Snuff reminds me a bit of Thud! and it fits right in with the other Vimes books, which are one of my favorite branches of the Discworld series. It has the usual humor characteristic of Pratchett and Vimes, though the book is slightly more serious than some of Sir Pratchett’s earlier works, but that goes with the police procedural territory. The other Watch books were like that as well.

If you’re already familiar with Commander Vimes and the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, you’ll definitely enjoy Snuff. And if you’re not, it’s still not a bad place to start. (Though if you’re the sort who insists on reading books in order, you may want to read Guards! Guards! instead.)

Snuff by Terry Pratchett is a post from Fantasy Folder

NG: The Watch fascinate me. You get to do hardboiled police procedurals while still writing funny smart books set in a fantastic world.

TP: On a point of order, Mister Gaiman, the world in which Sam Vimes finds himself is hardly fantastic. Okay, there are goblins, but the overall ambience is that of the shires of Middle England. It’s all about the commonality of humankind. Shove Sam Vimes into a situation that has gone toxic and away he goes, as realistic as any other policeman and thinking in the very same ways and being Sam Vimes, questioning his motives and procedures all the way through.

Neil Gaiman Interviews Terry Pratchett on BoingBoing.net is a post from Fantasy Folder

Snuff, currently estimated to be released this October, will be a new Discworld novel featuring Commander Vimes as the protagonist. It sounds like an early draft has been completed and delivered to the copy editor.

A Sky movie adaptation of Unseen Academicals is also in the works, and should begin filming sometime soon.

Perhaps the most interesting news is that Pratchett has signed a deal with Prime Focus Productions to create a TV series centered around the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. There are few details, but Pratchett agreed to offer the “rights to create brand new storylines for the iconic characters of Pratchett’s phenomenally successful Discworld series.” So we can assume that said series will include additional storylines not found in the books.

The main focus of the series will be set in the bustling, highly mercantile, largely untrustworthy and always vibrant city of Ankh Morpork and will follow the day-to-day activities of the men, women, trolls, dwarves, vampires and several other species who daily pound its ancient cobbles (and, of course, Igor in the forensics department). [...] These richly developed and highly compelling characters will feature in a ‘crime of the week’ episodic storyline. As each weekly adventure unfolds, viewers will be taken on a ride through Pratchett’s genius imagination, with the author overseeing the creation of the series…

More information is available in the March installment of the Discworld Monthly Extra.

Discworld City Watch TV Series, Unseen Academicals Movie in Development is a post from Fantasy Folder

The movie was originally scheduled to air on Sky 1 around Easter weekend, but it has been delayed to an unannounced date sometime this April or May. The United States will have to wait until the DVD release next year, sadly.

Terry Pratchett’s “Going Postal” Trailer is a post from Fantasy Folder

The animation was good, with a great attention to little details, though not up to big-budget Disney standards, of course. Story-wise, the film followed the book very closely, but with its own added jokes that were funny and in keeping with the original material.

Interestingly enough, the part I liked the best of the video was not from the book. It was the music. The film’s soundtrack includes several original songs that the Band With Rocks In plays throughout the story. For the most part they are style parodies of The Beatles, Elvis, Jimi Hendrix, The Blues Brothers, and a few others. (Oh, and there’s even a brief, and hysterical, performance of the hit Discworld folk song Gatherin’ Rhubarb.) The songs are very well done, and often remind me of two or three “real” songs at once. You can listen to the tracks for free on Last.fm, if you want to give them a try.

The story, as those who have read the book already know, follows two main arcs, which collide several times as events play out.

Susan Sto Helit is the granddaughter of Death. (You know, Death — deep voice, scythe, cloak, a little bit skeletal…) There was some business with an adopted daughter and an apprentice named Mort, but that was in a different book… When they die in a tragic carriage accident, Death abandons the Duty to go and “forget.” Susan is called upon to do the job in his absence, since she inherited some of her grandfather’s abilities.

Imp y Celyn (Welsh for “Bud of the Holly”) is an aspiring bard from rainy Llamedos. He journeys to the great city of Ankh-Morpork to become a famous musician, only to be beset by exorbitant guild fees. Eventually he ends up with a strange magic guitar, and starts a band with two friends who also couldn’t afford the Musicians Guild’s entry fee.

Eventually their paths cross when Imp, or Buddy as he later calls himself, is nearly killed while performing at a riotous bar. As his lifetimer runs out, a blue flame appears in the top end of the hourglass, signifying that his life has been taken over by the music. Susan continues to watch out for him while investigating the potentially harmful guitar.

I don’t want to spoil the whole story for you, as it’s a particularly good one, so I’ll leave you to watch Soul Music for yourself. If you’re a reader of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, watching Soul Music is mandatory. If you’re new to Pratchett, it’s definitely worth a watch; you may very well want to give the book a try afterward.

Terry Pratchett’s “Soul Music” Movie Review is a post from Fantasy Folder

For I am the crowd and I am the ball
I am the triumph and the blame
I am the turf, the pies, the All
Always and ever, I am the Game.
It matters not who won or lost
Nothing is the score you made
Fame is a petal that curls in the frost
But I will remember how you played.

In Terry Pratchett’s latest Discworld novel, football (not the American kind) comes to the disc. The wizards of Unseen University discover that a large percentage of their funding, in the form of a trust, will soon dry up should they fail to meet their benefactor’s stipulation that they compete in the game “foot-the-ball” occasionally.

The wizards, of course, are apprehensive about joining in such a violent street game, but they quickly change their minds when told that they would have to give up having nine meals a day if the funding were cut.

With the unexpected approval of Lord Vetinari, the wizards seek to clean-up and modernize the game…and to learn how to play it for themselves. The results, as is usual with Pratchett, result in the ensuing of hilarity. Throw in an Übervaldian Orc as their coach, the Director of Postmortem Communications (don’t say “necromancer!”) and the usual oddities, and you’ve got yourself a Discworld novel.

Unseen Academicals is up to Pratchett’s usual standards: more fun than a barrel of monkeys…but don’t call the Librarian one. Ever.

Unseen Academicals is a post from Fantasy Folder

The wizards at Ankh-Morpork’s Unseen University are renowned for many things—wisdom, magic, and their love of teatime—but athletics is most assuredly not on the list. And so when Lord Ventinari, the city’s benevolent tyrant, strongly suggests to Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully that the university revive an erstwhile tradition and once again put forth a football team composed of faculty, students, and staff, the wizards of UU find themselves in a quandary.

Scott Westerfeld’s much-awaited novel Leviathan has been released. It is an alternate history set at the dawn of World War I, but with a bit of a focus on sci-fi/fantasy dirigibles, both steampunk-style and “organic.”

Tor has posted a two-minute video interview with Harriet McDougal and Brandon Sanderson, two people very important people behind the new Wheel of Time book, on YouTube.

“Unseen Academicals” and “Leviathan” Arrive, and Other News is a post from Fantasy Folder

There are three particular things I like about this story. The beginning deals with Susan and her connection to Death. This part of the story was unique and I believe could have been developed further. Beyond this, her character has less to do with the story than expected. The second part is the wizards’ and Librarian’s reactions to the music. The idea is that the music is constantly in the background of life, and when it is brought into the foreground by good musicians, everyone responds to it. The third is the concept that Death does not cause the deaths of people. He/She is there to share the moment with the particular person, and sometimes it becomes too much for even Death to handle. This concept is also expressed in The Book Thief by Markus Zusak.

The one thing I didn’t like is the jumping between characters in the story. Some of the leaps were too quick and hard to follow. Some of the dialogue was also difficult to comprehend, because of its basis in culture and slang.

related-music, personification of death, fate, changing history, Discworld

For those of you who haven’t read Terry Pratchett, he has a quirky, random wit often touching on the profound, though not delving too far. He regularly goes off on entertaining tangents. Discworld is a huge series, different books dealing with specific aspects of his Discworld, to the point that some of the books have little or no connection to others. It is unnecessary to start from the beginning (the early books are bizarre anyway), so long as you know that some of it may require further reading to appreciate.

Discworld: Soul Music is a post from Fantasy Folder