I know where I'm going to be on the 7th...

[Undertow]

And it won't be on the moon...

http://www.harpercollins.com/catalog/eve...horid=7848

I'll take pictures and stuff, my little gibblies.

[Great Rumbler]

You lucky son-of-a...I should slap you for being so lucky!!

[Undertow]

MWAHAHAHA! *gloat*gloat*

I kid. Well, about the evil gloating. Not the "I'm going to meet Pratchett, and ask him to sign books for me" part. =D

[Undertow]

This is me with Pratchett. I got a signed copy of Hat Full of Sky too.

[OB1]

Man you're pretty old. But that's cool, old people are welcome here. But what are you doing with your hands there? Looks kind of suggestive and dirty.

[Great Rumbler]

Terry Pratchett is the man.

[OB1]

And half-ape, apparently. Look at those arms!

[Great Rumbler]

Yeah, he's got some hairy arms. :D

[OB1]

Man, that's how I'd probably look like if I had dark arm hair.

[Undertow]

I'm the young chap to your left in that picture, OB1.

[OB1]

You don't say! :D

[Great Rumbler]

What?! Really?

[Undertow]

Man you're pretty old. But that's cool, old people are welcome here. But what are you doing with your hands there? Looks kind of suggestive and dirty.

This comment made me believe OB1 think I was pratchett, and pratchett was me.

[OB1]

Haha, that was the joke, silly.

[Undertow]

>.>

<.<

I knew that.

[EdenMaster]

Am I supposed to know/care who this is?

[A Black Falcon]

Yes.

[Great Rumbler]

Am I supposed to know/care who this is?

Yes. You are. *hits EdenMaster*

[Undertow]

Am I supposed to know/care who this is?

Yeeeeeees.

[EdenMaster]

I like the way all of you are saying how I should know him, yet none of oyu are explaining exactly who he is. Perhaps I know of him and don't realize it. What has he done/made/destroyed?

[Fittisize]

He's a writer.

[Great Rumbler]

He's an AWESOME writer.


One word: Discworld.

That is all you need to know.

[EdenMaster]

...

*shrugs*

Okay.

*leaves*

[A Black Falcon]

*pushes EdenMaster into a bookstore*

[Great Rumbler]

*straps EdenMaster to a chair and starts up the projector*

[OB1]

Not everyone reads fantasy stuff, you know. :)

[Great Rumbler]

Well, that's a mistake!

[OB1]

There's just so much stuff you have to read if you get into fantasy. You have to devote a lot of time to a huge series of books in order to appreciate anything.

[A Black Falcon]

Which is the best part! ... hope you brought plenty of money with you, EM...

[OB1]

I'd rather read a wide variety of stand-alone novels than spend all of my time reading a 50-book Wheel of Time series.

[A Black Falcon]

I like serieses... the only problem is that if you get behind it can get overwhelming, but I love them. Of course sometimes it's impossible to buy all the books in a universe -- see 'D&D books'. There the library is helpful, for the stuff they have. :)

[OB1]

Well good for you.

[EdenMaster]

Hey, I read what interests me. Fantasy novels don't quite fit into that category. I get my fill of fantasy from my game consoles, thank you.

[Great Rumbler]

I've always liked reading a series of books, the one-shots can be great sometimes, but when I get attached to characters like in fantasy books I want to read a lot about them and what they do.

I get my fill of fantasy from my game consoles, thank you.

But can you get British humor-fantasy from videogames? I think not.

[OB1]

Does Bard's Tale count?

[Great Rumbler]

Maybe.

[Undertow]

Discworld is more of a "satire" series that takes place in a "fantasy" world, than a fantasy series alone. It's not like reading those lame forgotten realms books <i>at all</i>. Think Douglas Adams, or The Onion.

[EdenMaster]

Hey, I know the secret of Life, the Universe, and Everything is 42. I know all about Pan Galactic Gargle Blasters. I'm well aware that the doors do indeed make a sickeningly satisfying hiss when they open and close.

I am no stanger to Douglas Adams' works :). How many of you have read Dirk Gentlys Holistic Detective Agency? It's not as funny as the Hitchhikers Guide series but still a good, if brief, read.

[A Black Falcon]

Yeah, Terry Pratchett is a fantasy writer second, humor writer first... :)

[Dark Jaguar]

The thing I don't like about huge series is they sorta kill what I might have loved about a character. Lord of the Rings for example takes an awesome character through a major story ark, and then ENDS that character's story with dignity and grace. I haven't read many of today's huge fantasy series, but it seems to me they sorta lock their characters into an "infinite now". The character is never really allowed to end, just keep on going, learning the same exact lessons over and over. It's the same thing that killed comic books (that and overcrowding the SAME universe with so many heros and villians as to make it laughable and really hard to take seriously, see Justice League Unlimited for the ultimate expression of that, I mean really, EVERY new plot creates so many plot holes like "Wait a miniute, if the world is being taken over completely, why aren't the atlantians, the ape people, and the amazons taking them on in their own way, I'm almost certain they would have issues with their respective kingdoms being under attack"). What I mean by this is that Super Man, for example, is not allowed to die. He doesn't need to die, really, but his story is just one massive climax from start to end. All sense of structure is lost when there's no real central plot, no matter what enemy he's fighting, there's just another right around the bend that'll totally make that last major battle worthless in the sense of the story. Even when he DID die, nothing came of it. He just got brought back to life and killed the guy who killed him without even the slightest bit of change in his character. It's things like that that make me not read comic books any more.

That's the problem with series. Sure, it's nice to get hooked on a character, but they ALL need to have a major climax in their personal story and be allowed to retire. That's what makes a good story truly good. If Aragorn was STILL running around (after resigning his kingdom to be ruled by yet another steward, sorta killing the entire point of the whole thing) slaying orcs and maybe over-throwing even more looming threats, from new Dark Lords to an enigmatic youth attempting to unmake the world by harnessing the eternal flame that resides in the center of the world, well, yes they could make the invididual stories "good", but it would sorta kill the character of Aragorn. No longer has he gone on his grand quest and attained his destined end, now he exists in an everlasting "present" that will never end, and the entire battle for Middle-Earth's significance has been totally nulled out by the coming of "even greater threats". Do you see what I'm saying son? Now, if you will excuse me... *uses super camel powers to save old people in a cave and provide them with fresh water*

[OB1]

Could somebody quote me, please?

DJ, I agree that it's important for many stories to have an actual beginning, middle, and end, but for many fictional characters having them last basically forever with no real finality to their stories can also be a very good thing. It looks like you never read comics for very long. The structure of Superman and Batman is very different from that of Frodo or Spike Spiegel, neither one being better than the other. With the latter characters you can go through an entire story without having to commit to the characters for a very long time, and you can proceed to move on after you've had your enjoyment. With the former characters they have incredibly long, detailed histories behind them and their stories are told through story arcs within their never-ending existences. True, Superman's death did not and cannot have the same kind of impact as Spike's death since he did come back, but the story is not effective because it is the end of the character but rather because of the plots that crop up because of it. I think of these serials, these comic characters as a long, winding river that just keeps on going with no end in sight and you just have to enjoy the moments without expecting to reach a final destination, while the Frodos are like great big lakes that are finite and have closure. Messy analogy but hopefully you get it.

If the status quo of these comic characters never changed and it was literally just the same thing over and over again with no plot or character development, then I agree that it would have gotten old many decades ago. But that is not the case, as most of these characters have changed dramatically since their creation and continue to do so.

And about the overcomplicated universes thing with DC, that is true and DC has had to basically restart their universe a couple of times in the past. Perhaps with JLU they might have to do that with the animated universe as well, but with JLU the creators don't seem to worried about contuinity bogging them down.