Can't Wait Wednesday/Waiting on Wednesday #472: A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Prachett

 

Waiting on Wednesday is a weekly event that had been hosted by Jill over at Breaking the Spine where we spotlighted upcoming releases we are eagerly anticipating. I'm now linking up with Can't Wait Wednesday hosted over at Wishful Endings.

From the publisher:

A delightfully funny, fantastically inventive collection of twenty newly unearthed short stories by Sir Terry Pratchett, the award-winning and bestselling author and creator of the phenomenally successful Discworld fantasy series. This special trove—featuring charming woodcut illustrations—is a must-have for Pratchett fans of all ages and includes a foreword by Neil Gaiman.

These rediscovered tales were written by Terry Pratchett under a pseudonym for a British newspaper during the 1970s and 1980s. The stories have never been attributed to him until now, and might never have been found—were it not for the efforts of a few dedicated fans. 

As Neil Gaiman writes in his introduction, “through all of these stories we watch Terry Pratchett becoming Terry Pratchett.” Though none of the short works are set in the Discworld, all are infused with Pratchett's trademark wit, satirical wisdom, and brilliant imagination, hinting at the magical universe he would go on to create.

Meet Og the inventor, the first caveman to cultivate fire, as he discovers the highs and lows of progress; haunt the Ministry of Nuisances with the defiant evicted ghosts of Pilgarlic Towers; visit Blackbury, a small market town with weird weather and an otherworldly visitor; and embark on a dangerous quest through time and space with hero Kron, which begins in the ancient city of Morpork . . .

Irresistibly entertaining, A Stroke of the Pen is an essential collection from the late, great Sir Terry Pratchett, a “master storyteller” (A. S. Byatt) who “defies categorization” (The Times); a writer whose “novels have always been among the most serious of comedies, the most relevant and real of fantasies” (Independent UK).

A Stroke of the Pen by Terry Pratchett is expected out October 10th, 2023 from Doubleday.

Why am I waiting on this book? I love Terry Pratchett. He is a fantastic writer - imaginative and talented at expressing himself.

What book are you waiting on this week? Share it or a link in the comments so we can check it out and maybe add it to our TBR lists. Thanks for coming by and Happy Reading!

Teaser Tuesday - Trigger Warning by Neil Gaiman

Teaser Tuesday is a weekly bookish meme hosted by Miz B of A Daily Rhythm. Anyone can participate, just do the following:

• Grab your current read and open to a random page
• Share two (2) "teaser" sentences from somewhere on that page.
• BE CAREFUL NOT TO INCLUDE SPOILERS! (Make sure what you share doesn't give too much away! You don't want to ruin the book for others!)
• Share the title and the author so that other TT participants can add the book to their TBR lists if they like your teasers!

Trigger Warning: Short Fiction and Disturbances by Neil Gaiman is the source for this week's teasers. Two teasers for the price of one! I just couldn't choose between them. They come from the first and second page of the introduction. 

"The monsters in our cupboards and our minds are always there in the darkness, like mold beneath the floorboards and behind wallpaper, and there is so much darkness, an inexhaustible supply of darkness. The universe is amply supplied with night."

"What we read as adults should be read, I think, with no warnings or alerts beyond, perhaps: enter at your own risk. We need to find out what fiction is, what it  means to us, an experience that is going to be unlike anyone else's experience of the story."

From Goodreads: In this new anthology, Neil Gaiman pierces the veil of reality to reveal the enigmatic, shadowy world that lies beneath. Trigger Warning includes previously published pieces of short fiction--stories, verse, and a very special Doctor Who story that was written for the fiftieth anniversary of the beloved series in 2013--as well "Black Dog," a new tale that revisits the world of American Gods, exclusive to this collection.

So far I am enjoying the book, including the introduction. What book are you reading this week? What are your teasers? Please share them with us in the comments. Happy Reading!

Free Kindle Copy: "How to Talk to Girls at Parties" by Neil Gaiman

If you're like me and you're looking forward to the Ocean at the End of the Lane  by Neil Gaiman, now is your chance to get a free Kindle copy of the short story "How to Talk to Girls at Parties". Also included is a generous helping of a preview of the novel to come. I don't know how long this is available, but last time I checked, 6/11/13 12:30am. it was still available.

Waiting on Wednesday #2 - The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman

This week I am looking forward to getting my hands on The Ocean at the End of the Lane by Neil Gaiman.

Booklist gave it a starred review and said some wonderfully intriguing things about it.

In Gaiman’s first novel for adults since Anansi Boys(2005), the never-named fiftyish narrator is back in his childhood homeland, rural Sussex, England, where he’s just delivered the eulogy at a funeral. With “an hour or so to kill” afterward, he drives about—aimlessly, he thinks—until he’s at the crucible of his consciousness: a farmhouse with a duck pond. There, when he was seven, lived the Hempstocks, a crone, a housewife, and an 11-year-old girl, who said they were grandmother, mother, and daughter. Now, he finds the crone and, eventually, the housewife—the same ones, unchanged—while the girl is still gone, just as she was at the end of the childhood adventure he recalls in a reverie that lasts all afternoon. He remembers how he became the vector for a malign force attempting to invade and waste our world. The three Hempstocks are guardians, from time almost immemorial, situated to block such forces and, should that fail, fight them. Gaiman mines mythological typology—the three-fold goddess, the water of life (the pond, actually an ocean)—and his own childhood milieu to build the cosmology and the theater of a story he tells more gracefully than any he’s told since Stardust(1999). And don’t worry about that “for adults” designation: it’s a matter of tone. This lovely yarn is good for anyone who can read it.

I especially like the idea of his exploring the mother, maiden, crone concept as guardians. I've always enjoyed what he's done with mythologies and religions in the past, and I don't expect it to be any different this time. 

What book are you looking forward to reading this week?