My very first Discworld book was Going Postal. Yeah, I was a latecomer. But I enjoyed GP enough to go back to the beginning, and read The Colour of Magic, and proceed to read through the books in order.
The first ten books were, I thought, well-written light fantasy/comedy. I enjoyed every book for what it was.
And then …
Reaper Man
Wow. That one got me right there. And holy cow, I realized I was reading a real writer.
Is Reaper Man my favorite Discworld book? No. That honor goes to Small Gods. But Reaper Man is the book that hooked me.
I believe it was Pyramids - weird one to start with, as it involves almost no recurring characters. Interesting Times and The Fifth Elephant were also among the first couple I read. My favorite is probably Feet of Clay.
Hogfather. It made me find the Guards books, and the Witches books, and all of the other books, and some websites, and I will find my way into L space some day, and I will cut you if you try to stop me… Um, no, I am not hooked at all. Carry on.
I’d read a couple of the very early Discworld books (Colour of Magic, Sourcery) in the late 80s or early 90s, and wasn’t too impressed.
Then, a few years ago, my running partner, who is a huge Prachett fan, finally got me to read “Guards! Guards!” That did it, and I’ve been reading Discworld since.
I tried to start at the beginning, but Colour of Magic didn’t impress me much, either, kenobi. I thought it seemed like a tamer parody than Bored of the Rings or Doon, tho I did like Cohen the Barbarian.
A few years later I picked up either Going Postal or Making Money, I don’t recall which, and enjoyed it immensely.
The Discworld books have been that way for me, running the gamut from awesome to mediocre to not my cuppa.
I started from the start, in 1987. I was turned onto the series after reading an extract (from Light Fantastic I think) in a gaming magazine, completely fell in love instantly, and bought the first two books as soon as I could. By the time I finished them, a couple of weeks later, the third came out, Equal Rites, so I got that too. Arguably one of the worst of the series, it introduced Granny Weatherwax, and is sort of the primordial version of the Tiffany Aching novels.
I’ve bought the paperback version of every Discworld novel ever since. And am currently reading Raising Steam even as we speak.
I read Colour of Magic first. I liked it, but I didn’t get totally hooked until I read Reaper Man. That and Hogfather are the superior books in the series.
Equal Rites was my first Discworld, just after it came out, and I was hooked from the start. I tracked down *The Colour of Magic *and The Light Fantastic ASAP. Loved them too.
And everyone knows Small Gods and Nightwatch are the best ones
It was actually The Last Hero, after I’d desultorily tried the first couple in the early 80s and been resolutely unimpressed. TLH was more of a novelty than anything, a farewell to Pratchett’s fantasy parody roots as well as a showcase for Paul Kidby’s art, but it had enough storytelling and characterisation to get me interested, and so I began working my way through them. I introduced my wife to them a while back; English isn’t her first language, but she read the last chapter of Guards, Guards four times in a row because she relished how perfectly the “confrontation” between Carrot and the Patrician was written. She’s currently devouring Jingo, my personal favourite, and is all about the Vimes.
I’d already read Mort, The Light Fantastic, and Guards Guards by that point, and was impressed by them all, but I think Wyrd Sisters was the one that gently tipped me into “I must read more of this as soon as possible!” But I could be mis-remembering that.
I read The Colour of magic and The Light Fantastic when they came out, and they were fun fantasy parodies. I then slogged through Equal Rites and bogged down on Mort. (In hindsight I can see what Pterry was aiming for but at the time I was looking for farce, not satire.)
Fast forward several years and I pick up Small Gods at Goodwill. I was a more mature reader and he was a more mature writer, so I was hooked from then on.
Going Postal was the first one I read and then I started from the beginning and tried to take them in order. I don’t know why or how but I skipped Soul Music and I don’t know when I’ll get around to reading it. I kind of like the idea of having a new Discworld book to read but I’ll just have to bite the bullet and read it.
I started from the beginning, and read in order. The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic weren’t anything great, but they were good enough to while away a few evenings on. Equal Rites was better. But Mort made me realize I’d be sticking with the series the whole way through.
I started when The Colour of Magic was the only book available, so I read that first, and I read the book in publication order. I think I got hooked with Equal Rites and became a fanatic with Guards! Guards!
Hogfather. I had read The Color of Magic when it first came out and was unimpressed, so I gave Discworld a pass until one day much later I, being a fool about Christmas and its trappings, checked out Hogfather from the library. I was instantly hooked and went back and read and re-read all the books since.
I’m currently reading the whole series for the first time, in publication order (though not all back to back), so you could say it was the first one that hooked me. I started just before Pratchett died, and am up to Moving Pictures. The only one so far that I wasn’t too keen on was Pyramids, and even then I loved the first part of the book concerning the Assassin’s Guild.
I bet I’m going to be the only person who says “The Last Continent.” A library I retreated to when my daughter took riding lessons had lots of Pratchett books. The first one I read was Strata, which was just okay, but I loved The Last Continent though I had little idea of what was going on. Then I moved to the rest. Not my favorite by far, but good enough to hook me.
