smiles all the time.
Terry Pratchett
Good Omens – with Neil Gaiman
Quote of the Day – General Tacticus
He was trying to find some help in the ancient military journals of General Tacticus, whose intelligent campaigning had been so successful that he’d lent his very name to the detailed prosecution of martial endeavour, and had actually found a section headed What to Do If One Army Occupies a Well-fortified and Superior Ground and the Other Does Not, but since the first sentence read “Endeavour to be the one inside” he’d rather lost heart.
Terry Pratchett
Carpe Jugulum
Going Postal – Richard Coyle, David Suchet, Charles Dance and Claire Foy
Going Postal is the third Terry Pratchett book to be turned into a TV movie by Sky Television and is probably the best of the bunch.
It follows Moist von Lipwig (Richard Coyle), who is given the opportunity to revive the ailing Ankh Morpork postal service. This brings him into conflict with Reacher Gilt (David Suchet) who runs the “clacks” service, their main rival.
Charles Dance plays Havelock Ventinari the ruler of Ankh Morpork and is suitable imposing in this role. I was a little disappoint with the casting of Mustrum Ridcully (Timothy West) as I’ve always imagined Brian Blessed playing the part. The cast in the main does a good job, but I think some of the humour in the original book is lost in the translation to TV. I also have to say that the golems looked pretty pathetic, and they are far from being the imposing figures they are in the books.
Rating: 
Unseen Academicals – Terry Pratchett
Before I start I should probably point out that I am a massive Terry Pratchett fan. I’ve been reading the Discworld books for the best part of twenty years (god I’m old) and I own all of them (some I’ve bought twice as I’ve worn the original out!).
I have to admit that the books have become a bit more hit and miss over recent years. I really enjoyed Going Postal and Making Money, but I really did not like Nation at all. Unseen Academicals fits somewhere in the middle. The book is amusing in places, but the football story line feels a little bit contrived. It isn’t as well written as most of the other books, but its not completely terrible. It’s just a bit meh. If you want to get into Terry P, Lords and Ladies, Small Gods or Interesting Times are a much better bet.
Overall rating: 3/5
You can buy Unseen Academicals here