The Book Plank

THE INTERNATIONAL AUTHORS FORUM LAUNCHES INTERNATIONAL SIR TERRY PRATCHETT DAY AT LBF   Authors and readers across the world invited to vote and tweet their favourite Sir Terry Pratchett characters                 NEWS FOR RELEASE, LONDON, Monday 7 April 2014 :    To celebrate Sir Terry Pratchett as The London Book Fair’s (LBF) Author of the Day on Tuesday 8 April , the International Authors Forum, in association with LBF, has designated Tuesday 8 April International Sir Terry Pratchett Day, to mark his phenomenal international publishing success.   To launch the day, authors from around the world will be asked to vote for their favourite character from one of his books - choosing from a list of Sir Terry’s Official Top 10 Favourites, which are: 1.            Commander Vimes 2.   ...

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett, Discworld #40 To the consternation of the patrician, Lord Vetinari, a new invention has arrived in Ankh-Morpork - a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all the elements: earth, air, fire and water. This being Ankh-Morpork, it's soon drawing astonished crowds, some of whom caught the zeitgeist early and arrive armed with notepads and very sensible rainwear. Moist von Lipwig is not a man who enjoys hard work - as master of the Post Office, the Mint and the Royal Bank his input is, of course, vital... but largely dependent on words, which are fortunately not very heavy and don't always need greasing. However, he does enjoy being alive, which makes a new job offer from Vetinari hard to refuse... Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man wi' t'flat cap and sliding rule who has an interesting arrangement with the sine and cosine. Moist will have to grapple with gallons of gr...

The Long War by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth #2 A generation after the events of The Long Earth , mankind has spread across the new worlds opened up by Stepping. Where Joshua and Lobsang once pioneered, now fleets of airships link the stepwise Americas with trade and culture. Mankind is shaping the Long Earth - but in turn the Long Earth is shaping mankind... A new 'America', called Valhalla, is emerging more than a million steps from Datum Earth, with core American values restated in the plentiful environment of the Long Earth - and Valhalla is growing restless under the control of the Datum government... Meanwhile the Long Earth is suffused by the song of the trolls, graceful hive-mind humanoids. But the trolls are beginning to react to humanity's thoughtless exploitation... Joshua, now a married man, is summoned by Lobsang to deal with a gathering multiple crisis that threatens to plunge the Long Earth into a war unlike any mankind has...

Dodger is a tosher – a sewer scavenger living in the squalor of Dickensian London. Everyone who is nobody knows Dodger. Anyone who is anybody doesn’t. But when he rescues a young girl from a beating, suddenly everybody wants to know him. And Dodger’s tale of skulduggery, dark plans and even darker deeds begins… Sir Terry Pratchett is most famous for his Discworld series, which is already running 39 books, and although I have given these books a fair chance I just never could quite get into them. When the chance arose to review Dodger, a stand-alone young-adult book, I just had to give it another shot. From the short synopsis I didn’t really know what I was in for, but it turned out to be unique, fresh and gave me a sense of urgency to finish it. Dodger takes place in London during the reign of Queen Victoria, focusing on a time when the majority of inhabitants were poverty stricken. Several historical figures make an appearance in Dodger, including Charles Dic...