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[ J o ]'s Reviews > A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction
A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction
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[ J o ]'s review
bookshelves: own, 2015, champion, pterry, humour, illustrated, masculine, bookshelf, 2021
Jun 12, 2015
bookshelves: own, 2015, champion, pterry, humour, illustrated, masculine, bookshelf, 2021
Read 2 times. Last read November 12, 2021 to November 19, 2021.
Sir Terry Pratchett OBE, author of one of the most successful book series of all time in Discworld is pretty bloody terrible at the shorter format, actually.
This is collection of some shorts: some Discworld, some non-Discworld. It's unlikely anyone would read this without having read at least one Discworld book, but if you are thinking of picking it up as a little taste of what he can do, skip them all and head straight for The Sea and Little Fishes, which is the longest, the best and the most emotional, wonderful piece of short writing I think I've ever read. Though I don't read short too much, so who cares what I say.
I'll be honest, the four stars are mostly for the Discworld short stories, especially The Sea and Little Fishes (5 stars on its own) which features the Witches of Discworld, Granny and Nanny, and very nearly made me cry which is unheard of with reading. The loss of a star was caused by the lack of humour that was found in some stories, and the quite frankly rubbish nature of a few others. He was not born to write short, or poetry, and that's fine, but I am glad of this collection. The anecdotes at the beginning are fun. I thought for someone who has been written for around four decades would have a few more and better short stories to add to a collection like this, but apparently not. They "cost him blood" which would put anyone off.
This is collection of some shorts: some Discworld, some non-Discworld. It's unlikely anyone would read this without having read at least one Discworld book, but if you are thinking of picking it up as a little taste of what he can do, skip them all and head straight for The Sea and Little Fishes, which is the longest, the best and the most emotional, wonderful piece of short writing I think I've ever read. Though I don't read short too much, so who cares what I say.
I'll be honest, the four stars are mostly for the Discworld short stories, especially The Sea and Little Fishes (5 stars on its own) which features the Witches of Discworld, Granny and Nanny, and very nearly made me cry which is unheard of with reading. The loss of a star was caused by the lack of humour that was found in some stories, and the quite frankly rubbish nature of a few others. He was not born to write short, or poetry, and that's fine, but I am glad of this collection. The anecdotes at the beginning are fun. I thought for someone who has been written for around four decades would have a few more and better short stories to add to a collection like this, but apparently not. They "cost him blood" which would put anyone off.
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Reading Progress
June 12, 2015
– Shelved
June 21, 2015
–
Started Reading
June 21, 2015
–
10.63%
"The Hades Business: juvenile yet obviously something there. Those puns though."
page
34
June 21, 2015
–
11.88%
"Solution: short but sweet. Read some similar to this with endings like that, but still wonderful. Some weird turn of phrases, however."
page
38
June 21, 2015
–
11.88%
"The Picture: a good example of what writers do when they're trying not to do serious writing. He was young and inexperienced, but there is still they something there that let's you know he was a born Storyteller."
page
38
June 21, 2015
–
19.06%
"Rincemangle, the Gnome of Even Moor: precursor to Truckers (and Rincewind) that had the humour of Elder Terry and the utterly terrible writing of a young person who wants to be a writer. It's good to see an authors progression."
page
61
June 21, 2015
–
19.06%
"Kindly Breathe In Short, Thick Pants: What the fuck is this, Terry? XD He was so pissed off when he wrote this one."
page
61
June 23, 2015
–
19.06%
"The Glastonbury Tales: As far as I'm aware, his only public poem. A good one, but prose is obviously his fortè. Humorous and true."
page
61
June 23, 2015
–
19.06%
"There's No Fool Like An Old Fool In An English Queue: Reminiscent of the previous one about MPs (I don't think Terry liked them much). Vague humour, a bit of letting-off steam as he put it."
page
61
June 23, 2015
–
19.06%
"Coo, They've Given Me The Bird: Surrealist humour as to be expected. Fairly vague in much meaning but, as with most of his early writing, you can clearly see who wrote it."
page
61
June 23, 2015
–
19.06%
"And Mind The Monoliths: "Of course the goat is angry. You're sitting in her seat." Oh Gosh. Reminds me of Summer School, Dawn French's Comic Strip episode. All the reasons the past should stay there."
page
61
June 24, 2015
–
33.13%
"The High Meggas: The precursor to The Long Earth quartet, which I disliked (the first only, need to re-read). I actually quite enjoyed this, though it's obviously not drafted well or edited properly. Made me curious to give The Long Earth another go."
page
106
June 24, 2015
–
35.94%
"Twenty Pence, With Envelope And Seasonal Greeting: Kind of terrible but I like the idea. I hope the fact about Dickens and Christmas is true. It was on QI so it must be."
page
115
June 24, 2015
–
35.94%
"Incubust: A drabble of is an interesting writing prompt. 100 words only; these 100 are some of the best I've read. Also available for free via some website or other."
page
115
June 24, 2015
–
41.25%
"Final Reward: Actually hate this one, not certain why. Just didn't have the same kind of flow as his other writing does, both short and long. The premise is good and something I've come across before, just a bit meh really. Ambiguous ending makes me angry for some reason."
page
132
June 24, 2015
–
41.25%
"Turntables Of The Night: Death make a lovely, capitalised appearance here and he's exactly as he is in Discworld. Terry has loved Death for a very long time."
page
132
June 24, 2015
–
50.0%
"#IFDEFDEBUG + 'World/Enough' + 'Time': Three stories that follow one another about a world that relies far too heavily on technology. These kind of stories have such a resounding resonance with me; it's a good story, well written with a good boring kind of narrator. Kind of unintelligent but smarter then any one else."
page
160
June 25, 2015
–
52.5%
"Hollywood Chickens: Based on a true story with a twist. Rather too imaginative, to be honest. Generally well written without the usual draw or humour."
page
168
June 25, 2015
–
52.5%
"The Secret Book Of The Dead: Oh, another poem "with that earnest brand of serious amateurism" which is totally understandable. True to a point though I'm glad he didn't pursue poetry as an art form."
page
168
June 25, 2015
–
52.5%
"Once And Future: "Because the sky tells me I'm around AD 500. So why is the architecture Norman and the armour fifteenth-century?" Unsure how I feel about this one. I like Arthurian, though I'm not feeling alternative Arthurian, like Philp Reeve's version. This one is sci-fi Arthurian, though the idea of "Arthur" being female is utterly captivating. I'd like this without the time travel."
page
168
June 25, 2015
–
60.31%
"FTB: Oh, this one is utterly delightful. Coherent, wonderful, funny; exactly what a short story should be. The ending is now one of my favourite things."
page
193
June 25, 2015
–
60.31%
"Sir Joshua Easement: A Biographical Note: Ah, yes. These are getting better. Short but sweet, funny. (latter years, 2010 which is obvious). I'm certain this man existed at some point somewhere."
page
193
June 25, 2015
–
60.31%
"Troll Bridge: The first of the Discworld short stories, concerns Cohen. A amiable story about changing times. Classic Discworld minus the humour, not a lot there."
page
193
June 25, 2015
–
60.31%
"Theatre Of Cruelty: Oh yes. Punch and Judy on Discworld with Vimes and Carrot thrown in for free. These little stories make the longer novels make sense. Something needs to happen between killing Dragons and stopping assassins."
page
193
June 26, 2015
–
60.31%
"The Ankh-Morpork National Anthem: I pray to Beelzebub that this is available online somewhere. I'm still laughing."
page
193
June 26, 2015
–
60.31%
"Medical Notes: Fairly mundane and boring, though useful for letting me know about one Mr Thomas Bowdler, who tried to make Shakespeare less raunchy for women. Oo-er."
page
193
June 26, 2015
–
60.31%
"Thud: A Historical Perspective: Pre-cursor to the novel Thud! Obvious, if you've read it, though the game sounds interesting. Humorous but all the jokes were used in Thud! anyway."
page
193
June 26, 2015
–
60.31%
"A Few Words From Lord Havelock Vetinari: (I love my phone for automatically knowing that Vetinari follows Havelock. SwiftKey wins.) Wincanton doesn't sound like a real place, well, it sounds like an Ankh-Morpork place. Twinned (I hope there's a sign?). Amusing though lightly. I expected no more."
page
193
June 26, 2015
–
60.31%
"Death And What Comes Next: These short stories all contain the most favourite and best characters of Discworld. Death outdoes a philosopher here in style."
page
193
June 26, 2015
–
60.31%
"A Collegiate Casting-Out Of Devilish Devices: Real-world problems on Discworld. As per, as per."
page
193
June 26, 2015
–
60.31%
"Minutes Of The Meeting To Form The Proposed Ankh-Morpork Federation Of Scouts: Not a damp Squib (ho ho ho). Lightly entertaining. I think you had to be there."
page
193
June 26, 2015
–
95.63%
"The Ankh-Morpork Football Association Hall Of Fame Playing Cards: Short but sweet. Humorously silly. The Librarian sulked."
page
306
June 26, 2015
–
Finished Reading
November 12, 2021
–
Started Reading
November 19, 2021
–
Finished Reading
