I used to have a copy of that edition, though I didn't get it until after I'd read the first couple of Diskworld books, I think I got it for a couple of quid in a charity shop. I had no idea of its value and when the revised edition was published I sold the first one on to a friend who collect's children's books for what I'd paid for it. Which was probably a fraction of what it was worth even then. But it ended up with someone who really treasured it, so I shall refrain from grinding my teeth too much.
My association started in 1983 with Colour of Magic (got all the other books now, naturally). However one of our (The Wife and I) prized possessions, given to us as a wedding present, is Science Fantasy Magazine No. 60, Vol. 20, from 1963, which has a story called "The Hades Business" from a young lad called Terry Pratchett who, "shows great promise for the future".
Oh, yes, I started with those editions of The Dark Side of the Sun and Strata as well. I wish I still had them, and I kind of regret that Pterry never continued with the Niven-esque stories. But only a bit, as he was even better as himself than as a Niven tribute author.
Everyone says that: that he found his voice with the fantasy stuff. I don't think he did. I am rereading TDSOTS now -- I plan to reread all of them, as a sort of memorial -- and the SF is so very stuffed with references. There's a fair bit in Discworld, but it feels to me cheap, popularist, deliberately somewhat shallow, Pterry Made Easy for people who would miss the multiple-references-per-sentence of TDSOTS
( ... )
Eh, to be fair, you either go commercial or you go get a real job. You can't make a living as an obscure artist, and you can't make much obscure art if you also have to make a living.
A mid-list author has to crank out around two books a year in order to make a living from writing, I'm told by a mid-list author, which is a full-time job for most people who aren't Balzac. Leaving little time to generate high art; you have to aim for the middle-brow to sell.
If you manage to ascend to Pterry's level of popularity, chances are you stick to the habits that got you there. Going high-brow at that point can be a terrible gamble: lots of artists have lost their audience, who move on to other artists and never come back.
Point entirely taken about midlist writers, certainly. And I suspect without the fantast he'd have stayed in the midlist forever.
I just wish that, once he was a big name and as rich as Creosote, that he'd gone back to the SF a bit sooner. I'm glad we have the Long Earth books & I'm looking forward to the Long Mars, but they're not a patch on the early stuff. They're merely OK.
I suspect his fame would have sold them.
I can't resist thinking of Stephen King & the Richard Bachman books. Personally, I think they're among his very best, but they bombed without his name on them. Re-issued with it, successful. A sad way of proving the point.
Early nineties, 91-93, one of the witchy ones, I think, as it had a cartoon of him on a broomstick. For those that don't read it, Private Eye doesn't really *do* good book reviews, it mostly takes the piss out of the idiocy of the literary establishment. The nearest it came to genre-sneering was along the lines of "He doesn't half crank 'em out...", IIRC.
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He'll be missed.
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£1000.
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If only they could have known...
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A mid-list author has to crank out around two books a year in order to make a living from writing, I'm told by a mid-list author, which is a full-time job for most people who aren't Balzac. Leaving little time to generate high art; you have to aim for the middle-brow to sell.
If you manage to ascend to Pterry's level of popularity, chances are you stick to the habits that got you there. Going high-brow at that point can be a terrible gamble: lots of artists have lost their audience, who move on to other artists and never come back.
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Point entirely taken about midlist writers, certainly. And I suspect without the fantast he'd have stayed in the midlist forever.
I just wish that, once he was a big name and as rich as Creosote, that he'd gone back to the SF a bit sooner. I'm glad we have the Long Earth books & I'm looking forward to the Long Mars, but they're not a patch on the early stuff. They're merely OK.
I suspect his fame would have sold them.
I can't resist thinking of Stephen King & the Richard Bachman books. Personally, I think they're among his very best, but they bombed without his name on them. Re-issued with it, successful. A sad way of proving the point.
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He got a good review in Private Eye pnce.
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Deservedly so, I'm sure.
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