.png)
Regie and Hat met up with old friends of the Podcast Tina and Simon to discuss their favourite books by the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett – a man whose reaction to getting a Knighthood was to mine some iron ore from his garden, find an iron meteorite and use them to forge a sword. Then hide it away because he was concerned he might be in breach of the UK’s strict knife laws.
In short, he was a unique, fascinating and incredibly talented man. Click on the image below to go to the download page, or search for The Geeks at the Gates wherever you find your podcasts.
We knew that if we were to just sit down and talk about Pratchett’s work we would never finish – he was prolific, and his work was funny, profound and thoughtful. While some of the snootier critics look at his output – which is mostly either Fantasy or Science Fiction – and dismiss him as a writer of mere popular fiction might look down their noses, those of us who actually read his books appreciate the depth and the wisdom that he brought to his work, and there’s a lot to talk about.
So we restricted ourselves to one book each, and came to explain what we loved about it.
The last Pratchett novel The Shepherd's Crown came up in discussion. It's a novel that many fans - including Hat - have not yet read, because so long as they leave it on the shelf they still live in a world where there is new Pratchett to look forward to.
That's one of the reasons we didn't discuss it - we did sound the spoiler horn, but even then, we felt the need to respect the people who were still holding out.
The first Novel to come under consideration was Nation, one of Sir Terry's later works, and completely separate from the Discworld series that he is best known for. It's a story about
colonialism, faith, logic and learning what you truly believe. It was Tina's choice, and it was generally acknowledged by the group to be not only Pratchett's finest work, but one of the best novels of all time.
That might sound like hyperbole, but it really isn't.
If you have never read any Pratchett, and would like to, we would like to direct you towards your local library, where you can borrow them for free. If you would like to own your own copy, hit us up - we can help you with that!