Thread: Fantasy author Terry Pratchett dies at 66

By GREGORY KATZ, Associated Press
9 hrs ago



LONDON (AP) — Fantasy writer Terry Pratchett, creator of the "Discworld" series and author of more than 70 books, has died. He was 66.

Pratchett, who suffered from a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's disease, had earned wide respect in Britain and beyond with his dignified campaign for the right of critically ill patients to choose assisted suicide.

Transworld Publishers said Pratchett died Thursday at his home, "with his cat sleeping on his bed surrounded by his family."

Transworld's managing director Larry Finlay said "the world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds."

Pratchett's ability to write and speak had deteriorated in recent years as the disease progressed. But with his characteristic black fedora and neatly trimmed white beard he remained a familiar figure in the public eye. He completed his final book in the summer of 2014.

Pratchett was best known for "Discworld," a series of more than 40 comic novels set in a teeming fantasy world. He has sold more than 65 million books worldwide, and his novels have been translated into several dozen languages.

The author disclosed his condition in 2007. His doctors at first believed he had suffered a stroke, but found him to have an unusual form of Alzheimer's

He tried to be optimistic with his millions of fans, assuring them on his website that the condition didn't seem to be immediately life-threatening.

"Frankly, I would prefer it if people kept things cheerful," he said.

As he lost the ability to write on a computer, he turned to a dictation system that allowed him to keep producing fictional works, his agent Colin Smythe said.

"It may have changed his prose style slightly," Smythe said. "The real problem is the difficulty of revising it."

Pratchett didn't shy away from the emotional public debate about assisted suicide.

He used the prestigious Richard Dimbleby lecture in February 2010 to argue the logic of allowing people to end their lives at a time they chose. He said assisted suicide should be decriminalized and that suicide panels should be set up to judge cases, and offered his own case as an example.

In the lecture, Pratchett said there was no reason to believe a cure for his disease was imminent. He said he could live his remaining years more fully if he knew he would be allowed to end his life before the disease claimed him.

"I have vowed that rather than let Alzheimer's take me, I would take it," he said. "I would live my life as ever to the full and die, before the disease mounted its last attack, in my own home, in a chair on the lawn, with a brandy in my hand to wash down whatever modern version of the Brompton Cocktail some helpful medic could supply. And with Thomas Tallis on my iPod, I would shake hands with death."

Pratchett was born and raised in the town of Beaconsfield, northwest of London. He described himself as a nondescript student who attended a technical high school because he felt woodwork would be more interesting than Latin. He was also interested in radios and computers.

His first short story, "The Hades Business," was published in a school magazine when he was 13 and was published commercially two years later. He used his proceeds to buy a typewriter and wrote regularly for the rest of the life, turning to journalism and writing novels in his spare time until the success of his fictional works allowed him to concentrate on them full time.

Pratchett married Lyn Purves in 1968 and published his first novel, "The Carpet People," three years later in 1971.

The "Discworld" series began in 1983 with the publication of "The Colour of Magic." It became more popular over time as the imaginary world Pratchett created became more detailed and complex.

Pratchett also published a series of well-regarded award-winning novels aimed at young readers.

He received a knighthood from Queen Elizabeth II at Buckingham Palace in 2009 for his services to literature.

He also contributed $1 million to Alzheimer's disease research and urged the scientific community to make it a higher priority.

Pratchett is survived by his wife and their daughter, Rhianna.

http://www.msn.com/en-us/entertainme...cid=ansentap11




RIP Terry Pratchett:
11 of his most moving quotes about life and death
Ellen Stewart for Metro.co.uk Thursday 12 Mar 2015 4:30 pm

On 12 March 2015 the literary world lost one of its greats.

As the world mourns the creator of Discworld, Terry Pratchett, we remember him by his most inspirational and poignant quotes.

1. ‘It is said that your life flashes before your eyes just before you die. That is true, it’s called Life.’ – The Last Continent

2. ‘DON’T THINK OF IT AS DYING,’ said Death. ‘JUST THINK OF IT AS LEAVING EARLY TO AVOID THE RUSH.’ – Good Omens: The Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter, Witch

3. ‘Do you not know that a man is not dead while his name is still spoken?’ – Going Postal

4. ‘This I choose to do. If there is a price, this I choose to pay. If it is my death, then I choose to die. Where this takes me, there I choose to go. I choose. This I choose to do.’ – Wintersmith

5. ‘No one is actually dead until the ripples they cause in the world die away…’ – Reaper Man

6. ‘There is always time for another last minute.’ – Hogfather

7. ‘Time is a drug. Too much of it kills you.’ – Small Gods

8. ‘I’d rather be a rising ape than a falling angel.’ – direct quote from interview, 2009

9. ‘So much universe, and so little time.’ – The Last Hero

10. ‘Goodness is about what you do. Not who you pray to.’ – Snuff

11. ‘Death isn’t cruel, merely terribly, terribly good at his job.’ – Sourcery

http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/12/rip-te.../?ito=facebook

10 things only Discworld fans will understand
Vicky Prior for Metro.co.uk Thursday 12 Mar 2015 5:07 pm



Sir Terry Pratchett, one of the 20th and 21st centuries most prolific and brilliant writers, has sadly died today. Terry’s astonishing mind created the Discworld novels, continuing to write these beloved stories even after his Alzheimer’s diagnosis.

To celebrate the life Terry Pratchett, here are 10 things only a Discworld fan would know:



1. Be cautious of street food

Long before the streets of London were overrun with upmarket burger vans, taco shacks and the like, Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler was purveying the classic ‘sausage inna bun’.

It’s best not to think too much about what the sausage is actually made of, and therefore only something to eat if desperate.

Still, you can guarantee it’s a good price.

2. Don’t judge a dwarf by their beard

Residents of the Discworld knew there were male dwarves, but were startled to discover the presence of female ones as well.

It turns out that a beautiful beard is not restricted to dwarf boys, and so you shouldn’t assume the presence of hair means you are talking to a male dwarf.

3. Which side is winning in a war?

This one is easy, whichever Corporal ‘Nobby’ Nobbs is fighting for at the time.

4. How to sing ‘A Wizard’s Staff Has A Knob On The End’

I am unaware of the exact lyrics to this classic Discworld tune, although there are many interpretations available.

The important thing is to sing it in a bawdy manner worthy of Nanny Ogg. This witch has introduced us to many glorious folk songs, including the delightful ‘The Hedgehog Can Never Be Bu**ered’.

5. How to keep law and order in a big city

Step 1: Get a Patrician.

Step 2: Create a Guild for just about every trade including the illegal ones.

Step 3: Allow Guilds to ply their trade within strict parameters, and use The Watch, led by Captain Vimes, if they break the rules.

Notable Guilds include the Guild of Assasins, and the Guild of Seamsstresses. Who aren’t really seamstresses, but are engaged in the second oldest profession in the world, often mistaken for being the first.

6. The importance of thin boots

The mean streets of Ankh Morpork, the Discworld’s main city, are covered in cobbles. And other things, which I won’t go into if you’re having your tea.

Captain Vimes could navigate these streets easily, thanks to thin soles on his boots which allowed him to feel the different roads.

Sadly his boots were upgraded, and he lost this skill.

7. That orangutans make the best librarians

If you want to do a quick impression of a Discworld character, just say ‘Ook’.

Everyone will know you mean the Librarian of Unseen University. After a magical mishap, the librarian of Discworld’s university for wizards was turned into an orangutan. He is fond of bananas.

8. Where the roads in Ankh Morpork lead from

It has commonly been suggested that all roads lead to Ankh Morpork. This is incorrect, all roads lead AWAY from the city, it’s just sometimes people walk along them the wrong way.

9. Never assume a witch is dead

Granny Weatherwax, the Discworld’s greatest witch (unless I’m in the company of Nanny Ogg, the Discworld’s other greatest witch), can ‘borrow’ the minds of creatures to see what is happening in the outside world.

People who come across her while borrowing often assume she is dead, rather than in a trance. Granny Weatherwax now helpfully wears a sign with the words ‘I aten’t dead’, written on it.

10. Death is nothing to fear

Discworld fans always sound quite morbid, as a lot of them answer ‘Death’ when asked what character they’d most like to meet.

The truth is, Death is an incredible character, funny, kind and generally bewildered by humans. He is a reassuring presence in every Discworld novel, even when helping those who have died pass on.

It is both comforting and amusing to imagine the conversation Terry Pratchett would have had with his iconic character, Death. The Discworld legacy is set to live on with Pratchett’s daughter taking over the writing. As I think Terry would wish, I shall read the next book as eagerly as I read all the others.

http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/12/10-thi...-know-5100725/

Terry Pratchett’s death announced in Discworld-esque tweet
Richard Hartley-Parkinson for Metro.co.uk Thursday 12 Mar 2015 3:15 pm




Sir Terry Pratchett picking up his OBE in 1998
Best-selling author Sir Terry Pratchett has died at the age of 66.

Sir Terry, who wrote more than 70 best-selling novels, waged a very public struggle with Alzheimer’s disease in recent years.

His publisher Penguin Random House said he ‘passed away in his home, with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family’.

He completed his last book – set like so many of his best-sellers in his creation of Discworld – last year.

Terry Pratchett ✔ @terryandrob

AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.

10:06 AM - 12 Mar 2015

Terry Pratchett ✔ @terryandrob

Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors
and on to the black desert under the endless night.

10:07 AM - 12 Mar 2015

Terry Pratchett ✔ @terryandrob

The End.

10:07 AM - 12 Mar 2015

Publisher Larry Finlay said: ‘I was deeply saddened to learn that Sir Terry Pratchett has died. The world has lost one of its brightest, sharpest minds.

‘In over 70 books, Terry enriched the planet like few before him. As all who read him know, Discworld was his vehicle to satirize this world: he did so brilliantly, with great skill, enormous humour and constant invention.

‘Terry faced his Alzheimer’s disease (an ‘embuggerance’, as he called it) publicly and bravely. Over the last few years, it was his writing that sustained him. His legacy will endure for decades to come.

‘My sympathies go out to Terry’s wife Lyn, their daughter Rhianna, to his close friend Rob Wilkins, and to all closest to him.’


The publisher added: ‘Terry passed away in his home, with his cat sleeping on his bed surrounded by his family on 12th March 2015. Diagnosed with PCA in 2007, he battled the progressive disease with his trademark determination and creativity, and continued to write.

‘He completed his last book, a new Discworld novel, in the summer of 2014, before succumbing to the final stages of the disease.’



Four years ago, Sir Terry featured in a documentary about suicide in which he followed a man with motor neurone disease to the Dignitas clinic in Switzerland to see him take a lethal dose of barbiturates.

Asked why he wanted to make the film, he said it was because he was ‘appalled’ at the state of the law.

He said: ‘The Government here has always turned its back on it and I was ashamed that British people had to drag themselves to Switzerland, at considerable cost, in order to get the services that they were hoping for.’

Sarah Wootton, chief executive of Dignity in Dying, called him ‘a committed campaigner’ for ‘assisted dying’.

She said: ‘Sir Terry was fond of saying ‘It’s time we learned to be as good at dying as we are at living’ and his brave approach to confronting issues of death, including his own, was a heartfelt demonstration of dignity.’




Terry Pratchett during his investiture at Buckingham Palace


Sir Tery was a patron of Alzheimer’s Research UK.

The charity’s director Hilary Evans, said: ‘The loss of Sir Terry Pratchett will have a profound effect on both literature and the 850,000 people who live with dementia.

‘Sir Terry’s uniquely witty and affecting announcement of his diagnosis with Alzheimer’s at our 2008 conference will be seen as a watershed moment for all people living with dementia.

‘It engendered huge public awareness of Alzheimer’s and issued a call to arms for society to talk about dementia and take steps towards defeating it.

‘Sir Terry’s legacy to dementia research is huge both financially and as an enormous motivation to our supporters and scientists. When he announced the inaugural Terry Pratchett research fellowship in 2010, he insisted on a single word to be engraved on the trophy: “strive”. Our scientists continue to act upon this powerful call, and push forwards with the research that will defeat the condition that took Sir Terry from us.

‘We will miss him.’

See also http://metro.co.uk/2015/03/12/18-per...umour-5100809/

When Terry Pratchett was knighted, he forged his own sword out of meteorite
Christopher Hooton - Thursday 12 March 2015




Sir Terry Pratchett, who died today aged 66, had a fondness for history and heraldry that extended beyond his books.

In 2010 he was granted his own coat of arms (below) and, later in the year, he decided that if he was to be a knight he also needed a proper sword.

So Sir Terry gathered deposits of iron he found in a field near his home in Wiltshire and smelted it himself in the grounds.

"Most of my life I've been producing stuff which is intangible and so it's amazing the achievement you feel when you have made something which is really real," he said of the sword.

The author dug up 81kg of ore to produce it, smelting using a makeshift kiln built out of clay and hay.

To add a trademark element of fantasy to it, he threw in "several pieces of meteorites - thunderbolt iron, you see - highly magical, you've got to chuck that stuff in whether you believe in it or not."



Coat of Arms of Terry Pratchett

The metal was then shaped into a sword by a local blacksmith, finished with silverwork and stored by Pratchett in a secret location, apparently because he feared it might pique the interest of the authorities.

"It annoys me that knights aren't allowed to carry their swords," he said. "That would be knife crime."

Terry Pratchett tribute added to Elite: Dangerous
Andy Chalk - 3 hours ago



Frontier Developments has paid tribute to the late author Terry Pratchett by adding a new space station to Elite: Dangerous called Pratchett's Disc.

The station was added with little fanfare, noted only by a single, short sentence in the Wings Update 1.2.05 patch notes: "Added Pratchett's Disc starport." But Executive Producer Michael Brookes told Eurogamer that the author had a great impact on many people at the studio.

"At Frontier we have a great many Pratchett fans on staff and we were all saddened to learn of his passing," he said. "The sentiment was reflected by our community so we felt it would be right to remember him in Elite: Dangerous."







Pratchett, the author of the long-running and immensely popular Discworld series, died last week at age 66. Chris Livingston wrote a tribute to the author, his work, and his connection to videogames—in 1993, he appeared on the cover of the very first issue of PC Gamer—which you can (and should) read here. http://www.pcgamer.com/a-tribute-to-terry-pratchett

http://www.pcgamer.com/terry-pratche...ite-dangerous/

Pratchett’s Daughter Says No More Discworld Books and That’s OK
By A.J. O'Connell - June 22, 2015

Earlier this month, Rhianna Pratchett, daughter of Sir Terry Pratchett, told fans that the next Tiffany Aching book will be the final Discworld book to be published. She said that she would not write any more Discworld books herself, and would not give others permission to do so.

I think she is absolutely making the right call.

Pratchett died in March, but two of his books are being published posthumously: The Shepherd’s Crown, on August 27, and The Long Utopia, (not a Discworld book), written with Stephen Baxter, released on June 18.

The Shepherd’s Crown is the 41st book set in Discworld. That’s it. Finis. No more.

Too often, when writers die, their children feel obliged to carry on, working from their parents’ notes. (Slate calls this phenomenon famfic.) Christopher Tolkien, Brian Herbert, and Jeff Shaara have all, in one form or another, continued writing in the universes their fathers created.

Then there are the families who have asked other authors to continue a series: Margaret Mitchell’s estate authorizing Alexandra Ripley to write Scarlett and Robert Jordan’s widow asking Brandon Sanderson to finish writing the Wheel of Time series.

While talking to fans on Twitter, Rhianna Pratchett made it clear that she will do neither, because “the books are sacred to dad.”

As much as I am sad that Terry Pratchett is gone and that we will never get another Discworld novel, I think I’m on board with his daughter’s decision because the books are sacred to me as well.

Terry Pratchett’s voice, worldview and sense of humor was so unique that I don’t think another writer could match it. I think we would know instantly that we were reading another person’s work, and that would cheapen the work. At least it would for me.

There are also 41 novels in the series. That’s a lot of Discworld to visit and revisit, and every Discworld book I’ve read has been a self-contained story. I’ve never felt like I needed plotlines tied up when I read Discworld books, because every book came with its own sense of closure. Forty-one stand-alone novels are an amazing gift to give a fanbase, and I feel like it would be greedy to ask for more.

There must be people who do want more Discworld, though, and who would be willing to pay to return there, so I am happy to know that Pratchett’s family has no intention of diluting the franchise to make more money, even though it is absolutely their right to do so.

But there is a way the family can continue to expand Discworld that I heartily support: Rhianna hasn’t ruled out adaptations and tie-ins. That means video games (she is a video game writer) and more of Pratchett’s work adapted for the screen. There have been two miniseries already and they were awesome. To whom should I write to get 39 more Discworld BBC miniseries? I’d pay to see 41 Discworld summer blockbusters in the theater. I would buy a console to play 41 games.

http://bookriot.com/2015/06/22/pratc...ooks-thats-ok/