Preview

Prime logo Prime members: New to Audible?
Get 2 free audiobooks during trial.
Pick 1 audiobook a month from our unmatched collection.
Listen all you want to thousands of included audiobooks, Originals, and podcasts.
Access exclusive sales and deals.
Premium Plus auto-renews for $14.95/mo after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

A Blink of the Screen

By: Terry Pratchett, A. S. Byatt - introduction
Narrated by: Michael Fenton-Stevens, Stephen Briggs
Try for $0.00

$14.95/month after 30 days. Cancel anytime.

Buy for $15.32

Buy for $15.32

Pay using card ending in
By confirming your purchase, you agree to Audible's Conditions of Use and Amazon's Privacy Notice. Taxes where applicable.

Publisher's 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
activate_Holiday_promo_in_buybox_DT_T2

What listeners say about A Blink of the Screen

Average customer ratings
Overall
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    40
  • 4 Stars
    9
  • 3 Stars
    4
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Performance
  • 5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    41
  • 4 Stars
    4
  • 3 Stars
    3
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0
Story
  • 4.5 out of 5 stars
  • 5 Stars
    29
  • 4 Stars
    14
  • 3 Stars
    5
  • 2 Stars
    0
  • 1 Stars
    0

Reviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.

Sort by:
Filter by:
  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

For the collector who can't bear a hole...

I have most of the titles in various anthologies but there were a couple of holes this book filled. It is fantastic to have them all together and so well narrated.
From the first published story he wrote at 13, to the Drabble, to the story that fits into the Long Earth and various other favourites, this shows the skill and inventiveness of this marvellously talented author.
(The author notes with some of the stories are useful to understand the chronolgy of time and the progress of his prowess.)
I am so pleased to have stumbled over this quite be accident while searching for 'Nation'. Well done Audible.

Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    3 out of 5 stars

Expected a bit more

More or less two-thirds of the book consists out of loose short fiction stories Terry Pratchett wrote over the span of decades. A third of the stories takes place in the well-known Discworld milieu. While there were one or two really good stories in the first two-thirds of the book, including his very first published story that he wrote age 13, I didn't warm up to most of them. While Michael Fenton-Stevens did a wonderful job in reading these stories, content-wise it felt a bit mediocre. Don't get me wrong, Pratchett plays with brilliant ideas, yet it is not his best writing.

I enjoyed most of the Discworld short stories, that said I am positively prejudiced towards those. Stephen Briggs was his own brilliant self in bringing these stories to life.

If you need something relaxing and which is good for a chuckle and occasional laugh, I would recommend "A Blink on the Screen." However, don't expect a masterpiece. On the other hand, Pratchett is Pratchett and worth listening to.


Something went wrong. Please try again in a few minutes.

You voted on this review!

You reported this review!

1 person found this helpful