The Pratchett Portfolio

by Terry Pratchett, Paul Kidby (Illustrator)

Terry Pratchett's incredible Discworld, floating through space on the backs of four elephants* standing on a giant turtle, supports some of the most popular characters ever imagined in the world of fantasy fiction. But the Discworld people are real, and here they are, warts (except, of course, in the case of Granny Weatherwax) and all, from Rincewind the incompetent wizard to Greebo, the rather too human cat. *once there were five, but that's another story

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Art, Humor, Reference, Comedy, Comics

32 pages, Paperback

First published September 26, 1996

About the author

Sir Terence David John Pratchett was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983–2015, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman.
Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.

Reviews

[[ J o ]]

First published in 1996 and my copy in 1998 when there were 18 Discworld novels (there are now 41), this thin but charming book is a treasurehouse of Paul Kidby's illustrations of the major Discworld characters, alongside descriptions from The Man himself.

PTerry's little notes are a delight and one cannot ever deny that Kidby's visions are exactly as they should be. Since it is an early book, it is missing some big names obviously, and it is too short to justify a better star rating.

Still bloody magic though, aye.

[Natasha Cowles]

A short visual guide to some of the most well-known members of the Discworld.

I love Paul Kidby’s illustrations and find they align almost exactly with the pictures I had in my head of the characters.

[Ondřej Puczok]

Taková jednohubka, pro mě jen doplnění povedenější a krásnější knihy Výtvarné umění Zeměplochy.

[Katka Olajcová]

Malá knižôčka s obrázkami a stručným popisom obľúbených zeměplošských postáv. Čo by viac fanúšik tohto úžasného sveta mohol chcieť? (podrobnejší charakteristický profil postáv, popis psychológie ich myslenia, čo majú radi, čo neradi, čo sa im v noci snívalo, 20stranový album s rodinnými fotkami, teda... ikonografmi... som príliš náročná?). Každopádne, toto je príjemný bonus k Zeměplošským knihám, taká malá radosť, ktorá poteší každého fanúšika.

[Marcel]

If you're a Pratchett fan, this is a nice addition to his Discworld series, if not, it gives you an idea of the main characters he created for that world.

[Dane Cobain]

Basically a bunch of drawings and bios of Discworld characters.

[jaroiva]

Krátké shrnutí (připomenutí) zeměplošských postaviček. Z mého pohledu milý souhrn. Takové "osoby a obsazení" s malým medailonkem u každého.

[Kate Millin-Shaw]

A quick reminder of some of the main characters with a bit about their origins and brilliant drawings of them

[Gabi de Wilde]

Fun, but superficial. Lovely drawings, interesting little insights, but very lightweight. Only for the true aficionado who already has everything else.

[Rocky Sunico]

This isn't so much something to read but more just something to look at. It feels practically like a children's book (and the ridiculously short length adds to this notion), but then of course it depends on whether or not you let your kids read Discworld books.

The book has a simple purpose that it fulfills fairly well, I suppose - to present the various Discworld characters based on the interpretation of artist Paul Kidby. There's a brief intro from Terry himself and slight commentary beside some of the characters, but other than that there's not much to it.

I only bought this book since I saw it at a secondhand book shop. Given its relatively limited value, I wouldn't recommend purchasing it at full price either unless you're that obsessive about the quality of the books on your shelf.

[Rene Majer]

Úžasná Zeměplocha Terryho Pratchetta, putující vesmírem na hřbetech čtyř slonů, stojících na krunýři obrovské želvy, je domovem mnoha postav. Autor a malíř Paul Kidby se spojili a společně vytvořili jejich podoby. Zachytili je jak v náčrtcích, tak na barevných tabulích, od neschopného mága Mrakoplaše po Silvera, onoho napůl polidštěného kocoura Stařenky Oggové. Obrázky jsou doplněny krátkými, tradičně seriózními texty.

[Nighteye]

Really intresting and good to se some of the characters from the books. Some intresting notes from PRatchett on some of the characters where he got the inspirations from apart from a short charachter description.

[Sarah Sammis]

I'd only read two Pratchett books when I read this one.

[Chris The Story Reading Ape]

Beautiful illustrations, this book stands by itself, but is also a good taster for The Artwork of Discworld, which has more colour.

[Lindsay]

Wonderful artwork from Paul Kidby and the imagination of Terry Pratchett.
Its nice to put a face to the characters I've been reading about for 20+ years.