Terry Pratchett has died, and the world is a little darker for his passing.
It would be hard to overstate the impact that Sir Terry had on me over the years; his writing has been a near constant in my life since I really began reading fantasy. It would have been around 1990 or so that a friend of mine loaned me a copy of Guards! Guards! and from there I was hooked. Not that Discworld novels were easy to find in America at the time. For a few years they were out of print here with only used copies and the like available. Most of my copies of the books before Small Gods! are book club editions I picked up used.
There's one last Discworld novel to be published, the 41st in the series. I have that last bit of Pratchett to look forward to, and then it's over. I'll reread the series, have no doubt of that, but for the first time in 20 years I won't be avidly anticipating the next book. I'll miss that.