Terry Pratchett's Discworld

[TheOkapi]

Originally Posted by Ham n Cheese

I have the color of magic and the night watch now. Any relation?

Same world, same setting, but I think there's a time gap between the two.

[Nebuchadnezzar]

Color of Magic is the first book, its more zany and out there than any of his other stuff.

[Ham n Cheese]

Originally Posted by TheOkapi

Same world, same setting, but I think there's a time gap between the two.

I've read several times on the forums you can read them in any order. I'm just really cautious in doing so. I guess I just needed to hear it was okay again.

[TheOkapi]

oh yeah, you don't need to read those in any order really, but I made a personal decision a long time ago to only read Discworld in release order. There are a few books that cover the same people after those two you mentioned, but those two are the first that use them, iirc.

[Azrayne]

I wouldn't worry about reading in release order so much as I would make a point of reading each storyline/group of characters in order (nights watch, witches, rincewind, etc)

You can get away with just picking at random if you want, but things will probably make a little more sense and you'll be able to get a bit more out of it that way. There are plenty of reading guides out there that layout the order for each plotline/character.

[Sharmai]

Reading them in order was A LOT more enjoyable for me. He has a habit of refrencing past events and/or characters a lot in his books. As you get farther into the series he talks less about Rincewind and more about the witches (Tiffany Aching for example) and other characters like the Wii Mac Feeagle (spelling?) which are an absolute riot and I would love to read a series of books just about them.. Fucking awesome. Basically smurfs who believe they are already dead and have to fight their way back and nothing they do (like drinking or eating or stealing) is bad in this paradise.

I would love a few series on Cohen the Barbarian haha he is just great. I love the "rules" of being a hero they came up with. Also Death is fantastic. I just love so much about this series I think I might have to go read it again.


1 The Colour of Magic
2 The Light Fantastic
3 Equal Rites
4 Mort
5 Sourcery
6 Wyrd Sisters
7 Pyramids 1
8 Guards! Guards!
9 Faust Eric
10 Moving Pictures
11 Reaper Man
12 Witches Abroad
13 Small Gods
14 Lords and Ladies
15 Men at Arms
16 Soul Music
17 Interesting Times
18 Maskerade
19 Feet of Clay
20 Hogfather
21 Jingo
22 The Last Continent
23 Carpe Jugulum
25 The Truth
26 Thief of Time
27 The Last Hero
28 The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
29 Night Watch
30 The Wee Free Men
31 Monstrous Regiment
32 A Hat Full of Sky
33 Going Postal
34 Thud!
35 Wintersmith
36 Making Money

[Grimmlokk]

Originally Posted by Chrisb3

The series started as a modern fantasy kinda thing and now it seems very victorian to me, with sherlock homles and frankenstein type stories. I want fantasy back dammit!

I agree with this a bit, but the books are still great. And the Moist von Lipwig books are actually pretty good. I love that he interacts with Vetinari a lot. One of my favorite ancilliary characters along with Cohen and CMOT.

[Wash]

I think I'm the only person on the planet that doesn't like Discworld. The one I read was The Color of Magic. Some of the humor was good and unexpected (Like how the guy says "!", thought that was great), but a lot of the jokes were telegraphed, or you could tell he was trying to be funny. When it comes to goofy humor I like the Douglas Adams flavor best: he'll just say weird shit with no warning and it's hilarious. Like The Simpsons.

The other thing that really pissed me off was the ending. Spoiler even though you've probably all read it:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

There is no ending. It's a cliffhanger (literally). That just annoyed the shit out of me. After paying 12.95 for the book, I wasn't about to go pay 12.95 for another just to find out what happened to them. And save the comparisons to the Lord of the Rings cliffhanger at the end of The Fellowship: Pratchett ain't Tolkien, and nowadays, everyone knows it's a trilogy anyway.

[Sharmai]

Ending? what ending? Theres and ending? I mean every book "ends" its own story and other stories reuse the same characters but i dont know what else you mean about ending...

[Kiely]

Uh, to my knowledge he has only done this in this one book(ok Sorcery/Eric a bit), it was his first so he probably didn't create the 2nd one yet. But it wasn't a bad thing anyway, the 2 books are both individually worth it so you aren't wasting money "just to see what happens next".

But in those books he tried to jam in alot of the Discworld flavours, mix it about and put a big adventure around it. It's great in its own way but the rest of the series has alot more of their own niché and they are more entertaining.

[Wash]

Originally Posted by Sharmai

Ending? what ending? Theres and ending? I mean every book "ends" its own story and other stories reuse the same characters but i dont know what else you mean about ending...

Ending as in some conclusion to the plot of the book. Color of Magic ends with

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

the characters flying off of a cliff. A literal cliffhanger.

If it was a TV show, it would have said "tune in next week for the exciting conclusion" at the end.

[Chrisb3]

Reading them out of order will ruin a few twists and the sense of watching the characters grow, mostly with the City Watch and Death series. The other books generally start and end the same.
Also buy Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic together as they follow on from each other.

[Azrayne]

Originally Posted by Wash

I think I'm the only person on the planet that doesn't like Discworld. The one I read was The Color of Magic. Some of the humor was good and unexpected (Like how the guy says "!", thought that was great), but a lot of the jokes were telegraphed, or you could tell he was trying to be funny. When it comes to goofy humor I like the Douglas Adams flavor best: he'll just say weird shit with no warning and it's hilarious. Like The Simpsons.

The other thing that really pissed me off was the ending. Spoiler even though you've probably all read it:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

There is no ending. It's a cliffhanger (literally). That just annoyed the shit out of me. After paying 12.95 for the book, I wasn't about to go pay 12.95 for another just to find out what happened to them. And save the comparisons to the Lord of the Rings cliffhanger at the end of The Fellowship: Pratchett ain't Tolkien, and nowadays, everyone knows it's a trilogy anyway.

Colors of Magic is by far the worst book in the series, and not really reflective of the latter books. I don't think it's really until Mort (#4) or so that he really settles into his style and setting.

He does have the occasional book here and there that isn't up to par. I had to force myself to finish Monstrous Regiment, for example.

[Burf]

Mort and Thief of Time are my two favorites.

As I mentioned in another thread, I'd say I really like 40% of his books, another 40% are just good and 20% I couldn't get in to. His writing style does not suit everyone, and some of the books are just...I dunno, boring? Not sure if that's the right word.

Mort and ToT were great, though.

[Waedar]

so question to you who have read and know the series:

years ago i picked up a random discworld book and i can't remember the name of it. All i can remember was there was this band of old warriors and one of them mentions how he had to eat a man once (and it wasn't bad with mustard). i know its not a lot to go on but if anyone knows that or remembers it I'd really appreciate it.

on topic of the thread the discworld fable/ the last hero is a great book and great for confusing little kids if you have to read them a story