39 titles for $18 and up. Good for another ~2 weeks. DRM’d but, uh, doesn’t Calibre just have the neatest plugins?
For those uninitiated like myself, what is special about Discworld?
They are a parody of modern life through the lens of fantastical places, characters, and events that occur on the discworld. It’s a flat land supported by 4 elephants sitting on the back of a space turtle.
There are several mini series within the collection that feature recurring characters and different story archetypes. There are the witches, a coven of 3 witches who tend to be helpful even if they don’t want to be. The night watch features Sam Vimes and other policemen of the major city of discworld who stumble through investigations. Deaths daughter features a girl who was adopted and raised by the personification of death, tall guy, kinda skinny, TALKS LIKE THIS. And the wizards college where magic is studied and knowledge is collected but rarely used.
Aside from those mini series there are lots of stand alone stories and even the books in the mini series can be read as standalone. There is no right or wrong place to start but there are some recommended reading orders that can help you decide where you want to dive in.
I may have some stuff omitted or incorrect. It has been a while since I have read the books but they maintain their position at the front and center of my bookshelf.
But what is the turtle standing on?
Same thing the Earth is.
Its turtles all the way down
“See the TURTLE of enormous girth! On his shell he holds the earth. His thought is slow but always kind; he holds us all within his mind.”
Equal parts timeless social commentary, fantasy, and comedy. Not too grim, not too saccharine—always juggling the big existential questions, highjinks, and word-play it’ll take multiple re-reads to catch. The personification of Death is a cat
ladyskeleton.It’s fantasy comedy. It is to fantasy novels what Spaceballs is to Star Wars.
It’s a special experience. Others have gone over the broad strokes, so I’ll instead describe my two favourite characters in the entirety of fiction.
Sam Vimes is a pragmatic, down to earth everyman. In a world full of crime, racism, magic, and political shenanigans, he tries (and mostly succeeds) to be true to his beliefs and convictions. Convictions like female dwarves deserve to identify as female if they want to, no matter how much dwarven society despises any dwarf not sticking to male identities. That anyone and everyone deserves to be hired and promoted on merit, no matter the stigma around ghouls, zombies and werewolves. He cares about his people and his city, and really tries. He may not fully understand your culture or religion, but he will defend your right to it to the death.
Rincewind is the opposite of the hero archetype. He’s the coward with a thousand backs. A failed wizard, because the immensely powerful spell living in his head scares off all the other spells, all he wants is to live a nice, calm, peaceful life. Against his will, he’s dragged from adventure to adventure and runs away from every exciting and mystical thing in the world. He’s seen everything, done everything, and never wanted to step out of the Unseen University.
I’ve always wanted to get into the discworld series but the number of books is a bit intimidating. Where’s a good place to start? Is there some overarching narrative or can you read them in any order?
I also haven’t read it, but I’ve seen this graphic in the past and been fascinated by it without having read any.
The city watch novels are by far my favourite. Jingo is especially amazing as a lighthearted deconstruction of xenophobia and how it functions, as well as another big theme of modern politics I can’t talk about because it’s a huge spoiler.
Man this would have helped me immensely. I started chronologically but this would have made more sense
Where’s a good place to start? Is there some overarching narrative or can you read them in any order?
While there are myriad reading orders that have been devised over the years, my method with long extended series such as this one is simple: I consume them in the order in which they were produced/released.
I would slightly discourage that here. The Color of Magic is fine, but the Light Fantastic is a bit rough. Equal Rites is fine again, but doesn’t really focus on the characters that make the Witches series good.
I personally love the city watch books the most, which starts with Guards! Guards! and circle around themes of justice and social inequality in a way that will be satisfying if you are working class left of center. There’s a sort of a timeline, but I read them wildly out of order and didn’t feel the worse off for it. Pratchett really found his voice after writing a few books, so I think it’s generally suggested not to start at the beginning. Each ‘series’ has a core motif it pokes at, but if you were only to read one to see if you liked the style… I think Going Postal?
I started with Small Gods. Which is a standalone story that takes place early chronologically. After reading that as a test to see how well I would like it. I then went to the beginning in publishing order.
Part of what makes the books brilliant is that, while there is connectivity between some of them, they are all self contained. Pratchett managed to do this without being repetitive or assuming that the reader has read all the books before the one being read. There are times when characters refer to previous books but it never happens in a way that makes you feel like you are missing something. It is useful to read the different series in order but not necessary.
Thanks for all the replies everyone!
It’s non-linear to me but if something is mentioned in the book that happened in the past, I just read that book in the frame of being a prequel. It hasn’t really turned into anything spoiler heavy. Though the City Watch novels are a lot more linear and tend to see a lot of character growth.
