I guess it’s a Buzzfeed link, but I’m in no way affiliated with that site and never visit it. I had been looking for a spreadsheet of all the Discworld book so I can track my reading of them. Got curious and read some of this list, which ranks them.
Not a fan of the list at all. (I agree about Night Watch–it should be in the very low single digits). IMHO the most important and meaningful and rounded out characters in all of the Discworld series are Samuel Vimes and Esme Weatherwax, and would put their story arcs at the top of my list. (Tiffany Aching would go at number 3, and that arc isn’t even included.)
Mahaloth, something you are probably missing in having only read those five books is that the Discworld series (taken as a whole) is not only funny but deep and meaningful, to the extent that I’d say that if you want to teach a child to be a decent human being without religion, you could do much worse than have them closely study the characters and motives in the Discworld books (especially the Vimes, Weatherwax, and Aching arcs, as already mentioned.)
Well, without worrying too much about the details…
Small Gods is a good choice for #1, and his choices for 2, 4, 5, and 6 (Reaper Man, Wyrd Sisters, Men at Arms, and Guards, Guards) all belong near the top of the list. And he’s right that Raising Steam, Unseen Academicals, and Snuff are at the bottom. But there was nothing wrong with Making Money, and the Tiffany Aching books deserved to be on the list. And I’d personally put Pyramids at the low end, not at #3: It just didn’t seem to have much of whatever-it-is that makes Pratchett’s novels great, and came across as kind of boring.
The fuck? What silenus said. And what is up with all the Vimes hate? And calling Night Watch “not … very funny” as though that justifies anything (or is even right)? This list is pants, and the author should find themselves in a scorpion pit, on one wall of which would be painted the advice: “Learn To Review”.
Opinions are like excretory orifices. Everyone’s got one. My opinion varies wildly from his. I consider Carpe Jugulum to be one of the best, along with Thief of Time.
I found copies of two Discworld novels I hadn’t read in my house and was thinking of doing a “Which should I read first?” thread. They’re Pyramids and Small Gods. Then I saw last year’s thread about favorite Discworld novels. Small Gods it is.
About the only thing I remotely agree with is Small Gods being one of the best and Monstrous Regiment being one of the worst.
It actually makes more sense (and makes arguments more precise and interesting) to rank the books by arcs rather than overall. Then we can argue whether Men At Arms is better than Thud!, which is potentially productive.
What silenus said. I stopped reading the list when the author had Night Watch below Moving Pictures.
Picking favorite Discworld books is like being asked to pick favorite children, but my own jumble has Small Gods, Night Watch, Guards, Guards, Jingo, and Reaper Man near the top, and Moving Pictures, Eric, and Soul Music near the bottom. I probably need to reread Soul Music.
Haven’t we done a “Rank the Discworld books” thread or three before?
[del]Faust[/del]Eric was forgettable (which isn’t a good thing), but that’s better than being memorably bad, like Unseen Academicals.
And I don’t agree that Monstrous Regiment was so bad. It’s probably the most devoid of humour of any of the Discworld books, but who said they all had to be funny?
Apparently the reviewer, because that’s the same sin he laid against Night Watch, which is the best thing PTerry ever wrote. (It still pains me to have to phrase it that way, instead of “has written.”)
But besides that, MR just sucked. Not as bad as UA, but right down there with [del]Faust[/del]Eric and Pyramids.
Soul Music is one of my favourites, but that’s opinion for you. I’d put that higher, put Maskerade lower (the first of his books that I read that was I even faintly disappointed by), and shuffle a few others in. And also put the Aching books in, and higher. And Maurice and his rodents, that was a great book.
Whereas I enjoyed Making Money and Raising Steam while thinking the other two were crap. So they really should have been in the mix, since everybody has such differing opinions on them.
All four and also The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents are excellent. In fact i suggest them for pTerry neophytes, best books to start.
(Colour of Magic is a fun read. But it really isnt the place to start, since it’s not building the Discworld universe so much as a fantasy Parody of other books)