in general, as a science fiction reader, i have tended to disfavor fantasy, and have understood pratchett to produce works principally in that genre. (admittedly, from time to time i have read a fantasy series here and there on the rave or recommendation of one or another literate friend - pullman's is one of those, as is much of jordan's Wheel of Time).
recently, i've become increasingly aware of being exposed both to pratchett's works -- generally through film -- and to the breadth of his influence, from fanboy discussion and articles around the 'net to references embedded in the texts of science fiction novels by admired authors.
so i got a bunch of Discworld novels and have been chewing them like bubblegum. each has a few lines, or a thought experiment, or a sequence of paragraphs that is very interesting and for which it is worth skimming over those explanatory paragraphs about, e.g., light moving slower through a magical field, again.
the book Equal Rites, for example, had this line:
The storm walked around the hills on legs of lightning, shouting and grumbling.and book four, Mort, features this passage:
There should be a word for the microscopic spark of hope that you dare not entertain in case the mere act of acknowledging it will cause it to vanish, like trying to look at a photon. You can only sidle up to it, looking past it, walking past it, waiting for it to get big enough to face the world.
He raised his dripping head and looked towards the sunset horizon, trying to remember the big model of the Disc in Death's study without actually letting the universe know what he was entertaining.
At times like this it can seem that eventuality is so finely balanced that merely thinking too loud can spoil everything.
catching myself enjoying that passage, and vaguely remembering similar moments with similarly-enjoyable passages of the earlier books, and guiltily reflecting on the many times i have pretended to have better things to read (e.g., another heinlein romp or -- gods forfend! -- one of the antiliterate Left Behind series!) than another rendition of that repetitive story about the secretly-orphaned-rightful-ruler-of-the-land farm boy having to leave his home and have adventures over five to fifteen volumes, during the course of which he will ever-so-slowly learn about friendship, love, honor, the terrible history that left him an ignorant and powerless farm boy, who his friends are and who they are not, and he will become a man and set out to be a great man in the perpetually immanent Ultimate-Battle-Between-Good-and-Evil, with magic! and exotic ethnicities! and so on!, so characteristic in my view of the genre at large, i thought that i ought to come forward and make a mea culpa.
i am glad to have the opportunity to enjoy these books. there i said it.