What!? Pratchett is to Erikson as Einstein is to Einstein!
Pratchett Einstein has an outwardly slapstick, inwardly bittersweet and present-day social-commentary metaphoric trio of a troll, a dwarf, and an anthropomorphism with the emotional depth of a black hole walk into a comedy club, where the enjoyment of the crowd increases the more boring the MC is. If you catch it, you catch it. If you don't, you don't. Enjoyment=energy. Boring=square
If you have a broad general knowledge, there is something to catch on most pages. If you have an in-depth knowledge of one particular field, then there will be one particular Pratchett book that has references for you on most pages. The reference will be throw-away funny, or you'll be in awe of how Pratchett has managed to twist or spin the complicated concept seamlessly into the simple narrative. One suspects his most subtly bizarre plots and characters came from a reference idea first. You can read his books on multiple levels, which is a satisfying experience in itself.
Pratchett is particularly strong on real world philosophy, (meta-physics, philosophy of morals, comparative religion) science, (quantum physics, astronomy) history, psychology, sociology, and Leonardo Da Vinci. He seems rather weak on opera.
Erikson Einstein explains E=mc2 for the layman who hasn't done any maths or science yet. He pulls out dazzling star-scapes to catch your interest in the beauty of the universe. He painstakingly goes back to the beginning of each concept, and takes you on a long explicit adventure of each strand. Of Energy, of Momentum, of Inertia, of Mass, of Gravitas, of Spacetime, of Electricity, of Magneticism, of Electromagnetism, of Light, of Quanta.
Then he brings the separate strands together in twos and threes, showing you how they interrelate. He unknits them again, and makes narrative ropes with different combinations of strands. You start to get the idea of how people/starlight step from one side of the universe to the other both in the blink of an eye, and ALSO via a long and energy draining journey at the same time. You see how what looked like different Units, ostensibly different ways of manipulating things, are all actually facets of the one thing. Even though it is all one glorious, magnificent whole in the end, you have your sneaking favourite strands and Units.
It was amazing. It was Epic. Some of it bored you, but that was necessary to appreciate the whole fantastic Universe. You are exhausted and afterglowing. You laughed, you really did. And you cried, you really had tears running down your face when The Chain of Dogs... and when The Bridgeburners...
Erikson takes 10,000 words of explicit narration where Pratchett takes 100 words of sly, veiled, obvious, in-your-face, surreal metaphors, analogies, criticisms, witticisms, homages, conversation-characterisation-plot-driven slap-stick to hit exactly the the same emotional highs and lows. You may find brevity poppy and shallow. I find well done brevity to be the condensed essence of wit. And yes, ironically I can't do brevity myself.
This is not to say that I think all Discworld books are equal. I find their value variable, but the best are outstanding. I find the same of the Malazan books too. Some are not as good as the best, and some are outstanding.
Edited, May 25th 2010 6:35am by Aripyanfar
