Slightly contrary opinion: I’d go back to Wyrd Sisters, the first book to feature the Lancre coven (Granny Weatherwax by herself was first in Equal Rites*). Then continue in order to Witches Abroad, then either re-read or skip past Lords and Ladies and continue on in order with Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum.
Savannah could continue forward from Lords and Ladies without much trouble, but if she’s going to go backwards she might as well go back to Wyrd Sisters and find out about how Magrat wound up engaged to the King of Lancre. That relationship is put on hold for the entirety of Witches Abroad, since the witches do in fact go abroad.
I like Witches Abroad a lot and it provides some interesting character development and good humor, but in terms of the Lancre Witches subseries it could be skipped without missing any crucial plot developments or new characters. Greebo’s transformation in Maskerade makes more sense if you’ve read Witches Abroad, though. I’d definitely recommend that Maskerade and Carpe Jugulum be read in that order though, because Agnes “Perdita” Nitt goes from being a very minor character in Lords and Ladies to a major one in Maskerade. I think it would be difficult to fully enjoy Carpe Jugulum if one were wondering why this Agnes girl was such a big deal all of a sudden or what was up with her personality.
*ETA: Equal Rites is technically the first Witch book, but it doesn’t need to be the first someone reads. A lot of people don’t think it’s as good as the later ones, and whether you like it or not it doesn’t really tie in with the others. Granny Weatherwax is a major character but none of the other recurring characters from the Witch subseries are there, and the plot doesn’t have anything to do with the later books.
It also benefits from having read Carpe Jugulum (because of Mightily Oats, and his reverence for Brutha), as well as Night Watch (so you can appreciate the Monks of History, and the role they played in the development of Omnianism).
This seems backwards to me. Carpe Jugulum benefits from having read Small Gods first, because then you know about the Omnian religion. The Monks of History play a small enough role in Small Gods that I don’t think it matters much if one reads it before or after Night Watch, but I don’t see any particular benefit to doing so.
Or you can look at it the other way, and say you’ll appreciate Carpe Jugulum more after reading Small Gods, for the same reason.
And Witches Abroad is also, IIRC, where the concept of Dwarven bread is really first developed (Guards, Guards has Carrot getting a care package from home of Dwarven cake, but it’s still something one is expected to actually eat).
I did too, because Gaiman wrote a book called ‘Don’t Panic’ as a companion to the Hitch-hikers books. Good Lord, that word really doesn’t look right no matter how you spell or hyphenate it.
Those two books are in a different style to the other Discworld books. The regular discworld books have no chapters, tons of asides, and lots of postcripts; the Moist books have chapters with summaries, no postscripts and a slightly more straightforward storytelling format.
The whole “no chapters” thing can be really annoying, too, when you’re telling yourself “Just one more chapter, and then I’ll put it down and go to sleep”.
I went from Good Omens to Small Gods to Nightwatch, and Nightwatch is what I typically give to people who I think might be interested in Pratchett. Night Watch is just such a good book, on all on it’s own, that going back to re-read it after getting more backstory only improves it a little bit. <imo> It’s just that good. IF you like the Watch portion the best, and I admit I do. The Witches come next though; that goofy wizard never impressed me, and I can’t get into the Rincewind stories much at all. The Deaths rock, however.
Oh yes. And then, sometimes, when you’ve decided to stop on page 180 or whatever, the postscript carries you on to page 181, so you decide to continue to the next round number, and then suddenly it’s 5am and you’ve finished the book.
In Carpe Jugulum, the turtle is the holy symbol because it was Brutha’s execution platform. In Small Gods, Brutha doesn’t get executed, thanks to the Monks of History.
And Rysto, I might mean Thief of Time, except that I haven’t read it yet. But thanks for pointing it out to me; I do like those Monks of History, so I think that might be the one I pick up next.
Thief of Time is possibly my favorite book ever. However, I don’t recommend it to anyone who hasn’t read the previous Death books. You really need a feel for Susan’s backstory to really understand her in ToT.
I seem to be one of the few people who loves Rincewind. Then again, I seem to be one of the few people here who reads Pratchett more for the funny than the philosophy.
I was watching a rerun of Criminal Minds on Ion, they are always quoting something at the beginning and end of the show. One of the characters said this;
“No matter how fast light travels it finds the darkness has always got there first, and is waiting for it.”. I was thinking that sounded really familiar when he said “Terry Pratchett”. I was happy to see a Terry quote in a major American network prime-time television show.
So I’ve got the bug to reread the books again but I think I will try reading by the guide, too.
I always figured, “Turtle, tortoise, they’re all chelonians.” There’s a general reptiles-with-shells theme in Small Gods, and I took them to be pretty much interchangeable.
Small Gods was the first Pratchett I read, and it got me to continue to read him. When I got around to Carpe Jugulum, there were no references there that I needed to know that came from Small Gods. Nor, I think, the other way around.
Both good books, by the way, both enjoyable to read.
For the other side of the coin, the two I’ve found to be more or less boring are Moving Pictures and Thud!. Oddly enough, I have them still in my bookcase. Go figure.
While there have been books I haven’t liked by him (Eric), what I always enjoy is the descriptions and the dialog. His genius is in the little things, IMHO. I still chuckle when I think of the (forget his name) greatest mathamatician the world has even known, and he’s a camel. I crack up everytime I read the the line “King: Fool! [refering to the character that goes by the name Fool] Someone knocks without! Fool: Someone knocks with out what? King: Someone knocks without the door! Fool: Is this one of those zen things?” Even the books I didn’t like have these little gems in them. Makes me laugh all the time, and seeing as I’m reading a book at the time, also usually makes me look insane. Or at least that’s how I’ve interpreted the stares I’ve gotten before.
I guess Wee Free Men are related to the witches since Tiffany Aching knows Granny, and Granny approves of her as Granny being a big side character, but how is this series related to Maurice? I don’t recall either the boy, the mice or Maurice being in the Tiffany books, nor vice versa. The closest I get is the girl (was it the Mayor’s daughter?) is kind of like a proto Tiffany. Can someone help my admittedly faulty memory?
