Back in the early 1980’s an interesting bloke defined the colour of magic as Octarine. (A sort of fluorescent greenish-yellow-purple.) I think this was the first novel I ever read that regularly used footnotes. The Colour of Magic eventually became part of a series of books – I’ve just recently finished reading No.40, Raising Steam. I have also strayed into his other short series and stand alone novels.
All in all, Terry Pratchett became one of my favourite authors – especially for fantasy mixed with comedy. His books often make me laugh out loud. As the Discworld series has grown, his characters and writing have developed, and he manages to regularly poke fun at real-life issues, culture/society, even other fantasy. He’s tackled music, war, politics, religion, feminism, theatre, movies, vampires, fey-folk, Australia, truth, and a lot of other things. He likes to twist words and meanings, looks at traditional legends and myths in different ways and seems to have a lot of fun. [If both male and female Dwarves have beards and wear chain-mail, think of the confusion in trying to meet the other sex.]
Where is all this going? There are regular characters who pop in and out of novels, sometimes as a major character, sometimes on the sidelines. One of my favourites right from the first book was the Luggage. (Closely followed by DEATH and the Librarian)
A large wooden chest made out of sapient pearwood (extremely rare and expensive), that follows its owner on lots of little legs. “So great was the ability to follow its master anywhere, the grave goods of dead emperors had traditionally been made of it…” It’s bigger on the inside than the outside, cunning, very fast and known to eat thieves.
At least a decade ago, my sister found a miniature of the luggage for me and it’s spent nearly all that time riding on the dashboard of whatever car I’ve owned… well, until last week. I decided it was time it got painted! It’s a metal miniature, about 18mm high and was fun to paint. Eventually, it will go back into the car.
Dragons of Lancasm 