I'm re-reading the City Watch series via the new audiobook (pro-tip, listen to them at 1.2x-1.3x - I really disliked them when I listened at 1x, but speeding it up a bit really improved them). And I can't help but feel like STP went into the series with an entirely different expectation of what he was going to be writing about.

I'm talking, of course, about Carrot. Now obviously, anyone whose familiar with Sir Terry Pratchett's writing style knows that Carrot was never going to be crowned King of Ankh Morpork. His story was, right from the get-go very clearly supposed to be a subversion of the old "Long lost king from humble origins saves the city and comes into his crown" trope.

I still do get the impression though, that Carrot was planned to be the main protagonist of the series, and that Pratchett just fell in love with Vimes as a character early on and pivoted. It sure seems like the original plan was for Carrot to eventually wind up as the commander of the City Watch, with Vimes retiring, which would play into the theme of Carrot's character that he can do the most good for the city by not being King.

But it reads as though along the way Pratchett saw the potential in Vimes and had so much fun writing his character that he changed his mind. It would explain why by the final few books in the City Watch series, Carrot goes from having one of the largest shares of "screen time" to being a barely present side-character.

Thoughts?

Side Note - anyone else catch the multi-layer pune (or play on words) for Carrot's name?

A Carrot is an orange (see hair color) vegetable that grows underground until it is plucked out from underneath the soil to fulfill it's true purpose

And

Carat as in diamond, as in diamond in the rough, as he's a King living amongst "commoners"

Right now the user count Lemmys is comparatively tiny when held up against reddit - but the user count isn't the thing that makes a social media site, it's the engagement

So even if you're used to lurking, try to get a little more active! Post memes, vote on posts, talk in the comments, whatever!

If people come here and see activity, content, and discussions, they're more likely to stay and contribute their own - if they come and see a ghost town, they'll just go back to reddit

cross-posted from: https://lemmy.ml/post/1184486

Lemmy doesn’t seem to have any popular woodworking subreddits, so I thought I’d post here. Just deleted my reddit account and want to contribute some content here!

Was suggested to crosspost this here! Happy to see a woodworking community on Lemmy!

Just finished The Long Earth series by Sir Terry Pratchett and Steven Baxter. I'm a huge Pratchett fan and these were my first Baxter novels. It pains me to say it, but it was kind of awful..

The whole series can be summed up by "amazing premises that go entirely to waste". The pacing and plot of the books are just terrible, to be frank - each book feels like 9/10 exposition 1/10 plot & character development.

So many fascinating plot points are just abandoned without ever being revisited.

Where did the rectangle buildings with the ray guns come from?

What became of the Beagles after humanities intervention?

Who built the martian beanstalk, and what became of them?

What happened to the fragment of Lobsong/Abraham that was left in the satellite on the Silver Beetle world?

Who sent "The Invitation", and why?

And then even more plot points are kept going, but it feels clear that Baxter really had no idea what to do with them.

The Next show up (out of nowhere) and then proceed to just spend all their time naval gazing until the Deus Ex Machina that is "The Thinker"

Valhalla's quiet revolution was the subject of the whole second book - but then at the point of the third book, basically nothing has changed.

The Traversers went from being an existential threat to the whole long Earth to just being a cool tourist destination, seemingly overnight.

Lobsang's avatar which he sent to 1st person singular was supposed to become absorbed into it, but it turns out he was just having a beach vacation the whole time.

Ultimately I wound up severely dissapointed given how excited I was in the first half of the first book. It's an amazing premise and has so much potential. But ultimately it feels squandered.

I had to really force myself to finish the final book, without much enjoyment