title: A Blink of the Screen: Collected Shorter Fiction
author:  Terry Pratchett 
description: &ldquo;A book meant to be cherished.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The New York Times Book Review</i><br><br>&ldquo;Some writers simply possess the Gift. No matter what they bring out. . . . That&rsquo;s certainly the case with Terry Pratchett.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Washington Post Book World</i><br><br>&ldquo;In the history of comic fantasy, Pratchett has no equals for invention or for range.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Wall Street Journal</i><br><i>&#160;</i><br>&ldquo;Clever . . . insightful. . . . [Pratchett&rsquo;s] wry wit is as good as gold.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Boston Globe</i><br><br>&ldquo;Pratchett is one of the great comic writers and storytellers of our time.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Guardian</i><br><br>&ldquo;One of the giants in the world of fantasy literature.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>New York Daily News<br></i><br>&ldquo;You can&rsquo;t call what Pratchett does satire&mdash;it&rsquo;s far too good-natured for that&mdash;but he has a satirist&rsquo;s instinct for the absurd and a cartoonist&rsquo;s eye for the telling detail.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>The Daily Telegraph </i>(London)<br>&#160;<br>&ldquo;A short story collection covering the entire career of one of our most prolific, and beloved, fantasy writers. . . . One of the main draws of&#160;[<i>A Blink of the Screen</i>]&#160;for serious fans, or aspiring writers, will be the chance to trace the evolution of Pratchett&rsquo;s craft&mdash;but there&rsquo;s plenty here for readers who have never heard of him to enjoy.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>Kirkus Reviews</i><br><br>&ldquo;A little absurdism, a little wordplay, a lot of inventive fantasy, a lot of heart, and a deep-seated fascination with the way technologies change societies. . . . Pratchett can easily fill an entire bookcase by himself. . . . But he has kept the piquant sense of someone playing with language, with new worlds, and with the familiar old tropes that he enjoys upending.&rdquo; &mdash;NPR<br><br>&ldquo;What Pratchett does is not just great, but unparalleled. In five hundred years, it won&rsquo;t be the Nobel laureates who are being studied. It&rsquo;s going to be this guy.&rdquo; &mdash;Brandon Sanderson, Tor.com<br>&#160;<br>&ldquo;One of the greatest comic novelists of all time, in his way the equal of Wodehouse and Waugh.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>GQ </i>(UK)<br>&#160;<br>&ldquo;The master of humorous fantasy . . . [Pratchett] should be recognized as one of the more significant contemporary English-language satirists.&rdquo; &mdash;<i>Publishers Weekly</i>
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  # [Copyright](toc.xhtml#toc-copyright)
  
  
  This book is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are
  the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any
  resemblance to actual events, locales, or persons, living or dead, is
  coincidental.
  
  
  Copyright © 2017 by Hachette Book Group
  
  
  Jacket art copyright © Smit/Shutterstock.com; back jacket art ©
  Laboko/Shutterstock.com; jacket snowflakes © Stock Vector
  One/Shutterstock.com.
  
  
  Paperback cover art copyright © Evgeny Karandaev/Shutterstock.com. Cover
  design by Christina Quintero. Photo credits: © Didecs/Shutterstock.com
  (ribbon), © digieye/Shutterstock.com (bow/frame), © Smit/Shutterstock.com
  (background).
  
  
  Cover copyright © 2017 by Hachette Book Group, Inc.
  
  
  Hachette Book Group supports the right to free expression and the value of
  copyright. The purpose of copyright is to encourage writers and artists to
  produ