…but SHOULD I? I have just finished reading my third discworld book, Men at Arms, and have previously read Mort and Guards! Guards! I am hooked, I’m in, I will be reading the whole damn series. :rolleyes: So, is the best way to aproach the series going back reading the books more or less in order? (I figure I will start with book 5 and push on from there) or push on with individual storylines alternating between Death books and Guards books. What say you oh sage Discworld readers?
The first 2 [where we meet rincewind and twoflower for the first time are my least favorite of all his books, but they are good for explaining stuff that happens in later books.
Have a go at reading those 2 now you know you like the rest of the series.
I love anything to do with the guards, and with Lancre best - though pyramids is absolutely hysterical=)
There are some books that form a series, involving character development and changes. You don’t have to read them in order, but you should. Sam Vimes and the Watch, for instance, change significantly over the course of the books. Granny Weatherwax, well, arguably she doesn’t change per se, but she certainly becomes more so. Rincewind’s situation changes but the character himself doesn’t change much, although the politics at Unseen University change and the characters become more formed. Subcharacters, too, develop (like the Igors or Carrot.)
There are a few, like Small Gods or Moving Pictures that stand alone.
From that perspective, each subsequence in order would be:
Rincewind: Color of Magic, Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, Interesting Times, Last Continent
Granny Weatherwax: Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Carpe Jugulum
Sam Vimes and the Watch: Guards, Guards!; Men at Arms; Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, The Truth, Night Watch, Going Postal, Thud!
Susan/Death: Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, Thief of Time
Stand-alones: Pyramids, Moving Pictures, Small Gods, Monstrous Regiment
I’m goin’ from memory, so I may have goofed up one or two.
Also, of course, there’s the Discworld children’s series, which should be red in order:
Amazing Maurice, Wee Free Men, Hatful of Sky
Reading them in order is probably the only way you’ll read all of them.
Otherwise you’ll probably decide one of the sub-series isn’t your cup of tea, and you won’t bother reading that one (unless you’re really desperate.) I know I wouldn’t have read Last Continent after Interesting Times, except that I was reading all of them.
For a list of Discworld books by date of publication (plus hinted-at possible future ones), see this page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld
I never read the first two, Color of Magic or Light Fantastic myself, couldn’t get into them, but I’ve read most of the other ones. In the children’s series I think Amazing Maurice is a stand alone, not related to Wee Free Men or Hatful of Sky. But definitly read these too, they’re as good as the ones for grown-ups. I also recommend Good Omens, written with Neil Gaiman.
Once you get deeply into a sequence, you start seeing overlaps as well. Vimes shows up In Monstrous Regiment, for example, and the wizards of UU travel to Lancre in Lords and Ladies.
I’d say take them in publication order. That way you don’t get burned out on a particular set of characters. You see the witches as a contrast to the Watch, for example. And you really need to be grounded in the Lore of the Disc to get the full measure of the Susan books.
Well again, the dissenting opinion.
I started reading Discworld over 20 years ago (I’m old). I bought The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic together and instantly loved both of them. While the books got better, there are a couple in the series that aren’t as good as these two (Equal Rites springs instantly to mind).
One thing is that the different story lines (tend) to parody different things. The witches tend to parody works of literature such as Shakespere or The Phantom of the Opera.
The Watch parody crime dramas as well as real world events.
Rincewind parodies different things, but his later books tend toward parodying cultures such as Australia in the Last Continent and Asia in Interesting Times.
You’ll get two benefits from reading the books in order.
-
You’ll see Pratchett’s evolution as a writer and
-
You’ll understand more jokes.
But then, you should go back and reread because sometimes small references become novels (The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents are mentioned in Guards! Guards!)
…also Last Hero and the 3 “Science of the Discworld” books, IMO. Although “Hero” also features Carrot & DaQuirm, it’s much more “Rincewindy” in flavour.
I’d say the bolded ones are standalone, meself.
I don’t think TAM&HER and the Aching books need to be read in that order, Maurice is a standalone.
Odinoneeye, I don’t agree that the Amazing Maurice in G,G! is the same, as it’s clear from context he’s talking about a piper named Maurice.
My opinion is to read them in publishing order. See Pterry grow and get more and more guilty of literature.