uncas007's The Discworld Graphic Novels #1 review

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    Short On Content, Short on Respect

    Under the "we didn't have much time for respect or caring much" category appears this rather embarrassing thing that has happened. Perhaps Mr. Pratchett is happy with this, and if he is, I salute him I salute him and his genius. I suspect, though, he is not pleased with this adaptation. I acknowledge some limitations and elisions must be made for a 4-volume comic adaptation of a mildly lengthy novel: I wasn't hoping for a word-for-word adaptation. And while I haven't read the originals for about a year, I am fairly certain this takes a few rather important things away, notably the entire Trymon plot of The Light Fantastic. That is a rather large aspect of the novel to eliminate. I suppose we should be lenient with the limitations of the format, but the general tenor of the work is not one of respect for the source material, as I mentioned earlier. From giving Twoflower four actual eyes (we are still making that mistake, 10+ years later?) to the Octavo and Death scenes, as unimpressive as it sounds in a review, the "feel" is just wrong throughout - even acknowledging these two books have a different feel from most of the rest of the Discworld series (at least what I've read so far). It's like a "Greatest Hits" collection of a favorite band done by some organization that has not heard of the band before, or is only doing radio edits of songs based on money-determining popularity, not a detailed, in-depth love of the band's output as you have. That sort of feel. This could have been a lot better. I don't even know who the target audience might be these days, now that the much-more enjoyable movie adaptation with David Jason and Sean Austin (the final scene of that adaptation puts the final scene of this graphic novel adaptation to deep, deep shame). If you aren't a die-hard "everything Discworld ever" person, stick to just the book and the movie.

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