So my brother wants to read Discworld...

…but he’s only ten years old.

Little Brother #1 and I are always talking about Terry Pratchett, quoting him, making in-jokes, borrowing each other’s books, and all that. So now Little Brother #2 wants to get in on the action. He’s determined to find out what all the fuss is about, even though I did warn him that the material might be a *little *over his head.

So I gave him Eric, on the basis that it’s short, and the Rincewind series doesn’t have as much complexity and depth to get lost in. I guess if he finishes it, I’ll get The Last Hero from the library. (Actually, I should be getting TLH anyway, because it’s the next Discworld Book Club book). Or maybe some Tiffany Aching. He’s gotten to about page fifty, although he’s having trouble with the vocabulary (“What’s uncanny? What’s siesta? What’s connoisseur? What’s tantric sex magic?”) Good luck, little bro.

On the bright side, I finally found a Discworld book my mother likes. She, too, was curious as to what the fuss was about, and so Bro #1 gave her… The Color of Magic :smack:. I tried to remedy the situation by giving her Wyrd Sisters, and while she said she understood why we liked that sort of stuff, she found it too juvenile for her tastes.
Now she’s reading Small Gods, and she loves it. She was actually laughing at loud yesterday. I don’t know how the humor in SG is different than the humor in WS, but there you go. I think maybe I’ll give her a Death book next-* Reaper Man*, perhaps?

I got my sister hooked by Good Omens and The Hoggfather.

the 5th Elephant is what got me hooked, but I was in college, vs. her when she was about 14-15

I like reading things in order if I can. Is there a particular order to these crazy books I’ve heard so much about but never read?

Wyrd Sisters was basically Macbeth, wasn’t it?

There was some Hamlet thrown in too.

Mister Rik- Yes. With a little bit of Hamlet thrown in for good measure.

Soul Brother Number Two- There is, but you should skip the first few. He doesnt really hit his stride until Wyrd Sisters (although Mort is okay, too).

Rincewind: [del]The Color of Magic[/del] —> [del]The Light Fantastic[/del] —> [del]Sourcery[/del][sup]1[/sup] —> Eric[sup]2[/sup] —> Interesting Times —> The Last Continent

DEATH: Mort —> Reaper Man —> Soul Music —> Hogfather —> Thief of Time

Witches: [del]Equal Rites[/del] —> Wyrd Sisters —> Witches Abroad —> Lords and Ladies —> Maskerade —> Carpe Jugulum

The Watch: Guards! Guards! —> Men at Arms —> Feet of Clay —> Jingo —> The Fifth Elephant —> Nightwatch —> Thud[sup]3[/sup]

Misc: Pyramids, Small Gods, Moving Pictures, The Truth, Monstrous Regiment, The Last Hero

Moist Von Lipwig: Going Postal —> Making Money[sup]4[/sup]

  1. I think this one’s okay, if not a great classic of the ages, but I’ve been outvoted.
  2. I may be the only one who likes Eric, but like it I do.
  3. Don’t recommend this one. Too anvilicious.
  4. Although I firmly refuse to believe this one exists.

The sub-series Malleus mentions are all intertwined, though. If you’re reading them all together in order, then they start with The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, and Mort. If you do go in order, give it at least until Mort before you make up your mind.

Another good, but relatively unknown, young adults title set in Discworld is Maurice and his Educated Rodents. It’s set on the Discworld, but doesn’t really link up with any of the other stories (except through the Death of Rats).

There are many recommended ways to read them. To me the best way is chronologically by when they were written. There are a lot of independent story lines that don’t rely on a particular order. But from time to time there will be jokes that you don’t get because they are call backs to other books. More importantly I think the author matured a great deal in style over the years. Many of the early books are funnier. Most of the latter books are better. There are some ups and downs in the middle but you can’t go wrong with reading them chronologically.

Has he read the other collections of the Pratchett ouevre? The Bromeliad/Nomes trilogy (Truckers, Diggers, Wings)? The Johnny Maxwell trilogy? Nation is really good, too, though probably aimed a little older.

As a further data point, here is a link to the Discworld reading order guide, where you can see how the series mentioned above interlink.

M’daughter turned 12 two weeks ago. She is an avowed Discworld fan. One of her birthday requests was an Ankh Morpork Post Office Satchel and and an Assassins Guild notecase.

She started with the Death books (*Reaper Man *was the first she read, I think) a couple of years ago, and loved them. Then The Hogfather. The Wings/Truckers series? Nup.

She has never read the early fantasy that TP was lampooning in Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic, so they when she went back to read them, they didn’t interest her. But Death and Father Christmas? That is the sort of satire that resonates. And I suspect she is typical of that age group.

I think we look at the series from an adult “get the set” frame, but kids may be a bit more open to a new concept. Nothing stops them going back to read earlier books once they have read a later one they like.

Whatever you do, don’t let her take the Assassin’s Guild case to school! In this day and age it would probably start a panic and result in calls to the police and FBI, or at the very least a scary meeting with school officials and suggestions that your daughter get counseling for her violent urges!
:smiley:

SImply based on the age of your brother you gave, I’d recommend the Young Adult Tiffany Aching Novels first , because they deal with stuff more relevant to a kid (from an adults POV who already has some stuff figured out), but introduces the background of Discworld, magic and witchcraft, the humanistic concept that underlies Pratchetts work and his weird humor.

For the same reason, I second Maurice and his educated rodents (based on Pied Piper of Hameln, but with a dark twist about what evil is - challenging for a kid, a bit boring part for adults).

Equal rites has young Esk, age 8 and a witch, as protagonist, but I always thought she was too super for her age - could do everything and was smart to understand the real problem, too. (Pratchett has toned this down a bit with Tiffany Aching, because we hear her self-doubts, and second thoughts, but she is still amazingly super-capable for a young girl, in my opinion. Or maybe I’m just envious, as I’ve been told).
Sourcery has Coin, also a young boy who’s super-wizard, but the focus of the story is more on Rincewind and the other wizards.

The problem with Eric I would have is that it parodies Faust, of course, so to someone who doesn’t know that background, a lot gets lost.
At the Con last year I went to, several younger people said this - they’d read Pratchett from the moment they were born, because their parents were fans, but now as twens they started re-reading it and finally got all the jokes and references and the heavy stuff underneath and discovered it all anew.

Coin isn’t so much a character, as an elemental force of nature. There’s not really anything about him that anyone can relate to.

And wasn’t Esk older than 8 for the bulk of the story? Her powers were discovered young, but I seem to remember her being a teenager for the big adventure.