GameWorld Discworld

A few years ago, (two, maybe three) I first laid my hands on Samit Basu's GameWorld Trilogy. I read the Simoquin Prophecies. Liked it a fair bit, re-read it, and subsequently bought parts 2 and 3, which I liked as well, though the Unwaba Revelations still seem too crammed to me. What I really liked was the fact that Basu had taken older stories, be they myths, or folk tales, or ballads or even other, older, novels, and twisted them. This, I thought, was really brilliant and, obviously, entertaining. Another thing I liked was the fact that Kol, set in a world teeming with magic, was so resolutely pragmatic.

Then, a few weeks ago, I started reading Terry Pratchett. And there I found a number of extremely-familiar characters and institutions. And, while this was to an extent understandable, none of them had been twisted. The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork/The Chief Citizen of Kol, the Unseen University/ Enki University, the differences between the dwarfs in Kol/Ankh-Morpork and the dwarfs at home, it's all the same. Even, I think, the long-lost heir, though in the Game-World, the heir does accept his destiny instead of merrily ignoring it like Carrot does. Gods, even the gods in both series play games with the world, which is spread out in front of them and their table circles it. Haven't finished Pratchett yet, but the title of Moving Pictures sounds very like Mantric's project.

My rather high opinion of Samit Basu has gone down a few notches.