Terry Pratchett's Discworld

[Guybrush]

Anyoung haseyo, Guest.

Me and Terry Pratchett go back a while, although I was a little late in my discovery. I started reading him around the turn of the century and would rent his books from either the school library or the one in town. If they didn't have them in, I'd order them and while I waited for them to arrive, I would read Harry Potter instead which were of course popular at the time. Now, I like Harry Potter just fine, but reading Rowling next to Pratchett is like comparing a swing to a rollercoaster. Or maybe watching SNL next to Monty Python's flying circus. Pratchett is just fun and engaging in a way that Rowling and by far most other authors are not.

I've read all of his Discworld books at least twice. Some of them I've read over and over, especially his series about the Ankh Morpork City Watch which eventually takes you to his finest book, I think, which is Night Watch.

Have you read any Discworld? Which books are your favourites?

For newcomers who want to read Discworld, but are unsure of where to start, there is a handy reading guide you can follow. I often recommend Going Postal as a good starting point.

[Trollheart]

Oh I was there at the start. Saw the cover of The Colour of Magic, read the blurb which said "Jerome K. Jerome meets The Lord of the Rings" and I was hooked. Bought each one religiously as they came out, though I must admit that around the time of I think The Fifth Elephant I lost interest. I remember there was one about a newspaper I think - introduced the Klacks, which I think was meant to be fax, but never quite got it - and was quite disappointed. Something about money was it? Let's see... maybe Going Postal? Think that was it. I'd never been bored by Pratchett before, but that one bored me. After that I never really got any of the new ones, though looking I see he didn't manage to write many more before his untimely death.

Like most, I reckon my favourite would have to be Mort (after all, WHO DOES NOT LOVE DEATH?) and I also love Hogfather, Men at Arms, Soul Music, Small Gods, Guards! Guards! and many others. A sad loss to the world of comic fantasy, and from all accounts, a really nice guy too.

[Guybrush]

The fifth elephant (where Sam Vines and his entourage is sent on a diplomatic mission to Uberwald) is a great book to my mind I've read it many times.

The klacks is a system similar to our world's semaphore towers. They operate with mechanical shutters and they are manually operated. The towers are raised in a visually connected line and someone can watch messages come from the downstream tower and pass them on to the operator who sends them up the "trunk".

It's technology capable of sending information quickly over large distances that we had and which is largely forgotten which is fascinating, although I doubt that infrastructure was ever expanded and utilized the way it is in Discworld.

For me, he starts to lose steam sometime after Going Postal (I consider it his last truly great book), but that's quite late in his authorship and I definitely believe the waning quality from there on has a lot to do with his alzheimer.

Of his somewhat earlier books, I think Reaper Man might be another favorite. Of the ones you mention, perhaps Hogfather or Men At Arms are the ones I like the most.

Outside of Discworld, I was very happy with the way the Good Omens TV adaptation turned out. It's co-authored by the lovely Neil Gaiman, but let's face it.. it reads like a Pratchett novel (featuring Gaiman themes). Very much looking forward to season 2 

[Toy Revolver]

Anyoung haseyo

Anyang hashimnika sun sang nim

Have you read any Discworld? Which books are your favourites?

i think i've read two but the only name i remember is Hogfather

it's far too small of a sample to form an opinion of the series but i remember Hogfather was a fun read with some acute social commentary

if i only read one more which should it be?

reading Rowling next to Pratchett is like comparing a swing to a rollercoaster

i read the first potter book and found it so completely uninteresting that I started reading on autopilot and didn't even follow the plot - others like it, that's fine but i found it bad to the point of being impossible to engage with - entirely without any merit not even in the spirit of the most forgiving pop culture appreciation

[Guybrush]

I also don't think Harry Potter is well written. I like the world she created, but don't care much for the way she writes.

if i only read one more which should it be?

I would say Going Postal. It's a lot of fun and starts off with a new character in a well established world, so I think it serves well as an intro to later setting Discworld.

If you want more info on the backdrop beforehand, you could just check out Ankh-Morpork on Wikipedia.

Of course Discworld is made up of several smaller series and the best one, I think, is The Watch Series.

It starts with Guards! Guards! which is one of the weaker titles in that series (imo), but you then get Men At Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, The Night Watch and on which are some of his best reads.

The Witches series is also good, though again the first one (Equal Rites) is one of the weaker Discworld titles. If going for the Witches, I might actually recommend to just skip that one and go straight for Wyrd Sisters.

Other than that, I'll defer to this again https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/12/Discworld_Reading_Order_Guide_3.0_%28cropped%29.jpg

[Janszoon]

I've read 15-ish Discworld books I think. I was going strong until a couple years ago when I fell off for whatever reason. My favorites out of the ones I read are probably Men at Arms, Jingo, and Going Postal.

[Toy Revolver]

i'll read Going Postal then

could take a long time to get to it

[Trollheart]

I'll vote for Mort every time. It's when we first meet Death. How can you not read that one? Isn't that the one where Death is working as a short-order cook? BACON EGGS AND SAUSAGE FOR TABLE THREE. Class!

[Guybrush]

Mort makes sense as a starting point, but how about Reaper Man? The one about Death quitting his job and all the consequences that follow. You get a lot of Unseen University faculty shenanigans which are always fun and the story about Windle Poons and the undead (Undead? Yes! Unperson? No!) is also pretty funny. Kinda works as a one-off!

Also, I really like Good Omens. Even though it's not Discworld, it's a lot of fun.

[Lexi Darling]

The Good Omens TV show is actually the only Pratchett work I'm familiar with, but I really loved the first season, I marathoned it with my sister and had a blast.

[Trollheart]

Okay, my mistake. But if you want to understand Death, then I think Mort/Reaper Man/Hogfather kind of become essential, as do the Witches ones - Sourcery/Equal Rites/Witches Abroad/Wyrd Sisters.

[Guybrush]

^The order looks potentially a little weird for the witch novels?

I'm rereading Reaper Man now after writing my previous post put the want into my brain. It's so much fun!

[Romeo_Void]

i'll read Going Postal then

could take a long time to get to it

this was a good book