Discworld

[Jack_Karverboy]

I wanna read them but could someone tell me which ones I should start off with? I did a search but I didnt find much that answered my question. Thanks.

 

[rosseh]

Your best bet is to probably start off with the first. But it's not strictly a must, the first Discworld book I read was Mort.

I'd suggest going The Colour of Magic -> The Light Fantastic and then taking it from there.

They are all extremely good, and funny books and I'm sure you'll get a good few recommendations in this thread.

 

[Direwolf]

The first one or two (mentioned above) are a little rougher and were obviously conceived as a series of seperate stories all put together in one book, so don't take them as totally representative as all of them.

Really though, you can start just about anywhere. If you want to read a new one I'd suggest "Going Postal", since it deals with new characters and a new plot, and you don't need to know anything else. "Guards! Guards!" is the start of the Watch series, which is my favorite by far.

 

[Vegeta897]

I've had one of those books on my shelf for a while, is it really a good read?

 

[Direwolf]

Yes. Yes. and Yes.

 

[Sainku]

I started with Guards! Guards! The watch series is my favorite as well. But you might as well start with the first if you plan to read them all.

 

[Laivasse]

Here's a post I made in another thread about Discworld a while back.

Generally, some good ones to read are the one-off books, like Going Postal, Small Gods, Pyramids, etc., or the beginning of each series, eg. Guards, Guards! (City Watch series), Mort (Death series), and so on. But if you're really pushed, you can pretty much start anywhere.

 

[Murray]

I wish I had time to read through all of them Discworld books sometime. I really like Terry Prattchet's humor.

 

[Jintor]

All of them are brilliant, but try not the read anything other than the first in a seiries or you'll get fcking confused. Stand-alone books are fine. Most books do stand by themselves, even if they are part of a seiries, but you'll understand them much better if you read from the beginning.

I, for instance, started with Intresting Times back in 2001, and was confused as hell. Then I read Reaper Man, which was also confusing as hell. Then I just started reading them all, and everything clicked into place. PTerry is god's gift to people who are too impatient to wait for the next Harry Potter. And people who don't want to deal with all those crazy Potterfans. Whatever they're called.

 

[ríomhaire]

The Witches ones are good. As are the Watch ones. Granny Weatherwax, Vimes and Veternari FTW!

 

[Sulkdodds]

Start at the beginning, says I. They decline in quality as the whole thing goes on anyway (in my opinion ).

 

[Direwolf]

Start at the beginning, says I. They decline in quality as the whole thing goes on anyway (in my opinion ).

Now to counter that, I've thought the opposite. I enjoy the continued complexity and interactions between the different series and characters.

 

[Laivasse]

Start at the beginning, says I. They decline in quality as the whole thing goes on anyway (in my opinion ).

I'd agree with that more or less, but I'd say that he got into his stride for a long while after finding his feet with The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, and that many of the best books are in the early/very middle. Many of the recent ones, though, don't do all that much for me. I think it was in The Truth that Pratchett shamelessly ripped off the awesome bad guys from Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere (Mr. Croup and Mr. Vandemar became Mr. Brick and Mr. Tulip, or something, in Discworld), and it struck me then that he isn't as inspired as he once was.

Or maybe my tastes have just changed, who knows.

 

[Sulkdodds]

You're probably right. I didn't mean like a steady straight-line decline in quality, but I do think in a general sense they start to get worse and worse after The Last Continent, with the possible exceptions of Thief of Time and maybe Night Watch. The best ones, I agree, are the early-middle ones. Everyone should just read Good Omens.

 

[Septih]

i found the first few quite good, then it flattened off in the middle but the latest ones(night watch and going postal[havn't read THUD yet]) have been quite good!

 

[Laivasse]

You're probably right. I didn't mean like a steady straight-line decline in quality, but I do think in a general sense they start to get worse and worse after The Last Continent, with the possible exceptions of Thief of Time and maybe Night Watch. The best ones, I agree, are the early-middle ones. Everyone should just read Good Omens.

Seconded about Good Omens! Also if you're a Pratchett fan you might just enjoy Neil Gaiman's stuff anyway. Neverwhere was cool.

 

[Direwolf]

And see here, Nightwatch made me weepy. I consider that to be extremely high on my list of his work, if not at the top.

I think the point is that Pratchett offers something for absolutely anyone.

 

[Jack_Karverboy]

I ordered The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, and Mort on Amazon

 

[ríomhaire]

I thought Equal Rites was rather meh.

 

[Dan]

I've only ever seen the movies. Well it was more like a short series of animations. They were pretty cool though. All done in that wonky british style of animation. They used to be on public television.

 

[Septih]

I've only ever seen the movies. Well it was more like a short series of animations. They were pretty cool though. All done in that wonky british style of animation. They used to be on public television.

I loved the Soul Music one, absolutly brilliant

I want the soundtrack, but can't find it

 

[Jintor]

Thud! was very strange. It was enjoyable, but it also fealt really weird reading it. You got a sort of 'sold out!' feeling to it, which was weird, because he hadn't sold out.

It's weird how technology is integrated so fast into the Discworld, now.

 

[clarky003]

Jingo was fun id love to see Pratchet expand the discworld franchise a bit, for starters .. if done properly a number of books would make great movies, and we only got 2 adventure games out of it, both now over 5 years old .

 

[Jintor]

Well, there's always the Discworld MUD. Although it is completely text-based and technically illegal, although apparently it has been brought to the attention of PTerry multiple times and he hasn't done anything.

 

[Boogymanx]

I'm reading Wyrd Sisters atm. I just love the book!

 

[knut]

I went from the start, but you can jump it at any place really. I think. I'd recommend the Watch series, but I love any of the ones to do with Rincewind. For stand alone books, go for Small Gods. At first, the start of the book put me off a bit because it was all about temples and religions and it seemed to drag off on one, but then I read the whole thing and coorrr, what a book.

I can't wait for the Hogfather film/feature/thing at the end of this year. Going to be great.

 

[Laivasse]

I think I started with Pyramids (another standalone) and then went through the Witches series, and those all really got me into the 'feel' of DW. Then I went back and read them all in any old order, but it probably would have been best if I had started with the first books in each series.

 

[Jack_Karverboy]

Well, they got here...I'm off to read The Color of Magic!

:burp:

 

[kupocake]

I started with Interesting Times and pretty much randomly read around. Colour of Magic was one of the last ones I read before I got bored of them in fact.