Well, Carpe Jugulum has some vaguely similar ideas, but without the rest of the Witches sub-series you would lose most of the impact.
norinew - Good Omens is a must read. You will be howling with laughter within a page. 'Tis a pity they will never make a movie of it.
It wasn’t a dark and stormy night. It should have been, but there’s the weather for you. For every mad scientist who’s had a convenient thunderstorm just on the night his Great Work is complete and lying on the slab, there have been dozens who’ve sat around aimlessly under the peaceful stars while Igor clocks up the overtime.
If you want the Big Ideas, then you should probably try the Death books. Mort was the first of those, and contains some important background for the others, but Reaper Man or Hogfather are better.
Probably because it’s so early. Equal Rites was only the 3rd Discworld novel. Mort, the 4th book, is often suggested to be the point where the fully fleshed-out Discworld universe appears. The Granny of Equal Rites doesn’t feel all that “Weatherwax-y” to me, whereas her character as drawn in Wyrd Sisters (6th novel) has remained pretty consistent since.
It’s a pity it’s not easily predictable… like being able to simply assume that all odd-numbered Star Trek movies will be rubbish. And like MHaye I too wondered if the quality of Unseen Academicals had been affected by his illness.
You haven’t read Good Omens, norinew?! :eek: Stop whatever it is that you are doing and run, do not walk, run to your nearest bookshop!
OK, perhaps an overstatement, but Good Omens is one of my favourite books… and I’ve very pleased to have a copy autographed by Pterry in which he noted: “We made the devil do it”. (One of these days it would be nice to get Gaiman’s moniker on there too).
Thank you for telling me; now I have to go reread it again <like I need a reason>
ETA: and…cue Fat Bottomed Girls to be in my head all evening, now. >.<
“Snuff” is due out in October. Try to stretch things until then. Maybe you should get a few of the Diary/Yearbooks or Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook to tide you over.
Hogfather
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
Nation
Of the three, Hogfather is closest to Small Gods, but it’s about the fourth or fifth in the Death line of novels, so there’s some backstory you’ll be missing if you skip straight to it. Without giving away any of the plot, it’s basically an atheist’s defense of the importance of faith in human civilization. Maurice is a stand-alone novel, and is more-or-less Watership Down on Discworld. It concerns the foundations of civilization, the development of a system of ethics, and the interplay between the two. Nation is a non-Discworld novel, also a stand alone, although thematically very close to Maurice - essentially reworking the ideas to a less macro level. The foundation of a state, as opposed to the foundation of a culture, essentially.
Not coincidentally, they’re also three of my favorite Pratchett novels.
Carpe Jugulum struck me as a sort of counterpoint to Small Gods. SG is “Intolerance is bad. People should get along and respect other people’s viewpoint.” CJ is, “Well, yeah, but saying ‘everything is just as good as everything else, so let’s all agree to disagree’ is often just plain apathy/wishy-washiness in disguise.”
For the sort of people who like Small Gods and not the silly stuff… there’s the A plot of Reaper Man. That’s heavy-duty deep and philosphical. The B plot, however, is a very silly one that involves a support group for the undead. So you should know that going in.
Thief of Time is VERY good, but I hesistate to reccommend it to new-comers. I think you really have to be familiar with the backstories of DEATH and Susan to properly appreciate it, and not waste your attention on going “Huh? Death has a granddaughter?” I suppose Reaper Man could work as an introduction to Death’s character, but you’d probably want a quick summery of Susan’s story before tackling ToT.
My first contact with Pterry was at a SF/Fantasy literature fair: I got assigned to the seat at his left for meals on account of being the only “general public” member who had understood his opening speech when the microphones didn’t work. I liked him and used what was left of my meager budget for the year to buy Guards! Guards!.. and as has been seen before, I remember tiny details of it very well 20 years later (ok, yes, I have reread it - many times).
Good Omens introduced me to Gaiman, for which I’m also extremely grateful to the bearded, behatted gentleman who liked Spanish “jorkata”.
Thud! is very much not a good starting point, but God… it has a scene which puts something in my eye every time. Ex… ex… cus… bwaaaaaaaaaaaaah! blows nose on hanky, wipes eyes on sleeve and continues reading I think it’s the only book which does that, without fail, of all the thousands I’ve read and re-read.
Equal Rites and Monstrous Regiment are the ones I recommend to rabid feminists. I always wonder what would Bruno Bettleheim think about Witches Abroad - his books were recommended to me in that same meeting, because my defense of “old” fairy tales vs disneyfied/PC ones matched his own theories. No, BB is not a novelist: he was a psychologist who considered fairy tales a great teaching tool.
I totally envy the O.P. knowing that there are all those books, unread in store for you.
I have read and reread every D.W. book again and again.
My favourites are the Guards novels, Maurice, the Moist books and the Truth.
My least favourite (though still excellent) are the Achings,Monstrous Regiment,Rincewind and Witches.
To be fair though I’m not the target audience for the Achings.
To wrap your head around The Colour of Magic, you first have to realize it’s not a novel. It’s actually a collection of four separate stories. They just happen to be about the same characters, and arranged in chronological order.
To get the jokes, you have to be familiar with Fritz Leiber and Anne McCaffrey (and possibly H.P. Lovecraft and Robert E. Howard as well).
When my son was younger he loved Where’s My Cow? (Which is kinda- sorta- the story from inside *Thud *with certain meta- elements… perhaps best read rather than explained).
Odd questions. Football… that the game with the round ball, or the one with the sticks? No, wait… it’s the one with wickets right? (Growing up in sport mad NZ and generally loathing sport is not the best way to fit in socially I’ve found).
But, fan of Tolkien & Middle-Earth… first read The Hobbit as a wee lad and have enjoyed LoTR and The Silmarillion… not sure I see the connection MrDibble.
Unseen Academicals just seemed (IMHO) to plod along without much… zing… I’ll go back an re-read it in a while… it might be one of the Pratchetts that I enjoy more the second time around (which was true of a couple of others).
I’ve read Unseen Academicals twice. It’s really not very good. If nothing else, it’s completely and shockingly out of character for both the wizards and Vetinari. It’s forced. It’s in my collection, and it will stay there, in honor of Pratchett’s history, but I seriously doubt I will ever read it again.
And like MHaye I too wondered if the quality of Unseen Academicals had been affected by his illness. 
(Growing up in sport mad NZ and generally loathing sport is not the best way to fit in socially I’ve found).