A blink of the screen (by Terry Pratchett)

(Amazon UK link)

I have been quite a fan of the late Terry Pratchett’s books for close to thirty years. I have his entire Discworld series, which I plan to re-read over the next few years. I suppose it was nearly six years ago that I learned about the book ‘A Blink of the Screen’, which contains a selection of the author’s shorter writings. Reviews were good so I put it on my wishlist, and was given it for Christmas 2013. Yes, that is more than five years ago. It has sat on my to-be-read shelf, until a week ago when I decided to read it.

The book is quite an eclectic mixture, with some even more random colour illustrations in a couple of places. It starts with a short story written when Terry Pratchett was only thirteen. His talent shines through even at that age. It’s a clever plot, very well written, with an excellent command of language. Other pieces progress through his young adult life, with brief explanations at the beginning about why they were written and where (if relevant) they were published. Some have links to his books.

Some of the stories are frankly bizarre, even by Pratchett standards. There’s a peculiar story about Christmas cards come to life, for instance, and a somewhat disturbing one about a writer who kills off his main character, only to find this character on his doorstep the following morning. There’s a lengthy science fiction one about multiple worlds, and one about virtual reality. There were one or two I read twice and still didn’t really understand.

In the last third of the book are some Discworld stories. Only in fact three real stories, one of which I had seen elsewhere. I particularly liked the one about Granny Weatherwax deciding to be ‘nice’.. It was amusing and thought-provoking at the same time. At the back of the book there is an appendix with a ‘deleted scene’ from that story; I could see why it was deleted as it didn’t really add to the main story, but it was well worth reading.

Other Discworld writings include medical terminology and conditions - I particularly liked the idea of Attention Surplus Syndrome - and the Ankh-Morpork national anthem, which contains parts where people aren’t even supposed to know the words. These were mildly amusing, but not what I would call stories. There’s a committee meeting of wizards giving a scene rather than a real story, and there’s a speech made by Lord Vetinari. I appreciated these because of my long-standing experience of the Discworld, but to anyone unfamiliar with the series, these short pieces would probably seem puzzling, or irrelevant.

On the whole, then, I very much liked this book and am glad I finally decided to read it. But I wouldn’t recommend it as an introduction to Pratchett; it’s more for fans who like his style and who know the Discworld and its inhabitants reasonably well.

Review by Sue F copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews