# So my brother wants to read Discworld...
**URL:** https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547
**Category:** Cafe Society
**Created:** [March 15, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547 "2009-03-15T19:29:27Z")
**Posts on this page:** 15
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2009, 7:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/1 "2009-03-15T19:29:27Z")
…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?
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### Author:  [@ToeJam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ToeJam)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2009, 7:40pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/2 "2009-03-15T19:40:29Z")
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
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### Author:  [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Soul_Brother_Number_Two)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2009, 8:29pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/3 "2009-03-15T20:29:31Z")
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?
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### Author:  [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2009, 8:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/4 "2009-03-15T20:34:14Z")
_Wyrd Sisters_ was basically _Macbeth_, wasn’t it?
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### Author:  [@Caveat\_lector\_1](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Caveat_lector_1)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2009, 9:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/5 "2009-03-15T21:00:41Z")
There was some Hamlet thrown in too.
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### Author:  [@Malleus\_Incus\_Stapes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Malleus_Incus_Stapes)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2009, 9:04pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/6 "2009-03-15T21:04:36Z")
**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](http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/Anvilicious).
4. Although I firmly refuse to believe this one exists.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2009, 9:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/7 "2009-03-15T21:21:15Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)
#### Post date: [March 15, 2009, 10:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/8 "2009-03-15T22:02:42Z")
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).
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### Author:  [@Loach](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Loach)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2009, 10:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/9 "2009-03-16T10:35:30Z")
> [@Soul\_Brother\_Number\_Two](#):
>
> 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?
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.
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### Author:  [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2009, 11:41am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/10 "2009-03-16T11:41:05Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@\_Undecided\_Adrian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/_Undecided_Adrian)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2009, 12:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/11 "2009-03-16T12:17:48Z")
As a further data point, here is a link to the [Discworld reading order guide](http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-1-5.jpg), where you can see how the series mentioned above interlink.
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### Author:  [@Mame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mame)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2009, 12:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/12 "2009-03-16T12:57:07Z")
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](http://www.paulkidby.com/padfolios/index.html).
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.
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### Author:  [@Mister\_Rik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mister_Rik)
#### Post date: [March 16, 2009, 4:52pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/13 "2009-03-16T16:52:39Z")
> [@Mame](#):
>
> 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](http://www.paulkidby.com/padfolios/index.html).
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!
😃
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### Author:  [@constanze](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/constanze)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2009, 7:49pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/14 "2009-03-17T19:49:39Z")
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.
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### Author:  [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)
#### Post date: [March 17, 2009, 8:38pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/so-my-brother-wants-to-read-discworld/489547/15 "2009-03-17T20:38:40Z")
> [@](#):
>
> 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.
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.