The Terry Pratchett's Discworld Thread! (albums)

[Guybrush]

.. welcome to ...
The Terry Pratchett's Discworld Thread!

Sorry for the over-the-top, grand opening, but the guy really deserves it. So, if there are any other enjoyers of this fantastic series, let's discuss some Discworld.

Are you a fan? What is your favourite book? Do you have a faovourite character?

I've read all the Discworld books two times or more. I tend to prefer his mid and later stuff because I find them more funny. The humour in the earlier books is a bit more event-driven and the plots are a bit more whimsical. I find the subtler (although not subtle) humour of his a bit more enjoyable. My favourite book out of the series so far I think must be Night Watch with possibly Hoghfather and Jingo coming in as second and third. My favourite character is, predictably I'm sure, is His Grace, The Duke of Ankh, Commander Sir Samuel Vimes.

Anyone else?

[Seltzer]

One of my mates was at me all through high school to read some Terry Pratchett and I didn't get around to it until earlier this year when I bought Thud and now I'm wondering where he has been all my life. Since then I've also read Carpe Jugulum, Feet of Clay and I'm currently ploughing through the Truth. Pratchett has a fantastic sense of humour and limitless creativity. He could write about dumpster bins and I'd still read it.

Being a student, I'm too poor to buy them new from bookshops and I'm constantly scouring Trademe (NZ's auction site) for anything Pratchett but I'm devouring his books faster than I can buy them... so if anyone wants to donate any to me by international post, I'm all ears.

[LoathsomePete]

I've been meaning to read more stuff by him, so far I've just read "We Free Men" and "Mort". I read "Mort" way back in the day, I think 2000 or 2001 when my mom bought it for me because she's such a huge fan of him. In 2007 while working in a kitchen, the cook who trained me would talk to me about his writing after he found out I had read "Mort". Eventually I will get around to reading the rest of his series, however I go through phases where I like to read non-fiction exclusively, and these phases can go on for a year and up.

[Guybrush]

Well, I can help you guys out some. Although chronological order is not very important, things that have happened in one book often carry a bit over into other books. There are different "series" within Discworld of course.

The Watch series starred by Samuel Vimes is probably my favourite. Once you get into Men At Arms, it is lovely. There's also a real sense of progression over the course of these books. Sam is a drunkard who picks himself out of the gutter a bit in the first ones, then he gets married and they put the watch back together etc. The books are (chronological order) :

Guards! Guards!
Men at Arms
Feet of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
Night Watch
Thud!

Warmly recommended

For newcomers, I'd also recommend the Moist Von Lipwig series which is just two books so far, "Going Postal" and "Making Money". Then you'd start with Going Postal!

[Fruitonica]

I've read a couple, the most prominent in my memory being the one where Death's granddaughter is forced into his job. He really does have a great sense of humour, I'm definitely going to read more at some point.

Although, in my impressionable young mind Discworld will always be an awesome cartoon series.

[Guybrush]

It's funny how in his first book, Ankh-Morpork is more like a high fantasy city with magic sword wielding barbarians fighting in taverns and people who don't know what glasses are (Twoflower, the disc's first tourist - a parody of the typical japanese tourist with the camera - wears glasses) .. Yet, as the books progress, the city quickly becomes more modern and in the later books like Night Watch, Going Postal and Making Money, Ankh-Morpork feels more reminiscent of some kind of fantasy version of the 18-19th century (though pre-steam) London.

Either way, it's a great setting, especially when it's matured and developed a bit. A lot of the books I mentioned in my previous post takes place there. The Witch series about Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and other people in the small country Lancre in the Ramtops mountains is also very good, I think. A sort of proto-granny character appears first in the book "Equal Rites", but the series first really come to life with the book "Wyrd Sisters".

[sleepy jack]

Hey tore did you get the number off that donkey cart?

[Seltzer]

After exams I went on a buying spree and acquired 7 Pratchett books with your recommendations in mind: Jingo, The Colour of Magic, Men At Arms, Wyrd Sisters, Only You Can Save Mankind, Guards Guards and Pyramids.

Originally Posted by toretorden

Either way, it's a great setting, especially when it's matured and developed a bit. A lot of the books I mentioned in my previous post takes place there. The Witch series about Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and other people in the small country Lancre in the Ramtops mountains is also very good, I think. A sort of proto-granny character appears first in the book "Equal Rites", but the series first really come to life with the book "Wyrd Sisters".

I found Lancre to be an interesting setting when I read Carpe Jugulum and Nanny Ogg is a riot. The passage below amuses me and I showed it to my flatmate who is studying philosophy, emphasizing the bolded part.

Originally Posted by from Carpe Jugulum

The little cup of valleys, glowing in the last shreds of evening sunlight, was the kingdom of Lancre. From its highest points, people said, you could see all the way to the rim of the world.

It was also said, although not by the people who lived in Lancre, that below the rim, where the seas thundered continuously over the edge, their home went through space on the back of four huge elephants that in turn stood on the shell of a turtle that was as big as the world.

The people of Lancre had heard of this. They thought it sounded about right. The world was obviously flat, although in Lancre itself the only truly flat places were tables and the top of some people's heads, and certainly turtles could shift a fair load. Elephants, by all accounts, were pretty strong too. There didn't seem any major gaps in the thesis, so Lancrastrians left it at that.

It wasn't that they didn't take an interest in the world around them. On the contrary, they had a deep, personal and passionate involvement in it, but instead of asking "why are we here?" they asked "is it going to rain before the harvest?"

A philosopher might have deplored this lack of mental ambition, but only if he was really certain about where his next meal was coming from.

In fact Lancre's position and climate bred a hard-headed and straightforward people who often excelled in the world down below. It had supplied the plains with many of their greatest wizards and witches and, once again, the philosopher might have marveled that such a four-square people could give the world so many successful magical practitioners, being quite unaware that only those with their feet on rock can build castles in the air.

[Guybrush]

Grats on new books and, of course, nice quote! I read carpe jugulum not too long ago (for the nth time), so it's fresh in memory

From the ones you got there, I think Men At Arms and Jingo are my favourites. Read Guards! Guards! before any of those two though! All the others are safe to start on. Only You Can Save Mankind is of course not Discworld but the first book in the Johnny Maxwell trilogy. Be warned that if you do start on The Color of Magic, the ending will leave you hanging .. it's the only Discworld book to have a truly continous story that goes on into the next book (well, there's Eric too, but). The next book is The Light Fantastic.

Wyrd sisters is the first real witches book (featuring Magrat, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax) and Pyramids is one of those stand-alone one-book stories and that one is about Pteppic, the prince from the egyptian inspired country Djelybeibi (something along those lines).

If you want a recommendation for another non-Discworld Terry Pratchett book, I'll recommend Good Omens co-written with Neil Gaiman .. It's got a Gaiman-esque cheesy religio-goth plot with the coming of antichrist and various people trying to prevent the apocalypse from happening, among them an angel and a demon, a witch and some witchhunters. Of course it's got that witty Terry Pratchett writing style. Great fun!

[adidasss]

Yeah so, I just read The Colour of Magic in two days and it was fucking fantastic. I was a little apprehensive about the series (seeing as how there's so many of them) but this book totally surpassed my expectations. Very much on par with Douglas Adams, funny as hell and incredibly exciting...I can't wait to read the rest of them...thanks for making me check it out....(: