Terry Pratchett

Great Britain, 28.4.1948

Born in Beaconsfield. In 1959 he entered Wycomb Technical High School. The first story "The Hades Business" was published in a school magazine in 1961, and in 1963 the same story appeared in a professional publication. In 1965 he left school for journalism. In 1971 he published his first novel, The Carpet People. Pratchett's real success came in 1983 with the publication of The Color of Magic, a brilliant humorous-fantasy novel, which began the grandiose Discworld best-seller cycle, now numbering more than 20 books. Currently, Pratchett is one of the most widely read British writers, for his contribution to literature he was awarded in 1998 the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire.

According to statistics, Pratchett was the most widely read author in the UK during the 1990s, with more hardcover books sold than any other living writer. By some estimates, his books account for approximately 1% of all books sold in the UK.

This year. Already at the age of thirteen his first story was published. During his life, the writer managed to write more than 70 books, of which forty novels make up his most popular cycle - "The Flat World".

short biography

The writer's birthday is April 28. He was born in 1948. In 1965, Terry left school with the consent of his parents and began working as a journalist. Through this work, he met Peter van Daren, a publisher. Pratchett told him about his first novel. And in 1971 his book "Carpet People" was published. Thus began the real career of Terry Pratchett as a writer.

Probably, Terry Pratchett was destined to become a writer. His parents are from the town of Hay-on-Wye, which is called the "city of books." This city is a dream for all book lovers, as many second-hand bookshops as there are probably nowhere else to be found. And, as they say, the love of books was simply passed on to the writer by genes, he had no choice - he was doomed to write. Although at first Terry did not really like to read, but the parents, who themselves loved books, slipped the child Graham's story "The Wind in the Willows", with which the boy's love for literature began. Terry's second love was astronomy. And, perhaps, he would have become an astronomer, but he did not teach mathematics well at school, and this profession was not available to him.

In 2007, the writer was overcome by an illness - Alzheimer's disease. And the author was already preparing for voluntary euthanasia, but in March 2015, the disease got ahead of him. The writer worked almost until his last days. When he could not write, he slandered texts.

The Beginning of Discworld

Flat World appeared in 1983. The first novel was The Color of Magic. In 1986 and 1987, the next two novels of the cycle were published: Mad Star and Spellmakers.

Since 1987, the writer quits his job and since then has been engaged only in writing. His books are gaining popularity and become bestsellers.

Terry Pratchett: Discworld - Book Reading Order

The cycle is quite voluminous and unusual. Until now, the writer's fans are arguing about how Pratchett Terry himself would like his books to be read. The reading order is constantly changing. The author's fans make graphs and tables. The easiest way is to read chronological books. That is, in the order in which the books were written by Terry Pratchett. The order of reading in this case should not cause discussion.

The catch is that, besides fantasy novels, the author also wrote stories and scientific novels, also included in the cycle. And some readers prefer to skip them, while others recommend them for mandatory reading. Yes, Pratchett Terry managed to puzzle his readers. The reading order of the first books is divided mainly into two variants. First: "The Color of Magic", then "Mad Star", then "Staff and Hat" and after "Interesting Times". The second option: the first book remains unchanged, followed by Mad Star, followed by the story The Bridge of the Trolls, followed by Interesting Times and the novel The Last Continent. Perhaps one of the most FAQ readers: "Terry Pratchett, reading order?" 2014 was crowned with the last completed book by this writer, and now, by 2017, the Eksmo publishing house plans to release all of Pratchett's books. This is certainly a joy for fans of his work. This science fiction writer with an excellent sense of humor left behind a great legacy. Many people love him. There are probably no people in Russia who would not hear the name Pratchett Terry. The order of reading books is not so important if you like his works. They are all equally interesting. And every book deserves to be the first.

How to get started with a writer

Another important dilemma is the question of which book to start getting acquainted with the work of the author, if the reader is not familiar with him yet. Opinions are divided in this case. Every lover of the writer's work has its own subjective point of view. Some suggest reading something outside of the series, such as The Unvarnished Cat, a humorous book written by Pratchett Terry. The reading order in this case does not matter. You can read non-series books in any order. Others advise starting with Discworld, but absolutely with any book, not necessarily the first. Indeed, despite the fact that books were written in series, Terry Pratchett did not impose any reading order on anyone, and all novels are autonomous. And they can be read in any order.

Comedians are eczema on the body of society.
Palam Grenville Wodehouse

Good humor is necessary, like a breath of air, because being able to laugh at yourself and others is not a way of existence in our crazy world? And here, a witty book will come in handy, telling about serious things in an easy and accessible form, unobtrusively making you think about the eternal problems of our being with you ...

It is these books that include "The Flat World" - the most popular cycle of humorous fantasy ever written by anyone, which has long gained cult status throughout the reading world.

Discworld by Terry Pratchett

The mirror of all other worlds is the true essence of Pratchett's creation. The Discworld universe, its inhabitants and the events that happen to them can be absolutely fantastic. But familiar lines peep through them, and behind the author's sly smile, the reader faces the very real problems of our world in full growth.

The cycle began as a frank parody of fantasy clichés and its most popular representatives, but then outgrew the limits of witty scoffing, acquiring independent value.

Multi-volume serials are the scourge of fantasy: the first few novels are usually always better than the next ones. Even the most talented authors are not spared from this misfortune. Jordan, Cook, Card, Asprin, Norton, Goodkind, Bujold - sad examples can be cited almost endlessly. Terry Pratchett is perhaps the only author to have happily escaped this trap. But only adult novels about the Discworld, there are more than 40 pieces!

The main reason, of course, is talent. In addition, Pratchett writes not just fantasy - in his work he relies on the traditions of British classics. He borrowed the tricks of the literary style from the most popular English humorist of the 20th century, Pelam Grenville Wodehouse, and the satirical orientation of his books is reminiscent of the work of Evelyn Waugh.

However, there is something else. The flat world consists of several cycles, each of which has its own central characters and its own theme. Some books are not included in the cycles at all, although intersections are still possible - the world is a common one! Maybe that's why the Discworld is not boring, although, of course, not everyone likes it.

Terry Pratchett

Pratchett and his heroes. Portrait by Paul Kidby

Terrence David John Pratchett is an English writer, one of the brightest authors of humorous fantasy. Born in the British city of Beaconsfield on April 28, 1948, died on March 12, 2015.

While still at Wycomb Technical High School, he published his first story in a student magazine. Two years later, in 1963, he published the same story in a professional publication. Immediately after graduation, he became a journalist for crime chronicles, then worked as a press attache for three nuclear power plants at once. In 1971, his first novel, Carpet People, was published. Real success came in 1983 with the publication of the humorous fantasy novel The Color of Magic, from which the grandiose cycle Discworld began.

Pratchett is one of the most widely read British writers. For his contribution to literature, he was awarded the title of Commander of the Order of the British Empire and became a knight. All novels in the cycle were regularly among the national British bestsellers, which is rare for science fiction. A number of books have been filmed, and several computer games and comics. Pratchett's novels have been translated into almost every major language and have been published many times around the world. The writer lived in Somersetshire with his wife Lynn and daughter Rihanna.

Discworld Heroes

The most inept and cowardly wizard on the Disc

Cautious mage-clumsy Rincewind lives on the principle of "no matter what happens." His cherished dream is to get lost in the darkest corner of a seedy tavern with a mug of beer and a well-filled straw. Nevertheless, with enviable constancy he gets into dangerous adventures, fraught with serious health problems.

The first novels in the Rincewind cycle are pure parody. Gets here and Howard, and McCaffrey, and Leiber, and Lovecraft. "The Color of Magic" (1983) and "Mad Star" (1986) are connected by a semblance of a through plot (later Pratchett did not make such a mistake - the danger of slipping into the path of endless "sequelization" is painfully great).

…In the great city of Ankh-Morpork, the first tourist from the mysterious Agate Empire arrives, the ingenuous Twoflower. And since in the Great City they can be slaughtered even for a worn out sole, then, in order to avoid an international scandal, the ruler Lord Vetinari entrusts Rincewind with the role of a guide to a muddler-tourist. The price of a mistake is the head ...

In the next book, The Staff and the Hat (1988), Rincewind saves the entire Discworld by reining in the presumptuous Magician, a supermage whose existence tears the fabric of Reality to shreds. At the same time, the hero falls into the Underground Dimensions, where monsters live. But Rincewind is too tough for them! And when the child prodigy Eric summons a demon capable of fulfilling the most unimaginable desires of a 14-year-old boy, it is Rincewind (Eric, 1990) that appears in the center of the magical octogram ...

In the future, the unsuccessful magician ends up in the Agate Empire on the eve of the invasion of the Silver Horde by Genghis Cohen the Barbarian and the conspiracy of the Red Army ("Interesting Times", 1994) ... And then - to the lost continent XXXX, counting the last days of its dry existence ("The Last Continent", 1998). In a few more books, Rincewind stalks in the background or huddles in dark corners in his own shyly charming manner...

Witches and Company

Witch stories - the formidable Esme Weatherwax, the broken-hearted Nanny Ogg, and the naive Magrat Chesnogk - also began as parodies. "Spellmakers" (1987) - a mockery of feminist fantasy: a little girl decides to become a great sorceress, which has never happened before in the Discworld. And if it weren’t for Mother Weatherwax, who even stops a galloping elephant, young Esk has equal rights with men not to see her ears ... The Prophetic Sisters (1988) is an original reworking of Shakespeare's plays, a kind of hybrid of Hamlet with Macbeth. In Witches Abroad (1991), Magrat Chesnogk travels to foreign countries to fulfill the duties of a Fairy Godmother. But will experienced witches let her go alone? Especially in a country where old fairy tales seem to have gone crazy? And then the witches deal with the elves, who, for their own and others' misfortune, decided to return to the world of people ("Ladies and Gentlemen", 1992), with the Phantom of the Ankh-Morpork Opera ("Masquerade", 1995), with vampires ("Carpe Jugulum Grab your throat!", 1998). Several books for teenagers adjoin the cycle, main character which is the young witch Tiffany.

Long live Death!

This cycle tells about the adventures of Death and his family. In principle, this Death is a pretty good guy, if you look at him closer. But most people simply do not have enough time for this. And so Death is not alien to the usual human joys: he can go fishing, and throw himself into a tavern. In general, yours on the board! Coffin…

In order to get rid of his adopted daughter, Death takes an apprentice (“Mor is Death's apprentice”, 1987); the guy, however, is a dolt, but quite trainable. And when his patron decides to arrange a short vacation for himself, More, although not without difficulty, but still quite tolerably copes with his new duties.

And one morning, Death, as usual, decided to check the lists of potential customers. And he found himself in the lists ... himself ("The Grim Reaper", 1991). In "Fatal Music" (1994), his granddaughter Susan takes over the duties of a newly spreeful Death. And the girl has her own problems up to her neck - she was carried away by the half-elf Buddy, the newly-minted apostle of the "rock music" that swept the Discworld. Sometimes Death has to perform functions that are absolutely unusual for him - for example, to deliver gifts to children on Terrible ("Santa-Hryakus", 1996). And the thing is that the good grandfather Santa was "ordered" by the Guild of Assassins...

Oh, the guard gets up early ...

In the great city of Ankh-Morpork, everyone is busy. Only the Night Guard is an absolutely useless agency, a place of exile for chronic losers. The guards roam the streets at night and quietly, so that no one can hear, they shout: “Midnight, and everything is in order!”. But here's a mad sorcerer, trying to seize power, summoned the Dragon, and the entire established Order burned like a candle ("Guard! Guard!", 1989). And the time has come for Captain Vimes and his men. They have to catch a mysterious sniper armed with the Discworld's first gun ("To Arms! To Arms!", 1993) and solve a series of mysterious murders ("Feet of Clay", 1996).

And Samuel Vimes, who has become a duke and commander from a simple captain, must still prevent a war (“Patriot”, 1997), go on a diplomatic mission to the country of vampires (“The Fifth Elephant”, 1999), prevent a war between gnomes and trolls (“Shmyak!” , 2005). And we must constantly keep our eyes open, because if you are not in the right place and at the right time, you can lose everything (“Night Watch”, 2002). Even on vacation, the commander is not given a quiet life - after all, crimes happen in the pastoral hinterland (“The Case of Tobacco”, 2011)

Drawing by Josh Kirby
Drawing by Paul Kidby

Josh Kirby (1928–2001) and Paul Kidby (born 1964) are deservedly considered the best illustrators of Discworld.

Great Schemer

Patrician Vetinari always sees the root. And even in the most lost little man he is able to discern a golden nugget and pull it out - if necessary, along with the giblets. This is how the ruler of Ankh-Morpork introduced useful cause the hardened swindler Moist von Lipwig, who at first worked out of fear (the price of failure is the head), and then got a taste, undertaking to work hard on his conscience (and the heads flew already from others). First, Moist set up the Ankh-Morpork post office in the novel Keep Your Mark! (Going Postal, 2004), then spent monetary reform in the novel Making Money (“Make Money”, 2007), and there already his crazy hands and dodgy brains reached out to the flat-world scientific and technological revolution - the novel Raising Steam (“Full Steam”, 2013).

Other inhabitants of the Discworld

Patrician- Ruler of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Havelock Vetinari, outstanding personality, the embodiment of the ideal sovereign. "Under his rule, for the first time in a thousand years, Ankh-Morpork functioned." Exceptionally honest, moderate in needs, not noticed in vices. She spends her evenings reading business papers, occasionally "allowing herself such an exciting experience as playing chess." Killing someone is never guided by personal motives, everything is for the good of the state. “We must give the patrician his due. Otherwise, he will send his people and take this due himself.

Illustrated by Paul Kidby

Box- made from Pear Sapient, growing in the habitats of ancient untamed magic. A healthy box on a hundred legs, which fits the whole universe, and not even one. Everywhere follows the owner. He knows how to wash clothes and bite (most often to death) various bad types.

Illustration by Paul Kidby

What happens to the characters when they get old? You were a hefty kingpin with an agram sword, but you became a toothless old fart with gouty knees ... But, the last boy scout of the Discworld, a hero always remains. He even managed to become the Lord of the Agate Empire.

Illustration by Paul Kidby

Librarian- an orangutan, although he was not always one (transformed due to an unplanned leak of magic in the Unseen University, but refused to become a man again). Very intelligent, exceptionally strong, loves his job, takes payment in bananas, True, lexicon somewhat limited ("u-uk" - for all occasions).

The coolest sausage vendor in Ankh-Morpork. Saying “I-I-cut-without-a-knife”, he sucks in another dupe the freshest pork sausage from the meat of a rat that died three years ago. It is strange that with such talents he did not really get rich.

A pair of each creature ...

There are also separate novels devoted to very serious issues. The winner of the British Prize of the NF "Pyramids" (1989) narrates about power and fate, about religion - "Small Gods" (1992), about magic power art - "Moving Pictures" (1990), about the hard lot of a journalist - "Pravda" (2000), about time paradoxes - "The Thief of Time" (2001), about heroism - "The Last Hero" (2001), about the war - "Infantry ballad" (2003).

Children are not left behind. The first of the children's books about the Discworld, The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (2001) - about an intelligent cat Maurice, who struck up a friendship with a colony of very intelligent rats - was even awarded the Carnegie Medal, the most prestigious awards in the field of children's literature.

Discworld Cosmogony

“The great cosmic turtle A’Tuin carries on its back the world-Disk, which is supported by elephants: Beryllia, Tubul, Great T’Fon and Jerrakin… From the Edge of this world, the ocean endlessly pours its waters into the universal night.”

A small sun revolves around the Disk in a constant orbit, illuminating the Territory, and the Pole-Navel is covered with permafrost. There are eight seasons, a week consists of eight days, a spectrum of eight colors. And somewhere near the world of people and gods there are Chaotic Dungeon Dimensions, where the Creatures that feed on magic live. One has only to loosen up the Fabric of Reality a little, and the Creatures are right there.

Discworld Geography

“There are continents, archipelagos, seas, deserts, mountain ranges and even a tiny central ice sheet.”

True, officially there is only one Continent. There is also the rumored Counterbalance Continent, completely occupied by the mighty and wealthy Agate Empire. Yes, the XXXX continent, which should not exist at all. It does not exist, but it vegetates ...

In the center of the Disc is its pole - the Navel, framed by the icy mountains of the Navel, where tribes of ferocious barbarians live, the main suppliers of the coolest heroes of the Discworld. Across almost the entire Continent, from Ankh-Morpork to Klatch, the Sheeppeak Mountains stretch, where ancient untamed magic has taken refuge. And then - the plain jungle of Wonderland, and there it’s not far to the Edge.

The Disk contains all possible public entities- empires, kingdoms, policies, trade republics, tyrannies, tribal unions, theocracy, democracy. In general, any stupidity invented by mankind will find its reflection here.

Gods of the Discworld

Gods in the Discworld are like uncut dogs. The coolest of the pantheon, like Blind Io the Thunderer or Offler the Crocodile God, live in the Citadel of the city of Dunmanifestin, perched on the highest mountain of the Disc - ten-mile Corey Celesti, sticking out in the middle of the Navel. They sit there and have fun: "They have a playing board - the whole world, and they play with human lives."

History of the Discworld

The history of the Discworld is kept in a monastery, lost in the depths of the Sheeppiks. And gradually, from thick, leather-bound tomes, it seeps into the world, where it becomes everyday life. Everything is as usual - empires replace each other, wars, discoveries, exploits, stupidities ...

Ethnography of the Discworld

The inhabitants of the Discworld are very diverse. People of all colors and shades - from the ultra-civilized inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork to the naked savages of the Brown Isles. Dwarves and trolls, fiercely at odds with each other. Elves lurking in the Shadows and waiting for the opportunity to return to again "play" to their heart's content. Ice giants, dragons, vampires, werewolves, zombies... Unless there are hobbits. But maybe they just hid in some kind of hole ...

Discworld Magic

The world is based on the eight Great Spells, which are written in the Grimoire Octavo - a book kept in the Library of the Unseen University, in a sealed iron box at the bottom of a specially dug mine.

The Unseen University is the only place on the Disc where a wizard can receive a decent education. For example, to learn how to smoke tobacco (what a magician without a pipe?) and clothe his imagination with flesh - this is magic. But witches work only with what really exists in the world. At the same time, those who practice magic attract the attention of Creatures from the Underground Dimensions, who are trying to break into Reality.

Ankh-Morpork

The Greatest City of Discworld. A dual metropolis of contrasts - respectable Ankh and bandit Morpork. "The city has seen floods, fires, invasions of nomadic hordes, many revolutions and dragons - and Ankh-Morpork survived all this."

He is “…full of life, like moldy cheese on a hot day; it is loud as a curse in a temple; bright and shiny, like oil spilled and playing in the sun; multicolored, like a bruise, and seething with vanity, business activity and all kinds of stormy activity, like an anthill with a dead dog in the middle.

* * *

You can talk about the Discworld universe for hours. But why? It is better to take one of the books (and then another, and another ...) and immerse yourself in this world with your head.

Turning on the TV every day, we are horrified by the next unpleasant surprises. What's there again? Terrorist act? A sunken submarine? Flood, earthquake, tsunami? A war of sharp-pointed and stupid-pointed people who happily cut each other for absolutely idiotic reasons? At such moments, when human stupidity overwhelms us, I want to run away far, far away ... To a magical world where you can laugh at your heart's content. serious things. To the flattest of all possible worlds. Thank you Terry for this opportunity!

I. The color of magic

In a far and far from new set of dimensions, in that wing of space that was never meant to fly, swirling stellar mists tremble, part and...

See...

Then the Great A "Tuin, a turtle slowly swimming through the interstellar strait, is approaching. Hydrogen froze on Her mighty flippers with hoarfrost, Her giant and ancient shell is pitted with meteorite craters, and eyes the size of two seas, covered with mucus and asteroid dust, look steadily towards the Goal .

In Her brain, which is larger than a city, thoughts are tossing and turning with geological slowness, and all of them are about the Burden.

Most of the Burden is made up of Berylia, Tubul, the Great T "Fon and Jerakin - four gigantic elephants, on whose wide, tanned backs under the light of the stars rests the disk of the Discworld, bordered by a foamy garland of a grandiose waterfall and covered with a pale blue dome of Heaven.

What elephants think about, astropsychology could not be established.

The existence of the Great Turtle was only a hypothesis, until the small and very secretive kingdom of Krull, whose mountains jut out from the Rimfall itself, built a lifting device consisting of an arrow and blocks on top of one of the cliffs. With the help of this mechanism, several observers were lowered beyond the Edge in a brass ship with quartz glasses, the task of which was to penetrate the veil of fog.

These first astrozoologists hung in space for a long time, until huge detachments of slaves pulled them back. Scientists have managed to collect extensive information about the nature and image of the Great A "Tuin and elephants, but even this has not resolved fundamental questions regarding the nature and purpose of the universe.

For example, what is the sex of the Great A "Tuin? According to the incredibly authoritative statements of astrozoologists, this vital question cannot be answered until a larger and more powerful lift is built to spaceship deep dive. In the meantime, it remains only to reflect on the already known universal space.

Among academics, there was and was especially popular the theory that the Great A "Tuin came from nowhere and will forever crawl evenly or steadily move towards nowhere.

An alternative theory, supported by religious minds, claimed that A "Tuin crawls from the Place of Birth to the Wedding Time, like all the other stars in the sky, which, obviously, also move on the backs of giant turtles. When the space reptiles finally converge, it will come a short and passionate season of love, the first and last of their lives. From this fiery union, new turtles will be born, who will carry a renewed set of worlds on their shells. This theory was known as the Big Mate Hypothesis.

And so it turned out that a young cosmo-reptilian from the Steady Progress faction, testing a new telescope with which he hoped to measure the exact albedo of the Great A "Tuin's right eye, turned out to be the first outside observer on that fateful evening to notice that over the oldest city of the Discworld fire smoke rises.

However, later the scientist was so carried away by his calculations that everything he saw completely flew out of his head. However, he was the first.

Although there were others...

Flames roared through the twin city of Ankh-Morpork. Where its tongues licked the Wizards' Quarter, it glowed blue and green, diluted with the strange sparks of the eighth color, octarine. Where the fire vanguards had made their way to the vats and oil stores that lined Merchants Street, the fire advanced in a series of hot fountains and explosions soaring into the sky. Touching bundles of rare dried herbs and climbing into apothecaries' pantries, the flames made people go crazy and talk to the gods.

Soon the whole of central Morpork was on fire, but the richer and more worthy citizens of the Ankh located on the other side were not at a loss. Courageously reacting to the situation, they began to destroy the bridges. However, the ships in the Morpork docks, well-tarred, loaded with grain, cotton and timber, were already burning with might and main. The fire instantly turned their mooring lines into ashes, and the sinking fireflies of the ships, storming the waves of the Ankh River, rushed to the sea, setting fire to all the coastal palaces and pavilions in their path. The general turmoil was added by the wind, carrying sparks in all directions, which landed far beyond the river in secluded gardens and barns.

The smoke from the gleefully dancing flames rose high into the sky, a black, wind-curved pillar miles high visible from every corner of the Discworld.

A few leagues from the city there was a hill, and from there, comfortably seated in a cool shade, two spectators watched the fire with interest. From the hill, the burning city looked particularly impressive.

The taller one was chewing on a chicken leg along the way, leaning on a sword that was only slightly shorter than the average man. If not for the intelligence that shone in his penetrating eyes, this man might well have been mistaken for a barbarian from the wasteland of the Wrinkleland.

His companion, wrapped from head to toe in a brown cloak, was much smaller. Later, when he has the opportunity to move into action, we will see that he moves easily, like a cat.

For the past twenty minutes, the two had not exchanged a word, except for a brief, ending argument over what was the source of a very powerful explosion - whether the bonded warehouse where the oils were stored, or the workshop of Keryble the Enchanter. The fate of a certain amount of money depended on the clarification of this fact.

The big man finished nibbling at the bone and, smiling ruefully, tossed it into the grass.

“This is the end of the secluded lanes,” he said. - And I liked them.

“How much gold melts and flows into the ditches,” the tall man continued, paying no attention to his comrade. - And the wine, probably, boils in barrels ...

“But the rats will rest,” pointed out the little man wrapped in a cloak.

- Rats - yes, every single one.

- I would not like to be there now, when it is the height of summer.

- That's for sure. However, it is impossible not to experience ... well, in general, a kind of fleeting ...

“But we owed old Fredor of the Crimson Leech eight pieces of silver,” he said.

The shorty nodded.

They were silent for a while, watching how a whole series of new explosions draws a scarlet line through dark neighborhoods. greatest city on the Flat World. Then the big man stirred.

What do you think caused this fire?

The short interlocutor, known as the Weasel, did not answer. He stared at the reddish-lit road. Few left the city that way, for the Anti-Rotation Gate was one of the first to collapse, raining white-hot coals over the area.

But now two travelers were moving along the road. Ferret's eyes, which could see perfectly in the dark, made out the silhouettes of two riders, followed by some kind of squat animal. He must be a wealthy merchant running away with his favorite treasures, the ones he managed to gather in his desperate haste. The ferret was not slow to inform his friend about this.

“The status of foot robbers does not really suit us,” the barbarian sighed, “but, as you say, times have come hard, and tonight a soft bed is not waiting for us.

He gripped his sword more comfortably, and as the first horseman drew near, he stepped onto the road, simultaneously raising his hand. There was a calculated smile on his face, one that was both approving and menacing.

“It would be our newspaper with 96 pages of private ads. Namely, there I learned the basics of masters-tva, try-kam, sal-nym shu-toch-kam, som-no-tel-no-mu fol-clo-ru and stamp-pam re- gi-onal-noy zhur-on-fox-ti-ki. And it would have been something of a form of us. When you are a journal-on-list, you very quickly understand that there are no creative crises, because as soon as you fall into kri-zis, not-slowly-yav-la-et-sya some-no-be-nep-ri-yat-ny fool and starts yelling at you, demanding submit text" Translation by N. Epple..

Zhur-on-list-sky-speaks in tech-no-ke letters - yes, not all Prat-chetta books are from deep , but be-zus-lovably weak with a “tech-no-che-koy” point of view (composition, language, dia-lo-gi, ha-rak-te-ry) medium - there are none. Pain-shins-two pre-ten-ziy vy-ka-zyva-et-sya in the address “The Color of Magic”, the first book about the Flat World, on- remember-on-the-way soon collection-nick ge-gov Gag(from English gag) - a joke, a comic episode. on all-possible topics than whole-production, and the last three, where it’s too za-met-in a hurry: the author then rumbled for -finish work to death, for which he has been preparing since 2007.

Satire

Iro-niches-some fan-te-zi Prat-chetta na-remember-na-et so-qi-al-nuyu sa-tira Jo-nata-na Swif-ta, which, in turn, resurrect -ho-dit to the gu-manis-ti-ches-koy tradition of Eraz-ma Rot-terdam-sko-go and To-masa Mo-ra The most striking examples of this tradition are Eras-ma’s “B-praise-la-glu-pos-ty” and Mo-ra’s “Uto-pia”, pro-of-knowledge, pro-nick -well-tye, characteristic for the humanists, to unite-neni-em with-zero-tsa-tel-nos-ti and striving for re-us-troy-stvo dey -witness-tel-nos-ti.. A typical example is a description of the method of managing the city and human society as a whole pat-ri-tsi-em of Ankh-Mor-pork lord house Wi-tina-ri:

“In order to manage a city like Ankh-Mor-spanking, you need to have a special mentality, and Lord Vi-tina-ri has it gave. Pat-ri-tsy, in general, was an outstanding personality.
He fooled and infuriated the main merchants and merchants of Ankh-Mor-pork more than once, but he reached such heights in this that they already gave -y-y-y-y-y-y-but-refused from all attempts to kill him and now they were busy fighting for a place under the sun exclusively together. And all the same, yes, if there were a daredevil who tried to bite on the life of a pa-ri-tion, he would have to sweat, you-is-ki-vaya part of the flesh is dos-ta-precise-but big, so that you could stab a dagger sting there.
Other lords-on-yes-killed themselves with a zha-raven-ka-mi, far-shi-rowan-na-mi pav-lin-them tongues, but Lord Vi-tina-ri is always -yes, I thought that a glass of ki-pyache-noy water with a scrap of black bread was elegant and satisfying " "Guard! Guard! Translation by S. Zhu-zhun-you..

Humor Prat-chetta is partly reminiscent-on-et ka-pust-nik, and in England this is a b-city-tradition, in which co-seds-tvu-yut "" and already said Swift. Sa-tira here is go-raz-to shi-re "just something humor-ra": it you-ras-ta-et to philosophical heights, often turns into irony, do not be afraid to touch the sacred - the gods, life and death - but not out of light-thinking, but vice versa, because that from-no-sit-sya to them and to the possibility of talking about them very seriously.

Terry Pratchett via Twitter

Yes, Prat-chett's own death turned into a pro-nick-well-thy bright humor at-trak-tsi-on. At the time of his death, in the official tweet-ter-ak-ka-un-te pi-sate-la, the following dialogue was published (Death speaks go - with a voice, which cannot be confused with anyone else, - in the letter, his rep-li-ki are transmitted by a capital):

“Finally, Sir Terry, we have to go.
Ter-ri took Death by the hand and followed him through the two-ri, leading to the dark desert-you-nu, enveloping the devil-to-night » Translation by N. Epple..

The charm of the Prat-chetta books is to a great extent based on the language game. The text is pierced with humor at different levels: it is not only jokes and a mischievous table-battle of motives and plot lines, but also -yan game. What are worth only speaking names: archchancellor Na-vern Chu-dakul-li - Mustrum Ridcully, the incarnation of the spirit of mo-shen-ni-ches-tva and pre-acquisition of Se-bya-Re-zhu-Without-No-zha (S. R. B. N.) Dos-table - Cut-Me-Own-Throat (C. M. O. T) Dibbler, incarnation of the spirit of the zhur-na-lis-ti-ki William de Worde.

Here it’s worth saying a good word of Russian translation-chi-kov Prat-chetta: Alek-san-dra Zhi-karen-tse-va, Svet-la-nu Uv-barkh (Zhu -juna-woo), Nikolai Ber-dennikov, who love Prat-chetta and understand what they have to do with. Higher piloting - Russian translation of the language into the kind of figs Fig-ly- a flat-worldly analogue of the folklore pix-si, mischievous spirits that inhabit the hilly areas in the South-West of England. from the sub-cycle about Tif-fa-ni Bo-len. In the original-gin-le, this is a mixture of Irish and Scottish-Landish languages, s-ma in itself on-saturated language-mi-games So, the house carrying the spirit of the nya-nyush-ki Ogg (Nanny Ogg) in the language of the fi-lovs is named Tir Nani Ogg, from-sy-lay to the name -niyu of the edge of eternal youth in the Celtic mi-fology.. In the Russian translations of Na-talya Al-lu-nan, this language is brilliantly re-pro-of-ve-den as a di-alekt, built in the language of ev-fe - miz-mov about the stage and another kind of reduce-wife lek-si-ki:

“Once-yes-elk quiet “bang”, followed by gurgling sounds. Jin-no pro-pull-la to my husband a cro-hot-ny de-raven-ny glass-can-chik. In the other hand, she was holding a tiny leather flask.
Is-pa-rhenium from a hundred-can was li-li-lis in the air-du-he.
“These are the remains of a special sheep-her-at-tir-ki that your mal-mal gra-maz-da car-ha gave us for the wedding-boo,” Jin-said neither. - I saved them for an ok-rai-case.
“She is not my mal-mal gra-maz-da hag, Jin-ni,” Yavor did not even look at the glass. - She is our-shay mal-mal gra-maz-da kar-ga. And mark my word, Jin-nee, she can be an all-car-go. She has inside-re juice-ry-that mo-gut-ness, oh no she boom-boom. But ro-ev-nick that mo-gut-nost chu-et.
- Ax-ha, but whatever you call it, sing-lo is sing-lo, right? - Jin-ni led a hundred-kan tu-da-here-da in front of her husband’s nose.
He sighed and turned away. ”

Fantasy

Prat-chetta's texts are a special fusion of fan-tastic ideas of the 1960s, the time of his youth, and ki-nema-tog-ra-ficheskoy re-al-nos- ty 2000s.

The main hero of the novel “Peil, apprentice of Death” (“Mort”) is an apprentice to Death and for some time you half of his duties. Deciding to arrange for himself a move, he falls in love with a de-vush-ku, which he has to lead to another world. A young man gathers to save his beloved, taking her killer to the next world. In such a way, the hero breaks the fabric of re-al-nos-ti, and that, with-against-la-ya, spreads on two of the measurements. Reality, in which de-vush-ka is dead, spread-grows-e-sya, striving for you-thread-re-al-ness - on-rushi-tel-ni-tsu in a row of things. The description of the ghostly wall, dividing the two parts of the world, is one of the most impressive in Prat-chetta.

Arrangement of books about the "Flat World"

Laws

The world of Prat-chetta only seems to be easy-to-think. If you look carefully, it is subject to strict laws: physical-magic-kim (in the Flat world, these are the laws of the same -row-ka), these-ches-kim, literary-tur-nym and mi-folo-giches-kim. These laws can be violated, but it’s impossible to reap the consequences of such a violation from the leds. As it is said in one of the books: “People are no more able to change the course of history than birds are no-bo. All they can do is use their mo-men-tom and put in their own little pattern. Namely, this is the relationship between Prat-chetta's books with "high" fan-te-zi and serious literature in general. Middle-earth Tol-ki-na you-mice-le-but only at the level of ge-og-ra-fii and the peoples inhabiting it. The is-th-riya of this world-ra and the plot of “Vlas-te-lina ko-lec” are raz-vi-va-yut-sya according to the uni-ver-sal-ny laws of these ki (in in the case of Tol-ki-na - these are christ-ti-an-sky), and "applied" magic is only a special effect that does not contradict them, but on -turnover, enhancing their action.

The further, the more confident Prat-chett uses the same motive: having an eye before an impossible task (usually this salvation of the native de-rev-ni, re-zhe mi-ra), the hero of the ras-ter-ryan is exactly until then, until the probing is pre-appointed his role, "the logic of mi-fa." After this, he begins to believe in himself in this role, and the plot (myth) begins to act. Especially ben-but clearly it can be seen in “Witches Abroad”:

“Fairy tales are a very important thing.
People do-ma-yut that fairy tales are created by people. On the same de-le, everything is upside-down.
Fairy tales are so-so-tvu-yut completely independent of their heroes.
<…>
The existence of these same tales is vaguely, but rather us-toy-chi-vy from-prints on ha-os, which which represents the all-lena is-to-riya. Fairy tales pro-tachi-va-yut lie-binks in it, do-to-accurate-but deep and allowing people to follow along them. Precisely, but in the same way, vo-yes pro-tachi-va-et se-be Rus-lo in the mountain slope. And every time, when new characters and heroes pass through the rus-scrap of a fairy tale, it becomes deeper and deeper.
It’s called-the-s-sya-te-ori-s-by-your-vatel-no-no-chi-ness and oz-na-cha-et, that it’s a fairy tale, it’s worth it to start , with-ob-re-ta-et form. She is mo-mental-but absorbs the vibrations of all her previous positions that have ever had a place That.
That's why is-the-rii all the time in the second-ry-yut-sya.
You are a thousand heroes in a robbery-la fire from the gods. You-thousand wolves in fat-la-ba-bush-ku, you-thousand princesses got to kiss. Millions of weightless actors, you yourself don’t know it, go through the pro-toren-us-mi-fabulous paths ka-mi.
In our time, there can’t be such a simple one, so that the third, the youngest, the son of some-one-be-king-role, let him go pod-vi-gi, until this eye-head-shi-esya is not on the shoulders of his elder brothers-pits, he would not have succeeded in his ranks.

For Prat-chetta, the tale is an or-ga-niches-kaya part of the literary tradition in the broad sense of the word: an ethnographer would call it myths, and is-to-rik li-tera-tours - bro-dyachi-mi plots-mi. In the book “Ladies and Gentlemen”, Prat-chett places the heroes in suddenly emerging from the banks and breaking through into the reality of the Flat mi-ra the plot of shek-spir-dov-ko-go “Dream on a summer night”, in “Carpe Jugulum” the plot of a ro-man about you-pi-rah comes out of the banks, in “Amazing Mo-ris and his learned rodents” - a legend about the Hamelin rat-solo-ve, and in “Mas-ka-rad” - a story about a prize ra-ke opera.

Map of the Flat World. 1995 Stephen Player to the directions of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs / Corgi Books

Magic and these

For Prat-chetta, the idea that magic affects reality in a doubtful way is very important. In the Flat world, only very mediocre magicians run to magic in its purest form, and after all, we are “re-mess-lenniki ”, but not us-toya-mas-te-ra. Re-al-naya, on the other hand, is the basis of magic - “head-ology”, knowledge of a person, his way of thinking and feeling “We-that magic is being created in people’s heads,” one of the witches says in the book “Thing-s-trich-ki”.. In order to turn a person into a la-gush-ku, you don’t have to wave a magic wand more than once, but make him believe that he is la-gush-ka, - and de-lo is done. Therefore, the main task of witches, according to Prat-chett, is not at all a count, but help people and keeping the borders of re-al-nos-ti:

“We pris-matri-va-em for what pro-is-ho-dit ... on the border, on the border. There are many borders, many times more than people think. Between life and death, this world and neighbor, night and day, right and wrong ... And they need to be oh-ra-taken. Here we are cutting them. We keep the essence of things " "Little Free Folk"..

In-te-res-but that all-len-naya Prat-chetta works according to moral laws: helping others in the end those help themselves to be os-ta-vat-sya-mim so-fight.

“Behind this, we walk around the ok-ru-ge, treat people and all that,” continued Mrs. Whet-ro-wax. - Well, for the fact that it would be a little easier for people, of course. But the main thing is that it always helps to stay in balance. As long as you help people, you firmly know where the main thing is in you, where is your middle, your center. And so you stand in this middle-not, as if at-to-le-en-naya, do not hesitate to-yes-yes-yes. Os-ta-eat-sya human and don’t p-ta-eat-sya anger, but hee-hick " "A hat full of sky.".

This course of reasoning is deeply close to Ches-terto-nu, and Tol-ki-nu, and L-yu-isu (remember his essay “Good and evil as a key to in nima-niyu all-len-noy"), and Do-ro-tee Sayers Do-roti Lee Sayers(1893-1957) - English writer-satel-ni-tsa, author of popular de-tek-tiv-nyh novels, work in the genre of chris-ti-an -sky apo-loge-tiki and pi-es on the gospel plots.- everything that can be called "English ethical tradition".

Other books

Gollancz / Orion Publishing Group

Prat-chett is not only books about the Flat world. Sir Terry also wrote three children's novels about tiny creatures “Hijack-shchi-ki” (“Truckers”, 1989), “Earth-le-cops” (“Diggers”, 1990), “Wings” (“Wings”, 1990)., under-growth trilogy about Jo-n Mc-swell-le “Only You Can Save Mankind” (“Only You Can Save Mankind”, 1992), “Johnny and the Mer-tve-tsy” (“Johnny and the Dead", 1993), "Johnny and the Bomb" ("Johnny and the Bomb", 1996).. In the last four years of Prat-chett's life, together with fantast Steven Buckster, you-p-start five rather boring novels in the spirit of Clifford « The Long Earth" (2012), "The Long War" (2013), "The Long Mars" (2014), "The Long Utopia" (2015), "The Long Cosmos" (2016).. There are also a few books outside the series. The most curious of them is the lyrical-philosophical under-growth novel “Na-rod, or Once upon a time we were del-fi-us » Nation, 2008., as well as co-authored with his friend Neil Gay-man "Good Omens" Good Omens, 1990.- li-te-ra-tour-naya game with the cult film "Omen" Ri-char-da Don-ne-ra. Not long ago, Gai-man announced that the one-named six-serial series according to his script will be released in 2018.

The evolution of Prat-chetta: from zhur-na-lis-ti-ki to literature

Perhaps the most curious thing about Prat-chetta is the evolution that goes on with him from the first books about the Flat World re to the last. It’s hard to find the best illustration of how cultural and literary tradition works - this is kind of from-cheatly-vee that before us, not a professor of philology, but a journal-on-list. Prat-chett himself admitted more than once that pi-sate-stvo was-lo for some zhur-on-lis-ti-koy other-mi-sreds-tva-mi. “Writing a Flatworld novel is kind of zhur-on-fox-tee,” he says in a 1999 interview with Locus magazine. - Perhaps, this is a zhur-na-lis-ti-ka, describing the facts of two or three years ago, but the last books de-syat would be in some -a swarm of degrees on-ve-yana from-but-sitel-but owl-re-men-us-mi-with-beings. But over time, in the books, it becomes less and less from the ka-empty-no-ka and the collection of ge-gov and more and more harmony, they are less and less we depend on the “evil of the day”, gaining their own artistic logic and energy of the literary tradition. In-te-res-but to observe how the abandoned ones are walking in the early books, those we later on-are full of meaning, but -surface letters-tera-tour-nye allusions us-tu-pa-yut place thoughtfully and with knowledge of de-la is-pol-zo-van-nym folklore motives.

Take, for example, the early and later Prat-chetta books. "The Color of Magic", the first novel about the Flat World, written in 1983, reminds me of the product of good -mess-lenni-ka: in fact, the book is almost completely composed of playing out of the weight (and even too uz-na-va -iyem) fan-tasti-ches-kih works, plentiful but flavored, not always good luck-mi-jokes-ka-mi. In Back in Black, Neil Gai-man says that part of the problem with Ter-ri's books is that a lot of people start reading him with Cve -that magic": "But this is an ab-so-lute me-sha-on and a terrible-from-right point. It’s all the same as trying to understand Wood-house, starting from his school stories, it’s a collection of shu-dots, moreover, in “ Blossoms of magic, “they are not even particularly ben-but good-roshi.”

"Little free-born on-rodets." Illustration by Paul Kidby for the cover of the first edition. 2002 Paul Kidby

"Little free na-rodets" "The Wee Free Men" is the first novel in my late-day Tif-fa-ni Bo-len series, written in 2003.- a book that describes the places native to Prat-chetta, in which parody and satire are far from being the main thing. Prat-chett takes tales of the free people of the fig-lah, mixes folk-lore components-po-nen-you with literary tours Evil fairies, leading people into their networks, are an image from the middle ages of English and French poems., do-add-la-et of the Ok-Sfordshire re-alias (Be-barking horse, Forge Völund-da, Reed-zhu-ey-sky road), revive-la-et all this describe the sledges of the chalky hills, sdab-ri-va-et with a pseudo-Scottish dialect and rude shu-toch-ka-mi figs and place- em in all-len-nuyu of his flat world. These com-po-nen-you form a mischievous, but very harmonious whole with my un-fluctuating system of values. Strikingly-tel-but, like a bo-gobo-retz Prat-chett “Small gods”, it seems, is one of the weakest of his books, precisely because he very directly prays to her, but speaks it has its own pre-tensions in the ad-res of religion. prak-ti-che-ki creates a textbook of chris-ti-an-sky ethics, pro-preaching humility and self-sacrifice, and it shows that magic is just a special effect, then how our magic comes from the connection of the mind (like ours - something-more-go an-gli-chani-na, Prat-chetta's mind is in the first place), love, cunning and (again, very en-gli-ski) practicality.

In the books about the Flat world, Ter-ri Prat-chett fills with fresh blood the tradition of fan-te-zi, which is us-pe-la for-met-but “to-soap-sya” after the era of the fathers-os-no-wate-lei, Tol-ki-na and L-yu-isa, in the middle of the XX century, on- chav you-give birth in the epi-gong "magical fan-tasti-ku". Returning to the earth a genre that was too detached from it, adding-lying from-sy-lok to ak-tu-al-nye-co-being-pits and ok-ru-zha -chewing chi-tate-la re-al-nos-ti, at the same time he returns him to is-to-kam, questions about good and evil and mess - those people in the world. It is noteworthy that the author, who himself came to this genre, was able to do it in order to beat and parody it, but in the end for-talk-riv-shih his tongue seriously. “Feng-te-zi is not about wizards and stupid magic wands,” Sir Terry said in a speech at the presentation of his medal Kar-ne-gi (among the best of her was K. S. L-yu-is), - this is an opportunity to see the world from a different angle. The non-os-la-be-believing in-te-res to his books says that he succeeded.

Chi-tai-te is also ma-teri-ala Ni-kolay Ep-ple about that, and.