62, WG38, E54, / NG24, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms

Auf den "The Fifth Elephant" kann ich diesmal (vielleicht) verzichten, aber dieser zweite Band der Citywatch-Serie musste einfach sein, schon weil hier die neuen Mitstreiter aus allen möglichen Spezies die Wache ab hier bereichern. Und wie jedesmal schmerzt es mich, dass Cuddy umkommt, weil er und Detritus so ein herrliches Duo abgeben.
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He could think in italics. Such people need watching.
Preferably from a safe distance.
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There were no such thing as dwarf gods. Dwarfs were not a naturally religious species, but in a world where pit props could crack without warning and pockets of fire damp could suddenly explode they'd seen the need for gods as the sort of supernatural equivalent of a hard hat. Besides, when you hit your thumb with an eight-pound hammer it's nice to be able to blaspheme.
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The Librarian was, of course, very much in favour of reading in general, but readers in particular got on his nerves. There was something, well, sacrilegious about the way they kept taking books off the shelves and wearing out the words by reading them. He liked people who loved and respected books, and the best way to do that, in the Librarian's opinion, was to leave them on the shelves where Nature intended them to be.
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He was vaguely aware that prospective grooms were not supposed to see putative brides on the morning of the wedding, possibly in case they took to their heels.
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(Terry Pratchett, Men at Arms, 1993)
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Terry Pratchett, Thud

Mit dem letzten - und vielleicht besten - Band der Citywatch-Serie komme ich langsam zum Schluß meines Pratchett-Bingeing. Ein oder zwei Bände vielleicht noch, dann reicht es erstmal wieder für eine Weile. Bei diesem Band beeindruckt mich immer wieder, wie Pratchett es schafft, die unüberwindbar erscheinende religiöse und kulturelle Kluft zwischen Zwergen und Trollen zu erklären und zu veranschaulichen, wie unaufhaltsam die Bemühungen tatsächlich sind sie zu überbrücken, trotz aller Widerstände.
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Fun. What is it good for?
It's not pleasure, joy, delight, enjoyment or glee. It's a hollow, cruel, vicious little bastard, a word for something sought with an hilarious couple of wobbly antennae on your head and the word 'I want it!' on your shirt, and it tends to leave you waking up with your face stuck to the street.
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(Terry Pratchett, Thud, 2005)

60, WG36, E52, / NG24, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Terry Pratchett, Jingo

Weiter geht's mit dem Discuniversum. Diesen Band habe ich sehr lange nicht wiedergelesen und dementsprechend waren mir keine Einzelheiten mehr im Kopf, nur die grobe Handlung um die überraschend auftauchende Insel, die soviel Unheil zwischen Ankh Morpork und Klatch stiftet. Die Stelle mit den beiden Paralleluniversen hatte ich komplett vergessen.

Sergeant Colon had had a broad education. He'd been to the School of My Dad Always Said, the College of It Stands to Reason, and was now a postgraduate student at the University of What Some Bloke In The Pub Told Me.
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It was so much easier to blame it on Them. It was bleakly depressing to think that They were Us. If it was Them, then nothing was anyone's fault. If it was Us, what did that make Me? After all, I'm one of Us. I must be. I've certainly never thought of myself as one of Them. No one ever thinks of themselves as one of Them. We're always one of Us. It's Them that do the bad things.
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Night poured over the desert. It came suddenly, in purple. In the clear air, the stars drilled down out of the sky, reminding every thoughtful watcher that it is in the deserts and high places that religions are generated. When men see nothing but bottomless infinity over their heads they have always had a driving and desperate urge to find someone to put in the way.
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One of the universal rules of happiness is: always be wary of any helpful item that weighs less than its operating manual.
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(Terry Pratchett, Jingo, 1997)
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Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!

Eigentlich wollte ich ja nur die neueren Bände der Watchserie lesen, aber dann kam doch der Wunsch hoch, wiederzulesen wie alles anfing. Vor allem die Stellen mit dem Drachen sind immer wieder klasse.
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'.. Never trust any ruler who puts his faith in tunnels and bunkers and escape routes. The chances are that his heart isn't in the job.'
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(Terry Pratchett, Guards! Guards!, 1989)

58, WG34, E50, / NG24, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Terry Pratchett, Nightwatch

Nach zwei Jahren Pause haben sich doch wieder einige Bände aus der Discworldserie angesammelt, die wiedergelesen werden möchten. Wie diese geniale Zeitreisegeschichte, in der Vimes eine Revolution leiten und steuern, einen psychopathischen Killer dingfest machen und zu allem Überfluß noch sein eigenes jüngeres Selbst beschützen muss, und alles ohne die Vergangenheit zu verändern. Spannung pur.

'... Don't put your trust in revolutions. They always come around again. That's why they're called revolutions. People die, and nothing changes...
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As soon as you saw people as things to be measured, they didn't measure up. What would run through the streets soon enough wouldn't be revolution or a riot. It'd be people who were frightened and panicking. It was what happened when the machinery of city life faltered, the wheels stopped turning and all the little rules broke down. An when that happened, humans were worse than sheep. Sheep just ran; they didn't try to bite the sheep next to them.
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(Terry Pratched, Night Watch, 2002)

Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay

Auch dieses furiose Debut der Golems von Ankh Morpork habe ich viel zu lange nicht wiedergelesen. Immer wieder besonders schön: die Wappen mit den praktisch unübersetzbaren Mottos.

'You know, sometimes I envy you. It must be nice to be a wolf. Just for a while.'
'It has its drawbacks.' Like fleas, she thought, as they locked up the museum. And the food. And the constant nagging feeling that you should be wearing three bras at once.
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Rumour is information distilled so finely that it can filter through anything. It does not need doors and windows - sometimes it doesn't even need people. It can exist free and wild, running from ear to ear without ever touching lips.
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'They think they want good government and justice for all, Vimes, yet what is it they really crave, deep in their hearts? Only that things go on as normal and tomorrow is pretty much like today.
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Royalty was like dandelions. No matter how many heads you chopped off, the roots were still there underground, waiting to spring up again.
It seemed to be a chronic disease. It was as if even the most intelligent person had this little blank spot in their heads where someone had written: 'Kings. What a good idea.' Whoever had created humanity had left in a major design flaw. It was its tendency to bend at the knees.
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(Terry Pratchett, Feet of Clay, 1997)

56, WG32, E48, / NG24, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Terry Pratchett, The Truth

Dieser Band ist nicht nur mein Topfavorit (neben Going Postal) in der Discworldserie, sondern vielleicht auch eins meiner wirklichen Lieblingsbücher. Irgendwie könnte ich mir die fulminante Entstehungsgeschichte von Ankh Morporks erster Tageszeitung immer und immer wieder antun. Es wird einfach nicht langweilig.
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'Be careful. People like to be told what they already know. Remember that. They get uncomfortable when you tell them new things. New things ... well, new things aren't what they expect. The like to know that, say, a dog will bite a man. That is what dogs do. They don't want to know that a man bites a dog, because the world is not supposed to happen like that. In short, what people think they want is news, but what they really crave is olds. I can see you've got the hang of it already.'
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(Terry Pratchett, The Truth, 1999)

55, WG31, E47, / NG24, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum

Einige Discworldbände stehen noch Schlange, um gelesen zu werden und bei der Witchesreihe gehört dies auf jeden Fall dazu, schon weil Pratchetts Sicht auf Vampire einfach so erfrischend anders und zutreffend ist. Und wie Granny Weatherwax die 'moderne' Vampirfamilie, die so mir nichts dir nichts ihr Revier übernehmen will, mit ihren eigenen Waffen schlägt, ist immer eine Wonne zu lesen.
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Nanny reflected that Agnes read books. All the witches who'd lived in her cottage were bookish types. They thought you could see life through books, but you couldn't, the reason being that the words got in the way.
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She was not, herself, hugely in favour of motherhood in general. Obviously it was necessary, but it wasn't exactly difficult. Even cats managed it. But women acted as if they'd been given a medal that entitled them to boss people around. It was as if, just because they'd got the label which said 'mother', everyone else got a tiny part of the label that said 'child'...
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Oats sighed. 'Many people find faith a great solace,' he said. He wished he was one of them.
'Good.'
'Really? Somehow I thought you'd argue.'
'It's not my place to tell 'em what to believe, if they act decent.'
'But it's not something that you feel drawn to, perhaps, in the darker hours?'
'No. I've already got a hot water bottle.'
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(Terry Pratchett, Carpe Jugulum, 1998)

54, NG24, E46, / WG30, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Joe R. Lansdale, Hatchet Girls

Der neue Hap & Leonard-Band schlug pünktlich auf meinem Paperwhite auf, aber ich kam erst jetzt zum lesen. Erfreulicherweise zeigt auch dieses neueste Abenteuer keine Ermüdungserscheinungen, es sei denn man zählt Haps zunehmende Abkehr von Abenteuer und Gewalt, und seine Sehnsucht nach einem ruhigeren Leben. Aber das Problem mit einem wildgewordenem Eber, dessen Bändigung zu weiteren Problemen bis hin zur Jagd nach einer durchgeknallten Mörderinnenbande liest sich so gut wie eh und je. Ob Lansdale die Serie jetzt doch abwickeln will - ich lass mich überraschen. Nächstes Jahr.

53, WG30, E45, / NG23, D8, C1, Frz0, B2, NA0

Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad

Ja, in einer perfekten Welt hätte ich den Band zuerst lesen müssen. Oder vielleicht noch mit 'Wyrd Sisters' angefangen. Seis drum, den Band hab ich noch länger ruhen lassen als andere Witches-Bände, aber konnte mich noch gut erinnern, wie ungeheuer viele Märchen und Sagen darin erwähnt oder verarbeitet wurden, gefühlt in jeder zweiten Zeile. Und das alles vor dem Hintergrund der Discworldversion von New Orleans, das ist einfach nur genial.
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People think that stories are shaped by people. In fact, it's the other way around.
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He hadn't been a kind ruler. But he'd fitted. And when he'd been arbitrary or arrogant or just plain wrong, he'd never suggested that this was justified by anything other than the fact that he was bigger and stronger and occasionally nastier than other people. He'd never suggested that it was because he was better. And he'd never told people ought to be happy, and imposed a kind of happiness on them. The invisible people knew that happiness is not the natural state of mankind, and is never achieved from the outside in.
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'Then you're nothing but a daft godmother,' snapped Granny, still fiddling with the lock. 'You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage. Besides, you don't build a better world by choppin' heads off and giving decent girls away to frogs.'
'But progress-' Magrat began.
'Don't you talk to me about progress. Progress just means bad things happen faster.'
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Cats are like witches. They don't fight to kill, but to win. There is a difference. There's no point in killing an opponent. That way, they won't know they've lost, and to be a real winner you have to have an opponent who is beaten and knows it. There's no triumph over a corpse, but a beaten opponent, who will remain beaten every day of the remainder of their sad and wretched life, is something to treasure.
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(Terry Pratchett, Witches Abroad, 1991)