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A Blink of the Screen cover art

A Blink of the Screen

By: Terry Pratchett, A. S. Byatt - introduction
Narrated by: Michael Fenton-Stevens, Stephen Briggs
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Summary

A collection of shorter fiction from Terry Pratchett, spanning the whole of his writing career from schooldays to Discworld and the present day.

In the four decades since his first book appeared in print, Terry Pratchett has become one of the world’s best-selling and best-loved authors. Here for the first time are his short stories and other short form fiction collected into one volume. A Blink of the Screen charts the course of Pratchett’s long writing career: from his schooldays through to his first writing job on the Bucks Free Press, and the origins of his debut novel, The Carpet People; and on again to the dizzy mastery of the phenomenally successful Discworld series.

Here are characters both familiar and yet to be discovered; abandoned worlds and others still expanding; adventure, chickens, death, disco, and actually, some quite disturbing ideas about Christmas, all of it shot through with his inimitable brand of humour. With an introduction by Booker Prize-winning author A. S. Byatt

©2012 Terry and Lynn Pratchett (P)2012 Random House Audiobooks

What listeners say about A Blink of the Screen

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A Gem

I’ve loved the Pratchett worlds for over 30 years and have read his works many times. I am now enjoying listening to them just as much. So when I saw this collection on audible l dived right in. I found it interesting, informative and of course entertaining. It’s short story’s are ideal for listening at odd moments, this will definitely be one of my go to books for driving.

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Fantastic Sir Terry Pratchett short story

I have listened to this many times and I love this collection. A few Discworld short stories and some brilliant gems. There are two narrators and very easy to listen to. if you are a Pratchett fan I would recommend highly.

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  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars

As good as he's ever been.

With the discworld so familiar, we're almost too comfortable with Pratchett. Brilliantly compelling and storytelling at its best, but this collection bring together some older stuff that reveals a freshness we've not seen for a very long time.



A rare treat.

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6 people found this helpful

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Terry Pratchett through the years

if you love Terry Pratchett, this is a great addition to a collection of great books

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Charm and humour and incredible imagination.

Wonderfully written and beautifully read. I did not want these stories to end. These gems from Terry Pratchet just broke my heart all over again that he's gone.

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A real mixture but still very much worth getting.

This book is so hard to rate because the stories are so varied in here. The Discworld stories are in the minority but it's still worth buying for those alone. There a relatively long story about the witches, a short but hilarious story involving the city watch and a Punch and Judy man, Cohen makes an appearance and the details about the types aliments exclusive to Discworld had me in stitches. I would have bought the book for these tales alone. Admittedly not all the stories are as of high a quality and of course being unconnected to universe readers know and love, are often harder to get into. However I really enjoyed the fist story The Hades Business and was intrigued by The Picture. My suggestion would be that you buy this for the over 3 hours of Discwold stories and anecdotes that you can easily find by skipping through (they are 3 hours 8 minutes from the end and the book actually tells you when you get to that section). However when you have read these, give the others a try, they are hit and miss depending on taste but still really worth giving a try.

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Great read/ listen

This is my favourite Terry Pratchett short stories this is a must have for those who are fans of his work.

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Great short stories.

A good evolution, of stories, loved the discworld shorts, main reason for getting, read well.

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This is not just one for the fans

This is a fantastic rendition of "A Blink of the Screen". As a huge Terry Pratchett fan, I bought the book when it was released and read most of the way through the numerous short stories over the course of a week until I mistakenly left it in a Hotel room on holiday. With this in mind, and with a long plane ride looming, I quickly turned to Audible and downloaded the Audio book; and I am so glad that I did.

As I have mentioned, I am a huge Pritchett fan, reading and listening to almost all of his works; therefore I am quite familiar with Stephen Briggs giving voice to the varying characters, so I knew I would be in safe hands with this purchase.

For those of you that are unaware, this book is a collection of short stories from throughout Sir Terry Pratchett's long career right back to his first works in school to the current day. This gave a fan of his work such as me, a great insight into the development of themes and characters that entered our lives in the books that we know and love.

Putting aside the short stories from the Discworld (which as just as great as the novels) the other Novellas are equally as witty, fun loving and sometimes heart-warming with my favourites being "The Hades Business", "Rincemangle, The Gnome of Even Moor" and “Theatre of Cruelty”. Not only is this book well compiled and recorded but the voice acting brings the characters to life.

All in all, this is a fantastic listen for anyone not just the loyal followers of Sir Terry Pratchetts work.

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16 people found this helpful

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A journey through the mind of Pratchett

Would you consider the audio edition of A Blink of the Screen to be better than the print version?

A wonderful glimpse into the relms of things that could be or could have been.

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