DiscWorld

In my lifelong quest to continue to do fun things and collect nerd/geek cred, I recently was introduced to Terry Pratchet's fantastical DiscWorld series. It's one of the few fiction works that I've read recently, and I enjoyed its snarky commentary on human nature.

I have found that the fiction works that I do actually enjoy tend to be ones with grand orchestrations behind them. Virtual worlds that have so much background and context that it's like a masterpiece painting. I tend not to enjoy fiction works that are just 'normal.' If it's set in the past, then I think I have trouble allowing for that strange combination of the real and the imaginary. If it's a poor work in an imaginary setting, I tend to feel like I'm missing parts of the world. But stories with a map, with a culture, with a context... those have more promise.

(Narnia, LOTR, star wars, etc.)

I guess, in summary, there's more to a story than the story.