68, WG44, E61, / NG24, D7, C1, Frz0, B1, NA0

Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Die Geschichte von Eskarina Smith, die zwischen dem Dasein als Hexe und Zauberer hin- und hergerissen ist und eigentlich beides sein will, ist immer faszinierend zu lesen - besonders das Duell zwischen dem Archchancellor und Granny Weatherwax.
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They both savoured the strange warm glow of being much more ignorant than ordinary people, who were ignorant of only ordinary things.
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'There were more old people. The world was full of them,' said the wizard.
'Yes, I know. And now it's full of young people. Funny, really. I mean, you'd expect it to be the other way around.'
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(Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites, 1987)
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Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

Die Abenteuer von Death, der für eine kurze Zeit erleben muss, wie es ist sterblich zu sein, könnte ich immer wieder neu lesen. Auch die parallel dazu laufende Geschichte von Windle Poons, der erst nach seinem Tod richtig beginnt zu leben, ist immer wieder gut. Von Ludmilla und Lupine hätte ich allerdings gerne etwas mehr gelesen. Oh well.
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Everything that exists, yearns to live. That's what the cycle of life is all about. That's the engine that drives the great biological pumps of evolution. Everything tries to inch its way up the tree, clawing or tentacling or sliming its way up the next niche until it gets to the very top - which, on the whole, never seems to have been worth all that effort.
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'Hang on though,' said the Bursar, who had managed to catch up with events. 'Why should that worry us? We don't have anything to fear from the dead, do we? After all, they're just people who are dead. They're just ordinary people. People like us.'
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Contrary to general belief, Bill Door wasn't very familiar with funereal decor. Deaths didn't normally take place in tombs, except in rare and unfortunate cases. The open air, the bottoms of rivers, halfway down sharks, any amount of bedrooms, yes - tombs, no.
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Was that what it was really like to be alive? The feeling of darkness dragging you forward?
How could they live with it? And yet they did, and even seemed to find enjoyment in it, when surely the only sensible course would be to despair. Amazing. To feel you were a tiny living thing, sandwiched between two cliffs of darkness. How could they stand to be alive?
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Light thinks it travels faster than anything but it is wrong. No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.
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(Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man, 1991)