Terry Pratchett - group read

Terry Pratchett, 28 April 1948 – 12 March 2015

I know a number of people are thinking of either rereading some of Terry Pratchett's books or trying them for the first time so here's a place for us to discuss our rereads or first time reads of the great man's books.

Articles about Terry Pratchett and his writing:

The Guardian: Without Terry Pratchett, the world is less magical

'By the time he had finished with Discworld, it was clear that a fantasy universe could be used to write with echoing profundity about love, death, religion, duty, opera, politics, and – above all – decency.'

The Guardian: Revisiting Terry Pratchett’s Discworld taught me why I love reading

'His books are fuelled by a deep-seated moral anger about the stupid things humans do: Pratchett was so furious because he was adamant we are all capable of so much more.'

And

'Above all, what Pratchett gave us is a 40-book love letter to reading. Stories are what the Discworld were built on, with his characters using them to explain the chaos of the world. While embracing storytelling, he also showed us its limitations. He was critical of characters who don’t live in the real world, but also showed how stories help us get one step closer to understanding.
....

Pratchett used, and had a blast subverting, fantasy tropes, from orphaned future kings (the wonderful Carrot from the Night Watch) to cynical anti-heroes who can’t help doing good (step forward Granny Weatherwax). His Discworld series forces us to think differently, whether about religion, attitudes towards gender roles, the role of law and leaders, or why we tell stories at all.

The Discworld series and a suggested reading order:



My own suggestions for where to start are slightly different from the above diagram:

Wyrd Sisters - witches, politics and Macbeth

Guards!, Guards! which is the first book in the City Watch sub-series. It's a good introduction to the Discworld's largest city and to Sam Vimes who becomes one of my favourite characters over the series.

Small Gods - a very well done satire on religion and the ways in which religious belief can become corrupted.

The Wee Free Men - the first in a young adult series but they are very far from being whiney young adult books. This sub-series and the main character, Tiffany, are some of my favourites.

Monstrous Regiment - gender roles and war.

Discworld series in publication order - the subseries is indicated in brackets after each book

1. The Colour of Magic (Rincewind)
2. The Light Fantastic (Rincewind)
3. Equal Rites (The Witches)
4. Mort (Death)
5. Sourcery (Rincewind)
6. Wyrd Sisters (The Witches)
7. Pyramids
8. Guards! Guards! (The City Watch)
9. Eric (Rincewind)
10. Moving Pictures
11. Reaper Man (Death)
12. Witches Abroad (The Witches)
13. Small Gods
14. Lords and Ladies (The Witches)
15. Men at Arms (The City Watch)
16. Soul Music (Death)
17. Interesting Times (Rincewind)
18. Maskerade (The Witches)
19. Feet of Clay (The City Watch)
20. Hogfather (Death)
21. Jingo (The City Watch)
22. The Last Continent (Rincewind)
23. Carpe Jugulum (The Witches)
24. The Fifth Elephant (The City Watch)
25. The Truth
26. Thief of Time
27. The Last Hero (Rincewind)
28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
29. Night Watch (The City Watch)
30. The Wee Free Men (Tiffany Aching)
31. Monstrous Regiment
32. A Hat Full of Sky (Tiffany Aching)
33. Going Postal (Moist von Lipwig)
34. Thud! (The City Watch)
35. Wintersmith (Tiffany Aching)
36. Making Money (Moist von Lipwig)
37. Unseen Academicals
38. I Shall Wear Midnight (Tiffany Aching)
39. Snuff (The City Watch)
40. Raising Steam (Moist von Lipwig)

Whilst I wouldn't recommend reading them in this order for people new to the Discworld, I'm rereading the Discworld series through in order starting with The Colour of Magic which I read in March and will hopefully read The Light Fantastic in April.

That's a very useful diagram, Heather. I have read only four of the Discworld novels and they were random ones. I now have some of the earllier ones and shall probably start with The Colour of Magic and hope I can get the next one in reading order from the library asap.

I've starred this thread. I'm new to Terry Pratchett and have taken Heather's advice not to start in reading order with Discworld. She's given me a few suggestions for good books to start with, and I listened to Small Gods recently and really loved it. I may go with Guards! Guards! next, but I have several options from her list to go with next (do you want to post that list Heather, or shall I?)

>6 Smiler69: Good point, I've added my recommendations to >3 souloftherose:

Non-Discworld books

Stand-alone works
The Carpet People (Children's)
The Dark Side of the Sun
Strata
The Unadulterated Cat (with Gray Jolliffe)
Good Omens (with Neil Gaiman)
Nation (children's/young adult)
Dodger (children's/young adult)

The Long Earth series (science fiction co-written with Stephen Baxter)
The Long Earth
The Long War
The Long Mars
The Long Utopia (June 2015)

Johnny Maxwell (children's)
Only You Can Save Mankind
Johnny and the Dead
Johnny and the Bomb

Bromeliad trilogy (children's)
Truckers
Diggers
Wings

I'll be joining in - I started re-listening to Moving Pictures in the car the other day with my husband, and will probably be picking and choosing and trying to re-read some of the Discworld books that I haven't read in a while.

Well, I went ahead and got Guards! Guards! on audio sooner rather than later! Starting to listen to it this evening.

Count me in! :)

I have the first two books in The Long Earth Series sitting on my shelves, but I think I want to start with The Colour of Magic when I start on his books.

Thanks for starting the thread, Heather!

The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic are not good places to start unless you are an experienced fantasy/science fiction reader, as they are satires of common tropes within the genre, rather that the complex, multi-layered stories Pratchett later wrote. Therefore, it is quite common to feel very meh about these two books and completely fall in love with Pratchett in later books. So, if you are up to a multi-book commitment to get to the best in Pratchett, go ahead. If you want to see what we value in him so highly in a single book, go for

Wyrd Sisters
Reaper Man
Guards! Guards!
Small Gods

and move on from there.

Oh dear, this is like being given a box of chocolates and having to pick just one! Do I take the opportunity to read the DEATH books in order, which I've never done, because three of my favorite Pratchetts are in there (Reaper Man, Hogfather, and Thief of Time) or do I read the Witches in order, because they are my third favorite and probably under-appreciated? Decisions, decisions!

Thanks to Roni for the link here, as Heather and I were discussing this, but of course she's the organised one that's actually gone and done it, so well done Heather! I have already polished off re-reads of The Colour of Magicand The Light Fantastic, and jolly good fun they are too. I'd forgotten that TLF is where the librarian at Unseen University gets turned into an orangutang, as he is also one of my favourites too. I may stick with publication order for now, as next is the first book about the Witches, who are possibly my favourite recurring characters, but then I might jump about a bit, I'm not sure. Still, I look forward to reading alongside many of you here!

I finished Guards! Guards! which I found to be great fun from beginning to end—I can see why it makes the list of Discworld favourites for so many fans. I keep adding more and more Pratchett titles to my wishlist, and recently was helped by the BBC's Big Read list too (no less than 15 Pratchett titles out of 200!).

There will be quite a few Pratchetts for me this year, is my prediction... too bad it took his passing away for me to stand up and pay attention, but it's true enough his works have ensured he will remain among the great immortals.

Assume all the fans have seen the street art tribute doing the rounds ?

If not here is a link: https://twitter.com/pratchettjob/status/583542293942112257

Gosh; I hadn't heard about Terry Pratchet. I'd like to join the group read, though. Maybe I'll just start with some of the books I've got on my own shelves.

>14 HanGerg: I think I'd read and reread TLF several times before I spotted that about the librarian.

>15 Smiler69: Hooray! I think the books in the Guards series continue to get better over the next few books. Men at Arms next?

>13 ronincats: and >16 roundballnz: Thanks for sharing those links!

>17 humouress: Nice to have you with us Nina.

I'm currently reading Hogfather.

I've finished The Science of Discworld, the original first one, and reread Reaper Man, an old favorite. On to Soul Music, as I guess I've committed to the DEATH sequence, rather appropriately.

I wonder if LT has a chart of 'most-read books currently'?

I bet it does, and someone will point me in the right direction; I tend not to explore much outside my comfort zone. Assuming I have the time.

I somewhat serendipitously started buying the Discworld Collector's Library books from Gollancz earlier this year and was in the middle of The Light Fantastic when Sir Terry passed. This is my first read of the series and now feels like a very special tribute.

Against advice, I am reading in publication order. Maybe it's because I was already well versed in the tropes, but I've rather enjoyed these first two and am glad I didn't start somewhere else in the series. I don't doubt that the books get better as they go on, but I'm already quite in love with the Discworld.

Wow, I'd love to join in, we'll see how many I can get read. I've already read:

Wyrd Sisters, The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Equal Rites, Mort, and Eric. Seems like from the diagram it seems like I ought to read Sourcery next.

>21 humouress: Nina, if you look at the Books module on your homepage (on the left hand menu under Discover) there is a section called What Members are Reading. Good Omens is at number 13 and is apparently being read by 6 people. It takes the data from Currently Reading collections so there's also the fact that not everyone on LT uses that collection.

>22 leahbird: Welcome - glad to hear you're enjoying your first Pratchett reads! Yes, it's not that the first couple of books are bad as that they do rely on the reader knowing standard fantasy tropes to get the joke. But if you do then they can be great fun.

>23 The_Hibernator: Welcome Rachel! Sourcery would be a good next book if you want more Rincewind or you could jump ahead to the second book in the Witches series, Witches Abroad or the second book in the Death series, Reaper Man.

Just read Equal Rites and enjoyed it, because Granny Weatherwax is just the best. I have a quibble with the cover art though. For a book that does a really good job of lightheartedly making some serious points about feminism and equality, why the heck is it all the (secondary) male characters on the cover? Granny and Esk - the principle, and female, characters are relegated to the back cover. Kind of ironic...

>25 HanGerg: I've heard that most cover artists do not actually read the book.. maybe a page here and there for descriptions, but not the actual plot.

I've finished Soul Music and moved on to Thief of Time. Skipped Hogfather for the moment as I've read it so many times.

>25 HanGerg: That's what I'm currently reading and enjoying but my cover is much better. Truly, the Gollancz editions are all awesome.

Here's Equal Rites. The gold parts are a bit shiny and awesome.

Anyone else see this thread? http://www.librarything.com/topic/190228

I'm not far enough into Discworld to have come across clacks yet unless I've missed something, but this seems cool!