The really good thing about Terry is that all of his books, with the exception of The Light Fantastic, can be read on their own. You don’t need to have read anything else at all to jump right in.
Merci beaucoup, mes amis! I knew this would be the place to get some info.
(I especially liked “we’re not scary, obsessive fans” but … you all know what characters you’d dress up as if you were scary, obsessive fans, and you can provide links to places where scary, obsessive fans parse every possible joke or develop complicated charts to show the correct order to read the books in. Oh-kay. Gotcha.)
But seriously folks – thanks a million for your advice. I’m going to print this thread for future reference. I think the advice to start with a stand-alone title is good – I’ll report back later (I have to finish the four books I have going now before I embark on this).
You guys are the best!
Kilt wearin’ - at DragonCon last year we happened upon a wonderful lady dressed as Rincewind complete with Luggage. My wife and her brother took pictures and ooed for a bit.
Wow, I’m glad I read this now. I just bought The Light Fantastic, because I’ve read a few of the Discworld books and wanted to go back and start at the beginning, but the bookstore didn’t have The Colour of Magic. Gotta put off reading it now til I find The Colour of Magic.
The Discworld books vary quite widely in quality. Books involving the witches or the wizards heavily (e.g., “The Last Continent” sucks big time. Of the ones I’ve read, only “The Hogfather” was evenly enjoyable. (The Susan/Death ones tend to be the best. Next are the guard ones, esp. if they don’t focus on Vimes.) There’s some really weird writing going on in some books. E…, “Soul Music” ends with an immense number of loose ends hanging. It’s like he looked at the page count and went “Well, send off anway, it’s large enough.”
I strongly urge against “Good Omens”. It is very, very boring. It absolutely reeks.
The are of course a lot of people comparing Douglas Adams to Pratchett, but I have no idea why. Completely different types of writers. Adams’ humor is both dense and subtle. Pratchett’s humor is quite sparse.
It is a really good idea to go thru a few books via a library before spending money. A lot of people wish they had. Others become fans and then buy.
Wow. You’re entitled to your opinion, but I don’t know if I’ve ever disagreed with a post more!
I love all the witch books! Granny Weatherwax is one of my all-time favorite fictional characters. I’m not as enamored of the wizards, but most of their books are also good.
I don’t know what you mean about loose ends in Soul Music. I thought he wrapped things up pretty well. As is typical for Pratchett there are things he left implied, but I didn’t think anything was truly unresolved. My only question is what happened to Buddy between the end of Soul Music and the beginning of Hogfather. It seemed like romance between him and Susan was inevitable, but you never hear from the guy again! I like to think that Susan just got sick of him and his musician buddies and kicked him to the curb.
Good Omens is a book I love so much that I own three copies so I can freely lend it to others without fear of ending up without a copy of my own if the borrower loses it. Everyone I know personally who has read it thought it was great.
Although Pratchett and Adams do have different styles, they are frequently compared because there’s not really anyone else for either of them to be compared to. Who else has written serious, but humorous, novels with memorable and well-developed characters in a speculative fiction setting? As for Pratchett’s humor being sparse, that’s where you really lost me. I don’t know if there’s one page in the entire Discworld series without a joke on it. But they’re worked in so well that in most cases if you don’t get the gag you won’t even realized that you’ve missed it.
Lamia, now Susan seems to be hooking up with Lobsang/Jeremy, in Thief of Time.
I started with Hogfather and went on randomly from there. But the cool thing is that these books can be read again and still be funny–funnier, now that you get the injokes.
I would recommend against starting with the Rincewind books… as previously mentioned, Pratchett was really just starting out with those, and they really aren’t as… um… “rollicking” as his style would later become.
On the other hand, reading the other books, THEN going back and reading up on Rincewind… now THAT’s entertaining!
I know, but what happened to Buddy? If I ever meet Teery Pratchett, that’s the question I’m going to ask him.
There is a line in Hogfather saying that several of Susan’s boyfriends had been scared off by her hair (it can move itself!), but that seems a lousy reason for Buddy to break things off with the girl who saved his life. So as I said before, I prefer to imagine that she was just too sensible to put up with his artistic temperment for very long. 
I just recently finished reading the entire series - in the order it was published. Not having done it another way, I can’t compare it to them, but I made a decision to do it that way when I started them and think now that it paid off. That’s mainly because, as has been noted, the characters evolve in the meta-narrative and the in-jokes proliferate as he has ever more hooks to attach them to.
I can’t imagine how the one poster came to conclude that Pratchett’s humour is “sparse.” I’m usually a fairly difficult audience for comedy and I generally found something amusing on almost every page. Certainly within every scene. Personally, I I find his humour demands a somewhat more well-rounded knowledge base than HHHG does. He satirizes so many different things about our culture that one could easily miss some of the jokes (I’m sure I do some of the times he’s poking fun at his fellow Englishmen) simply because you don’t know the referent (there’s a perfect example today - one I missed, to be sure, until I read it here - in the other Pratchett thread).
I differ from other posters up to now mainly in that I like the Rincewind stories - a lot. Interesting Times is my favourite because it not only has Rincewind and Arch-Chancellor Ridcully (who can only be modelled on Teddy Roosevelt) but Cohen the Barbarian (far and away the best minor character Pratchett’s ever given us).
Having read them in order, though, I think he’s gotten a little too attached to the Watch series. The majority of the last several (including the one currently out in hardcover) are about - or heavily involve - the Watch. The first half or so of the series he mixed it up better. I like the Watch series just fine, but I also like the greater variety of the earlier portion of the series.
Incidentally, if you enjoy the series (and if you have a sense of humour, you will), be sure to check out the animated films, too (but not until after you’ve read the corresponding books).
Not to mention Moving Pictures another stand-alone, and The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents, which is intended as a young teens book, but is still superb for adults.
Also I said Fifth Continent when I meant** Last Continent**.
I think I noticed another one I missed last night, but I can’t remember which one now 
Also, Good Omens is a superb spoof of the Omen films (among others).
I believe the one you’re thinking of, ShadowWarrior, is Thief of Time. Which is a Susan book.
I totally have to agree with that. I should have got three copies because mine was never returned to me. I guess my friend liked it, too…
Actually, between you guys and a friend of mine I started off the new year reading whatever interesting looking Terry Pratchett I could get from the library. So far, I’ve read, in order Interesting Times, Eric, and I’m partway through The Truth. I’m certainly developing an affection for Rincewind and The Luggage, but I’m looking forward to finding out more about the Wizards college. All three books have stood alone rather nicely, although I do want to find out just how Rincewind wound up where he did at the beginning of Rric. I suspect it’ll be funnily gruesome and accidental. I like Pratchett’s humor and his habit of satirizing everything in sight and a couple of things which aren’t.
Dopers, you’ve done it again – you’ve made another addict. Now if only I can find a library with a copy of Sourcery!
CJ
Pratchett’s first 5 or so Discworld books don’t really stand up as ‘novels’, they’re really a set of jokes and spoofs on sword-and-sorcery stories. After that, he started to be able develop believable characters, and that’s what’s changed him from joke-teller to story-teller. I’d recommend any of these as starters:-
- Wyrd Sisters (if you know some Shakespeare);
- Guards! Guards! (if you know some police stories);
- Moving Pictures (if you kno… well, obvious, really);
- Pyramids (if you know some classical history).
After that, you’ll find your own tastes. THEN go back and read the first 5.
And then there’s his ‘younger’ series, starting with ‘Truckers’ and ‘Only you can save mankind’ - they’re for youngsters in name only, 'cos they’re both accessible and funny to any age group.
Enjoy!
Thank you! And a very good one it is too.
If you like TAMAHER, then I can safely say that you’re going to like The Wee Free Men - Pterry’s forthcoming “children’s” book about the Nac Mac Feegle. It’s very, very good.
Also, I’ll gladly point all Pratchett fans present at alt.fan.pratchett, the semi-unofficial newsgroup - it’s exactly like this place, except we’re all Pratchett fans there. (Apart from Pterry, of course, who is far too modest to be a fan of himself.)
ROT-13’ed spoilers (how *do * you make those Spoiler boxes?):
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Decoder:
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Ridcully is a stereotypical country squire type. Went to public school, rides to hounds, ho ho ho, larger than life - you know the sort of thing. If he wasn’t a wizard, he’d probably be swiving every woman in sight.
If I were comparing him to any political figure, it would be Sir Francis Drake, except Mustrum Ridcully wouldn’t just finish his game and beat the Spaniards too - beating the Spaniards would be part of the game.
Whatever; Ridcully is quintessentially English. He’s not Teddy Roosevelt.
The difference isn’t that great. I’d say Teddy would qualify as your sterotypical country squire.