RIP, Terry Pratchett

Posted on March 12, 2015    Posted by      91 Comments

Terry Pratchett in Bologna, 2007. Photograph by Federico Giacanelli and used under Creative Commons license (original here)

It’s being reported that Sir Terry Pratchett has died. Which means that it’s a very sad day for lovers of fantasy and science fiction. Sir Terry (which I will call him here rather than “Pratchett” because, hey, have you been knighted?) had been dealing with Alzheimers for some time now, and his public journey with it, I think, did more to demystify the disease than anything else has in recent times.

More selfishly, he was the co-author of one of my favorite fantasy books of all time: Good Omens. I love that book insensibly.

I met Sir Terry only once and that fleetingly, but that encounter left me with a good story to tell, and I will share it now. It was at the 2004 Worldcon in Boston, where Sir Terry was the Guest of Honor. He was on a panel called “Looking Backward: the 20th Century,” along with Esther Friesner, Craig Gardner and me. I was definitely the junior member of this crew — Old Man’s War had not been published yet — and in retrospect I vaguely wonder whose idea it was to put a complete unknown on a panel with the convention’s GoH (whoever it was — thank you).

The discussion was far-ranging, and because we were talking about the 20th Century in the past tense, we started talking about what future archeologists would make of the century, with the notation that trash heaps were invaluable for acheological purposes; after all, everything everyone uses sooner or later is turned into trash. This prompted Sir Terry to note that archeologists in Jerusalem very recently came across two thousand year old cloacae (i.e., latrines), which, because they were in an anaerobic enviroment, their contents were perfectly preserved from when they were, uh, deposited, two millennia ago.

To which I replied, “Holy shit.”

And for which I was rewarded with still the largest laugh I’ve ever gotten at a convention, much less a Worldcon.

Mind you, the reason I got a laugh that large was because hundreds of people filled a room to see Sir Terry, not me. But for that moment, I got to share. And if memory serves, Sir Terry gave me a little duck of the head after I said it, as if to say, well played.

It’s one of my favorite moments of all my time in science fiction and fantasy, and it would not have happened without him. For that alone, he would be forever enshrined fondly in my memory. It is not that for that alone that he is fondly enshrined there.

My good thoughts and condolences to Sir Terry’s family, friends and fans. He is not replacable, but we were gifted by the time he was here. May his memory, and his writing, be a comfort to all.

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91 Comments on “RIP, Terry Pratchett”

  3. I never thought I would shed a tear for a celebrity death, and now I’ve done so twice in less than a month. Sir Terry Pratchett, you were one of a kind, and I bless the day my husband introduced your world to me. May you rest in peace.

  4. Thank you for sharing. (Thoughts and prayers to Terry’s family and friends.) My mom has been diagnosed with Alzheimer’s. I’m dreading that part of my future. As sad as it is, death may not always be the worst thing.

  5. I got to introduce Sir Terry to Austin BBQ when he came through on a book tour in 1997 or so. He’d spent the day being interviewed by John Aielli on KUT (scheduled one hour turned to three..) and signing books at the now-defunct Adventures in Crime and Space. We took him to the Ironworks, and man, that little guy could pack it away! It was a lovely dinner with lots of talk and stories. Next year, at NASFiC San Antonio, he took me aside and complained that the BBQ at the County Line simply wasn’t up to snuff…I’d created a monster.
    We’ll miss you, sir. Give Death Heck for us.

  8. Somewhere around 1996, I introduced my good friend to The Wheel of Time. A couple of years later, he was well and truly addicted to WoT, so he decided he needed to get revenge. He gave me a copy of Interesting Times. I was immediately hooked on Discworld and anything else with the name Terry Pratchett on the cover. I just counted 40 of Sir Terry’s books on my shelf. I tend to ration these books out to 1-2 a year, so I still have years worth of reading ahead of me. Chris’s “revenge” was one of the best things that ever happened to me.

  10. These are incredibly sad news.
    Not only he was one of the best authors of our time, but he was a great person too.

    Thank you so much for sharing your Terry story with us.

  11. Sir Terry Pratchett was the guest of honor at MiniCon 40 (2005), which I attended. I was at the art auction, watching the charitable-cause bidding on a manuscript or other item Sir Terry had donated, when suddenly a voice boomed from the back of the room, “Five Hundred Dollars!!” The item sold, and Sir Terry strode to the front of the room to buy his purchase. He handed over the money, glanced at the item he’d just bought, handed it back to the auctioneer, and said (VERY loudly), “This is CRAP! Sell it again!”

    Donating his time, his goods, his money to a good cause, AND giving a roomful of people a great laugh and a memorable story. My most unforgettable memory of Sir Terry Pratchett.

  13. My wife and I hung out with him at the chaotic mess-up Worldcon in New Orleans. He was “on” all the time. We waited in the Green Room to be led by a pro liaison to our panel. Said liaison eventually said: “Oh, forgot to tell you — you had a panel about an hour ago.”
    .
    Terry said “So what. We’re in the French Quarter. Let’s go find some food, drink, and music!” A deeply talented and very sweet gentleman.

  14. Thank you for the vignette about Worldcon; it was so typical for Sir Terry to encourage those around him, and a minute nod from the Master of one liners himself must have been more than sufficient to put a newbie into space.

    We shall miss him very greatly; I don’t think anyone could write as well as he did, in the genre he created more or less off the cuff. I do hope he finds a particularly nice oasis at the end of the desert…

  17. At the masquerade at that Boston Worldcon, one of the masquerade entrants came onstage costumed as Rincewind, with Luggage. When the Luggage zipped across the stage on wheels, dozens of tiny feet bouncing up and down, I could see Sir Terry, silhouetted by the light provided for the judges, throw his arms into the air in delight. At the several cons I saw him as a guest he was always wise and funny, and unfailingly gracious with the fans.

    Thanks, Sir Terry, for Sam Vimes and Granny Weatherwax and Tiffany Aching, for making me laugh on one page and cry on the next, for the joy you gave me in the reading and rerererereading.

  18. RIP pterry.

    I met him 3-4 times 25 years or so ago in the UK – always charming, funny, and tolerant of the socially incompetent 20 something me.

    And his books always show his dry humour and sideways look at the best and worst of the human condition.

    Thoughts to his family.

    Chris

  20. In all the years I have been reading his work, I have never heard anyone whisper an unkind word about Sir Terry.

    I suspect I will be checking this comments thread on a regular basis for the next few days. And it will be darned dusty in here every time I do.

  21. Yes, everybody please donate to Alzheimer’s research, wherever you are. I watched my Mom go from a brilliant, funny piano teacher to a quiet lady robbed of speech and thought. Every year when I join the Walk to End Alzheimer’s, I’m walking in honor/memory of more people. Sir Terry became one of them.

  23. First Iain Banks, now Terry Pratchett: both taken away from us twenty years or so before their time.

    Time for a British phrase. Oh BOLLOCKS. :(

  24. One hopes it was as he wanted: sitting in a chair in his own garden (if wet, in the library) with a glass of brandy in his hand and Thomas Tallis on the iPod.

  27. I was lucky enough to attend a Terry Pratchett author event promoting his book ‘Dodger’ in Oct 2012.

    During the audience Q&A part of the event, Sir Terry’s assistant Rob read out the questions that audience members had written, and Sir Terry answered the questions.

    One audience question that Rob read aloud was: “What advice would you give to a new sci-fi / fantasy author?”

    Sir Terry said: “Read everything in the genre. Go back to the 1960’s and read everything.”

    Saying that made Sir Terry remember that when he was perhaps 12 years old, he used to buy used sci-fi books from a little hole-in-the-wall place run by a lady. He did not know where she got the used books from, but she had used sci-fi books. And pornography, which she sold to “men in raincoats”. Sir Terry said that the lady was very good to him and made him cups of tea…”probably because I was her only legitimate customer!”

    One day a policeman came into the shop when Terry was there, and took the bookshop lady to task, saying what was an underage boy doing in a shop like this? The lady picked up an old sci-fi book and shook it in the police officer’s face and said “Honi soit qui mal y pense” which is motto of the English chivalric Order of the Garter, and Sir Terry translated as “He is evil who thinks evil”. So it was the policeman who had a dirty mind, not young Terry!

    At this point Sir Terry’s assistant Rob said: “And is there any OTHER advice you would give to aspiring writers?”, and the whole audience cracked up laughing.

  28. It’s hard to find the words, but Sir Terry will be sorely missed, his books are probably the series I’ve most enjoyed and reread time and time again.

    A great author and a truly nice guy from everything I’ve ever heard.

    James Harvey, I think “buggrit” might be better (stolen from another site).

  29. Humour’s a tricky thing to use in any medium. It’s easy to wield it as a weapon and come away with a lot of unintended collateral damage. Sir Terry always paired his humour with empathy and a rich understanding of people as people. The genius of his alchemy was hard to quantify, but easy to see and feel.

    “It’s still magic even if you know how it’s done.”

    We’ll miss your magic, Sir Terry.

  30. I wanted to make a pune, but I can’t seem to see the keyboard properly…

    I’ll be wearing a bit of lilac come this spring…

  31. I will miss him a lot, was given soul music to read by a friend when i was 14 and have bought all his books every year since. It will be strange to not have a discworld book by Terry for christmas every year.

  32. I have no personal fear of death, but I hate that people I love or admire or whose work I have enjoyed immensely age and die. I love Sir Terry’s books, they have always brought me great pleasure. I’m saddened by his death.

  33. I am grateful Terry Pratchett shared his gift with the world. He was one of the very few authors who could make me laugh aloud, and the only one whose work consistently made me giggle. At least once from every single Discworld book, and usually far more.

    I hope for peace for his family, and shall imagine him feeding Binky sugar cubes while trying to get a chuckle from Death.

  34. When I was at college I got Reaper Man signed for a friend who’s books were still at their parent’s place. PTerry suggested I request some *ahem* favours in return for getting the book signed, I’m pretty sure I blushed as I told him that they weren’t that kind of friend. Most people who make me blush like that leave me uncomfortable, but he took just the right tone to make me smile, then and now. Pretty sure he’s part of the reason I’ve developed a mind so broad it could accommodate three football fields (shamelessly borrowed, I’ll put it back – honest…)

  35. Millennium hand and SHRIMP.

    *sigh*

    After the way ‘Raising Steam’ ended, it was kind of obvious there wouldn’t be another. He threw in the bits of “Raising Taxes” and “Scouting for Trolls” that he was able to, and then aimed the Disc headlong into the future and set it free.

  36. Tammy cried when I told her Sir Terry Pratchett had passed – his work had given us, along with so many people, so much pleasure. We were especially taken with the Tiffany Aching series,THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS, HOGFATHER, and MONSTROUS REGIMENT – Tammy in particular loved how he took the same trope she’d used for Song of the Lioness, and taken it to its hilariously logical conclusion. :)

    I will admit, I had hoped he could live long enough, and be with us long enough, to write a Lord Vetinari and His Niece Who Keeps Trying To Kill Him book – just so Charles Dance and Maisie Williams could have a have an entire story to themselves, rather than bits in Season 2 of Game of Thrones (which never even happened in the books).

    Rest Well and Have Fun in the Summerlands, Sir Terry….

  37. To die at home, in bed, with family and kitties in attendance, is likely a better exit than he expected. Perhaps Death is a Discworld fan, too.

    This is the second time in less than a month I’ve gasped out loud at work reading the news; and the second time in less than a month I lost someone who beguiled and expanded my consciousness and was, therefore, dear to me (though never met in the flesh).

    More mourning, dammit.

  38. A uniquely talented and extraordinary man has left us. If anyone ever reads anything I write and sees his influence, I’ll have done better than I could have hoped. Goodbye, Sir.

  39. My favorite Pratchett book is – no, it is – no, it must be – no. dammit! Why did he *do* this to me? They are *all* my favorites. (Sob.)

    And fittingly, Yang the Nauseating was found with a Pratchett book in-hand.

  40. Dear Folks,

    This is not a ghoulish nor inappropriate inquiry–

    Does anyone know if Terry died “naturally” or took his own life?

    This is a subject on which Terry was passionate, public and political– the right to end one’s life on one’s own terms rather than face the awful ravages of terminal illness. He felt it as a right that not only he but everyone should have, and he’d stated that when he reached the point where he could no longer write that would be it, for him.

    The death announcement is unspecific.

    I’d like to know for both personal reasons (that need not concern you) and because it was a late-life cause of Terry’s. Tiptoeing around it does him a disservice.

    pax / Ctein

  42. P.S. And, yeah, I realize this is gonna open up a whole can’o’worms discussion for some people and I will totally understand if John wants to wield a heavy mallet on it. I’m not looking for a debate, just the simple factual answer.

  43. Ctein, BBCNews says his death was “unassisted,” though he was prepared for it to be otherwise. Source named: a journalist Nick Higham, citing Pratchett’s publisher.

    I’ve been shaking my fist at the heavens all day, repeating, “Dammit, God, you got it backwards again! The world needs more people like Terry Pratchett, not one fewer!”

  45. Heroes keep passing, and I keep thinking: that’s a life worth living. It’s sad to lose them, but I’d be grateful to go with as much accomplished. In the end, it’s the moments we lived that count. A million years from now we as individuals will be forgotten, our latrines our only lasting legacy. But what we experience isn’t a million years from now; it’s our hour in the sun, and the hours we share. This guy did some damn fine things in his life. Thanks for sharing a moment when he touched upon yours, John.

  47. I was introduced to Discworld as a high school student in the late ’80’s and have read almost everything Sir Terry has written. He found a way to be engaging and funny while making me think, feel, and care about things and people. I appreciate everything he offered the world and am glad that he was able to die peacefully at home, surrounded by loved ones. His influence will go on.

  48. Death proves he can always up the ante on taking heroes: I hope his attendants gave Sir Terry a sugar cube and carrot for Binky, and perhaps a small bit of cheese for you know who.

  49. Will he be buried with a loop of typewriter ribbon on his lapel to let any god who might get involved know that he had been busy?

  51. I’ve seen in several newspapers that Sir Terry finished a Discworld novel last summer; I am hoping very much that this is true…

  52. John,

    The Midamericon archive has a picture from that panel at http://www.midamericon.org/photoarchive/04world149.JPG ,

    I got to work with Terry when I chaired the first North American Discworld Convention in 2009. We had just announced the con in late 2007 a month before his “embuggerance” announcement and he gave us advance warning of it. That was a shock and it gave the convention a much different feel than it would have been otherwise. I’m glad I got the chance to honor him with the convention and I and all of us who put the convention together will miss him.

  53. The Shepherd’s Crown, the fifth Tiffany Aching book, is due to be published this fall.

  55. This is a sad, sad day.

    Do you want to know my usual cure for a crummy day is?

    I read a Terry Pratchett book.

  56. “Good Omens” was a gateway drug for me. I’m still addicted. Sir Terry (how he must have giggled on the inside) became a favorite author for me. I have a lump in my throat the size of an orange.

  57. Dad and I have been looking for a book for me to translate into Dutch, as practice (I’m working on learning the language.) I suggested a Terry Pratchett book, since those are fun and he hasn’t read any of them.

    Now I’m trying to settle on a book. The first few were funny, but I thought that the later ones were better. I’m torn between starting with _Wee Free Men_ or _Guards Guards!_ or possibly _The Fifth Element_ or _Wyrd Sisters_.

    And one of my D&D games featured a mimic in the form of a large chest inspired by the Luggage. It was extremely fond of cats, but preferred them with ketchup.

    Sleep well, Sir Terry. Thank you.

  58. I once made not-yet-Sir Terry chuckle. It’s my proudest moment. So I know exactly how John felt.

    First Nimoy, now Pratchett. The only comforting thing is that I will FINALLY be able to catch up on reading all of his books, and so I still have a bit of joy from him to look forward to.

    If you haven’t seen the final Tweets from his account, go look. You will smile and cry.

  59. There are very few authors I have read who I could say changed my life. Sir Terry was the most significant of those. He provided me with an intellectual role model for how to think about life, people, and the world. He gave me amazing joy reading his books, then reading those books to my mother while we drove for hours to get home in northern Alberta, and then reading those books to my children at bedtime. He enriched the world in ways that will last far past this sad day.

  60. His books have delighted my hours, and eased dark days. We’ve lost one of our best.

  61. I discovered Terry Pratchett when I was… somewhere around 7 to 10, I think, starting with Reaper Man. I grew up reading everything he wrote after that as it came out. There was no greater influence on my perception of what it means to be a good person.

    This has been coming for years, and it’s not a great surprise, but I’ve still found myself crying several times today. The world is diminished for no longer having him in it.

  63. Cat Faber: There are actually amazingly well translated versions of the Discworld novels in Dutch, managing to keep a lot of the subtlety of language that Terry put into it. Worth a read maybe if you intend to do some of your own translating.

    And I was sad to hear about Sir Terry’s death. I will have to reread some of my favorites and catch up with some of the later ones I haven’t gotten around to.

  65. Ctein: Even if his death was assisted, they would have said otherwise. Remember that assisted suicide is still illegal in Britain, and would have exposed his doctor and family to prosecution. One can hope that his death may help bring a change to that, as one last legacy for him.

  66. Today is a dark day, but the planet is so much lighter for his having been on it. I hope he and Douglas Adams are buying each other drinks in the Atheist’s Lounge of the afterlife.

  67. When I was looking for a re-reading book to bring with me for the waiting room for my first oncology appointment, I first alit on Gaiman’s The Graveyard Book. Then it occurred to me that the other patients might not appreciate that, so I chose Good Omens. Wonderful company for keeping up my mood while waiting for potentially grim appointments. RIP Sir Terry, and thank you for all the much-needed cheer.

  68. Theyis, thank you for the suggestion. Although part of what I want is specifically the practice of looking at the English sentence and calling up the Dutch one, because so far most of my practice has been the other way (looking at Dutch and translating into English) it is good to know that there are Dutch versions of some of his books; perhaps I will introduce my Dutch niece to his work.

  71. I’m sorry to hear this. I love the Tiffany Aching series. Though the last book seemed like the end, I was hoping for more. In the words of my favorite little blue men, crivens!

  72. Not cool, but expected.

    I. Banks. (54)
    T. Pratchett (66)

    Yeah, if the universe could stop killing off the shining / singing ones and keeping the old perverts alive, that’d be great.

    He went out in style – we’ve cried, but hey.

    There are no words.

  73. I was lucky enough to meet Terry Pratchett in the early 90s when his books were a bit hard to get in the US. (I still buy them from the UK because I can’t forgive the different covers.) Someone invited him to our college’s science fiction club after a book signing and he came and entertained a small classroom full of us with tales of how he ran a D&D campaign for the middle aged moms who worked at his office job to show them it wasn’t too dangerous for their kids, and how the moms turned out to be the most cutthroat treasure grubbing take no prisoners players he had ever seen. “They killed everyone. There was a little old man at the beginning of the quest. His whole job was to say ‘They went that way.’ They killed him!”

    I have had a very emotionally difficult week helping other people with major life tragedies, and apparently the loss of Sir Terry is the last straw for me. I am just done.

  75. Damn Alzheimer’s. Spent years as a mostly sole caretaker for my mother as that disease ripped her apart. However, I can say that Sir Terry helped keep me going with his wonderful writing. Another good one gone.

  76. Oh, crivens! Not that I’m sorry he has died, but only that his mind was so far gone.

    Sometimes I think Sir Terry was the best British writer since Shakespeare to explain to average (& somewhat-below-average) people how the world actually works, while also making some witty, pointed, and illuminating comments that can be appreciated by those who already have a considerable understanding of this. (Sam Clemens may have done almost as well in the U.S.)

    Some of his books have struck me as being… ummm… potboilers, but at least a third of them are things I hope to live long enough (I’m working on my 87th year) to re-read at least once.

  77. Back when I was a bookseller, I had the enormous privilege of hosting Terry and David Gemmell at a weekend book convention in Sydney. It was the most amazing 48 hours, wall to wall fabulousness – but the highlight was sitting at dinner with these two amazing men on the Friday night before we kicked off, listening to them hammer-and-tongs it over the merits or lack thereof of Christianity. David was a Christian and Terry, though not, had been raised in a religious family. It was a fierce, frank and ultimately unresolved discourse, and I’ll never forget it. I still think Small Gods is one of the most profound treatises on the pitfalls of organised religion ever written. And pretty much every Discworld novel has in it some haunting gem of wisdom re: the human condition.

    My fervent hope now is that his publishers re-release all the books in hardcover, with the original Josh Kirby covers were applicable.

    As sad as I am today, I’d say this: Tis better that we loved and lost him, then we never loved him at all.

  78. Everyone here is so eloquent–I’m just a long time admirer, lover of his books –and now as sad as I’ve been in quite a while. May he rest in peace.

  81. As down as I am about this (it’s been a rough month, having lost an uncle also to Alzheimers and laid off from a job of 14 years, it’s been a doozy with this on top). The thing I keep having to remind myself is that while the world is technically a lesser place without him it is a tremendously better place for having had him here in the first place! It is amazing how I look back on the last 25 years I’ve been reading his works and how many things he has given me for the simple price of checking out or buying a book. My question is which Death I would like to meet more Gaiman’s or Sir Terry’s? Also apparently Sir Terr’y was a fan of Thomas Tallin. After listening to “Spem in Allium” this morning it certainly made me feel better.

  82. This strikes me very hard, not only because I’ll miss new works from this gentleman, but because my husband was diagnosed with early onset (he’s 61) Alzheimer’s last summer. Very, very sad. Worse yet, while we have drugs like Aricept that help a little, they only work for a little while… and there really isn’t much of anything concrete in the pipeline yet that will give us any hope of a real cure. We aren’t putting very much money into the research yet, either, even though it is getting to the point where Alzheimers will affect almost as many people as cancer does; and they are also seeing more and more early onset cases of the disease as well. Scary future I – and many other people – are looking at.

  83. I’ve just remembered I have a few “Genuine Certified Unsigned” copies of the early books back in the UK. Terry was signing so many he thought that the unsigned ones would be worth more, so he drew a certificate in them saying they were unsigned, which he then signed to certify it was an unsigned copy…

    I was fine with him leaving it unsigned as I thought it was funny, others wanted the signature though.

  84. I watched Sir Terry’s presentation (via “stunt Pratchett” Sir Tony Robinson) titled “Shaking Hands with Death” on Youtube. It was, by turns, touching, hilarious and quite informative I sincerely hope he was allowed to go in his own way in his own time…

  85. Back in the early 1990s when I was unemployed or unemployed for a few years, i would always buy Pratchett books, sight unseen and in hardcover, as soon as I found them. It was a mental health expense. I am sad, but also happy that he left us on the terms he chose.

  86. Worst missed opportunity of my life. First time I’m in Disney World with my family and after two days of it I’m so tired I’m a Zombie. So my wife and son are hanging out in the butterfly garden and I’m waiting for them in a daze. There’s this older guy sort of doing the same thing near me. He looks sort of familiar but I’m so tired I don’t even try to suss out who he is. I hear someone call out to him and address him as “Terry.” A young woman runs up to him and says “Come on Dad!”and the two of them head off to some other attraction. My family and I are actually keeping pace with them for a little while. I notice that she is wearing an unusual shirt. Then I lose sight of them and they are gone. About a year goes by and I’m reading an article about how Terry Pratchett’s daughter is going to be taking over the Discworld after he passes. And there he is in a picture, standing next to his daughter Rhianna. She’s holding a plastic Disneyworld gift shop bag. She’s wearing the same unusual shirt….. A year’s worth of dopeslap hits me in the head.

    Still, I guess it’s probably better I didn’t know it was him at the time. I would have most likely made an ass of myself in front of him and his family. It just feels like this huge wasted chance. I could have thanked him so much for being a positive influence on my life. Great, now I’m crying.

  87. I hope Sir Terry has his Potato with him.

    Wow just starting to hit how much I will miss his hilarious, insightful and entertaining stories.

    I was recently speaking with a guy about how much we both enjoyed Discworld. He stated he has read all of them. We started listing favourite books. I mentioned one he realised he had not read. We continued and he started talking about one I had not read.

    We both came out of the conversation with a new respect for the prolific nature of Terry. He has written so many quality books. We were both pleasantly surprised to learn there was more for us to read even though we had both considered ourselves as having read it all.

    You sir will be missed as much as anyone I can think of.

  88. It has taken me several days to even read all the memorial threads, because the enormity of this sad news is so hard to take in. Of course my thoughts and sympathies are first and foremost with Sir Pterry’s family. For me, well, his books got me through some very tough times when I was younger. In fact I first discovered his books when I was still at school, well technically when I was bunking off school; what sort of kid runs away from school to hide in a library? But then what sort of school is so bad that a kid runs away from it in order to learn? It is a position that is almost Pratchettean in itself. However, I did discover his books and they brought joy and laughter back into my life, and they taught me compassion, and how to look for the little things that are far more important than the big things. And how to tell the difference. I think it is fair to say that without Sir Pterry’s books I would quite literally not be still here. I find it difficult to find the words to explain just how much he meant, and how much his loss hurts. I think the best way to say it all is to quote one of Sir Terry’s own characters.

    “Ook!”

  89. Good Omens is a work of sheer genius. The name Sister Mary Loquacious alone puts it very high on that list.

  90. I spent an hour on the opening morning of the first Penguicon having a lighthearted discussion with an older gentelman about the proper way to brew tea (Asian vs European). I thanked him for the chat and went to my first panel – “Science and the Discworld,” as Pratchett was the GoH.
    Not ten minutes into the panel, in walked the same man. Sir Terry proceeded to hijack the panel (not that any of us minded) to the delight of the audience.
    Two hours after that, the same thing happened again. When I saw him approaching the front, I happily gave up my chair and went into the audience for the hour.
    As I was given a discounted rate for being a panelist (though I never got to speak on either), I like to think that I was given $20 by Sir Terry Pratchett.

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