I loved Night Watch, but was disappointed that I wasn’t affected as deeply as some people obviously were by it. It’s exactly the sort of situation that would normally move me to tears, but I didn’t get choked up. I can only assume the fault lies within myself, and some day it will hit me.
I do have to admit that I don’t like Pratchett as much when the parody is strained. Soul Music had many enjoyable elements, but the whole “music wit rocks in” parody was just lumpy. I had the same feeling about the “holy wood” stuff of Moving Pictures. The less obvious the parallels to our world, the better I like it.
Take 'em in order - as I did, being another who started just after The Light Fantastic came out, and has enjoyed seeing the series evolve. Some work better than others but there is no One True reading order that is demonstrably better than just reading them the way they came out.
I agree. I found then very heavy handed. Probably my favorite reads have been the latest ones, Going Postal, Monsterous Regiment… Maybe not as funny as some earlier ones but much better books.
As for order, I would always recommend the order they were written. That goes for any books. I think it is much better to see the authors style evolve rather than jump around. And even in the most stand alone books there are references to earlier events that might at the very least make you miss some jokes.
The latest UK paperback, Making Money, now has numbers beside the list of titles (in publication date) at the front, implying that’s the order to read them in. Making Money is #36 because several YA titles are included in the sequence… (Maurice, Wintersmith, Last Hero etc.)
If that’s what you’ve decided to do. I am rooting for you to get through the first two - to the good stuff.
re: Nightwatch. It was Nightwatch that established the Watch as my absolute favourite series of Discworld books, and Sam Vimes as my favourite character (desipte my Doper Name)
Well, just a few more pages of The Color of Magic and I’m half way there already
I’m not shy, if I think The Light Fantastic is a stinker I have no problem dropping it and moving on to the next. I’m sure Pratchett will get over the pain of it somehow.
But thanks for the rooting. Good to know I have someone in my corner.
But, I’ve got to ask. Why does most everyone dislike these early books so much? I’m not going to say every word of The Color of Magic was wonderful, it absolutely has its dragging parts (can you say Wyrmberg), but on the whole I really enjoyed it. Is it just in comparison to the wonderful that is to follow? I mean, those of you who have been reading since the beginning must have enjoyed it enough to keep reading the series.
In fairness to the first book (and to ‘Strata’ which is a sort of prequel to discworld) I first read a recent book, and then got the first ones. And having read recent Pratchett the difference was quite shocking to me - as if someone else had written them.
I don’t have a lot to add. All Pratchett fans agree that some of the books are better than others, and some are…not so good. Each fan, however, has a different list of the best and the worst. So, if one or two are not to your taste, try another one.
He wouldn’t have been given a chance to continue writing if his first books didn’t sell well. And it was reading an excerpt from Colour of Magic that made me laugh out loud that convinced me to read him. Though in comparison to later books they’re very different, I don’t think they contain bad writing at all.
Let’s start our own club GuanoLad. I found Nightwatch to be trite and didn’t like how it attempted to depict as universal truth of the human condition a very narrow and limited view held by English people of the last fifty years (“All people” this and “everyone” that - the world isn’t comprised of 20th century English people Pterry!). Pratchett does that a lot and it annoys the hell out of me.
) do.
