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A review by kitsuneheart
A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction by Terry Pratchett
5.0
This book...is going to utterly torment me about not having started Discworld yet, isn't it? I've read little bit! "Circle of Magic," a few short stories, some descriptions. But I'm only vaguely aware of the real plot of the series. And...this book is going to change that, because the glimpse I got was so tantalizing, I do believe tomorrow I'm hitting the used bookstore.
This isn't just a Discworld book. About half of the stories are unconnected short fiction, including some of Pratchett's earliest works. Like, not a legal adult yet earliest. And the general quality of everything is still rather high. You'd expect his first published work to be sort of bad (as seen in some of George R. R. Martin's early work collections), but Pratchett always had a general understanding of what makes a good story. Certainly, he improved over the years, but his work never wastes your time.
I'm a particular fan of "Final Reward," in which the author of a sword and sorcery series kills off his main character, only to realize that literary promises that he would "meet his maker" and "dine in his halls" were literal, and there is a large, somewhat violent man standing on his front stoop.
I listened to the audiobook version of this series, which is all done by one reader, so don't go in expecting to have a big difference in voices between stories. There's no confusion for a listener as voices are repeated, luckily, but there's just not the variety available from a wider cast. Still, feel free to read or listen, whichever is available to you.
This isn't just a Discworld book. About half of the stories are unconnected short fiction, including some of Pratchett's earliest works. Like, not a legal adult yet earliest. And the general quality of everything is still rather high. You'd expect his first published work to be sort of bad (as seen in some of George R. R. Martin's early work collections), but Pratchett always had a general understanding of what makes a good story. Certainly, he improved over the years, but his work never wastes your time.
I'm a particular fan of "Final Reward," in which the author of a sword and sorcery series kills off his main character, only to realize that literary promises that he would "meet his maker" and "dine in his halls" were literal, and there is a large, somewhat violent man standing on his front stoop.
I listened to the audiobook version of this series, which is all done by one reader, so don't go in expecting to have a big difference in voices between stories. There's no confusion for a listener as voices are repeated, luckily, but there's just not the variety available from a wider cast. Still, feel free to read or listen, whichever is available to you.