“At last, Sir Terry, we must walk together. Terry took Death’s arm and followed him through the doors and on to the black desert under the endless night. The end.”

It was a series of 3 tweets that brought tears to my eyes. Something about those lines really struck me as both beautiful and sad. There was finality in one world but continuity in journey. No where else had I read such a more fitting tribute to the end of a man’s life.

I knew of Sir Terry Pratchett from the novel Good Omens which he wrote with Neil Gaiman. After reading the Sandman series, I became a fan of all things Gaiman which explained the purchased novel sitting on my bookshelf. However, I never had the chance to read this particular book.

Only when I learned of the passing of Sir Terry did my mind every return to the lone work with his name on my shelf. As the tributes came pouring in through social media, I knew this writer was something extraordinary. It takes an incredible type of storyteller to write in a way that affected so many people on so many different levels.

Through the tributes one word was repeated so many times that I had to investigate.

Discworld

“A comic fantasy book series” (as described by Wikipedia) featuring many eccentric characters including the infamous Death. With so many fans championing the series, I knew it was time I gave it a shot. That very day, I picked up The Color of Magic and dove right in meeting Rincewind the bumbling wizard and the naïve Twoflower and Luggage as they travel about the city of Ankh-Moor. My love affair was instantaneous and I was finished with the book by the end of the day. I immediately purchased The Light Fantastic and Equal Rites. Spellbound, I cruised through the books and moved on to Mort where I finally had to take a short break from the series.

I finally understood why these books meant so much to so many readers, and with each page the sadness within me grew. This great writer was no longer with us and I would never get the chance to go to a book signing or otherwise meet this remarkable person.

However, Sir Terry left behind 41 DiscWorld books and several other standalone books and related short stories. Although I may ever get the chance to meet him, I have met his thoughts, his friends his work in the flat planet on the backs of four elephants balanced on a tortoise.

By: Phoebe Jane