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Thanks for the welcome!

Regarding Discworld, I'm afraid that ship has long since sailed. After reading several books, I decided that the series just isn't my style, and even your description of the series compounds that feeling.

I also discovered the work of Lord Dunsany recently (the woefully overlooked author whom many credit with the origin of the modern fantasy genre, cited as an inspiration to Tolkien, Lovecraft and many others), and his work is full of such pure, sincere beauty that I've never really found anywhere else. The first story of his I read (well, listened to), "The Assignation" was just 200 words long, but that was enough to hook me, and it still moves me no matter how many times I return to it.

In a time when fairy tales are so often reworked and rewritten to the point where their original meaning is completely lost; mocked, parodied or sneered derisively at, or built up into dark, edgy epics, it's comforting that these sort of sincere, true, simple fantasies still exist.

The Assignation is sweet. It reminds me of the old story of a street seller in old Arabia meeting Death on the street, panicking, buying a horse and riding away to Baghdad ... only to meet Death there.

After reading this, I also read "Charon", which was sad and touching. I've read Greek myth for years, and never thought much about Charon. Thanks for sharing.