Hello all,
I'm thinking of spending 2016 reading Terry Pratchett's oeuvre. I've never read any of his books, apart from a couple of short stories and collaborations. But everything I've heard about him suggests I'd enjoy them.
My question is, where should I start? Are the Discworld novels best read in publication order? Or is there one book that serves as the best introduction to the setting?
Are there some books in the series that can/should be skipped? Are there any non-Discworld novels that fans consider essential reading?
Any advice you have would be most appreciated!
|
There are a number of "series" within the Discworld series - for example, the Vimes novels form a sort of series but weren't written as such, but as part of the larger Discworld sequence. Also, the novels are more-or-less self-contained - you can read one and not be disadvantaged by not having read any of the others. That said, some do re-use characters and show some development over time, so it is often good to get in at the beginning of the sub-sequences. But the first book is quite strange, as it is really three novellas tied together and is not a fully mature novel. It's difficult to pick the one you should start with as it depends on what you like. Plus I'm not a dyed-in-the-wool Pratchett enthusiast, so others will have a better idea on the individual novels (since I haven't read even half of them). But you could do worse than "Guards! Guards!" in my opinion.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Meanwhile I hold the "popular" opinion: The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic are weird and nearly impenetrable, especially as an introduction to the series. I suggest starting with book 3 (Which is Sourceror I believe), reading a bit, and then maybe backtracking to those two. They very nearly put me off the series.
Likewise, I'm especially a fan of the Night Watch books, and the ones featuring Moist von Lipwig (Which is Going Postal, Making Money, and Raising Steam).
I don't mind Pratchett's "soapbox". He's an excellent social commentator, and the books remain fun in spite of (or IMHO partly because of) their themes.
| 2 people marked this as a favorite. |
Good Omens is a standalone book and can (and should) be read at any time. Early and often.
The Bromeliad stories are also very good and worth reading independently.
Regarding Discworld specifically, I would skip the first book, The Color of Magic, in its entirety, as the Discworld had not yet jelled when he wrote that. Pick it up later if you feel like it.
Beyond that, I would start with the second book (The Light Fantastic) and read them in order of publication if possible; while there are a number of sub-series (e.g. the Witches stories, the Captain Vimes stories, the Rincewind stories, the Death/Susan stories), they do all tie into each other in increasingly complex ways, and if you want to watch the characters develop in time, it's worth mixing the series.
Within a subseries, though, I'd definitely recommend reading in order. I think my favorite (and among the more accessible) is the Watch Trilogy -- Guards, Guards!; Men at Arms; Feet of Clay.
|
|
Without wishing to create controversy, I didn't find The Colour of Magic or The Light Fantastic impenetrable - they are quite readable. But like I said, The Colour of Magic isn't really a novel but three novellas and not really representative of the other books in structure. The Light Fantastic IS a proper novel, but since it follows on from The Colour of Magic you would probably need to read that first (contradicting what I said before). But in many ways it is certainly true that there are more representative books to start with rather than those two.
Ook!
The Light Fantastic IS a proper novel, but since it follows on from The Colour of Magic you would probably need to read that first (contradicting what I said before).
I disagree, and in fact, my introduction to Pratchett was through The Light Fantastic. The story is self-contained and the characters and setting are reintroduced, so there's really nothing needed from the first book.
While it's true that The Light Fantastic is somewhat unrepresentative of Pratchett's later work, that is (in my opinion) because it's a much more typical sword-and-sorcery novel set in a generic fantasy universe than the much more technological and socially developed Discworld that appeared in the later books.
One of the strengths of the Discworld books (IMHO) is the recognition that technology shapes society in a way that magic confined to the hands of a few wizards will not. Many of the middle-and-later books explore this effect;
If you like, you can think of it this way -- Discworld starts out as Robert Howard's Conan the Barbarian series, and ends up as K. W. Jeter's Infernal Devices, with a very satisfying progression between them (in my opinion, of course).
My suggestion would be to pick one of the internal series and read all of that line. The Guards line, the Witches, Death, Rincewind/The Wizards, or Moist.
The majority of these are fairly contained and only cross characters a few times (Death shows up all over, for example). Some of the stand alone books (Pyramids, Small Gods, etc) are ok, but IMO to get a good grip on the world I'd read something like all the Guard books -- it stays around the main city, it shows most of the tech advancements, it stays with the same set of characters and builds them well.
|
I would recommend reading some of his non-Discowrld stuff first. As Orfamay says, Good Omens (written with Neil Gaimen) is a stand alone book and one I've reread several times.
I would recommend reading Discowrld in order, but the first two (The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic) would be the two I'd skip as they're not as developed as the others. Plus Rincewind has never been my favourite character and they both star him so take that for what it's worth.
Small Gods and Pyramids are both essentially stand alone books within the greater Discworld series if you want to dip your toe into it. Their charqacters do not really reoccur, although Omnians do crop up more freqnetly after Small Gods. However, I'd stil recommend starting at the beginning and moving forward.
It depends what you think you might like to get out of reading him. Are you a completist? or do you like funny books? Or reflections on aging, life, theology etc? He's capable of all the above.
I agree with the comments above about the first two books, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic; he was learning his craft there, and they don't have the depth of thought or control of narrative found in his later writing. The first book in particular is a (funny, and mischievous) demolition of some well-known fantasy writers - Fritz Leiber, Anne McAffrey, H.P.Lovecraft, etc. For what it's worth, I'd skip the first two, Sourcery, and Eric, but all the rest are good or better. Some are glorious and I re-read them several times.
I'd suggest starting with book 3, Equal Rites, and moving on from there. Perhaps try one from each of the major lines - The Guards, the Witches, Death, Rincewind/The Wizards, Moist, Tiffany etc to see what you like. You don't have to read them in order, particularly, though you'd see the city of Ankh develop if you did.
My favourites: Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords & Ladies, Maskerade, Feet of Clay. (unashamed lover of the Witches)
I second the recommendation for Good Omens (and Neil Gaiman), and I wonder if you've thought of Terry Pratchett's children's books? He did a loosely linked Trilogy, starting with Only you can save mankind, which are not set in the Discworld, and a cracking one-off The amazing Maurice and his educated rodents, which is.
I didn't know the man, though I met him occasionally on a signing tour. But when he died, I felt a little shiver of sadness; we lost someone who brought a little light into our world by showing us a different one.
I find that the first 2 books are tough to get into, but good books on the whole. I would recommend starting with "Equal Rites," "Mort," or "Guards, Guards!" to get into Pratchett's world, and then go back to the first 2 books. They are good stories but Pratchett was certainly still figuring out his writing style for the series at the time.
Also, I third the recommendation for Good Omens.
The first Discworld book I ever read was Thief of Time, and it was pretty sweet.
You can read everything in order of publication just fine, actually. But yeah, The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic are very different books from the rest of the series.
(They also follow Rincewind, who's my least favorite of all of the "main" characters. Though the Rincewood book Interesting Times is among my favorites in the entire series)
My initial suggestions would be
(1) Death series (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, and Thief of Time);
(2) Vimes series (Guards! Guards!, Men-at-Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud!, Snuff)
(3) The Witches series (Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Carpe Jugulum)
(4) Tiffany series (The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight, The Shepherd's Crown)
There's also a number of pretty significant stand alone books, like Small Gods or The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents or The Truth.
My personal favorites in the series, in no particular order, include:
1) Hogfather
2) A Hat Full of Sky
3) The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
4) Pretty much everything with Vimes; the Watch in general are fantastic characters
5) Lords and Ladies
6) Interesting Times
7) The Shepherd's Crown
Re: the preachiness that Bjorn mentioned - well, one, Sir Pratchett was un-apologetically liberal. Second, after his Early Onset Alzheimer's diagnosis, his books changed a bit in tone - I believe part of it was that he wrote every book as though it was his last, because it quite possibly was.
And yeah, check out Good Omens.
I also recently read The Long Earth, The Long War, and the Long Mars, which Sir Pratchett co-wrote with Stephen Baxter. They're neat books, though I'm trying to figure out how I'd recommend it.
There's a lot of Alan Dean Foster-ish speculative weirdness going on in those books, which is right up my alley, yet I could see other people being bored to tears to the Long Earth series. So damned if I know.
Not trying to be controversial, but I would say start at the beginning - Colour of magic may be unfinished but a lot of ideas that come up in later books are introduced right from the start. It is not THAT hard to read after all. I don't really see the point of readig the light fantastic first which is the second of a two part story...
Just to give an alternative take - have you considered the audio books - Steven Briggs really is an awesome narrator.
On reading them by theme/character set - beware of this as the characters to cross over between series and events are sometimes referred to in other themes, particularly events from the Guards series in Ankh Morpork. My advice would be to read them in order of publishing. You'll have a ball.
My favourites were Feet of Clay and Unseen Academicals. And Monstrous Regiment. And Reaper Man. And Guards! Guards! And The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (Although technically a children's story).
In general, you can read any of the books in any order. Start at the beginning if you want. Otherwise, start anywhere.
For his non Discworld books, I enjoyed Strata and The Carpet People.
My first Pratchett book was 'Guards! Guards!'. I was hooked. My second pickup was Reaper man, also loved it. After that i tried to get them in order of original release but that wasn't always possible.
There are a lot of nice volumes in his series that can be read as stand-alones, but in the long run i like the extra context of knowing what happened previously when a recurring character makes an appearance.
Ultimately even though the first two books i found a bit more hard to read then the rest, i will recommend reading in order. Think of the First one as a pebble rolling downhill and causing an avalanche as it goes. ;)
|
|
My first Pratchett book was "Reaper Man." I hadn't even heard of any of the others at the time, but there was nothing in it that you had to know from prior books: it was enjoyable on its own.
Like the rest of Pratchett, it is full of pop-culture references. In "Reaper Man" it does help if you've seen zombie movies or have a passing familiarity with George Romero's oeuvre.
Good Omens is probably one of my favorite Pratchett books. It's not a Discworld book but it's wonderfully funny and raises some interesting ideas about Heaven Hell and the End of the World.
|
I am a big fan of the earliest books, "The Color of Magic" and "The Light Fantastic". Many fans think he got better as he went on, and that may be true about his writing, but I think the earliest Discworld books are generally better than the later ones.
Mostly because the world isn't defined yet, and things can be thrown in there for a laugh (and making fun of fantasy tropes or specific works of fiction) without regard for consistency or what has come before.
Later works become increasingly soapboxy. He was always a bit preachy but as time wore on it became more and more thinly veiled, to the detriment of fun. Especially "Jingo" and on suffer from this. Not that there aren't enjoyable books beyond this point or that there are ones that are not worth reading, but the ones I reread are the earlier ones.What I call Golden Age DW include "Pyramids", "Small Gods" and "Reaper Man" and a few others and are possibly the best, where he has a solid grasp of what he wants to do, the writing skills necessary to pull it off and enough blank canvas in the Disk to play freely and no need to reference any other characters or events in the other books. SG especially is preachy but he pulls it off very well, probably better than anywhere else.
"Night Watch" is one I've seen held up as a favorite ,or near favorite, by a number of other people. It is good, though not as good as the others I've mentioned.
I would recommend one of these. Pyramids is a stand-alone which leans on well-known tropes (ancient egypt, assassins, private education) so feels like an easy way into the Discworld and Pratchett's style.
You can read everything in order of publication just fine, actually. But yeah, The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic are very different books from the rest of the series.
(They also follow Rincewind, who's my least favorite of all of the "main" characters. Though the Rincewood book Interesting Times is among my favorites in the entire series)
My initial suggestions would be
(1) Death series (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, and Thief of Time);
(2) Vimes series (Guards! Guards!, Men-at-Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud!, Snuff)
(3) The Witches series (Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Carpe Jugulum)
(4) Tiffany series (The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight, The Shepherd's Crown)
...
And yeah, check out Good Omens.
Pretty much this, word for word. I started with Vimes's and the Witches' series then went through the others.
I'd recommend reading the first book in each series, seeing if you like the main character(s) and their supporting casts, then continue the series if you do, move on to another if you don't.
|
|
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
I think you can't go wrong with starting by reading Guards! Guards!. The Watch is a great sub-series, and I think many consider it to be either the best or strongly competing with the best.
Personally though I don't like the idea of reading all books in a sub-series in a row. While this allows for greater consistency in tone, it might actually go too far - certain themes and jokes recur often in each series and you might grow a bit tired of them if you bing through them like that.
Each of the sub series has a different style and focus:
The Watch - a series about politics and social issues.
Witches - a series about stories and legends, how we tell them and what they mean.
Death - a series about grand philosophical ideas and cosmic forces.
Rincewind - a series about the classic tropes of sword and sorcery.
Von Lipwig - a series about technological progress and it's implications.
standalones - various topics such as tradition, religion, Hollywood, and others.
Each of those series is brilliant in it's way, they are all incredibly fun and incredibly funny. Mix and match them according to your current state of mind, and try to not stray too far from order of publication - this page can be *really* helpful with that.
Another piece of advice for someone starting on Terry Pratchett is to come in knowing that while you are settling in for a genuinely hilarious read, the books themselves are not always lighthearted and some series topics are examined and discussed. Characters die, bad things happen and you will be holding your breath with tension and musing at the new ideas and wisdom in the books even as you smile, remembering that really good pun about werewolves. Part of what makes Pratchett so good is that his books have actual substance to go along with the funny bits.
Thud! is a good example of one that gets INTENSE at certain parts.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You've all made good arguments, but people - it's almost Christmas, clearly he should start with Hogfather.
| 1 person marked this as a favorite. |
You've all made good arguments, but people - it's almost Christmas, clearly he should start with Hogfather.
HO. HO. HO.
Thanks for your feedback, one and all!
Based on the range of replies here, I can tell I have a lot of options, most of which will still yield a satisfying reading experience. That's great, since I live in a small community and may not have ready access to the books in a specific order.
Soon, I'll head to my public library, and see which of the novels mentioned above I can check out to begin my exploration of Discworld.
Thanks again!
Discworld as it became started with book six, Wyrd sisters. I thoroughly enjoyed the earlier books too, but they are a bit more particular, and you don't lose much from waiting a while to read them. Also, Good omens, which has nothing to do with Discworld, is still an awesome book.