I enjoyed mort, although it is one of his early books (4th Discworld I think) so it lacked some of his brilliant word-play. (but I still enjoyed it so lay off)
Today I bought Soul Music and Reaper Man, because they are both about Death and having exhausted the Watch books I may as well exhaust the rest. In my general experience Terry’s later books are better than his earlier ones, so I am half expecting these two books to be better.
I thought *Soul Music * was one of the weaker books in the series. But if, after reading it, you agree, you will find that *Reaper Man * more than makes up for it.
FWIW, I really liked Mort.
I could never get into Soul Music but if you can find it look for the illustrated novel that deals with Cpt. Carrot’s adventures as an astronaut/Cohen the Barbarian’s Quest to return the Fire. The detail in the background is fantastic, down to the reverse writing in Leonard’s diary.
That’s ** The Last Hero**. I was able to find a copy at my local Borders
**Mort ** was the book that made me stop reading Pratchett. I enjoyed The **Colour of Magic ** and **The Light Fantastic ** and thought that **Equal Rites ** was fun.
But I lost patience with Mort. It was not as slapstick as I wanted. So I stopped reading any Pratchett.
Fifteen year later, or so, I pick up a copy of The Last Continent since I had favourable memories of Rincewind and I find Australia to be consistently amusing. I have been making up for lost time since then. Both of The Girls like Diskworld (especially the witches stories), but I still cannot get The Wife to read it.
Anyway, I liked Soul Music, but read **Reaper Man ** first, and be sure to pick up Hogfather when you are done with those two. But don’t try to read them all at one sitting. Pratchett does not seem to do well with overexposure.
I read Hogfather a while ago.
Unlike many bookworms I don’t ‘flash’ read books, so there isn’t too much worry about overexposure for me. And I am not too worried about Soul Music not getting too many thumbs up here as I have only ever disliked one Discworld book and that was Colour of Magic.
I’ll read Reaper Man first.
FWIW, Soul Music is one of my favorites. I liked it better than Mort or Reaper Man, although RM comes awful close.
Born to Rune.
Heh.
Live fats
Die yo gnu
I think I’ve read Soul Music at least 5 times so far, and I love it every time. Of the three (Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather), I’d put** Hogfather** last, even though I liked it very much.
Hellllllllo, baby! 
Sorry, Lobsang, I didn’t mean to give the impression that *Soul Music * shouldn’t get a thumbs up. I still enjoyed it. Actually, I don’t think I’ve ever disliked a Discworld book at all.
My opinion FWIW:
Soul Music was the point where the series jumped the shark. Mort was a work of genius. Soul Music is nowhere near as good. I’m not saying it was a bad book, just nowhere near as good as what had gone before. Half the plot is an almost exactly the same as Mort, the other half is too similar to Moving Pictures for comfort. From this point Pratchett began recycling ideas, plots, characters and jokes endlessly. The earlier brilliance has never been recaptured. The jokes have grown rarer and less funny. I’m currently reading Monstrous Regiment, and so far i haven’t laughed once.
Y’know, it isn’t mandatory for all of the Discworld novels to be knee-slapping yukfests…
“I would like it to be clearly understood that this book is not wacky. Olny dumb redheads in Fifties’ sitcoms are wacky.”
–Terry Pratchett, introduction to Equal Rites
I* liked* Mort. I have it on my shelves, along with Maskerade (sp?); I’ve read a bunch of the other ones, but still have to get to Going Postal…
**Mort ** was the book that made me start reading Pratchett. Basically this proves something I’ve seen whenever Pratchett is mentioned on this board: everyone has different opinions about what is good and what is bad about his books.
I loved Hogfather and Reaper Man and would place Soul Music among my least favorite.
Maybe the lesson is to try them all, no matter what anyone else says…
Hm. IMHO, Soul Music was the point where TP began showing he was more than a clever genre satirist, and began to show some real depth to his writings, and where I began to appreciate them on an intellectual level, especially as regards social mores and human idiosyncracies and frailties. .
He’s still hit and miss at times. I loved “Thief of Time” and “The Truth”, but while “Night Watch” had its great points it didn’t really grip me all that tight. And I didn’t really get too excited about “Monstrous Regiment”. “Going Postal” was a step back in the right direction, at least in my opinion.
All in all, I’ve enjoyed some aspect of everything he’s written, and think he’s grown greatly as a writer.
Isn’t it nice he can mean such different things to different people?
I really didn’t like Night Watch, it’s currently my least favourite. But then, I have never enjoyed Vimes as a character.
I loved Monstrous Regiment, though.
Despite its lack of popularity here, I love Soul Music. I think it’s my favorite book of the series and definitely has my favorite blink-and-you-miss-it joke of the series.
for anyone who cares:
“The Surreptitious Fabric” line completely cracks me up. Which might say about me more than the book itself.
But it’s better if you’ve already read Reaper Man first.
And it’s nearly that time of year, so it’s a perfect time for reading, or re-reading, Hogfather.
Mort is the wife’s favourite, Reaper Man is mine.
Both are signed by TP.
amarinth, I had the same reaction to “We’re certainly dwarves”.