I don’t hate any of the DiscWorld novels, but for some reason I just don’t like storylines involving the Wizards. Every other segment of the universe suits me just fine: werewolves, golem, Igors, DEATH, witches…but for whatever reason, chapters involving Wizards bore me into reading ahead. I don’t know why.
Incorrect, very Incorrect.
No, you’re misremembering.
The visitor went on, "My name is Twoflower,’ and extended his
hand. Instinctively, the other three looked down to see if there was a coin in it.
‘Pleased to meet you,’ said Rincewind. "i’m Rincewind. Look, I wasn’t joking. This is a tough place.’
That was it. No indication that he was impressed by meeting Rincewind, or that he had heard of him.
Extremely incorrect.
I tried to read The Colour of Magic at least 2 times, I still hate it. I’ve read the rest of the series and I love it.
I acknowledge that the two of you seem not to have liked it as some as the others, but (my opinion) it still reflects the style and humour of the author. Do you hate, say, The Unadulterated Cat?
I loved loved loved The Unadulterated Cat, five stars in Goodreads.
The Colour of Magic doesn’t read, for me , like The Unadulterated Cat.
The biggest part is Rincewind IMHO, one of the more detestable characters in literature, a cowardly idiot with little in the way of redeeming features, if there were other characters like him in Discworld I would’ve not read the rest of the books.
Good old Rincewind! I see you know him well 
I assume Pratchett was making fun of mythical fantasy heroes.
I can’t stomach that sort of character, Rincewind, Flashman, Jalan Kendeth (of the Red Queen’s War series by Mark Lawrence) all make me question why the heck I’m wasting my time reading about people like that.
I think it’s wrong to call him a cowardly idiot. He’s a lot more complex than that. Yes, he’s scared all the time and runs away from people threatening him. But if someone threatens his friends, then he becomes brave and resourceful.
There’s a scene in The Last Hero:
(at least, I think it was Vetinari, and that’s from memory, so I might have the wording a bit off, but that was the gist of it)
When the chips are down, count on Rincewind to step up with a half-brick in a sock. Is he my favorite character on the Disk? Not by a long shot. But he is far from the worst. Besides, where you have Rincewind you also have The Luggage! And Cohen/Silver Horde. Granted, the first two books aren’t great. But Interesting Times is. So is The Last Hero.
The wizard known as Rincewind lurched into the room, white-faced, and stopped in front of the table.
“I do not wish to volunteer for this mission,” he said.
“I beg your pardon?” said Lord Vetinari.
“I do not wish to volunteer, sir.”
“No one was asking you to.”
Rincewind wagged a weary finger. “Oh, but they will, sir, they will. Someone will say: hey, that Rincewind fella, he’s the adventurous sort, he knows the Horde, Cohen seems to like him, he knows all there is to know about cruel and unusual geography, he’d be just the job for something like this.” He sighed. “And then I’ll run away, and probably hide in a crate somewhere that’ll be loaded on to the flying machine in any case.”
“Will you?”
“Probably, sir. Or there’ll be a whole string of accidents that end up causing the same thing. Trust me, sir. I know how my life works. So I thought I’d better cut through the whole tedious business and come along and tell you I don’t wish to volunteer.”
“I think you’ve left out a logical step somewhere,” said the Patrician.
“No, sir. It’s very simple. I’m volunteering. I just don’t wish to. But, after all, when did that ever have anything to do with anything?”
That’s not courage, it’s surrendering to the inevitable, I’d have more respect for him if he at least tried to avoid his fate.
It tells volumes that all his friends and loved ones (if he even has those) are in peril and he only volunteers because he knows that there is no escaping it.
A truly despicable person.
And that, boys and girls, is how religious wars get started.
anoia vult!
Just push the drawer back in and jiggle it a bit.
That’s Terry saying “the fans want more Rincewind yet I don’t want to write him - but here’s the thing, I know I will.”
I get the dislike of Colour of Magic. Pratchett was a deeply compassionate author, and one of the great humanists of the fantasy genre, and this isn’t really evident in his earliest books.
I learned about the Discworld books when a friend was reading chapters aloud at night, ostensibly to her children, but quite as much for herself and for me. I took my turn reading and loved The Fifth Elephant.
If it hadn’t been for that chance introduction to Pratchett, I probably would not have read further than The Colour of Magic or The Light Fantastic. In fact I nearly didn’t. It seemed to me that Pratchett spent too much time being self-consciously witty, and the “humorous” footnotes drove me crazy.
But, remembering how much I liked my first taste of Pratchett, I persevered. I don’t know what I read next, probably Guards! Guards! It’s one of the books that would be a great introduction to the series, even if it isn’t one of the first written. Going Postal is another good introduction. I read that one to my own kids as a bedtime story, and for years they would gravitate toward any black horse on a merry-go-round and call it Boris. (Yes, someone should probably call Family Services on me.)
I can even appreciate Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic now as re-reads, because I have the whole context of Discworld in which for them to fit.
From my memory The colour of magic and Light Fantastic were the introductions to the world, and Ankh-Morpork was much more a deep and dank character in these novels, which didn’t really feature as much in later ones. Taking it as a Rincewind novel per-se, well, I never did. He was in it, kind of the lead but too cowardly to really be that. It got us the librarian, an ancient Conan type, The Luggage, Twoflower, The Unseen University (a better version of the Books of Magic/Harry Potter stying created later), the city, Vetenari, and, well, how much more do you want from a first novel? Some people struggling with this relatively short and not too complicated debut seem to much more sensitive to reading a short comedy book than me, and I’m not a big reader. I do find it weird that you’ll only want to read about the city watch and that’s all you want to read about, I guess some people start with the second Terminator or Batman movie.
Perhaps the question should have been “I only want to read four or five discworld novels, which ones should I choose”. Because I was talking the series. The lot. All the characters. The places. But that’s wrong to a few people in here, and frankly until this thread, I didn’t realise these people existed and were so angry about it….