If you haven't read a Discworld book I'm going to throw my vote behind Guards! Guards! as a great starting point.
I re-read it recently and it was even better than I remember it being when I first read it as a teenager - I think because my extra life experience meant that I understood the themes of the novel more. Incredibly insightful social commentary.
I will seconds Guards! Guards! it's what I always suggest to friends as a starting point and it leads more naturally into a coherent series as you follow Vimes and the city watch - as an alternative the witches are quite hilarious especially if you're familiar with Shakespeare (a particularly good one here might be Lords and Ladies). The Lipwig books are also quite excellent featuring a lot of most folks favorite characters but I think they work better if you're familiar with the setting.
Lastly, I think a really good shout out is Monstrous Regiment which is absolutely hilarious, especially if you don't know the characters and just incredibly wholesome.
Vimes is my favourite character arc; I don't always rate Guards Guards but it is essential entry to Night Watch (IMO one of the best books).
Also a shout out for underrated options; Soul Music (great tag line, lovely observational comedy) and Carpe Jugulum (some fan favourite characters, but also one of my fav bit-part characters - Lacrimosa)
Monstrous Regiment was my first one! It's nice as a standalone book and I think really shows off the compassionate satire that the essay is talking about
Guards! Guards! is great, but the thing about Pratchett is that his writing got significantly better every few books until the very end of his life. Later entries in the series -- Night Watch and Thud! -- are much better.
As such, I'd recommend Going Postal as the entry point for the uninitiated.
Men at Arms (the direct followup to Guards! Guards!) was my first Pratchett book and really had me hooked. I think any of the Vimes-centric books are great starting points, because the detective mystery style of plotting keeps the pages at a steady balance of exposition and development. The books focused on witches, wizards and religion can be too on-the-nose, and the ones that use more abstract themes or go deep into one character are easier to grasp after having that entry point of Vimes chasing after a villain.
I actually rather disliked Thud!; it feels like it's another "what if guns were evil demons that possessed you?" book like Men at Arms (but this time it's the concept of revenge? or something?), with an added layer of "what if racism was bad?", and in the end it felt like he'd forgotten to write any jokes.
To balance out this non-progressive take, Vimes' character arc is "what if a good cop made cops good?", which probably wouldn't work in real life.
I kind of feel that you need to read the Colour of Magic to get a proper introduction to the Discworld itself though (just ignore the story though, it's rather flimsy), but it might not be necessary to read it first.
> [M]y vote behind Guards! Guards! as a great starting point.
That was my introduction, when it came out, but I recommend Hogfather to most as it captures the wide breadth of his writing. There's a lot of great comedy in it, but also some serious and scary moments.
I've read the Tiffany Aching books aloud to both my daughter and my son and they both loved them.
Partly (mostly?) for the spectacle of me trying to read a Nac Mac Feegle accent :)
FWIW I only recently learned that "crivens" is maybe a real expression, a much-shortened form of "Christ defend us". In the same way as "God blind me" reduces to "blimey"...
I would recommend any Discworld book wholeheartedly, anything with Rincewind is hilarious (The last continent is a favorite of mine), also I think Moving Pictures is pretty interesting commentary on modern entertainment. I read them all over a decade ago and some of the lines I remember still make me chuckle. EDIT: Also the movie(s) Going Postal are great..."The Smoking Gnu" :)
The main problem with Rincewind is that the entry point for his story is The Color of Magic+The Light Fantastic, which as the first two Discworld novels are much weaker than later books in the series. Guards Guards is just a much better first book to read, that or Equal Rites is more representative of the quality Discworld would come to have.
Then again my first Discworld novel was Making Money and I loved it even without context (and the “Industrial Revolution” sub-series starting with moving pictures remains my favorite to this day), so you could probably just start at Sourcery and go from there anyway.
My first was Reaper Man, which isn't a bad place to start. Better from a context point of view to start with Mort perhaps, but not necessary.
His take on Death often fills the role of the outsider, trying to understand us and by doing so exposing our oddities, much like Data in Trek and other such characters. Possibly that is why the books that feature him heavily are some of my favourites.
Guards! Guards! is excellent. I'd vote for Wyrd Sisters too.
Incidentally, I think the Wyrd Sisters cartoon is the most successful Discworld adaptation (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyrd_Sisters_(TV_series)). I must admit, I've not tried the recent series based (very loosely it seems) on Guards! Guards! I don't what to be That Fan who says they got everything wrong but...
Tried watching the recent series ("The watch"). Not Pratchett.
I hesitate to use the word "unwatchable", but this series comes close. It is both an awful adaptation of the Discworld universe—and awful even otherwise.
The very first words I new of Guards Guards were read to me by Pratchett at a small con in London (at Imperial College?) before the book was published. And before he was super famous. The room wasn’t even full
As a long time Pratchett enjoyer I thought it was pretty well done, it certainly wasn't a screen version of Guards! Guards! but it was pretty clearly inspired by it and, honestly, it managed to bring humor of its own right to the party.
I certainly wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to Pratchett but it is quite Pratchett adjacent.
Small Gods is the one I managed to get signed. A bookshop in Dorchester, and Pratchett gave an excellent talk before. I say "managed to get signed", though the joke at one point was Pratchett signed so many books, unsigned copies were the rare ones.
> “At least you can say that in Pratchett’s books, the bloody elves never sang!”
Terry Pratchett I think is one of my favourite writers to read. The absurdity of his fantasy settings is just the right level of entertaining for me. Everything flows so smoothly that I sometimes get the subtle jokes only on my second read-through.
There are many many jokes that are so obscure as to be almost impossible for non-British readers to discover. A trip through the l-space wiki will point out many (and there’s some I’ve noticed that aren’t listed there).
Anytime something is named, it’s probably a joke or reference of some sort.
It’s also quite fun how many of the “inpossible” setups or situations are just literally copies of real-life stories.
For a modern and non-British take on this genre I would strongly recommend The Tales of Pell by Kevin Hearne and Delilah S. Dawson, if anyone’s looking. It’s got that same vibe of absurdist humor with real life references in a fantasy setting. The politics are less about class and more about identity.
Last Continent instead makes a lot of Australia jokes. Though the first one I remember is the brewery built on the opposite of an ancient sacred site which the aboriginal peoples actively wanted desecrated.
As a kid I somehow stumbled into Discworld first by playing the point-and-click PC game where Rincewind was voiced by Eric Idle (probably after much fumbling through soundcards settings). This is how I discovered the book series and have been a fan ever since. Such amazing books on so many levels!
Same for me! Except I played it on PS1. I didn’t find out about the book series until like 10 years after. For better or for worse I now have a picture in my brain for Rincewind, Twoflower, and The Luggage purely based on the game. But still love it.
I believe that Sir Terry was probably one of the greatest humans to walk the Earth. Not only was his work wonderful, but he was a really decent chap, as well.
Humble, well-educated, polite, honest, and, from everything I've heard, a joy to work with.
I had been to two book signings of his and had a chanse to listen to him answering q&a session, reading his book and telling some stories (and even talk for a brief moment when my friends from local fun club tried to ask him for interview).
I must say that he seemd to be everything You are saying he was and more (the way he declined my friends was so humble and honest that You could feel that he genuinly felt sorry that he did not have more time for them).
I also saw his awesome ring with death on it. Im not much into mens jewelery but this things was honestly amezing (speaking as a discworld fun of course)
If you're not aware of it, the Annotated Pratchett File¹ is a joy for the dedicated Pratchett reader. It collates explanations and observations on the many, many well-layered jokes in his works. I read a lot and felt like I was getting some pretty obscure jokes, but the APF opened my eyes to historical and cultural allusions that had whooshed en masse over my head! I'm in awe at Terry's erudition. I wish he was still around writing for us :'(
To truly get every joke you need a very in-depth knowledge of ancient, medieval, and modern history and literature. Even his basic puns often as not pull from famous European poetry or art.
The obvious send-ups are east to identify but reading through APF gives you the full depth, and it’s pretty incredible.
One thing that surprises me whenever Discworld comes up is that nobody ever mentions Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. I get that it doesn't really tie into any of the other story arcs, but it is indeed a Discworld book (the 28th). It's also one of the few that was intentionally written for children.
I read it with my 11 year old daughter and was expecting it to be fairly ho hum, but was absolutely blown away by the story and the satire.
Not only do I highly, highly recommend it for reading with children, it's absolutely a great read for adults.
I agree. I’m a big fan of the DEATH story arc, but outside of Mort and Reaper Man, Amazing Maurice might be my favorite book in the series. So very well written and felt like Pratchett was at his best.
I quite love that story and at least my age says I am an adult. Very recently I wrote a short (~320 words) review of it in preparation for my English C2 exam and it even was fun to write about it :)
I love Terry Pratchett. I have read (and reread and reread) nearly everything he has written. His early works were more monty-pythonesque than his later ones (less plot, more random hillarity). I advise against a "let's start from the beginning and read to the end" strategy where Color of Magic or the Light Fantistic were your starters.
Pratchett is a superb satirist (Vonnegut is the only equal I have discovered). His dialog is great. There are so many chuckle worthy moments. And then there are just really deep profound moments as well. You can read them in any order. There are reappearing characters, but each book stands on its own. They focus more on immediate content than overall plot arcs. The more you soak yourself in discworld in general, in any order, the funnier and more rewarding it all gets.
The book that has the most cross over with the reasons we all post to HN is probably Going Postal, because it satirizes the world of information dispersal. Who owns the content? Who gets to be the gatekeepers, etc.
If you like Monty Python style humor, you'll probably enjoy those that have Rincewind and/or the Unseen University the most.
I love any of the books with Death in it (Hogfather, Reaper Man, Mort, Soul Music, Thief of Time).
My son loved all of the Sam Vimes books. If you love police/detective stuff, this is for you.
If you want a little more plot, the Tiffany Aching series has that. Read all of these aloud (multiple times) to all of 3 of my girls.
I don't even know how best to introduce/characterize/promote The Witches (Weatherwax, Ogg, et al). If you value common sense and wish there were more of it in the world?
If you couldn't be bothered to read, then watch the BBC mini series "Good Omens", it's on Prime. It's derived from a book of the same name written by Pratchett and Gaiman (though I think Terry did most of it, since it feels much more Pratchett than Gaiman to me). And they did a superb job of adapting and staying true to the book.
> If you couldn't be bothered to read, then watch the BBC mini series "Good Omens", it's on Prime. It's derived from a book of the same name written by Pratchett and Gaiman (though I think Terry did most of it, since it feels much more Pratchett than Gaiman to me). And they did a superb job of adapting and staying true to the book.
I'm not sure I agree. I find the book definitely has a clear signature of both authors, which makes it so great. I love Pratchett and some of Gaiman works are absolutely genius (although I find that unlike Pratchett reading a book from him is not guaranteed to appeal to me, even for his popular books), so this combination is just a dream team, the only way it could be topped is if their story was published in an anthology edited by George RR Martin).
Discworld was a real joy of mine in my early teens. I think some of my early computing forays including a Discworld mailing list I found on a webring via Yahoo or somewhere. I had the Discworld official map on my wall and used to love getting the editions printed as tiny hardbacks.
Probably my favourite sub-series was the Witches and Nanny Ogg. As I caught up to the newer books I found myself enjoying them less because it felt like there was more and more philosophising. Probably what happened was that they got a bit more sophisticated and I was too immature to understand many of the themes and allusions.
Time to start working through them all then! I recently reread Colour of Magic and it was enjoyable but also clearly had far too much going on.
Either Pyramids or Moving Pictures was the only one that I really struggled to enjoy for some reason.
> it felt like there was more and more philosophising
If you're referring to the much-later books like Unseen Academicals, then sadly I think Terry's alzheimers affliction was probably to blame. As I understand it he reached a point where he was no longer able to type, but could still dictate. Certainly somewhere in that process they lost the tautness of the earlier works. Something to enjoy still (for me) but not quite the glittering jewels of his intellectual peak.
I own the full set of books, and I have to say that Unseen Academicals is such a chore to read that I've only finished it twice.
Quality varied throughout the run, but that was the only one that I actively didn't like. Even the last few, getting simpler, or more verbose, didn't bother me as much as that one did.
Yes, from Making Money onwards I think. I haven’t actually read the most recent few because of that. It’s a shame to hear that but still, what a body of work to leave.
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I re-read it recently and it was even better than I remember it being when I first read it as a teenager - I think because my extra life experience meant that I understood the themes of the novel more. Incredibly insightful social commentary.
Lastly, I think a really good shout out is Monstrous Regiment which is absolutely hilarious, especially if you don't know the characters and just incredibly wholesome.
Also a shout out for underrated options; Soul Music (great tag line, lovely observational comedy) and Carpe Jugulum (some fan favourite characters, but also one of my fav bit-part characters - Lacrimosa)
As such, I'd recommend Going Postal as the entry point for the uninitiated.
To balance out this non-progressive take, Vimes' character arc is "what if a good cop made cops good?", which probably wouldn't work in real life.
That was my introduction, when it came out, but I recommend Hogfather to most as it captures the wide breadth of his writing. There's a lot of great comedy in it, but also some serious and scary moments.
Partly (mostly?) for the spectacle of me trying to read a Nac Mac Feegle accent :)
FWIW I only recently learned that "crivens" is maybe a real expression, a much-shortened form of "Christ defend us". In the same way as "God blind me" reduces to "blimey"...
Then again my first Discworld novel was Making Money and I loved it even without context (and the “Industrial Revolution” sub-series starting with moving pictures remains my favorite to this day), so you could probably just start at Sourcery and go from there anyway.
His take on Death often fills the role of the outsider, trying to understand us and by doing so exposing our oddities, much like Data in Trek and other such characters. Possibly that is why the books that feature him heavily are some of my favourites.
It’s definitely one of the most Pratchett-y but not necessarily one I would recommend to read first.
Incidentally, I think the Wyrd Sisters cartoon is the most successful Discworld adaptation (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wyrd_Sisters_(TV_series)). I must admit, I've not tried the recent series based (very loosely it seems) on Guards! Guards! I don't what to be That Fan who says they got everything wrong but...
1. Points off if you didn't mentally read it as tay-AH-tim.
I hesitate to use the word "unwatchable", but this series comes close. It is both an awful adaptation of the Discworld universe—and awful even otherwise.
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It was the bit about a million-to-one chance
It will leave scars...
I certainly wouldn't recommend it as an introduction to Pratchett but it is quite Pratchett adjacent.
i love Small Gods as a starter novel because it is pretty self contained.
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Terry Pratchett I think is one of my favourite writers to read. The absurdity of his fantasy settings is just the right level of entertaining for me. Everything flows so smoothly that I sometimes get the subtle jokes only on my second read-through.
Anytime something is named, it’s probably a joke or reference of some sort.
It’s also quite fun how many of the “inpossible” setups or situations are just literally copies of real-life stories.
Same for me! Except I played it on PS1. I didn’t find out about the book series until like 10 years after. For better or for worse I now have a picture in my brain for Rincewind, Twoflower, and The Luggage purely based on the game. But still love it.
Humble, well-educated, polite, honest, and, from everything I've heard, a joy to work with.
I also saw his awesome ring with death on it. Im not much into mens jewelery but this things was honestly amezing (speaking as a discworld fun of course)
¹https://www.lspace.org/books/apf/
To truly get every joke you need a very in-depth knowledge of ancient, medieval, and modern history and literature. Even his basic puns often as not pull from famous European poetry or art.
The obvious send-ups are east to identify but reading through APF gives you the full depth, and it’s pretty incredible.
I read it with my 11 year old daughter and was expecting it to be fairly ho hum, but was absolutely blown away by the story and the satire.
Not only do I highly, highly recommend it for reading with children, it's absolutely a great read for adults.
Pratchett is a superb satirist (Vonnegut is the only equal I have discovered). His dialog is great. There are so many chuckle worthy moments. And then there are just really deep profound moments as well. You can read them in any order. There are reappearing characters, but each book stands on its own. They focus more on immediate content than overall plot arcs. The more you soak yourself in discworld in general, in any order, the funnier and more rewarding it all gets.
The book that has the most cross over with the reasons we all post to HN is probably Going Postal, because it satirizes the world of information dispersal. Who owns the content? Who gets to be the gatekeepers, etc.
If you like Monty Python style humor, you'll probably enjoy those that have Rincewind and/or the Unseen University the most.
I love any of the books with Death in it (Hogfather, Reaper Man, Mort, Soul Music, Thief of Time).
My son loved all of the Sam Vimes books. If you love police/detective stuff, this is for you.
If you want a little more plot, the Tiffany Aching series has that. Read all of these aloud (multiple times) to all of 3 of my girls.
I don't even know how best to introduce/characterize/promote The Witches (Weatherwax, Ogg, et al). If you value common sense and wish there were more of it in the world?
If you couldn't be bothered to read, then watch the BBC mini series "Good Omens", it's on Prime. It's derived from a book of the same name written by Pratchett and Gaiman (though I think Terry did most of it, since it feels much more Pratchett than Gaiman to me). And they did a superb job of adapting and staying true to the book.
I'm not sure I agree. I find the book definitely has a clear signature of both authors, which makes it so great. I love Pratchett and some of Gaiman works are absolutely genius (although I find that unlike Pratchett reading a book from him is not guaranteed to appeal to me, even for his popular books), so this combination is just a dream team, the only way it could be topped is if their story was published in an anthology edited by George RR Martin).
Probably my favourite sub-series was the Witches and Nanny Ogg. As I caught up to the newer books I found myself enjoying them less because it felt like there was more and more philosophising. Probably what happened was that they got a bit more sophisticated and I was too immature to understand many of the themes and allusions.
Time to start working through them all then! I recently reread Colour of Magic and it was enjoyable but also clearly had far too much going on.
Either Pyramids or Moving Pictures was the only one that I really struggled to enjoy for some reason.
If you're referring to the much-later books like Unseen Academicals, then sadly I think Terry's alzheimers affliction was probably to blame. As I understand it he reached a point where he was no longer able to type, but could still dictate. Certainly somewhere in that process they lost the tautness of the earlier works. Something to enjoy still (for me) but not quite the glittering jewels of his intellectual peak.
Quality varied throughout the run, but that was the only one that I actively didn't like. Even the last few, getting simpler, or more verbose, didn't bother me as much as that one did.