#astfgl

[dimity-lawn]

#discworld #gnu terry pratchett #meme #discworld meme #created by yours truly #the office #the office us #eric #eric thursley #rincewind #astfgl

[ansatsu-sha]

And thus it was, when Rincewind pulled himself free of the wreckage of the wheel, he found Astfgl, King of Demons, Lord of Hell, Master of the Pit, standing over him. Astfgl had passed through the earlier stage of fury and was now in that calm lagoon of rage where the voice is steady, the manner is measured and polite, and only a faint trace of spittle at the corner of the mouth betrays the inner inferno.

Terry Pratchett / Eric

#terry pratchett #eric #eric thursley #discworld #rincewind #currrently rereading

[sourb0i]

Thoughts on Faust Eric:

Rincewind is back!!!!! My boy!!!!

It's funny how most writing advice these days is "Give your character a goal!" And Rincewind's goal is to Avoid the Plot

I wasn't a huge fan of Eric at first, but he did grow on me; he's a very one-dimensional caricature of a teenage boy but it's fun

While it did read very....Dated... I did enjoy all the historical satire, particularly the bit with the Ancient Ephebe and Tsort

I do wish he'd come out of it having learned some kind of lesson though- even though he didn't get any of his wishes, it didn't seem like he was too affected by it

This is completely out of the blue, but: The Luggage could absolutely beat the One Punch Man in a fight

I imagine that Hell as Astfgl runs it is what the Hell in Good Omens would look like if Crowley were in charge; Hell isn't other people, but it is the awful things they come up with

I do also wish we'd seen a little more of the after-effects of being hunted through the Dungeon Dimensions for what seemed like several weeks at minimum (ik Pratchett doesn't really go in for that kind of thing, but I'm a sucker for psychological torture)

In all, probably not the most outstanding in the Discworld series, but certainly a short fun read

I think next I'm going to break into the Death series, probably with Mort so I can watch the movie afterwards

#sour speaks #sour reads books #Discworld #gnu terry pratchett

[godzilla-reads]

🧳 Eric by Terry Pratchett

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

Eric, a demonologist hacker, does a very poor job at his work. Eric wants three things: to live forever, to be master of the universe, and to have the hottest babe. But instead of summoning an all powerful demon, he gets… Rincewind… and his notorious Luggage.

I haven’t read a Terry Pratchett book in some time and this rekindled my love for his writing. His humor, characters, and universe are unmatched!

In this book my favorite character was the Demon Lord Astfgl, who was trying so so hard to be “productive”. This was technically the fourth Rincewind book, but it was a great intro for me to his character. I’d love to see more of him.

#godzilla reads #eric #Eric Discworld #gnu terry prachett #book review #Discworld #rincewind #reading #reads #bookworm #booklr #bookish #book blog #bibliophile #book blurb

[jenreadsstuff]

Faust Eric thoughts:

I don’t have a whole lot of thoughts about this one, to be honest. It’s a fun novella, readable in a day, with some little spotlights on Disc history, and lets us know how Rincewind got out of the Dungeon Dimensions, but it’s mostly fluff. I’d say it might have been a kid-friendly intro to Discworld, but then you really need to know about Rincewind and the luggage and a few other Disc basics to appreciate the story.

The Faustus parody isn’t exactly groundbreaking, but it’s interesting to see it from the perspective of the reluctant wish-granter rather than the demon summoner. The pop-up characters aren’t interesting beyond being references to other things, and Eric doesn’t get much character development, if any.

My biggest take-away from it is how much the hell scenes feel like a precursor to Good Omens (my favourite novel of all time, currently on my fourth copy because I read the first so many times it literally fell apart and my second and third were loaned to friends who never gave them back). I adore this whole concept of demons wanting to revolutionise hell because nothing demons can come up with even compares to the ingenious ways humans manage to torture one another.

I love the concept of Astfgl’s idea of how hell should run - an ‘80s yuppy office that’s more concerned with the aesthetics of power and efficiency than with customer service, and there’s probably an essay to be written about the power dynamics of late ‘80s business versus creativity and art that might have influenced Pterry, possibly.

But mostly I am excited to be moving on to Moving Pictures, one of my favouritest of the early series!

#Discworld #gnu Terry Pratchett #Jen reads Discworld #Eric

[beboped1]

Eric

Decided I needed the out of print Illustrated Edition, so had to wait on eBay. Also led me to read this a bit out of order, after I'd finished Moving Pictures (that review coming right after I'm done with this one)

Faust Eric

First Read: Now!

Verdict: I'm starting to settle into a conclusion that I just don't like Rincewind or his stories much. The highly questionable parody of Central American indigenous culture did not age well.

After the epic fantasy of Guards, Guards, the hyper-small focus of Eric was a bit jarring at first. We get a brief cameo from Bursar in his first appearance (no Ridcully yet, but we're getting closer to the University I remember from later books), then it's a narrow focus on our eponymous character and Rincewind as they run through a classic three-act "Be careful what you wish for" story.

Getting the Illustrated Edition was definitely the right move though. Josh Kirby's art is so expressive, lush, and perfectly fits with Pratchett's tone. I'm not usually a first edition collector type, but dang, I would love a full set of the UK hardcovers with the Kirby covers. The modern US ones are fine, but they're also quite generic. It's a true shame that this edition is out of print - if you've read Eric without the pictures, you really are only getting half the experience.

So, Rincewind. My existing gaps in Discworld are almost all Rincewind books - the only one that isn't is Amazing Maurice. This was not an accident, as Color of Magic turned me off the character entirely. But I really tried to set aside any preconceptions for this project, and I really was hoping I'd better understand what made him a popular character. Light Fantastic was better than I expected, and in Sourcery he even got something resembling a character arc. But in Eric, we're back to the classic Rincewind, always running away, with really nothing else to his character. This characterization just does nothing for me - and so his books end up needing to be carried by the surrounding cast.

Maybe mid 30s is just too old for Eric. It's in theory a parody of Faust and a few other classics, but in practice it's a pretty bog-standard "wishes go terribly wrong" story. There's no specificity to Eric, nothing to distinguish him from any of the hundreds or thousands other nerdy rich boys who get themselves in over their head in YA literature. And so, the most important piece of any Rincewind story - the side characters - falls very flat, leaving only the scene level humor and the travelogue structure holding the book together.

The first act, with the Aztec pastiche, did not age well. I am unequipped to break down this portrayal in detail, but it definitely didn't leave me feeling good, or like Indigenous folks got a fair shot in it. Terry Pratchett was firmly humanist and progressive in his philosophy, but he was still a middle class white British man writing in the 80s and 90s, and it shows.

The second and third acts are much better, both funnier and much less icky. His take on the Trojan War and Helen of Troy is great - really showcasing his off-kilter, yet somehow perfectly humanly plausible, sense of story. And the truest hell being boredom speaks directly to my ADHD heart. So it definitely picks up, with Lavaeolus and Astfgl carrying their sections well.

In the end, especially after the tour de force that was Guards, Guards, Eric just doesn't impress. The humor often falls flat, the wordcraft is largely uninspired, and the characters are boring. That Kirby art though...that's worth the price of admission.

#book review #books #discworld #fantasy books #terry pratchett #Eric #long post

[firstofficerrose]

“Astfgl said a swearword that fused the sand around him into glass, and vanished.”

Excellent. I love the idea that a being as powerful as the King of Demons would be able to change sand into glass just by being upset in the same area. That’s great!

#eric #discworld #wizards novels #terry pratchett #rose reads #rose rambles

[aeshnacyanea2000]

Astfgl had passed through the earlier stage of fury and was now in that calm lagoon of rage where the voice is steady, the manner is measured and polite, and only a faint trace of spittle at the corner of the mouth betrays the inner inferno.

Terry Pratchett - Eric

#Terry Pratchett #discworld quotes #GNU Terry Pratchett #quotes #Eric #Astfgl #fury #rage

[la-niolue]

Astfgl had achieved in Hell a particularly high brand of boredom which is like the boredom you get which a) is costing you money, and b) is taking place while you should be having a nice time. 

Faust Eric

#gnu terry pratchett #discworld #quote #eric

[quasi-normalcy]

Hell, it has been suggested, is other people. This has always come as a bit of a surprise to many working demons, who had always thought hell was sticking sharp things into people and pushing them into lakes of blood and so on. This is because demons, like most people, have failed to distinguish between the body and the soul. The fact was that, as droves of demon kings had noticed, there was a limit to what you could do to a soul with, e.g., red-hot tweezers, because even fairly evil and corrupt souls were bright enough to realise that since they didn’t have the concomitant body and nerve endings attached to them there was no real reason, other than force of habit, why they should suffer excruciating agony. So they didn’t. Demons went on doing it anyway, because numb and mindless stupidity is part of what being a demon is all about, but since no-one was suffering they didn’t enjoy it much either and the whole thing was pointless. Centuries and centuries of pointlessness. Astfgl,  had adopted, without realising what he was doing, a radically new approach. Demons can move interdimensionally, and so he’d found the basic ingredients for a very worthwhile lake of blood equivalent, as it were, for the soul. Learn from humans, he’d told the demon lords. Learn from humans. It’s amazing what you can learn from humans. You take, for example, a certain type of hotel. It is probably an English version of an American hotel, but operated with that peculiarly English genius for taking something American and subtracting from it its one worthwhile aspect, so that you end up with slow fast food, West Country and Western music and, well, this hotel. It’s early closing day. The bar is really just a pastel-pink paneled table with a silly bucket on it, set in one corner, and it won’t be open for hours yet. And then you add rain, and let the one channel available on the TV be, perhaps, Welsh Channel Four, showing its usual mobius Eisteddfod from Pant-y-gyrdl. And there is only one book in this hotel, left behind by a previous victim. It is one of those where the name of the author is on the front in raised gold letters much bigger than the tittle, and it probably has a rose and a bullet on there too. Half the pages are missing. And the only cinema in the town is showing something with subtitles and French umbrellas in it. And then you stop time, but not experience, so that it seems as though the very fluff in the carpet is gradually rising up to fill the brain and your mouth starts to taste like an old denture. And you make it last for ever and ever. That’s even longer than from now to opening time. And then you distil it.

Terry Pratchett, Faust Eric

[noirandchocolate]

“Lord Astfgl” by Paul Kidby Taken from “Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Imaginarium” 

(Here he is, the demon lord whose name starts off all my keysmashes.  He doesn’t look so scary.)

#terry pratchett #gnu terry pratchett #discworld #paul kidby #discworld imaginarium

[anreill]

Astfgl peered around through the swirling gas clouds. At least he was in the right place. The whole point about the end of the universe was that you couldn’t go past it accidentally.

The last few embers winked out. Time and space collided silently, and collapsed.

Astfgl coughed. It can get so very lonely, when you’re twenty million light-years from home.

“Anyone there?” he said

YES.

The voice was right by his ear. Even Demon kings can shiver.

“Apart from you, I mean,” he said “Have you seen anybody?”

YES.

“Who?”

EVERYONE.

Astfgk sighed. “I mean anyone recently.”

IT’S BEEN VERY QUIET, said Death.

“Damn.”

WERE YOU EXPECTING SOMEONE ELSE?

“I thought there might be someone called Rincewind but-” Astfgl began.

Death’s eyesockets flared red. THE WIZARD? he said.

“No, he’s a dem-” Astfgl stopped. For what would have been several seconds, had time still existed, he floated in a state of horrible suspicion .

“A human?” he growled.

IT IS STRETCHING THE TERM A LITTLE, BUT YOU ARE BROADLY CORRECT.

“Well, I’ll be damned!” Astfgl said.

I BELIEVE YOU ALREADY ARE.

The Demon King extended a shaking hand. His mounting fury was over-riding his sense of style; his red silk gloves ripped as the talons unfolded.

And then, because it’s never a good idea to get on the wrong side of anyone with a scythe, Astfgl said “sorry you’ve been troubled,” and vanished. Only when he judged himself out of Death’s extremely acute hearing did he scream his rage.

Nothingness uncoiled its interminable length through the draughty spaces at the end of time.

Death waited. After a while his skeletal fingers began to drum on the handle of his scythe.

Darkness lapped around him. There wasn’t even any infinity any more.

He attempted to whistle a few snatches of unpopular songs between his teeth, but the sound was simply sucked into nothingness.

Forever was over. All the sands had fallen. The great race between entropy and energy had been run, and the favourite had been the winner after all.

Perhaps he ought to sharpen the blade again?

No.

Not much point, really.

Great roils of absolutely nothing stretched into what would have been called the distance, if there had been a space-time reference frame to give words like “distance” any sensible meaning any more.

There didn’t seem to be much to do.

PERHAPS IT’S TIME TO CALL IT A DAY, he thought.

Death turned to go but, just as he did so, he heard the faintest of noises. It was to sound what one photon is to light, so weak and feeble that it would have passed entirely unheard in the din of an operating universe.

It was a tiny piece of matter, popping into existence.

Death stalked over to the point of arrival and watched carefully.

It was a paperclip.

Well, it was a start.

There was another pop, which left a small white shirt-button spinning gently in the vacuum.

Death relaxed a little. Of course, it was going to take some time. There was going to be and interlude before all this got complicated enough to produce gas clouds, galaxies, planets and continents, let alone tiny corkscrew-shaped things wiggling around in slimy pools and wondering whether evolution was worth all the bother of growing fins and legs and things.

But it indicated the start of an unstoppable trend.

All he had to do was be patient, and he was good at that.

Pretty soon there’d be living creatures, developing like mad, running and laughing in the new sunlight. Growing tired. Growing old.

Death sat back. He could wait.

Whenever they needed him, he’d be there.

Eric, Terry Pratchett

#Terry Pratchett #Discworld #Eric #this made me cry

[soldmysoultothewords]

“...Astfgl had achieved in Hell a particularly high brand of boredom which is like the boredom you get which a) is costing you money, and b) is taking place when you should be having a nice time.”

 - Eric, by Terry Pratchett (pg. 124, Harper fiction edition)

#eric #Terry Pratchett #astfgl

[j-august]

The King growled. The problem with being evil, he'd been forced to admit, was that demons were not great innovatory things and really needed the spice of human ingenuity. And he'd really been looking forward to Eric Thursley, whose brand of superintelligent gormlessness was a rare delight. Hell needed horribly-bright, self-centred people like Eric. They were much better at being nasty than demons could ever manage.

Terry Pratchett, Eric

#quote #quotation #Terry Pratchett #Astfgl #evil #Discworld #demons #demon #spice #human #ingenuity #Eric Thursley #gormless #bright #self-centred #nasty

[turtle-recall]

Astfgl had achieved in hell a particularly high brand of boredom which is like the boredom you get which a) is costing you money, and b) is taking place while you should be having a nice time.

from Eric by Terry Pratchett

#eric #astfgl #demons #discworld #terry pratchett #quotes

[aeshnacyanea2000]

He had any amount of desk things: notepads with magnets for paperclips, handy devices for holding pens and those tiny jotters that always came in handy, incredibly funny statuettes with slogans like “You’re the Boss!”, and little chromium balls and spirals operated by a sort of ersatz and short-lived perpetual motion. No-one looking at that desk could have any doubt that they were, in cold fact, truly damned.

Terry Pratchett - Eric

#Terry Pratchett #discworld quotes #GNU Terry Pratchett #quotes #Eric #Astfgl #Hell #desk things