Terry Pratchett's latest novel, Dodger, isn't a Discworld book, except, well, it kind of is. Nominally, this is an historical novel, a fictionalized account of the fictionalized person who inspired Mr Charlie Dickens to create his much-beloved character The Artful Dodger. But as the story unfolds, the parallels between the early Victorian London of Dickens (and Mayhew) and the Ankh-Morpork of Pratchett's Discworld novels become sharper and clearer, so that by the end, we're reading a story that really could be set in either one of those fantastical places.

Snuff, Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld novel is an absolute treat, as per usual. It's a Sam Vimes book (there are many recurring characters in the Discworld series, whose life stories intermingle, braid and diverge — Sam Vimes is an ex-alcoholic police chief who has married into nobility) and that means that it's going to be a story about class, about law, and about justice, and the fact that Pratchett can make a serious discourse on these subjects both funny and gripping and never trivial is as neat a summary of why we love him as much as we do. — Read the rest

Beloved science fiction and fantasy writer Terry Pratchett has terminal early-onset Alzheimer's. He's determined to have the option of choosing the time and place of his death, rather than enduring the potentially horrific drawn-out death that Alzheimer's sometimes brings. But Britain bans assisted suicide, and Pratchett is campaigning to have the law changed. — Read the rest

Terry Pratchett and Terry Jones are collaborating on a new TV series that will feature criminal investigations in Discworld, with the city watch. It sounds awfully cool, despite the best efforts of Rod Brown, Managing Director of Prime Focus Productions to present it as cynical corporate drivel ("the globally successful Discworld franchise will readily translate to the small screen in the form of a high-end, mass appeal weekly drama series…"):

The main focus of the series will be set in the bustling, highly mercantile, largely untrustworthy and always vibrant city of Ankh-Morpork and will follow the day-to-day activities of the men, women, trolls, dwarves, vampires and several other species who daily pound its ancient cobbles (and, of course, Igor in the forensics department).

Terry Pratchett's newly released I Shall Wear Midnight is the fourth volume in the Tiffany Aching books, about a young girl born to be the witch of a chalky, sheep-farming area called, simply, The Chalk (the other three volumes being Wee Free Men, Hatful of Sky and Wintersmith). — Read the rest

Having been knighted by the Queen, Sir Terry Pratchett decided he needed a sword, so he made one. He mined the ore from a field near his house, chucked in a bunch of meteoric ore ("thunderbolt iron, you see — highly magical, you've got to chuck that stuff in whether you believe in it or not") and then got a local blacksmith to help him fashion a silver-chased blade out of it. — Read the rest

Writing in SFX Terry Pratchett explains why Doctor Who,
whatever its other merits, isn't very good science fiction. A provocative hypothesis,
but it's hard to argue with his reasoning:

The unexpected, unadvertised solution which kisses it all better is known as a deus ex machina – literally, a god from the machine.

I always celebrate when a new Terry Pratchett novel hits the stands — doubly so now that health problems are slowing him down from his normal superhuman output to a merely impressive one. But I confess I was a little less excited to learn that the newest Pratchett Discworld book, Unseen Academicals, was about football (AKA soccer). — Read the rest

Terry Pratchett, who has early-onset Alzheimer's (and whose mental acuity is still fine) has written a stirring editorial on the need to legalize suicide in the UK. He avows his intention to commit suicide, to "jump before I am pushed," and explains why. — Read the rest

Three cheers for Terry Pratchett on receiving a knighthood, joining the ranks of genre authors like Sir Arthur C Clarke who've pleased the Queen enough to get daubed with the magic scimitar.

Author Terry Pratchett has been knighted by the Queen at Buckingham Palace for services to literature.

Terry Pratchett's latest novel is Nation and it's like nothing else he's ever written — except that like many of his books, it is fantastic and brilliant.

Nation is the story of two children: Ermintrude may just be the Queen of England now that a plague has struck down most of the royal family. — Read the rest

Kairsten sez,

A group of Terry Pratchett fans, known as the Ankh Morpork Knitter's Guild from the fiber arts site http://ravelry.com, were inspired by Mr Pratchett's Alzheimer's diagnosis to create a group afghan (known as The Pratchgan) to give to the author.

Pat Cadigan has started a campaign to get 500,000 Terry Pratchett fans to donate £1 each to Alzheimer's research, matching the funds put up by Pratchett himself, who was recently diagnosed with rare, early-onset Alzheimer's — the calls the campaign "Match it for Pratchett!" — Read the rest

Bestselling author Terry Pratchett has donated $1,000,000 to fund Alzheimer's research. Pratchett announced that he had a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's last December, and he's since discovered that there's an enormous gap in the science of Alzheimer's, noting, "I'd eat the arse out of a dead mole if it offered a fighting chance." — Read the rest

Terry Pratchett has addressed an open letter to his fans (on Paul Kidby's Discworld News) with some genuinely awful news — he has a rare form of early-onset Alzheimer's. His note is incredibly brave and chipper. The man's a real inspiration — incredibly prolific, brilliant and talented, friendly and clearly as happy as anything with where he's found himself. — Read the rest

In yesterday's review of Terry Pratchett's latest Discworld book, Making Money, I mentioned how daunting it must be to be confronted with Pratchett's 33 Discworld novels and try to figure out where to start. Part of the charm of these books is that they're not written in any main sequence, but rather in several interrelated series that follow the lives of many different characters and subplots. — Read the rest

I just had the immense pleasure of reading the latest Terry Pratchett Discworld novel, Making Money, the sequel to one of my favorite books in the series, Going Postal.

Making Money is the continued adventures of Moist von Lipwig, the con-artist who was bullied into going straight and re-establishing the Ankh-Morpork post office in Going Postal. — Read the rest

The BBC has announced that it is adapting Terry Pratchett's brilliant kids book Johnny and the Bomb (part of the Johnny Maxwell trilogy, which includes Only You can Save Mankind and Johnny and the Dead) for TV. The Johnny Maxwell books deal with the fantastic adventures of three pre-teen Brit kids who travel through time and dimensions having advetures that are pure Pratchett: funny and humanistic at the same time. — Read the rest

Here's Terry Pratchett commenting on the Canadian court order forbidding customers of a book-store who got the new Harry Potter a few days early from discussing or even reading the book:

Now that the bound proof copies of _Thud!_ are out, and will no doubt be winging their way to an e-bay near you, I would like to say that ANYONE WHO READS A WORD OF IT before publication day will be MADE TO SIT IN THE CORNER and their ENTIRE COUNTRY will be given DOUBLE DETENTION until every single
person SAYS SORRY!!!!!

A group of German Terry Pratchett fans have spent the last nine months producing a feature-length adaptation of his wonderful novel, Lords and Ladies, for a total cost of 300 Euros. The trailers are online now, and you'll be able to buy the DVD in May, with proceeds to the Orangutan Foundation. — Read the rest