# Terry Pratchett' Discworld Books **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [February 26, 2015, 5:53pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684 "2015-02-26T17:53:13Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 4
**Author:** ![Quartz](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/quartz/32/267_2.png) [@Quartz](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Quartz)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 6:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/61 "2015-02-28T18:27:03Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Why, oh why do so many people insist on calling him Pterry? Because he used to be active on Usenet and signed his posts that way. ---
**Author:** ![Peremensoe](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/ce7236/32.png) [@Peremensoe](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Peremensoe)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/62 "2015-02-28T18:48:39Z")
> [@InfernoOrangeSS](#): > > I have not read a Discworld book that I didn’t like. > [@BrainGlutton](#): > > I think we call can agree that reading the worst one first would have hooked us as surely as the best. Nice for you, but this is clearly not the case for everyone. The DW I _have_ liked very much were _Small Gods_ and _Going Postal_. OTOH, when I tried to plunge into the world with the starting books of the Rincewind, Witches, and Guards sub-series, I was decidedly not hooked. ---
**Author:** ![gazpacho](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/6f9a4e/32.png) [@gazpacho](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gazpacho)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 7:00pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/63 "2015-02-28T19:00:25Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Do you keep a half-read book in your desk drawer, just so you can make a point of _not_ finishing it? > > And one thing I’ve been wondering lately… At what point did Pratchett decide to let the world start changing? Most of the early books seem to follow the standard fantasy template of returning to the status quo at the end: Sourcery re-enters the world, and is cataclysmic… until it leaves again. Moving pictures are invented, and quickly leave their mark… and then just as quickly fades away. Music with rocks in it is all the rage… until the rage dies off. > > But the later books show a world in constant motion: Someone starts printing a newspaper… and from then on, there’s a reporter at every major event. The clacks towers allow rapid messages… which grow vastly in complexity and speed, and become so ingrained one can’t imagine life without them. The Watch grudgingly accepts a handful of non-human officers to meet a diversity quota… and it snowballs to the point where any new race to A-M first finds acceptance in the Watch. > > At what point was the transition? I think the transition was with the city watch books. Vimes’ and Carrot’s careers grew across multiple books. ---
**Author:** ![InfernoOrangeSS](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/a8b319/32.png) [@InfernoOrangeSS](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InfernoOrangeSS)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 7:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/64 "2015-02-28T19:33:41Z")
> [@Peremensoe](#): > > Nice for you, but this is clearly not the case for everyone. > > The DW I _have_ liked very much were _Small Gods_ and _Going Postal_. OTOH, when I tried to plunge into the world with the starting books of the Rincewind, Witches, and Guards sub-series, I was decidedly not hooked. I did not mean in my post to sound like if you don’t like every single DW book, then there is something wrong with you. I hope that is not the case as it was not at all my intention. I know some genre snobs like to convey that sentiment. I was mearly pointing out that for me, they have all been enjoyable. (I did not read them as series. I read them in published order intentionally.) I think everyone’s tastes in books are a little different. I hope that clears up my intention. ---
**Author:** ![DrDeth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/b487fb/32.png) [@DrDeth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DrDeth)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 9:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/65 "2015-02-28T21:30:18Z")
> [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > Don’t forget the Tiffany Aching Discworld books. They’re written for a younger audience, but still excellent–at least the first three. In fact, I think they are some of the very best. pTerry is odd in that the books got better and better. Only the last few, (which is likely due to his Early-onset Alzheimer’s) have declined. Do not think then, if you read The Colour of Magic )which is a fun and slightly silly parody of class fantasy) that the Night Watch is anything like that. ---
**Author:** ![ftg](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ftg/32/2801_2.png) [@ftg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ftg)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/66 "2015-02-28T22:43:30Z")
The “unsurprising surprise” is how varied people’s views are of the various categories of his books. E.g., I like best the Death/Susan and “tech” ones. The Watch ones are okay. The wizard and witches ones are generally dreadful. (And now you can add “most recent books” as a new category of bad.) And the Tiffany Aching ones are just plain … not readable. Barely qualify as books. This means that I am at odds with a lot of other people, some of whom have already posted in this thread. That’s a key thing about the Pratchett books. Get used to liking some and not others. Get used to some people have very different opinions on which are good and which are bad. As to the “moving forward” issue withing the books. I think Pratchett is trying to get to a key point before he can’t contribute anymore. E.g., when Vimes takes over for Ventinari or similar major shift. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 10:57pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/67 "2015-02-28T22:57:17Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Do you keep a half-read book in your desk drawer, just so you can make a point of _not_ finishing it? > > And one thing I’ve been wondering lately… At what point did Pratchett decide to let the world start changing? Most of the early books seem to follow the standard fantasy template of returning to the status quo at the end: Sourcery re-enters the world, and is cataclysmic… until it leaves again. Moving pictures are invented, and quickly leave their mark… and then just as quickly fades away. Music with rocks in it is all the rage… until the rage dies off. > > But the later books show a world in constant motion: Someone starts printing a newspaper… and from then on, there’s a reporter at every major event. The clacks towers allow rapid messages… which grow vastly in complexity and speed, and become so ingrained one can’t imagine life without them. The Watch grudgingly accepts a handful of non-human officers to meet a diversity quota… and it snowballs to the point where any new race to A-M first finds acceptance in the Watch. > > At what point was the transition? I think they first started getting interesting as a series when they showed a world changing from the inside out, rather than resisting change from the outside, and that began with _Guards, Guards_. _Soul Music_ and _Moving Pictures_ weren’t that interesting because they just hit the reset button to the fantasy status quo at the end: the Big Bad was defeated, and nothing changed. _Guards, Guards_ had the fantasy Big Bad, but it differed in showing how people reacted and changed in response to it. It was about the characters rather than the threat, and it began altering the stasis of the series: it was the beginning of the evolution of Vimes, who brought the Watch along with him, and the city changed with them, from the Lankhmar of _Colour of Magic_ to the nigh-Edwardian world of _Raising Steam_. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 11:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/68 "2015-02-28T23:22:04Z")
> [@kaylasdad99](#): > > Why, oh why do so many people insist on calling him Pterry? If it’s just because of the character Ptraci in _Pyramids_, I am unconvinced that there’s any justification for that. > [@Quartz](#): > > Because he used to be active on Usenet and signed his posts that way. Okay, I’ll allow it. Still don’t plan to adopt it, though. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 11:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/69 "2015-02-28T23:23:48Z")
And crucially, Vimes was the first really Everyman hero: prior to that, his protagonists had either been fantasy archetypes, or parodies of archetypes. Vimes could react and change in a way that Rincewind - who is a _terrible_ character\*, to the point of barely being a character at all, just a tiny set of mannerisms, and who should have been written out years ago - never could. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 11:41pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/70 "2015-02-28T23:41:59Z")
Rincewind may be a little (okay, a whole lot) thin as a character, but I don’t think that’s exactly a fault. The first two books are pretty weak, but I like the rest of his travels. His role is to show up, wherever he goes, just as everything is going decidely wahoonie-shaped. He’s not really a character you follow for his personal charms, it’s just entertaining to watch the world tumbling around him. And watch him be profoundly unhappy and mopey about it. It also never occurred to me until now just how similar Rincewind is to Karl Pilkington. ---
**Author:** ![dasmoocher](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/dbc845/32.png) [@dasmoocher](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dasmoocher)\ **Post date:** [February 28, 2015, 11:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/71 "2015-02-28T23:54:44Z")
> [@Reno\_Nevada](#): > > Don’t forget _Good Omens_, the Pratchett/Gaiman collaboration. For a long time it was better than anything either had done on their own. That was the book that got me started on Pratchett. I was familiar with Gaiman and had a roommate who recommended the _Discworld_ series and said: start with this, then. It was laugh out loud hysterical, especially the footnotes. ---
**Author:** ![Penfeather](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penfeather/32/384_2.png) [@Penfeather](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Penfeather)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 1:00am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/72 "2015-03-01T01:00:05Z")
Personally I like anything with the witches in it, and find the wizard books tedious and strained. Other readers are the complete opposite. ---
**Author:** ![Measure\_for\_Measure](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/measure_for_measure/32/557_2.png) [@Measure\_for\_Measure](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Measure_for_Measure)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 3:31am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/73 "2015-03-01T03:31:31Z")
I had heard that **Mort** was a great entry point. So I read it. Eh: wasn’t bad. Wasn’t great either in my view. Could be me though: _should_ I have loved it? Was there some deep meaning that I could have taken away but I somehow missed? Because I basically gave up on the series (though to be fair I happily finished the book). Then again, I’m more of a nonfiction kind of guy. ETA: Oh yeah. It’s fantasy right? Calling it sci fi seems a stretch, what with all the Atlas-like elephants. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 3:49am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/74 "2015-03-01T03:49:46Z")
Mort was my first Discworld book. I didn’t really like it the first time I read it, though that might have been because I read it at field school and probably wasn’t giving it enough attention. However I read it again recently and enjoyed it a lot. ---
**Author:** ![Captain\_Amazing](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/6de8d8/32.png) [@Captain\_Amazing](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Captain_Amazing)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 4:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/75 "2015-03-01T04:15:42Z")
I liked Mort, but in general, I think with Pratchett’s early Discworld books, he was still fleshing out the world and the humor. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 6:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/76 "2015-03-01T06:04:53Z")
> [@gazpacho](#): > > I think the transition was with the city watch books. Vimes’ and Carrot’s careers grew across multiple books. Naah, it starts with the Witches (proper, not _Equal Rites_) - although there’s obviously continuity in the Rincewind books (hell, _TCOM_ ends on a cliffhanger!) it’s between W_yrd Sisters_ and _Witches Abroad_ that there’s a sense of character growth and change. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 11:51am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/77 "2015-03-01T11:51:32Z")
> [@MrDibble](#): > > Naah, it starts with the Witches (proper, not _Equal Rites_) - although there’s obviously continuity in the Rincewind books (hell, _TCOM_ ends on a cliffhanger!) it’s between W_yrd Sisters_ and _Witches Abroad_ that there’s a sense of character growth and change. I always thought _The Color Of Magic_ and _The Light Fantastic_ was one novel split down the middle by the publisher. ---
**Author:** ![Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/y/ac8455/32.png) [@Your\_Great\_Darsh\_Face](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Your_Great_Darsh_Face)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 1:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/78 "2015-03-01T13:28:30Z")
You might read TCoM as a cliffhanger ending, or just a “and they they fell off the edge of the world and were never seen again” ending - I don’t remember any real foreshadowing of the second book at the end of the first, and I’ve read 'em enough times since I first stumbled across them in about 1983. Obviously Pterry decided there was enough potential for some more stories there, and so it’s proved, but if the series had finished after one book there weren’t any loose ends that particularly needed tying up. ---
**Author:** ![The\_Tooth](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/c67d28/32.png) [@The\_Tooth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_Tooth)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 4:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/79 "2015-03-01T16:56:40Z")
I think all worthwhile human wisdom is contained in the Discworld books, from “The only sin is treating people as things” to “There is no justice, there’s just us” to “Remember – wild, uncontrolled bursts…” I listened to most of these books before reading them, and I can’t recommend Nigel Planer’s readings enough. He gives characters sort of caricatured voices, like an Asterix comic come to life. Steven Briggs takes over at The Fifth Elephant, and he’s made the Moist von Lipvig and Tiffany Aching books his own. ---
**Author:** ![DZedNConfused](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dzednconfused/32/15991_2.png) [@DZedNConfused](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DZedNConfused)\ **Post date:** [March 1, 2015, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684/80 "2015-03-01T17:06:55Z")
I liked Planer’s reading of Maskerade and Reaper Man, but he bugged me on Lords and Ladies. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684.md?page=3) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/terry-pratchett-discworld-books/713684.md?page=5)