欧宝娱乐

Disclaimer: I'm about to wax poetic in a totally corny way. Just warning you!

I am, and have been for years, of the opinion that Pratchett is the best writer there is. He continually serves up pitch perfect depictions of spectacular characters who are both wonderfully inventive, and at the same time purposefully normal. And in every book, hidden in the hilarity, and the side splitting satire, is a perfect pearl of truth about human nature. I remember when I first found one. It was the slender and yet unbreakable thread connecting the commercial idiocy of our Christmas season with a sweaty desperate beast running for it's life through a winter night, knowing its death was inevitable. Hogfather was a revelation for me.
For years Pratchett fans have been telling anyone who will listen that only the jokes kept Pratchett from being called a literary genius by the mainstream. For me, Nation is the final proof. No story that opens with such soul-deep sorrow can be called a comedy. There is some humor of course. The foul mouthed parrot is hard to miss, but even that has a somewhat sinister explanation. This is the first Pratchett book that I had to finish in one sitting. Always before they were savored over days. I knew I could trust Disc World to be alright in the end, and if some people met death in the process, well, he's a pretty good guy all around, so where's the harm in that. But Nation is not set on Disc World, but much closer to home, so I had to stay up until 3:15 AM to see how it all ended. Death is a much scarier guy in this book, although, at the end, much the same. The pearl of wisdom in this book is not small and not hidden. It's sitting right out there in the middle of the stage with flashing lights over its head. This is about why we believe or choose not to believe. In something. In anything. It's about us, but then again, it always is, even when its also about trolls and dwarves. And, as always, it is the characters that catch me. Two seemingly normal individuals, made extraordinary by circumstances and the way they react in those circumstances. In the end, I love Pratchett because he can show me characters that I know are human all the way to their toes, and yet, they give me hope. Mau, Vimes, Granny Weatherwax, even the Patrician, they don't do what they do so that people will thank them, appreciate them, worship them. They do what they do because it needs doing, and no one else stood up for the job. They do the hard jobs, they give up certain niceties in life so that at the end of the day, all is well, not just for them, but for everyone. It gives me faith that somewhere in this world there are men and women like that. It gives me hope that the human race as a whole might be worthwhile. In the end, all I can say is, Terry, Thanks.