Sir Terry Pratchett has left for lands unknown. He will not be dead until the ripples he has caused in the world die away · 3:50pm Mar 12th, 2015
"I MUST SAY, SIR, IT'S QUITE AN HONOUR TO MEET YOU. YOUR PORTRAYAL OF MY GOOD SELF WAS QUITE FLATTERING." Two red glowing pinpricks had appeared in the darkness. The voice had the dry finality of an epitaph, fittingly. Terry appraised the light with a stroke of his beard.
"I thought your eyes would be blue." He admitted, "Certainly, you're more... verbose than I'd written you."
"BUT OF COURSE." The stone slab of sound enthused, "YOU'D NEVER MET ME, PERSONALLY. OH, YOU HAD SEEN MY WORK, AND APPRAISED IT, BUT ONLY NOW ARE YOU EXPERIENCING IT." It stepped out into the dim spotlight the once-an-author found himself in. Terry took some dull pride in how close he got to getting the shape right. "TELL ME, IS IT UP TO YOUR RATHER LOFTY EXPECTATIONS?"
"I haven't made my mind up yet." Terry admitted, looking for his hat. Surely, surely he'd be able to take that with him? He was rather fond of it. It was such a nice hat. "I've had far more experience at living, to be honest. I'm rather new to this whole... not living thing."
"YOU MAY SAY IT. YOU ARE DEAD, AFTER ALL. IT MIGHT DO TO ACCEPT THAT."
"But I'm not, you see!" Terry corrected, kneeling over. No longer did he feel those old aches and pains in his knees and back. He wouldn't miss them. Sure, they had become familiar to him over the years, but so too would particularly irksome in-laws. Some things you never quite grow accustomed to. "My family remembers me. A very large portion of the general population will remember me. Some perhaps even fondly for some strange reason. No, I don't think I'll be dead for quite some time yet. Until then... well. I'm just not living, aren't I?"
Death pulls a black leather cowboy hat from behind his back. With a jerky, mechanical creaking, he offers it to the kneeling man. "YOU SEEM TO BE TAKING THIS AWFULLY WELL."
Pratchett nods now, once, and smiles wryly. He stands and dusts himself off. Purgatory seems to be rather infested with the stuff, for some strange reason. Perhaps nobody stays long enough to clean it? "It helps if you plan accordingly before taking a long trip."
Death nodded. "AT LAST, SIR TERRY, WE MUST WALK TOGETHER."
Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night.
Seven minutes ago as of writing this sentence, BBC confirmed Sir Terry Pratchett died. Some of his accomplishments include making the single greatest philosophical comedy series known to man and digging up a meteorite on his property and forging it into a sword with his own two hands.
This is the man I've modelled my own writing style after. For most of my remembered life I've read, treasured and collected his books, and his passing marks a moment in my life that will be remembered by me eating a whole fucking tub of ice cream right now. Just, all of it, it's going to be crammed right into my facehole.
"You can't build a plot out of jokes. You need tragic relief. And you need to let people know that when a lot of frightened people are running around with edged weaponry, there are deaths. Stupid deaths, usually. I'm not writing 'The A-Team' - if there's a fight going on, people will get hurt. Not letting this happen would be a betrayal."
Thanks for breaking it to us in a manner he would have appreciated.
And I hadn't known about the meteorite sword. That's really darn awesome.
... I'm... actually crying right now. :c
Thank you so much for writing this fitting tribute.
I suppose of all the ways to learn such news, this is one of the less bad ones.
I think I own more of his books than any other three authors combined. He is the only one who gets a shelf in my bookcase for himself.
No.
Oh, God, no.
Well done, Numbers.
I've nothing to add. The tweets gutted me.
I...
I'm shocked.
I literally have no way of expressing what I'm feeling now.
But I thank you for posting this.
I made the announcement to the PTerry fan group, I do ask if you can post this on my thread. This is.far better than I can say.
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Go ahead. I'm not trying to draw attention to myself here, so feel free to post it anonymously: I merely wish each fan of this man to receive the news in the least painful fashion possible, and in a way that cherishes his memory rather than laments his loss.
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We all knew this was coming, we can take comfort in that he is finally free from the disease and his daughter will give the series either a continuation or a fitting end.
I still remember the first book of his I read: Wee Free Men, still one of my Top 5 books of all time, and part of one of my Top 5 Book Series.
This is for you, Terry:
files.explosm.net/comics/Rob/abetterplace.png
I think it's time to go read Night Watch again...
I had heard the news several minutes ago, but the way you put it... I don't know, touched me.
Thank you.
Time to re-read the Diskworld books, then, and chase down the ones I still haven't read. Rest in peace, Sir Terry.
Knew it was coming, but god damn that one hurts.
This was not the news I wanted to wake up to. He was my favorite comedy author and his work will be missed.
Thank you for introducing me to his wonderful work.
Beautiful, beautiful tribute
....out of all the worst possible things that could possibly happen this is the worst possible thing!
Rest In Your Beloved Discworld Mr. Pratchett.
A lovely tribute. Thank you.
Well written, friend.
Despite this sad news... the man's got some damned fine company, between Robin Williams, Leonard Nimoy, Tolkien and Brian Jacques.
I was quite heartbroken when I heard. He was the greatest author of this or any generation, he taught me how to laugh, and how to think.
A lovely tribute.
A well-done and humor-tinged bit of writing about a bad situation. As has been already mentioned, I expect he would approve. :)
A most fitting tribute.
He was an amazing individual, and I'm eternally grateful that I had the pleasure to once meet him.