FanFare

All Aboard! The steam engine has come to Discworld, and with it the prototype locomotive known as Iron Girder. It's new! It's flashy! It's noisy! It's smoky! It can get seafood from Quirm to Ankh-Morpork while it's still worth eating! It can easily kill you if things go wrong! It can let you work in Ankh-Morpork while living elsewhere! And it signals undeniable, major social changes for anywhere the tracks can get to. Moist von Lipwig has handled a lot of dangerous enterprises in his life, but he's never had to take on Dwarven terrorists before now... (Industrial Revolution #7, Discworld #40) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer on Feb 25, 2024 - 12 comments

Who can convince the people of Ankh-Morpork that slips of paper are as valuable as gold? Who can take on the most cunning blue-bloods and open up Finance to the masses? Who can bust out a death-row prisoner but twice get caught "breaking into" his own office? Who can withstand the love of a woman who digs up hordes of Golems as a hobby? And who can do it all while rocking a gold suit and hat? Why, Moist von Lipwig, of course! (Discworld #36, Industrial Revolution #5.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer on Apr 5, 2023 - 4 comments

Ankh-Morpork's postal system has been defunct and decrepit since long before the Clacks Towers (think telecommunications via Semaphore) went up, but the Clacks has changed the world, and people depend upon it now. Unfortunately, the Clacks has been taken over by a group of corporate raiders running it into the ground. Service is spotty, rates are rising, and worker mortalities abound. So Lord Vetinari gives a condemned young career con-man a new lease on life, provided he will take up the role of Postmaster. (Discworld #33, Industrial Revolution # 4.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer on Apr 1, 2023 - 23 comments

Borogravia, a small mangy cur of a country with nothing much to speak of, is at war. It's always at war, of course, but now they've torn down the Clacks Towers, which brings His Grace Duke Samuel Vimes in as ambassador to hopefully finally put a stop to things. And William de Worde of the Ankh-Morpork Times in to cover the stories on the ground. And Polly Perks, a young barmaid, chops off her hair and puts a sock in her trousers to enlist in the last company Borogravia can hope to recruit in this struggle, every member of which seems to have a secret. (Discworld #31, Industrial Revolution #3.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer on Mar 30, 2023 - 17 comments

ANKH-MORPORK - Lord Vetinari arrested by City Watch after an apparent attack on his chief clerk, Rufus Drumknott. Vetinari's aged dog Wuffles missing after the altercation. Two criminals for hire calling themselves the "New Firm" have set up shop in the city. William de Worde, previously of a monthly newsletter to a handful of the Disc's influential nobles, joins with Dwarfs to create Ankh-Morpork's first Newspaper, though rivals are hot on his heels Details forthcoming. (Discworld #25, Industrial Revolution #2.) By Terry Pratchett. [more inside]
posted by Navelgazer on Mar 28, 2023 - 14 comments