When the very fabric of time and space are about to be put through the wringer, circumstances require a very particular type of hero. Sadly what the situation does not need is a singularly inept wizard, still recovering from the trauma of falling off the edge of the world. Equally it does not need o[...]
They say that a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance. There are some situations where the correct response is to display the sort of ignorance which happily and wilfully flies in the face of the facts. In this case, the birth of a baby girl, born[...]
Although the scythe isn't pre-eminent among the weapons of war, anyone who has been on the wrong end of, say, a peasants' revolt will know that in skilled hands it is fearsome. For Mort however, it is about to become one of the tools of his trade. From henceforth, Death is no longer going to be the [...]
All is not well within the Unseen University. The endemic politics of the place have ensured that it has finally got what it wished for: the most powerful wizard on the disc. Which could mean that the death of all wizardry is at hand. And the world is going to end, depending on whom you listen to.[...]
Three witches gathered on a lonely heath. A king cruelly murdered, his throne usurped by his ambitious cousin. A child heir and the crown of the kingdom, both missing. The omens are not auspicious for the new incumbent, particularly when the blood on your hands just won't wash off and you're facing [...]
'Look after the dead', said the priests, 'and the dead will look after you.' Wise words in all probability, but a tall order when you have just become the pharaoh of a small and penniless country whose largesse - and indeed treasury - is unlikely to stretch to the building of a monumental pyramid to[...]
With his beloved Watch crumbling around him and war-drums sounding, Commander Sam Vimes must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him. At six o'clock every day, without fail, with no excuses, he must go home to read "Where's[...]
Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different. It plays by different rules. Certainly, it refuses to succumb to the quaint notion that universes are ruled [...]
People might say that reality is a quality that things possess in the same way that they possess weight. Sadly alchemists never really held with such a quaint notion. They think that they can change reality, shape it to their own purpose. Imagine then the damage that could be wrought if they get the[...]
What happens after death is now less of a philosophical question than a question of actual reality. On the disc, as here, they need Death. If Death doesn't come for you, then what are you supposed to do in the meantime? You can't have the undead wandering about like lost souls. There's no telling wh[...]
When a good story involves three witches, including a fairy godmother, travelling to a faraway land to make sure that a servant girl doesn't marry a prince. It looks as though a happy ending may be averted before catastrophe strikes. But unfortunately the forces of good are up against a Godmother wh[...]
Religion is a controversial business in the Discworld. Everyone has their own opinion, and indeed their own gods. And it's certainly not helpful to be reduced to be appearing in the form of a tortoise, a manifestation far below god-like status. In such instances, you need an acolyte, and fast. Prefe[...]
"Look after the dead," said the priests, "and the dead will look after you." Wise words in all probability, but a tall order when you have just become the pharaoh of a small and penniless country whose largesse--and indeed treasury--is unlikely to pay for the construction of a monumental pyramid to [...]
Somewhere on the frontier between thought and reality exists the Discworld, a parallel time and place which might sound and smell very much like our own, but which looks completely different.[...]
Meanwhile, on a little farm far, far away, a tall dark stranger is turning out to be really good with a scythe. There's a harvest to be gathered in.[...]
Reality is all very well in small doses. It's a perfectly conventional and convenient way of neutralising the imagination. But sometimes when there's more than one reality at play, imagination just won't be neutralised, and the walls between realities come tumbling down.[...]
Fate is a word that springs to the lips when to call something coincidence seems mealy mouthed. Destiny is another such. But the problem with destiny is, of course, that she is not always careful where she points her finger.[...]
"Be a MAN in the City Watch! The City Watch needs MEN!"
And they need all the help they can get, because they only have twenty-four hours to clean up the town and this is Ankh-Morpork we're talking about . . .[...]
There's no getting away from it. From whichever angle, Death is a horrible, inescapable business. But someone's got to do it. So if Death decides to take a well-earned moment to uncover the meaning of life and discover himself in the process, then there is going to be a void of specific dimensions t[...]
Other children get given xylophones. Susan just had to ask her grandfather to take his vest off. Yes. There's a death in the family. It's hard to grow up normally when grandfather rides a white horse and wields a scythe, especially when you have to take over the family business, and everyone mistake[...]
There are many who say that the art of diplomacy is an intricate and complex dance between two informed partners. There are others who maintain that it's merely a matter of who carries the biggest stick. Like when a large, heavily fortified and armoured empire makes a faintly menacing request of a m[...]
There are mighty battles, revolution, death and war. The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. Warlords are struggling for power. And all that stands in the [...]
This isn't real life. It's opera. Where the music matters and where an opera house is being terrorised by a man in an evening dress with a white mask, lurking in the shadows, occasionally killing people, and most worryingly, sending little notes, writing maniacal laughter with five exclamation marks[...]
Tells about the Opera House, Ankh-Morpork...a huge, rambling building, where masked figures and hooded shadows do wicked deeds in the wings, where dying the death on stage is a little bit more than a metaphor, and where innocent young sopranos are lured to their fateful destiny by an evil mastermind[...]
For members of the City Watch, life consists of troubling times, linked together by periods of torpid inactivity. Now is one such troubling time. People are being murdered, but there's no trace of anything alive having been at the crime scene. Is there ever a circumstance in which you can blame the [...]