Discworld - Where to start?

Books, comics, TV, music
1

I knew this was a venerable series, but a quick trip to the wiki article for it had my head spinning. I am not sure I would like it enough to buy all of the kajillion novels, but I do like reading in the proper order, whatever that is. A subset would be fine, like something that just covers Rincewind.

Even better would be an Omnibus collection that doesn’t cost $60 used and is available on Amazon. Cheaper is better, except when it’s only a few dollars more for the difference between a shitty mass market paperback and a quality bound paperback book. Normally I do this research myself but the 100+ choices on Amazon are defeating me soundly, and I was hoping somebody else was familiar enough to do a quick recommendation.

2

I would just read them in order. They’re all very quick reads. If you did want to just cover a subset, I would recommend the City Watch ones. The Rincewind books are the weakest IMO. I don’t think there is an omnibus or collected volume or anything like that.

3

I would start with a stand-alone book, like Small Gods or Moving Pictures. Actually, I would just flat out start with Small Gods, because it’s my favourite.

4

I just started at the beginning, long enough to get a basic sense of what was up. Then I moved on to Hogfather, and while it was certainly entertaining, I felt a bit lost, not having read Soul Music first.

5

Excellent recommendation. For me, the weakest are the older books and when he gets carried away with the serializing and recurring characters.

In addition to madkevin’s picks, I’d add Pyramids, and possibly Interesting Times and Soul Music if you find the “historical fiction” novels to your liking. Pyramids was my first real introduction to the books, and is still my favorite (probably a result of nostalgia).

Also, of the arbitrarily defined (by me) stylistically different books that he wrote, I liked Lords and Ladies the best over Strata and Eric (Faust). It has a different tone that I imagine not that many were receptive to, but I thought it was successful in an odd way that’s tough to put my finger on. Quasi horror humor? I don’t know.

6

Amen.

7

I’ll second Small Gods as a good starting point. I wouldn’t worry too much about reading them in strict chronological order, although it’s probably best to read any given sub-series in order.

There are a couple of important things to realize.

  1. There are several different groups of characters that interact infrequently, and each novel will usually focus on one of them. There’s the witches, the City Watch, the wizards, and Death and his supporting cast. Then there’s also a few stand-alones. Small Gods is a stand-alone with even less connection to the other groups of characters than usual, as it’s the only one (or maybe also Pyramids, can’t remember) that doesn’t take place roughly contemporaneous.

  2. The first book of any given character group is not going to be up to the standard of the later ones. I’d say the witches’ first novel (Wyrd Sisters) is the smoothest transition to the higher quality of the later ones, and the Watch’s (Guards Guards) is the rockiest. Most of the cool elements of the Watch novels, specifically most of the supporting cast and the “fantasy police procedural” element, are less present in that one. I’d actually recommend starting the Watch series with Men At Arms.

Overall, I’d say my favorite series is the Watch (Guards Guards, Men At Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud). Night Watch is hands down my favorite book of the entire series, although it requires the context of the previous novels to appreciate it fully.

The witches (Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, Carpe Jugulum) is probably my second favorite. After that would be the Death series (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, Thief of Time), although I’d ignore the first two here. The Death novels are also a bit more self-contained, and Hogfather might be a nice place to start overall, since it’s essentially a Christmas story.

My least favorite series is the Rincewind novels (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, Interesting Times, The Last Continent). I do rather like the supporting wizard cast, who are only present in the last two. They also show up in Soul Music, Hogfather, and Lords and Ladies. I’d say to skip the first four here.

As for the stand-alones, I wouldn’t bother with any of them (except maybe Small Gods) until you’ve gotten into the setting a bit. Most of them are decent, though not outstanding. The last few (specifically The Truth, Going Postal, and Making Money) have focused a bit on fleshing out the city of Ankh-Morpork, so if you finish the Watch novels and want more of the city they’re a good place to get it.

So here’s my recommendations for places to start:

  1. Hogfather (one of the best, not dependent on others, and seasonal to boot)
  2. Men At Arms (if a mystery/cop novel in a fantasy setting sounds good, check this one out)
  3. Small Gods (a good introduction to the cosmology, completely self-sufficient)
  4. Wyrd Sisters (yay witches)
8

I’ve kind of grown up with Discworld - I caught up in about 1990 when I was eleven (about the time of Moving Pictures), and have read along ever since. That said, even at that age, he didn’t really start to get funny until Mort. The first two are really only funny if you’ve read enough of now out-of-print swords and sorcery stuff such as Fafhrd etc

9

And see, as an old guy that read all that old school fantasy stuff, my take is that it is imperative to read all the books in publication order, if for no other reason than because each book builds on the previous one. Many (if not all) the characters are parodies or twisted versions of characters found in most standard fantasy novels combined with whatever current social trend Pratchett felt like mocking at the time. Reading all the books is like reading the world’s largest satirical work.

10

I thought the first couple of Rincewind books were pretty funny, and I loved how they really tore into the fantasy archetypes. The further ones were ok, and they wrapped up a few loose ends, but they didn’t have the same oomph.

The Watch set is neat, but I feel like it’d be tough to grasp the whole idea of the City if you started with them, what with how much it changes throughout the Watch books. And since the City is the single most important character, you kind of want to get that down.

11

I all my vote to the “Start with Small Gods, avoid Rincewind, and read sub-series in order” recommendations.

And, as Funkula pointed out, you really can’t beat the Watch books.

If you must read them chronologically then I’d start with Small Gods, go forward a bit, then dive back.

That said, the first time through I went in strict order, and enjoyed them all.

12

See, one important thing (that I think got brought up in an earlier thread about this very topic) is that parody and satire can be quite distinct from one another. For the first few novels, Pratchett was writing parody of fantasy tropes, and it was when he shifted to social satire that the series really became worthwhile.

13

Thanks guys, just ordered Small Gods and will take it from there.

14

Probably because you skipped the first one (Equal Rites).

15

Well, it has Granny in it, but not Nanny, Magrat, or Verence, and it takes place away from Lancre. I would call it more of a stand-alone with a connection to the witches’ series (like Moving Pictures is to the wizards).

16

I’d say start with Guards Guards (8th book) because that is the first book on the city watch series. The fantastic Reaper Man (11), Small Gods (13), Men at Arms (15), and Feet of Clay (19) are after that.

I read Guards! Guards! first in 1989 then read 1-7, and 9-36. Actually, I take that back. You should read Mort (4) cause it is the first novel that focuses on one of the most AWESOME CHARACTERS EVER SEE WHAT I DID THERE? I SUPPOSE THEN YOU SHOULD READ THE BEGINNING FIRST.

17

mort is a great place to start

as is Guards! Guards! I love the Vimes stories.

18

I jumped aboard the Discworld train last year. I did what I pretty much have to do given my personality: I started from the beginning, with Colour of Magic, then plowed through a ton of them (but not all yet).

I’m happy I started from the beginning. Yes, the books do get progressively better, but there are some references that build upon one another, plus, I also like watching Pratchett’s skill and confidence grow. There’s nothing at all wrong with starting with one of the later, awesome ones, but if you do get hooked, then I’d go back and start with #1!

(And yes Mort is excellent, so if you didn’t want to go all the way back to 1, at least start here!)

19

It’s been far too long since I’ve read any Discworld novels (though not since I’ve purchased them), but I seem to recall most, if not all, of the Death-centric books are choice.

20

This is one of those series where I really, really recommend making use of a good library if you possibly can. It’s enormous, and unless you really fall in love with his writing (not impossible, certainly) I can’t imagine needing to own the whole thing, not to mention what it would cost to stock up.