Good Omens
by Terry Pratchett & Neil Gaiman
radio dramatisation by Dirk Maggs (BBC Worldwide, 2014)
Dirk Maggs has adapted Pratchett and Gaiman’s comedic novel of the apocalypse with apposite exuberance, yet for all the well-pitched sound design and the cast’s astute voice work, this zany and enjoyable dramatisation does perforce forego the original book’s drollery of prose.
Only You Can Save Mankind
by Terry Pratchett (Doubleday, 1992)
The aliens in Johnny’s computer game are real, in eye-opening contrast to his dissociated home life and the Gulf War’s televised entertainment. The concept entices but the execution feels hurried. Moreover, Pratchett’s twelve-year-olds remain in now incongruous accord with the early 1990s.
Guards! Guards!
by Terry Pratchett; read by Nigel Planer (Isis, 1995)
[first published by Gollancz, 1989]
Some of the dialogue feels slightly laboured when read aloud (a small misgiving), but in the grand scale of all things magical and satirical this is the perfect introduction to Pratchett’s Discworld series. Planer handles with aplomb both narrative comedy and characterisation.
The Shepherd’s Crown
by Terry Pratchett (Harper, 2015)
Apposite to Terry Pratchett’s passing, his final novel sees the death of Granny Weatherwax (one of the first-introduced Discworld characters) and the befalling of her legacy to young witch Tiffany Aching (one who most embodies the series’ growth): a gentle, bittersweet finale.