My friends spent years trying to get me into the series and Night Watch was what pulled me in.
My experience of reading most of them has been that the earlier ones are more parody and while clever don’t have as distinct a voice.
I think Small Gods is the strongest of the early ones and is likely the best “taste test” for reading earlier and later in the oeuvre.
Of the various sub-lines of the novels, my experience is that Jingo, Fifth Elephant, and Night Watch are the strong central pivot and make it worthwhile to read through the Guard novels, the Industrial Revolution novels and the Death novels. The Witch novels and Tiffany Aching novels are mostly their own thing and were more hit or miss for me. Mostly those were hits though. The Rincewind novels never sang for me. The early ones were too parodic and Rincewind never held my attention or sympathy.
Structurally I encourage reading at least one of them (Probably Small Gods) because diving into a book with no chapters as a modern novel reader is a different feeling and, I think, a pleasant sensation.
Thanks, everyone! Decided to take a punt on it; sounds like there’s more going on than I thought, and even if I don’t love them it’s hard to argue with the price.
The first couple are pretty much parodies of fantasy fiction with clever jokes.
The rest are awesome with real biting satire - you can read each one 10 times and still spot something new. I have 17 recorded reads for Nightwatch, for example
I don’t really have, like, collectibles? But a buddy bought this for me a week before Sir Pratchett went to the big turtle in the sky, and it is probably my single “most important” belonging.
I finally finished Bonehunters (Malazan 6) and have begun Reapers Gale. Oh the drama of the Bonehunters… the tragedy. I love this one for how much Cotillion and Shadowthrone are actually interfering. . This was the book that kicked me out of my previous reread. I admit to just skimming some of the fight scenes. Too much detail. Still I don’t know how else one would write this. I had forgotten that this one revealed why Fiddler is really called that. And the end is so very chilling with how history is being rewritten by those seeking to save themselves…
there is still much to laugh… Everytime Karsa appears. Bottle is also good for some funny interludes or Hellian and her squad.
They’re great. Quality does fluctuate across the series and between the characters - there are 7 or 8 main groups who get their own books, so it can be further broken down into a load of mini series. You can just read the ones to do with a certain character, there’s not much in the way of chronology/continuity between the mini-series, only within each mini-series. Characters do show up in other characters’ books, but it’s done in a fairly sitcom way, where it’s useful to know their character archetype but the details of their previous stories are irrelevant.
I would recommend reading a miniseries in order rather than reading all the entire franchise in order. It’s more manageable and flows a lot better (less jumping around). Colour of Magic is notoriously a bit hard going, and you get a more immediate sense of how his writing style refines over time. Personally I think his later work is a lot better, but it’ll take you years to get there if you read the entire franchise. It’s easy to Google each mini-series for what books to read. Some books are more standalone (same characters as the other books but not so much of a connecting thread), but if you enjoy the mini-series it’s easy to Google which are the best books of the others.
The great/phenomenal ones IMO are: The Watchmen - Satirising policing and bureaucracy. Veers into satirising politics and international affairs in some of the later books.
Guards Guards - the quintessential discworld book IMO
Men at Arms
Feet of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
Night Watch
Thud!
Snuff!
Moist Von Lipwig - one of the last characters to get his own miniseries. Satirising setting up systems/institutions based on the real-life history of those institutions
Going Postal
Making Money
Raising Steam
The Death books are okay, but a bit overhyped IMO. Great character but the stories never quite live up to the premise (Eric and Reaper Man are probably the best of his). Rincewind and the Witches always fell flat with me, but I haven’t read them since I was a teenager (Equal Rites is great though). I wish I loved the Rincewind books more because the games were so great. The Unseen University characters are great, but they tend to show up in other people’s stories and don’t have many of their own
I had three friends try at least five times to start me with Guards! Guards! over seven years and I bounced off it each time. It’s still early enough in what he was doing that there’s a fair bit of parody in it to wade through.
I guess all I’m saying is that if anyone going through this thread bounces off with that as an intro, do try elsewhere. It was better for me going back to it from later in the series.
This may be harsh but for me reading order with Discworld mattered to make the weaker ones better rather than adding much to the ones I found great.
I have to say, I love the Death books. But my favourites are those with the witches, they all play against each other so well.
I can’t really think of any of the Discworld books I haven’t enjoyed. Maybe Monstrous Regiment, I tried to read it again after I’d seen the play, and it was just hard going, no memorable characters to really get behind.
Just finished listening to The Will of the Many. It doesn’t do anything too special or unique but my word is it good. The story and mysteries are interesting, the pacing is perfect and the characters well rounded if a bit cliched. The magic system is intriquing too.
I whole heartedly recommend it. One of the best books I’ve read in a while. I’m now stuck in limbo waiting for book 2 but I will be getting it on release.
I’m reading (i.e. listening to, which I how I tend to read nowadays) Revelation Space (Alastair Reynolds) aaaand it’s okay but goodness me, a bit of a trudge. I think I was expecting better prose from more modern SF but its a little painful at times. Not sure I’m enjoying it that much but nearly finished it. It may be the uninspriing narration that’s marring the enjoyment for me a little.
I read a few of those but didn’t love them, and the summaries on Wikipedia don’t feel familiar. There was one splendid bit in one book, though:
Spoilery details
An engineer on a near-light-speed ship is being pushed to get the ship closer and closer to c. As he does so, something happens, and he realises a fellow engineer has vanished from history: not only do the rest of the crew not remember her, the ship’s records have a passing mention of her dying before she would have joined the ship. Only he remembers her, because only he was close enough to the drive at the time…
For this I coined the phrase “prompt causality excursion”.
I absolutely blitzed all four of the novels in the Inhibitor Sequence and I’m currently reading Chasm City to cap it all off.
I’ve found most of them pretty easy to read until they inevitably get bogged down in the final few chapters as the author tries to explain some complicated deus ex machina.
Would you recommend persevering if I’m not especially enjoying the first one? It’s okay, but I’m not excited to get back to it. I’ve got a few chapters to go yet. Did you already like them a lot by my stage?
Revelation Space definitely felt stand-alone-ish. As much as the events that started in the first book continue in the second and third books, it’s pretty much a whole new cast of characters to get invested in. As I said earlier in this thread, it doesn’t get wrapped up neatly by the end of the third book. I still found them enjoyable though.
