Yeah, he obviously meant he’s getting randy to start.
I started with the Fifth Continent, which plunks you down in the middle of the Rincewind saga. It’s a terrible first book to read, but I loved it anyway. I’d go with Guards, Guards. I think it is stronger than the first witch book, and while Pyramids and Small Gods are good, they aren’t connected as strongly to the rest of the books. Plus. Guards, Guards is the first book in his major thread. Plus it’s good of course.
I actually like the first two books, and all the Rincewind books, but I’m in the minority on that.
Interesting thread. I just read The Color of Magic, after hearing about the series for many years and while I liked it, it wasn’t all I expected after the hype. I think I might try out some of the other titles mentioned here before I go to book 2 or give up on the series entirely.
This has been The Year of Discworld for me. I’m in the process of reading my last book (I read the latest book, “Making Money,” last week, but had to back up to pick up “A Hat Full of Sky.”
Overall, I read them in order, except that I read “Night Watch” and “Small Gods” fairly early on. I’m happy with having done that. True, the first two books are markedly different from the later ones, and Rincewind is generally not considered to be in the same league, as a character, with Sam Vimes or Granny Weatherwax. But you do get to see the Discworld from it’s creation, and it’s interesting to see how Pratchett developed it.
Besides, they’re quick reads, and by the time you get to “Wyrd Sisters,” Pratchett has definitely hit his stride.
About 15 years ago, I asked a clerk in a bookstore in Heathrow for something funny to read on the plane, and she recommended The Colour of Magic. I may have heard of Pratchett at the time, but I didn’t know much about him. I read it, but it wasn’t all that funny and I didn’t enjoy it much. (I wonder now why I even bothered to finish it.)
Here at the Dope I kept hearing about how brilliant and hysterical Pratchett is, and for the first few years I just thought, Well, there’s no accounting for taste. But you Pratchett fans just kept saying how funny he is, and loves me some funny.
So just a few months ago I decided to give CoM another try, but it still didn’t do anything for me, and I put it down after a couple of pages.
Now you tell me!
Okay, so maybe I’ll try one of the others that you folks have recommended. But I’m warning you all right now, if I don’t love it, I’m coming after you! Then you’ll be sorry!
Don’t give it away that your a w. . .
What they all said, start with Guards! Guards!, Wyrd Sisters or Small Gods. And don’t be put off by the goofy covers (like I was) the books are a bit deeper* than they’d make you think.
though I think Terry* denies committing “literature”.
**I’m not doing that silly Pterry thing. . . maybe in a tiny footnote.
Parvenus! Johnny-come-latelys! Why, when I was a lad TCoM and TLF were all we had. And we liked it!
I first encountered these in the mid-to-late 1980s not long after TLF had come out and had a few extracts quoted in White Dwarf, which in those days was an agreeable role-playing hobby magazine and not just an extended catalogue for Warhammer. Pratchett’s come on since then, but even the very first book had snippets like "Let’s just say that if complete and utter chaos was lightning, he’d be standing in a footbath on a hilltop during a thunderstorm wearing wet copper armour and shouting ‘All gods are bastards!’ ", not to mention Death being summoned, asked a few questions, and announcing his intention to return to a cocktail party which he expects will go downhill rapidly at midnight: THAT’S WHEN THEY THINK I’LL BE TAKING MY MASK OFF.
I also started the series fairly recently. I am reading them in publication order. I’m probably one of the few who loved the first two books. Actually, I love them all almost equally - for different reasons. If I had to pick one that I didn’t like as much as the others, it would be Eric. If I had to pick a favorite it would be Moving Pictures. I just finished Reaper Man.
Unfortunately, I can’t afford to buy any new books and the library in my town is shit. So, I can only read them as fast as they come in on Interlibrary loan. It took me 4 weeks to get Reaper Man.
I also got my ex boyfriend reading them. He’s not a big reader. But we were on a long car trip and I started reading The Color of Magic out loud to him. He is now hooked. Sadly, this means that all the books I DID buy are with him in Massachusetts. He is also reading them in order and is up to Pyramids. He’s another one who loves them all so far, including the first two.
Small Gods, maybe. But Hogfather is too far along to make a good starting point. I think you kinda need to have some background with Susan and Death to really get everything out of the book.
The Fifth Continent, and The Last Elephant. Hmm… Are those like Thief of Clay and Feet of Time? :dubious:
grins
I third? fourth? nth? the votes that say start with Guards! Guards! The story arcs are only tangentially connected to each other in that they occur in the same universe - you can switch from one arc to another (and by and large from one book in an arc to another) without losing continuity. They’re not a series in the sense of having a continuous story that you lose out on by skipping books, or reading them in the wrong order. Each book stands by itself. Sure, you might have some small revelations related to previous books, but you won’t miss anything, and you’ll get the aha! so that’s what that was all about! feeling when you re-read.
But I think it would be rather jarring to go from Vimes in Guards! Guards! to Vimes in The Fifth Elephant without the intervening development of the character. Not to mention the progression of Lance Corporal Carrot.
The Rincewind arc is the easiest to take out of order, methinks. **Eric ** is better after Sourcery, but that’s about it. Then the Witches, although Lords and Ladieshas to be read after Witches Abroad, since it occurs immediately thereafter time-wise.
Of course, the stand-alones can fit in anywhere. Moving Pictures, Small Gods, Pyramids, The Truth all fit whenever you read them.
One advantage of reading in chronological order is so that you can track the development of Unseen University politics. There was a time when wizards advanced up the career ladder, especially to the Archchancellor post, by assassination. Then along came Mustrum Ridcully, who proved surprisingly hard to assassinate, and the whole tone changed - the senior faculty still squabble a lot among themselves, but it’s only bickering these days.
I hate reading anything out of order. If you have every intention of reading all of the them I would recommend reading them in order. Even if the plots are one off there are jokes you won’t get if you didn’t read earlier books. To me early Discworld was funnier. Later Discworld is better. I loved Going Postal, Monstorous Regiment, The Tiffany Aching books.
Start at the very beginning, it’s a very good place to start…
…I hear.
That’s what I did, although it would also help if you’ve read and absorbed Leiber, Lovecraft, McCaffrey, Frazier, Howard and Tolkien before attempting CoM & LF. Just saying.
Actually, I started with Strata, but that’s not this Discworld…
Of those, I’ve read Tolkien. (Yes, I realize that I’m actually saying this on the Dope. Please be gentile.)
I got about 10 pages into The Colour of Magic before the power went out. I have to thank those of you who did your best to set my expectations rather low. As a result, it’s better than I thought it would be.
