Would I like Terry Pratchett's Discworld series?

[pulykamell]

@ISiddiqui

Ditto for me. In fact I’d reverse the statement you were replying to and say Pratchett is a poor man’s Adams. The utterly insanity and sillyness, without any attempt to really tie together the plot (the whole point basically - ie, the universe isn’t supposed to make sense in HHGTTG), elevate Adams over Pratchett to me.

I find this odd. While I’ve read more Adams than Pratchett, Pratchett–to me at least–is by far the more polished all-around writer. Adams would good through about Life, The Universe, and Everything, then gets really repetive and tedious. It took me ages to finish Mostly Harmless, but the first two books were classics.

Pratchett, on the other hand, only starts hitting his stride by the fourth book. I’ve read random selections from there, but they’ve all been well plotted, full of wry observation, and endearing characters. Also, Pratchett’s Discworld framework allows him much more room for exploring different ideas and characters.

They’re very different writers, in my opinion, but Pratchett seems to have more depth to his writing than Adams. Sometimes when I read Adams, I feel like I’m being pummeled with the same jokes over and over again. They’re good jokes, to be sure, but by the fourth book, I grow weary of the style and the characters. Pratchett is certainly more varied.

I probably like HHTG better than anything Pratchett has ever written, but overall, I find Pratchett more consistent and polished.

[rjung]

I hate to pile on the late Mr. Adams, but I first picked up The Light Fantastic because I was already a big Hitchhikers’ fan, and thought a fantasy variation of Adams would be worth a shot.

Twenty-some-odd Discworld novels later, there’s no doubt in my mind that Pratchett is a far superior writer; whether it’s by broad humor, subtle satire, or heart-tugging emotions, Terry can (and has) mastered all aspects of the craft. I just recently re-read Monstrous Regiment again, and I almost got choked up at the scene with the colored chalk…

[Charlie_Tan]

I can understand people who tried the first couple of books and thought that it wasn’t for them. But saying that Adams is the better writer, without having read the later Discworld books is just… wrong. Where Adams was a one trick pony, whose ideas didn’t last beyong the first (two?) book(s), Pratchett is indeed guilty of literature.

MsRobyn. you might want to check out The Discworld Reading Club. The spoilers are minor and won’t ruin your reading experience. The OP contains links to all previous threads.
I have a paper due, comparing Dostoyevsky with Flaubert, so I might not get around to starting a new thread for another week, but it’s coming along.

[Marlitharn]

I am madly in love with Sam Vimes.

I just felt the need to say that to somebody.

My favorite books, in order, are probably Night Watch, The Fifth Elephant, The Last Continent, and Going Postal. And I see there’s a new Watch novel coming out next month! Yay!

Pick one up and give it a try. Better yet, hit the library and bring home a pile; most of them are really fast reads.

[Celyn]

I reckon I pretty much agree with the consensus hre re the Adams/Pratchett comparision.

But what I came back in for was to ask MsRobyn to come back and share her impressions when the time is right.

Have fun.
oooh I want more booooooksssssssssssssssss

[MsRobyn]

I need to go the bookstore and see if they have any of the books.

I think I’ll at least give it a go.

Robin

[rjung]

@Marlitharn

Pick one up and give it a try. Better yet, hit the library and bring home a pile; most of them are really fast reads.

I agree, but not because the novels are thin (the last few novels have nearly broken the 500-page mark) – the books are so gripping that you end up pushing yourself to read it as soon as possible…

[silenus]

Do you have any idea how close I came to naming one of our new kittens Greebo?

[rayh]

There’s actually two Pratchett books due out on the 1st October.

Thud! Which is the next in the Discworld series.

@Synopsis

Koom Valley? That was where the trolls ambushed the dwarfs, or the trolls ambushed the dwarfs. It was far away. It was a long time ago. But if he doesn’t solve the murder of just one dwarf, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office. With his beloved Watch crumbling around him and war-drums sounding, he must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him. Oh…and at six o’clock every day, without fall, with no excuses, he must go home to read ‘Where’s My Cow?’, with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy. There are some things you have to do.

Where’s My Cow which is the next YA book.

@Synopsis

At six o’clock every day, without fall, with no excuses, Sam Vlmes must go home to read Where’s My Cow?, with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy. There are some things you have to do.It is the most loved and chewed book in the world. But his father wonders why it is full of moo-cows and baa-lambs when Young Sam will only ever see them cooked on a plate. He can think of a more useful book for a boy who lives in a city. So Sam Vimes starts adapting the story. A story with streets, not fields. A book with rogues and villains. A book about the place where he’ll grow up.

[Lynn_Bodoni]

@silenus

Do you have any idea how close I came to naming one of our new kittens Greebo?

The thing is, though, you don’t want any kitten to grow up to be Greebo.

I advise reading Good Omens by Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. Not only is it a stand-alone book, but it’s got Gaiman as well as Pratchett. Both of them excellent storytellers, and both devoted to storytelling. It’s not set in the Discworld, but reading it will give you a taste of Pterry’s writing. Besides that, everyone ought to read that book, to find out WHY highways are designed like that.

[Bosstone]

@rjung

I agree, but not because the novels are thin (the last few novels have nearly broken the 500-page mark) – the books are so gripping that you end up pushing yourself to read it as soon as possible…

Seconded. I keep trying to pace myself when I reread the Discworld books, but I always end up whipping through the last half once the action really gets going.

I blame the lack of chapters as they’re commonly known. There are breaks in the writing when Pratchett wants to switch viewpoints or setting, but they’re so inconspicuous I tend to read right past them even when I’ve told myself ‘just one more section’.

[ITR_champion]

I, too, fall into the category of liking Adams a lot and liking Pratchett even more.

When you boil it down, the entire Hitchhiker’s Guide series consists of repeating the same joke many times. The joke is that there’s a person/organization/event which ought to be overbearingful formal, meaningful and important, but which instead turns out to be silly, trivial, and pointless. Examples:

The President of the Galaxy proves to be a figurehead whose job is to distract people with outrageous antics.

The end of the Earth from a bureaucratic decision to build something that no one really needs anyway.

The end of the universe is a gaudy restraunt.

God disappears because of an argument involving a small yellow fish.

A guy becomes immortal and can’t think of anything better to do than to insult everyone in the universe.

And the ultimate question turns out to have a meaningless answer.

Granted Adams was excellent at sly punchlines and squeezing the maximum humor from a situation, but the fact is that after two books or so, it becomes kind of grating.

Pratchett is different. Certainly the two Pratchett books that are most similar to Adams would be The Color of Magic and The Lgiht Fantastic, which deal with a hapless schmoe getting caught up in hilariously twisted events. But even in those books, Pratchett’s literary technique is very different. While everything Adams wants to say is always right there on the page so you can’t miss it, Pratchett is far more subtle. You have to pay attention to catch what references he’s making and what conventions he’s using, and then understand how he’s turning such references and conventions on their head.

I would recommending starting Pratchett with Guards! Guards! or Mort.

[MsRobyn]

Well, I’m back from the bookstore, and they had two Pratchett books. I got The Colour of Magic. I’ll read it tonight.

Robin

[Thudlow_Boink]

I just got done reading The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, and I give it two rat-thumbs up. Funny, well-plotted, great characters, a relatively quick and easy read, and little or nothing that you have to be familiar with in Discworld to appreciate. You could do worse than start here.

[SmackFu]

@The Gaspode

I can understand people who tried the first couple of books and thought that it wasn’t for them. But saying that Adams is the better writer, without having read the later Discworld books is just… wrong.

Well, when you get to 30 books or so, there should be quite a few ones. But even in his later works there is some real crap mixed in.

Sometimes Pratchett reminds me of Dick Francis. That is not a compliment.

[Bill_Door]

I first read The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic back in the late eighties. I was amused, but not impressed. Almost ten years later I pick up a copy of Small Gods and was shocked by how much he had grown as an author.

Or maybe I had grown as a reader, but I reread the first two books and was equally unimpressed, so I guess it was him.

Since then I have read every one of his books, some even before hitting paperback, and while he occasionally has not impressed me, he has never disappointed. I would start with Small Gods, if you don’t like that, you won’t like any of it.

[GuanoLad]

@MsRobyn

Well, I’m back from the bookstore, and they had two Pratchett books. I got The Colour of Magic. I’ll read it tonight.

You need to find a new bookstore. He’s written over thirty books, and yours only had two?

I fear you’ll cast judgement over the whole series by reading his first, so please don’t make any rash decisions based on something that is so very different to his later works.

[pulykamell]

@GuanoLad

You need to find a new bookstore. He’s written over thirty books, and yours only had two?

I fear you’ll cast judgement over the whole series by reading his first, so please don’t make any rash decisions based on something that is so very different to his later works.

Ditto. Please do not base your opinion of Pratchett on Colour of Magic. It’s not a bad book, but it is not your best introduction into his work. Frankly, I put it down and never finished it. I picked up Mort a few months later on my friend’s insistence and was convinced. Then again, if you like Colour of Magic, you should be completely blown away by his later work.

[ISiddiqui]

@Bill Door

I first read The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic back in the late eighties. I was amused, but not impressed. Almost ten years later I pick up a copy of Small Gods and was shocked by how much he had grown as an author.

Or maybe I had grown as a reader, but I reread the first two books and was equally unimpressed, so I guess it was him.

Since then I have read every one of his books, some even before hitting paperback, and while he occasionally has not impressed me, he has never disappointed. I would start with Small Gods, if you don’t like that, you won’t like any of it.

You know, it’s kind of amusing. I read the TCoM and TLF first and really liked them both. Then I read Small Gods, on the recommendation of… oh, just about everyone, and I wasn’t terribly impressed. Interesting book, but it seemed like I was reading the same thing as TCoM and TLF. Didn’t particularly grab me and I stopped really reading Prachett after that (except for a few books here and there).

But maybe I’m just wierd. I actually liked the last 3 of the HHGTTG books, including Mostly Harmless.

[Qadgop_the_Mercotan]

@ISiddiqui

But maybe I’m just wierd. I actually liked the last 3 of the HHGTTG books, including Mostly Harmless.

That is…not typical. Even here at the SDMB.

But why be typical?