diff --git a/dat/tribute b/dat/tribute index 7afd57e77..c53d4a884 100644 --- a/dat/tribute +++ b/dat/tribute @@ -476,13 +476,129 @@ There's a fifth element, and generally it's called Surprise. %e title # # +# The Last Hero has never been released in the U.S. (or anywhere?) as a +# conventional mass market paperback. The large (roughly 10" by 12") +# trade paperback contains many full page color illustrations and most +# text pages include decorations of varying degress of elaborateness. +# The actual text is probably only novella length. # -%title The Last Hero (1) +%title The Last Hero (7) +# pg. 41 (end of 1st paragraph) %passage 1 -Too many people, when listing all the perils to be found in the search for lost treasure or ancient wisdom, -had forgotten to put at the top of the list 'the man who arrived just before you'. +Too many people, when listing all the perils to be found in the search +for lost treasure or ancient wisdom, had forgotten to put at the top of +the list 'the man who arrived just before you'. - [The Last Hero, by Terry Pratchett] + [The Last Hero, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby] +%e passage +# pg. 5 (1st page of text, 4th & 5th paragraphs) +# second paragraph is a bit "on the nose" but is too good to leave out +%passage 2 +The reason for the story was a mix of many things. There was humanity's +desire to do forebidden deeds merely because they were forebidden. +There was its desire to find new horizon's and kill the people who live +beyond them. There were the mysterious scrolls. There was the cucumber. +But mostly there was the knowledge that one day, it would all be over. + +'Ah, well, life goes on,' people say when someone dies. But from the +point of view of the person who has just died, it doesn't. It's the +universe that goes on. Just as the deceased was getting the hang of +everything it's all whisked away, by illness or accident or, in one +case, a cucumber. Why this has to be is one of the imponderables of +life, in the face of which people either start to pray... +or become really, really angry. + + [The Last Hero, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby] +%e passage +# pg. 19 (bottom 20%) +%passage 3 +'And they're /heroes/,' said Mr Betteridge of the Guild of Historians. + +'And that means, exactly?' said the Patrician, sighing. + +'They're good at doing what they want to do.' + +'But they are also, as I understand it, very old men.' + +'Very old /heroes/,' the historian corrected him. 'That just means +they've had a lot of /experience/ in doing what they want to do. + +Lord Vetinari sighed again. He did not like to live in a world of +heroes. You had civilisation, such as it was, and you had heroes. + + [The Last Hero, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby] +%e passage +# pg. 25 (2nd & 3rd fifths) +%passage 4 +They were, all of them, old men. Their background conversation was +a litany of complaints about feet, stomachs and backs. They moved +slowly. But they had a /look/ about them. It was in their eyes. + +Their eyes said that wherever it was, they had been there. Whatever +it was, they had done it, sometimes more than once. But they would +never, ever, /buy/ the T-shirt. And they /did/ know the meaning of +the word 'fear'. It was something that happened to other people. + + [The Last Hero, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby] +%e passage +# pg. 97 (middle) +%passage 5 +Captain Carrot saluted. 'Force is always the last resort, sir,' he said. + +'I believe for Cohen it's the first choice,' said Lord Vetinari. + +'He's not too bad if you don't come up behind him suddenly,' said Rincewind. + +'Ah, there is the voice of our mission specialist,' said the Patrician. +'I just hope-- What is that on your badge, Captain Carrot?' + +'Mission motto, sir,' said Carrot cheerfully. '/Morituri Nolumus Mori/. +Rincewind suggested it.' + +'I imagine he did,' said Lord Vetinari, observing the wizard coldly. +'And would you care to give us a colloquial translation, Mr Rincewind?' + +'Er...' Rincewind hesitated, but there really was no escape. 'Er... +roughly speaking, it means, "We who are about to die don't want to", sir.' + + [The Last Hero, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby] +%e passage +# pg. 125 (near top, then continued half way down) +%passage 6 +'A good wizard, Rincewind,' said the Chair of Indefinite Studies. 'Not +particularly bright, but, frankly, I've never been quite happy with +intelligence. An overrated talent, in my humble opinion.' + +Ponder's ears went red. + +[...] + +'Mr Stibbons was right, was he?' said Ridcully, staring at Ponder. 'How +did you work that out so /exactly/, Mr Stibbons?' + +'I, er...' Ponder felt the eyes of the wizards on him. 'I--' He stopped. +'It was a lucky guess, sir.' + +The wizards relaxed. They were extremely uneasy with cleverness, but +lucky guessing was what being a wizard was all about. + + [The Last Hero, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby] +%e passage +# pg. 146 (top) +%passage 7 +Evil Harry looked down and shuffled his feet, his face a battle between +pride and relief. + +'Good of you to say that, lads,' he mumbled. 'I mean, you know, if it +was up to me I wouldn't do this to yer, but I got a reputation to--' + +'I said we /understand/,' said Cohen. 'It's just like with us. You see +a big hairy thing galloping towards you, you don't stop to think: Is +this a rare species on the point of extinction? No, you hack its head +off. 'Cos that's heroing, am I right? An' /you/ see someone, you +betray 'em, quick as a wink. 'Cos that's villaining.' + + [The Last Hero, written by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby] %e passage %e title #