This reminds me of when Robert Jordan passed. Such a sad story to hear these authors dying in what could be considered their prime, since MANY authors are writing their best works in their 50s and 60s. Such a sad sad day.

I think that encapsulates the main difference between Pratchett and another famous fantasy author.
Pratchett incites you to THINK.
Rowling incites you to FACEPALM.

The whole wizarding world is funny at first, but as the books try to become darker and grittier and more adult, they fail miserably at it and instead become grimDORK. Some plot points had me going, WTF, HOW DOES THAT EVEN WORK?! The isolation from the "muggle" world by HP wizards, makes no sense and is idiotic when analyzed. And the villains alignment is all too often, stupid evil.

Not to mention that Ridcully would have ended the wizarding war before it even started, with his trusty crossbow.
Agreed, while snuff wasn't up to it's namesake, some of his earlier work, like making money, going postal and even night watch, show a very interesting evolution in his storytelling.

Hogfather is also brilliant.

Robert Jordan, David Gemmel, Terry Pratchett ... it is very hard to love fantasy authors who die so young.

Have David Gemmel died?!
Damn! He was my favourite pulp fantasy writer. :(

Edit: Apparently years ago too. Bah. I need to start reading fantasy much more often again.

Douglas Adams was only 49 when he died 2001. :(
After hitchhikers guide he began writing the really interesting stuff.

BTW: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_ZG8HBuDjgc

I indeed saw many people relating T.Pratchett with Douglas, but I can't say he has the same fame in France : I saw the old hitchicker's movie long ago, but didn't read the book nor even seen it in libraries. Furthermore, you just made me realize he wrote other things.

A bearded man on a white steed,
lead by a skeletal hand,
with black wings flapping above,
and a squeaker in his hand.
Imagination's keeper.
His Motto always was,
“Don't fear the reaper.”

RIP

The good die young [that's what me old mum used to say to me]

PS my mum [god rest her soul] said I'd live to be a 100

Sad news indeed. The world will be the poorer for losing him.

His last tweets:


'AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER.'

— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015


' Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.'

— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015


' The End.'

— Terry Pratchett (@terryandrob) March 12, 2015

Then you're at least not the worst person to walk the earth.

Also, I must complete my collection of Discworld at the earliest opportunity, as well as getting the books in English. Not that I wouldn't do that anyway, mind.

The earliest opportunity won't come until the final book is posthumously published.

I wonder how well a job Eoin Colfer could do with writing about Discworld... not saying he should, but I mean, what little I've read about of Aretemis Fowl was pretty decent (I didn't realise it was a series until reading his Wikipedia page just now), and he's already had some experience in plugging into others' series with writing the last book of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, and the styles of Adams and Pratchett are -I feel- not overly dissimilar. Of course, he was already a fan of Adams' work.

I've finished a lot of the Artemis Fowl series and it's completely different. Apart from a fantasy topic with deliberate absurdities there are not much similarities. Eoin Colfer's main point seems to be creating tension and Pratchetts main point was probably to make people rethink the whole world around them as well as the worlds inside their heads.
Douglas Adams made clear, that The Hitchhikers Guide through the galaxy isn't his favourite book and he wanted people to stop talking about it with him and instead reading his other, more important books, especcially "Last Chance to See" which is exploring all the wonders of our own world and criticising what we make of it while still managing to be funny.

A collaboration between Pratchett and Adams would have been interesting, did they publish something together?

^no but pratchett and gaiman did
good omens