Reviewed by Steven H Silver

Back in December 1999, I reviewed The Discworld Assassins' Guild Yearbook and Diary 2000 by asking "How does one go about reviewing a calendar?" As with that calendar, the Terry Pratchett's Discworld Collector's Edition 2005 Calendar is a complete work with 365 days listed. All the dates are in sequential order and assigned appropriate days of the week. None appear to be missing. Several holidays are mentioned in the pages of the calendar. The division of pages into one month apiece allows for a quick glance to plan for the next few weeks.

There is a large white border on both sides of the calendar and the space at the top of each page gives the user the feel that the date squares could have easily been made larger, as well, perhaps, as the print used to designate holidays. In general, the date squares are of an adequate size to make brief notes about events or appointments.

Discworld holidays appear in a purple lettering which is just different enough from the more traditional black to set them apart. The more traditional holidays are a broad mix of holidays from around the world, many of which may be unfamiliar to some of the calendar's users, but since they are mixed in with such well known Discworld holidays as "Chase Whiskers Day" and "Wizards' Excuse Me." At the same time, the Jewish Hanukah seems to have been inexplicably left off from the calendar even as other Jewish holidays are listed (it starts on December 25) Each page of the calendar contains a full color painting by a different artist, expanding far beyond the traditional Discworld artists Paul Kidby (who is represented) and the late Josh Kirby (who is not).

Several of the paintings illustrate scenes from recent Discworld novels, such as Jon Sullivan's depiction of Tiffany (from A Hat Full of Sky) or Paul Kidby's rendition of the team from Going Postal. Other paintings are of more general Discworld scenes: Stuart Williams images of Leonard of Quirm and the Patrician, Les Edwards's take on Commander Vimes, of David Wyatt's view of the God of Evolution working on the MK1 Elephant.

The range of paintings brings Discworld to life beyond the, perhaps, most familiar view of Josh Kirby, often in styles which are more "realistic" than those used by Kirby.

The calendar opens with pictures, either photos or painted, of each of the contributing artists and Pratchett, himself. Rather than standing in a vacuum, these pictures are accompanied by brief biographies of the artists and, in most cases, links to their websites.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld Collector's Edition 2005 Calendar is a nice wall calendar with functionality as well as format. The paintings are pleasant to look at and many of them have enough small detail in them to keep the user's interest throughout the month.

Return to

Reprinted from .