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Reread Roundup
Mar. 31st, 2009 12:16 pmI wound up doing a lot of rereading of books in March, and I'm not counting rereads against my 50, but I thought I'd blog 'em anyway. Mostly I wound up with so much rereading because I followed up Clay's Ark with a comfort reread of Witches Abroad, which -- as is often the case -- lead to me rereading all of the Discworld books in the 'witches' subseries. (Well, not quite all. I didn't reread Equal Rites or Wyrd Sisters, but I read all of them from there out.) So that's Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum. (I didn't reread the Tiffany Aching witch books, but mostly that's because I realized that I don't actually have a copy of The Wee Free Men, which put a stop to the momentum -- although I did wind up ordering one.) And I also reread Going Postal and Making Money, the Moist von Lipwig books.
I can never decide which of the Discworld subseries are my favorites -- the witches, the guards, Death and Susan? But I definitely prefer the later books to the earlier ones, and I think the main reason for that is that I think Pratchett got better at characters. In the early books, many of the characters were archetypes, even caricatures; over time they grew out of those molds (it was particularly interesting to watch Nanny Ogg develop, reading the series in order -- although the most notable example of it is Vimes, who I adore, and whose character arc from Guards! Guards! through Night Watch is incredible). And the characters who were introduced later have the advantage of being developed when he was better at it. That's most obvious to me in comparing Agnes/Perdita to Magrat; they're very different characters, but the role they play in Lancre (and the coven) is similar, and I think Agnes is a lot more nuanced and dynamic. As though Pratchett had, at some point, actually figured out what he could do with a young female character. (I also felt that way in Monstrous Regiment, which I think is one of the more flawed of his recent books, but which has a young woman character I loved -- Polly, the protagonist.)
Anyway. I think I'm going to read Brown Girl in the Ring next, and get back onto new-to-me books, but it was a fun diversion.
I can never decide which of the Discworld subseries are my favorites -- the witches, the guards, Death and Susan? But I definitely prefer the later books to the earlier ones, and I think the main reason for that is that I think Pratchett got better at characters. In the early books, many of the characters were archetypes, even caricatures; over time they grew out of those molds (it was particularly interesting to watch Nanny Ogg develop, reading the series in order -- although the most notable example of it is Vimes, who I adore, and whose character arc from Guards! Guards! through Night Watch is incredible). And the characters who were introduced later have the advantage of being developed when he was better at it. That's most obvious to me in comparing Agnes/Perdita to Magrat; they're very different characters, but the role they play in Lancre (and the coven) is similar, and I think Agnes is a lot more nuanced and dynamic. As though Pratchett had, at some point, actually figured out what he could do with a young female character. (I also felt that way in Monstrous Regiment, which I think is one of the more flawed of his recent books, but which has a young woman character I loved -- Polly, the protagonist.)
Anyway. I think I'm going to read Brown Girl in the Ring next, and get back onto new-to-me books, but it was a fun diversion.