The New Discworld Companion (GOLLANCZ S.F.) - Softcover

Briggs, Stephen; Pratchett, Terry

3.94

939 ratings by Goodreads

9780575075559: The New Discworld Companion (GOLLANCZ S.F.)

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0575075554 ISBN 13: 9780575075559

Publisher: Gollancz, 2004

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The All-New Revised Essential Companion to all things Discworld.

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Review:

Terry Pratchett's enormously successful comic fantasies need no introduction, but the Discworld saga is so wide-ranging as to require its own encyclopaedia: The New Discworld Companion, latest revision of the original 1994 Discworld Companion.

Once again the alphabetical round-up of Discworld's people, places, creatures, organisations, books, food and miscellanea is (to hi-tech Pratchett's alleged disgust) based on Stephen Briggs's much-thumbed, uncomputerised card index. It draws its material not only from the first 30 Discworld novels and novellas--from The Colour of Magic to The Wee Free Men--but from associated maps, guides, diaries, cookbooks, short stories and two volumes of The Science of Discworld.

This torrent of information about a world that doesn't even exist (though often seeming suspiciously more real than our own) is carefully channelled. Minor entries on walk-on characters from the early novels have been ruthlessly crossed out to make room for Discworld facts and fancies that are either more important or--preferably--offer better scope for jokes. The Companion is consistently, unashamedly entertaining. From a geopolitical entry on a small but frighteningly important country:

Lancre operates on a feudal system--everyone feuds all the time and hands on the fight to their descendants. The chips on some shoulders have been handed down for generations. Some have antique value. A bloody good grudge, Lancre reckons, is like a fine old wine; you look after it carefully and leave it to your children.

It would probably be madness to read the New Companion from cover to cover, but it's endlessly browsable and offers something amusing on every page. From Abbot via Bugarup University, Orang-Utan/Human Dictionary ("Ook"), Place Where the Sun Does Not Shine, and Vestigial Virgins to "Zweiblumen, Jack", all Discworld life is here. In a closing interview Pratchett lets slip the title of the Autumn 2003 novel, Monstrous Regiment. All in all, it's a must for the hardened fan. --David Langford

About the Author:

Stephen Briggs (Author)
Stephen Briggs lives in Oxfordshire and has been involved for many years in the sinister world of amateur dramatics, which is how he came to discover the Discworld. Having read one book, he was hooked and read the entire canon over the next three weeks. Oxford's Studio Theatre Club went on to stage his adaptations of WYRD SISTERS, MORT, GUARDS! GUARDS!...and many, many more. As well as compiling THE DISCWORLD COMPANION, THE NEW DISCWORLD COMPANION and, now, TURTLE RECALL: THE DISCWORLD COMPANION ... SO FAR, he has also co-authored the Discworld Diaries, the Mapps and has dramatised most of the Discworld novels. Stephen also now voices the UK and US Discworld audio books.

Terry Pratchett (Author)
Sir Terry Pratchett is a publishing phenomenon. Among his many prizes and citations are the World Fantasy Life Achievement Award, the Carnegie Medal, the BSFA Award, eight honorary doctorates and, of course, a knighthood. In 2012, he won a BAFTA for his documentary on the subject of assisted suicide, 'Terry Pratchett: Choosing to Die'. He is the author of fifty bestselling books but is best known for the globally renowned Discworld series.

The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, and the series is still going strong almost three decades later. Four Discworld novels - Hogfather, Going Postal, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic - have been adapted for television, with more to follow. His books have sold approximately 85 million copies worldwide (but who's counting?), and been translated into thirty-seven languages.

In 2007, Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's Disease. He died in 2015.

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