Terry Pratchett died at age 66

[Icamenal]

Renowned British novelist Sir Terry Pratchett passed away today in his home at the age of 66.

The news was broadcast this morning via his Twitter account and his personal website, which is currently offline due to heavy traffic.

A representative of Pratchett's publisher, Transworld, confirmed the news with the BBC and noted that Pratchett died "with his cat sleeping on his bed, surrounded by his family."

The prolific author was best known for his Discworld series of comedic fantasy novels, which inspired the development of adventure games like Discworld and Discworld II: Reality Bites.

Pratchett is credited on multiple Discworld games, though it's unclear how deeply involved he was in their development.*

He is survived by his wife, Lyn Purves, and his daughter Rihanna Pratchett, an accomplished writer and narrative designer who has contributed to the development of Heavenly Sword, Overlord, Tomb Raider and many other games.
He had a rare form of early onset Alzheimer's disease. A while back, he suffered from a stroke, which is how the doctors found out. He was campaigning for assisted suicide, because he wanted to go "in his own time". Everyone says that he died of natural causes, though.

*He also made cameo appearances in the Sky9 renditions of his books.

[Dr Frook]

never was into his books, but my friends were... sad day... not a good way to die either... esp for the family...