# Your Personal Favourite Discworld Book **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [March 13, 2015, 10:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940 "2015-03-13T22:58:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Kobal2](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kobal2/32/20_2.png) [@Kobal2](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kobal2)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 5:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/41 "2015-03-15T17:58:30Z")
> [@The\_Butterfly\_s\_Ghost](#): > > Can I also include a book that’s not set on Discworld? Because for me “Nation” is one of the best things ever written by Terry Pratchett and no list of favourite works could be complete without it. I really liked it, but it suffers from kind of the same flaw as \*Snuff \*does IMHO : after a while, the constant pounding of “Science good ! Reason good ! Supersition bad !” gets grating and drowns out the genuinely moving or funny bits. It is its own Grandfather Bird, yanno ? ---
**Author:** ![silenus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/silenus/32/166_2.png) [@silenus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/silenus)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2015, 10:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/42 "2015-03-15T22:08:32Z")
> [@Shalmanese](#): > > I thought Snuff and Raising Steam were both extremely disappointing. I’m in for half of this. I liked _Snuff_ well enough while I was reading it, but I’ve felt absolutely no desire to reread it, other than my now solid desire to reread _everything_ Pterry wrote. _Raising Steam_, OTOH, I liked from the first page and have reread at least thrice. ---
**Author:** ![congodwarf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/e36b37/32.png) [@congodwarf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/congodwarf)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 1:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/43 "2015-03-16T01:52:17Z")
I love them all, including the first two and Eric. I’m not sure I have an absolute favorite though. It really depends on the mood I’m in. My favorite witch book is Witches Abroad My favorite Watch book is The Fifth Elephant (or Feet of Clay - again, depending on my mood) My favorite Death book is Reaper Man My favorite Susan book is Thief of Time My favorite Rincewind book is The Light Fantastic My favorite Moist book is Going Postal My favorite Wizards book is Reaper Man My favorite Tiffany book is Wintersmith My favorite stand-alone book is Small Gods My favorite story line is the Witches ---
**Author:** ![Scruff](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/6f9a4e/32.png) [@Scruff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Scruff)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 5:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/44 "2015-03-16T05:32:31Z")
My favorite **title** is “The Fifth Elephant”, mostly because I love the Bruce Willis movie. Favorite book would be “Lords and Ladies”. ---
**Author:** ![GuanoLad](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guanolad/32/42_2.png) [@GuanoLad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/GuanoLad)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 6:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/45 "2015-03-16T06:16:02Z")
> [@congodwarf](#): > > My favorite Death book is Reaper Man I only recently realised that the title was a riff on _Repo Man_. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 2:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/46 "2015-03-16T14:50:05Z")
> [@Kobal2](#): > > It’d be easier to list the bad ones, really. \*Snuff \*went from nowhere to nowhere with lots of pointless meanderings in between (yes, yes we do get it, racism _is_ bad, what else ?), _Unseen Academicals_ I guess is OK if you like dick jokes and the footie, _The Colour of Magic / The Light Fantastic_ of course weren’t that funny to begin with but are even worse now in comparison, and I’m not sure I remember much about _The Fifth Elephant_ or whatever Pterry was saying with that one despite having read it multiple times (along with the others). Something about dwarven scones and Nazi werewolves ? I dunno. I think the only bit I found really funny was the riff on Chekhov, and that was one throwaway section. > > I remember thinking \*Pyramids \*was a bit naff, back in the day, but I’ve reread it recently and it’s actually a lot better than I remembered. > [@MrDibble](#): > > Ok. It’ll be a short list: > > … > > * * * > > I mean, _Eric_ is my least favourite, but it’s nowhere near a _bad_ book. Really? I loves me some Pratchett, but I have to objectively say that there are several pretty bad books in his output. I think the books in general show a nice time-based bell-shaped curve. Reasonably bad at the start - _The Colour of Magic / The Light Fantastic_ were nothing great in terms of humour, characters or plot, but then in the middle he hit a real purple patch with a whole series of excellent books, and then his later books really fell off in terms of quality. \*Snuff \*was pretty bad, but I felt _Unseen Academicals_ really was the one that hit rock bottom. There was nothing in it for me, and for the first time I read an entire Pratchett without laughing out loud even once, let alone having to put the book down so I could wipe away the tears of laughter that I had when reading _Jingo_. Then I read _Raising Steam_, and that made a second book that didn’t make me laugh even once. The deft touch and the magic were gone, and it felt like a leaden-footed tramp through a marsh of half-made ideas and rehashing of real history, rather than the mad inventiveness of his middle period. I was actually unsure I would want to read _Raising Taxes_ if that ever came out, because it was sure to be another Moist von Lipwig-saves-an-elderly-institution-while-being-a-charming-rogue snorefest. It was good once. Okay twice. Not three times, or four. After all that negative energy, though, it’s good to turn back to my favourites: _Small Gods_ and _Jingo_. I still re-read them both semi-regularly and am amazed at the bite of his light satire. He was really ripping into religion and patriotism with a scythe, and they are both excellent books. Don’t make me choose between them. Please. ---
**Author:** ![glee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/b5a626/32.png) [@glee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glee)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 3:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/47 "2015-03-16T15:47:29Z")
> [@Art\_Rock](#): > > Another vote for Night Watch, but chosen out of so many great works. Yes, me too. ---
**Author:** ![TriPolar](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tripolar/32/3008_2.png) [@TriPolar](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/TriPolar)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 4:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/48 "2015-03-16T16:06:30Z")
I’ll go with Hogfather for the number two spot. All of the good parts of Discworld together with one of the better stories. ---
**Author:** ![Hypno-Toad](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/b2d939/32.png) [@Hypno-Toad](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hypno-Toad)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/49 "2015-03-16T16:23:14Z")
_Small Gods_ is special to me as it was my first DW novel. But for overall appreciation it’s _Night Watch_ or _I Shall Wear Midnight_. NW in particular. It takes existing characters of already considerable depth and shows the reader that “You don’t know nothing” about these folks. Their bonds and relationships are far deeper than the audience had realized. ---
**Author:** ![typoink](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/ecb155/32.png) [@typoink](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/typoink)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 5:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/50 "2015-03-16T17:46:37Z")
> [@Dervorin](#): > > \*Snuff \*was pretty bad, but I felt _Unseen Academicals_ really was the one that hit rock bottom. There was nothing in it for me, and for the first time I read an entire Pratchett without laughing out loud even once, let alone having to put the book down so I could wipe away the tears of laughter that I had when reading _Jingo_. > > Then I read _Raising Steam_, and that made a second book that didn’t make me laugh even once. The deft touch and the magic were gone, and it felt like a leaden-footed tramp through a marsh of half-made ideas and rehashing of real history, rather than the mad inventiveness of his middle period His last few novels were written by dictation. Supposedly, this didn’t make writing dramatically harder, but it did make editing much more difficult. I think this shows. I think all three of these books still have his wit and talent as a writer on display, but they are also less focused, more meandering, and occasionally downright hard to the follow. The action scenes in Raising Steam and Snuff, in particular, struck me as particularly difficult. I still enjoyed these books for their strengths, though I would admit they were generally on the weaker end of his output. ---
**Author:** ![Airk](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/9de053/32.png) [@Airk](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Airk)\ **Post date:** [March 16, 2015, 6:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/51 "2015-03-16T18:01:27Z")
I’m kinda baffled by all the love for Small Gods. A friend tried to get me into Discworld and told me to start there and it put me off the series for a decade. I’m going to be weird and say I really loved _Men At Arms_; It comes from what I call the Middle Pratchett period, after everything stopped being a bad fantasy parody and before everything turned into Real World Issues With Real People And A Thin Veneer of ‘Fantasy’ On Top. ---
**Author:** ![Fair\_Rarity](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fair_rarity/32/153_2.png) [@Fair\_Rarity](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fair_Rarity)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/52 "2015-03-17T01:15:40Z")
I’m rereading all the DW books, so my opinion might be different after this second go round, but I think my favorite was Witches Abroad, then maybe I Shall Wear Midnight. ---
**Author:** ![DemonSpawn](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/ac8455/32.png) [@DemonSpawn](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DemonSpawn)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 1:32am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/53 "2015-03-17T01:32:02Z")
> [@Penfeather](#): > > the crowning moment of Vimes’ career, arresting an entire war - both sides - for breach of the peace and carrying concealed weapons. and loitering Within Tent 😃 My favourites: Witches Abroad, Monstrous Regiment, The Fifth Elephant, Maskerade… I love them all. Not really a Rincewind fan, but Interesting Times is hilarious. The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Eric and Sourcery are where Sir Terry was still developing Discworld, so they are not as good, but not bad either. ---
**Author:** ![Fenris](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/fenris/32/498_2.png) [@Fenris](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Fenris)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/54 "2015-03-17T02:26:05Z")
I’m rereading 'em too. Currently my two favs are THUD! (I love the exploration of Dwarf culture) and “Hogfather”. But…for all the flack that The Color of Magic gets, it sets the stage for Guards Guards and provides so many clues that if you read CoM right before GG, it wouldn’t be a mystery. It actually sets up a bunch of other stuff as well. Frankly, The Light Fantastic isn’t as good a book (he didn’t quite make it hold together as a novel). ---
**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 17, 2015, 2:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/55 "2015-03-17T02:26:45Z")
> [@DemonSpawn](#): > > and loitering Within Tent 😃 I read it again since I posted, and the charge sheet was: Conspiracy to cause an affray, going equipped to commit a crime, obstruction, threatening behaviour, loitering with intent, loitering within tent, travelling for the purposes of committing a crime, malicious lingering, and carrying concealed weapons. Malicious Lingering 😃 ---
**Author:** ![Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/e47c2d/32.png) [@Hershele\_Ostropoler](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hershele_Ostropoler)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 2:54am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/56 "2015-03-17T02:54:03Z")
I felt _Snuff_ needed one more editing pass, though I understood why it hadn’t gotten it. I was also disappointed by DEATH not making an appearance. And it was a bit heavy-handed. ---
**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 17, 2015, 4:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/57 "2015-03-17T04:20:18Z")
And I’ve just found out Malicious Lingering crops up again in _The Wee Free Men_: > [@](#): > > -including more than two thousand cases of Making an Affray, Causing a Public Nuisance, Being Found Drunk, Being Found Very Drunk, Using Offensive Language (taking into account ninety-seven cases of Using Language That Was Probably Offensive If Anyone Else Could Understand It), Committing a Breach of the Peace, Malicious Lingering- I think I need a name change. ---
**Author:** ![Rick\_Kitchen](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rick_kitchen/32/522_2.png) [@Rick\_Kitchen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Rick_Kitchen)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 5:46am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/58 "2015-03-17T05:46:14Z")
> [@Fair\_Rarity](#): > > I’m rereading all the DW books, so my opinion might be different after this second go round, but I think my favorite was Witches Abroad, then maybe I Shall Wear Midnight. _I Shall Wear Midnight_ has my vote for favorite title. ---
**Author:** ![Dervorin](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Dervorin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dervorin)\ **Post date:** [March 17, 2015, 10:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/59 "2015-03-17T10:21:28Z")
> [@typoink](#): > > His last few novels were written by dictation. Supposedly, this didn’t make writing dramatically harder, but it did make editing much more difficult. I think this shows. I think all three of these books still have his wit and talent as a writer on display, but they are also less focused, more meandering, and occasionally downright hard to the follow. The action scenes in Raising Steam and Snuff, in particular, struck me as particularly difficult. > > I still enjoyed these books for their strengths, though I would admit they were generally on the weaker end of his output. I agree, and it made me sad to see his quality diminish, because of course the cause was obvious. I also wonder if he was trying to make a more forceful point by being less satirical that, ironically, actually became less of a comment on society. Rather than being pin-sharp and light-footed, they were a bit sledgehammer: RACISM IS BAD, OKAY??? Yes, we got that, thanks. This review sums up most of what I think, and I agree with the majority of her points, actually: [\Snuff\ by Terry Pratchett](http://wrongquestions.blogspot.co.uk/2011/11/snuff-by-terry-pratchett.html) ---
**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 17, 2015, 11:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940/60 "2015-03-17T11:25:51Z")
> [@Airk](#): > > I’m kinda baffled by all the love for Small Gods. You’re baffled by why, _on this board_, a book which has a strong anti-ignorance and anti-fundamentalist theme would be loved? [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/your-personal-favourite-discworld-book/714940.md?page=4)