You know why I'm reading Pratchett? The real reason? It's because petronia once said "(The Fall of Kings) reads like the retroactive reification of something that didn't exist before Terry Pratchett parodied it."

I wouldn't know myself. I haven't even got to Privilege of the Sword yet, though it's sitting in the pile thanks to kickinpants. Also I think I identified the ur-source that Swordspoint was referencing while I was reading Swordspoint but I've forgotten what it was, not surprisingly, along with most of Swordspoint itself, which has somehow become subsumed into The Points series, *plus* The Armor (sic) of Light, which last is a neat trick.

This is probably because the Points books and their AU world are actually far more intriguing than the Riverside one (to say nothing of the likability of their respective characters.) Thus reminded, I've just ordered me a (sadly remaindered) copy of Point of Dreams, because I think it's another reference source for female dragons. Oh, and amazon reviewer? The Points books are not a sequel to Armor of Light, you historical ignoramus. One happens in an identifiable Elizabethan England that's barely AU. The other happens in a different universe from ours entirely.

But otherwise, Pratchett. Or the Watch, rather. Which I continue to read mainly for Vetinari, but equally for everyone else. It's like a good manga series by a mangaka you trust, one with a genial worldview who's not likely to pull tragedy on you without warning. This makes for a pleasant and diverting read, which frankly I need very badly just now.

Someone somewhere was comparing Edward, the Gary Stu hero of that vampire series whose name I refuse to remember, and Pratchett's Corporal Carrot. Edward is spesshul and his author keeps insisting on the fact. Carrot is special-- in certain ways-- except that the characters around him who realize what it is he's doing can't quite believe he's doing it and aren't entirely sure how they feel about it. (Also there's a perfectly dry-eyed reason why Carrot's like that, just as there's a perfectly good reason why Detritus is proof against vampires: it's the nature of the creature each one is. I won't name the creature Carrot is in case someone's reading this who hasn't read Pratchett; suffice to say, it's something that's only a creature when it's in Pratchett's universe.) And no one can be a Gary Stu who's described as 'treating punctuation like a game of Pin the Tail on the Donkey.' That's far more a characteristic of fan authors.

However, if the Swordspoint sequels do read like humourless Pratchett, then I am more resigned to reading the Swordspoint sequels.