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okay, I'm succumbing

Soapy Sam said:
A passage from "Sourcery"..

"He lit a match, the darkness blossomed into a ball of sulphurous white light, and the Librarian dropped on him like the descent of Man.

They all knew the Librarian, in the same definite but diffused way that people know walls and floors and all the other minor but necessary scenery on the stage of life.
If they recall him at all, it was as a sort of gentle mobile sigh, sitting under his desk repairing books, or knuckling his way among the shelves in search of secret smokers. Any wizard unwise enough to hazard a clandestine rollup wouldn't know anything about it until a soft leathery hand reached up and removed the offending homemade, but the Librarian never made a fuss, he just looked extremely hurt and sorrowful about the whole business and then ate it.

Whereas what was now attempting with considerable effort to unscrew Sconner's head by the ears was a screaming nightmare with its lips curled back to reveal long yellow fangs."

I often think of this passage when I see LibraryLady on the warpath.
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OOk!
 
I initially avoided Pratchett and Discworld on the basis of it being of the "Fantasy" genre. Being a sci-fi fan, this is strictly forbidden :) Eventually a friend of mine broke me down and got me to read "Going Postal". It was entertaining and an easy read. I ate up the rest of what he had.

I wouldn't say you are missing anything if you haven't read Pratchett. There are many more important works to read in your lifetime. However, if you've shied away from reading and find yourself watching re-runs on TV they are an excellent appetizer.
 
LibraryLady said:
May I say that the three of you have disappointed me? Now go to your rooms, and no dessert for you!

I'm about 80 pages into the Color of Magic. Its interesting, but I'm not really hooked. I'll keep on with this and other books and see what happens after reading three.
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Speed reader?
Ook!
 
I honestly don't remember when I got into reading Pratchett. A close friend convinced me to read Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic, and while I enjoyed them immensely, for some reason I just didn't read any more of his books for a year or so.

Then, experiencing a distinct lack of reading material, I found myself picking up a copy of Making Money. I hadn't read Going Postal at the time (and I honestly didn't even know that Going Postal existed, or I would have read that first), so reading about already-developed characters was a bit odd, but I found myself hooked. I don't know exactly what it is about Moist, but I absolutely adore him.

From there, I resolved to read some of the various story arcs in chronological order (not by book release, but by chronological Discworld order), and my first stop was... Let me think... Ah, yes, the Night Watch books. Commander Vimes is quite possibly my favorite Discworld character. Aside from Vetinari, but as Pratchett was, I believe, quoted as saying (and here I paraphrase), Vetinari can so easily steal the spotlight of any story he's in that Pratchett has to be careful to use him only in small doses. That's honestly why I love the Moist books... There's so much Vetinari interaction. :)

Ah, but dear Commander Vimes...
That is, indeed, NOT your cow.

And then there was the Death books, including the stories with Susan.

I don't think there's a Pratchett book that I've yet read that I didn't wholeheartedly enjoy.
 
RandomJSF said:
I honestly don't remember when I got into reading Pratchett. A close friend convinced me to read Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic,
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My experience was rather similar.

A "close friend" gave me paperback copies of the first two books, which at that time were all that were out, I think. I read them and thought "Meh, I've seen better." It wasn't until ten years later that I found myself living in a small and rather dull town and decided to take the local library apart and show it what a real speed-reader can do.

And by that time there was a shelf-full of the things, and they were much, much better.

My experience with the Nero Wolfe series could have been similar, except there I had the good fortune to start reading in the middle. The first two or three were rather "Meh," but the stuff in the middle made Rex Stout my favorite detective author.
 
I started with "Small Gods" - it just happened to be the first one I picked up - and was very quickly hooked by the way Pratchett can subvert and satirise the fantasy genre while making some very pertinent social comments. I've read all his books (except Nation, which I haven't got yet), and enjoyed all the Discworld ones greatly. The weakest, in my opinion, are the Rincewind books, which (especially the first two) seem to me to be strong on satirising the fantasy genre and weak on satirising contemporary society. I'd recommend starting somewhere else, then backfilling once you're addicted. As others have said, "Guards! Guards!" is a good starting point, because it's the first of the City Watch books and doesn't depend too strongly on any preceding books. However, "Wyrd Sisters" is equally good; who can resist a fantasy hero who also happens to be an irritatingly nosy and opinionated old woman?

Dave
 
I love anything with the Watch (which have improved over time to really quite involved and layered stories).

Maybe for this reason I don't buy the standalone novels with quite the same fervour.

Which is wrong of me as I recently read Monstrous Regiment and found it quite extraordinarily good.
A fantastic book, not just in the Discworld series, but by any measure.
I thought it was simply superb.

I wouldn't say you are missing anything if you haven't read Pratchett. There are many more important works to read in your lifetime.
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I have to comment on that - I think if you view reading as something to get through an 'important' selection of books then you're not getting the most out of reading.
I would rather read a book that I thought I was going to love and enjoy any day of the week over selecting a book just because it is 'important'.

Many classic novels are of course fantastically moving and enjoyable. Many are also impenetrable. I think there can be a certain snobbery over reading which saddens me a little.

If you haven't read Pratchett I would say you really are missing something.
I would hope if people choose not to try them that it would be because they don't think they'd like the style or humour, rather than because they're not 'important' enough.

ETA: I don't want to derail the thread with a discussion of classic vs non-classic novels, I just felt a little aggrieved that the Pratchett books would be referred to as somehow not 'important' when they have over the years given me immense amounts of enjoyment. I have laughed out loud, I have cried at sections in Pratchett books, I have been engrossed in Vimes' investigations and the wonderful interactions between his growing team. There are few books I have read that I have ever 'lost myself' so completely in as the Discworld books. (They are amongst the inspirations for me to attempt to write a fantasy parody world of my own which I am about 70,000 words into so far.)

To me they are 'important'.
 
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Ashles said:
I
Which is wrong of me as I recently read Monstrous Regiment and found it quite extraordinarily good.
A fantastic book, not just in the Discworld series, but by any measure.
I thought it was simply superb.
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I would definitely agree with that. Many of the discworld book are an excellent satire of our own society. This is more evident in the later books. These are the ones where Partchett's ability to understand people (and their follies) shines through.

If I would have to pick three discworld books that are a must read my list would be:

* Small gods
* Night watch
* Monstrous regiment
 
This is reminding me that it might be interesting to reread the Moist novels in light of the current financial crisis.

Somehow I think a satire about the boom-bust economic cycles and corporate pirates (Going Postal) and the banking industry in general (Making Money) might seem even more salient now than when I originally read them as they came out.

Terry Pratchett not important! yeah, right!
 
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LibraryLady said:
I'm about 80 pages into the Color of Magic. Its interesting, but I'm not really hooked. I'll keep on with this and other books and see what happens after reading three.
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If I hadn't read Pratchett at such a young and impressionable age, I probably would not have read as many of his works as I have. But I was hooked by the humor (The dawn sunlight poured over the hills like liquid gold. Well, not like liquid gold, as the people living there did not suddenly become very rich and very dead.), and thought the character embodied an earnest "What the hell?!" kind of response to the silly situations they found themselves.

I re-read many of the earlier titles that I had at one time found to be indespensibly hilarious, and sadly they only managed a mild guffaw or a warm smile. I've since passed away from reading much Pratchett, but most of what has been mentioned above is worthwhile to kill an afternoon or two.

I did note that no one has mentioned his rather short, and only somewhat Discworld related Strata which I found to be one of his better novels.
 
I did note that no one has mentioned his rather short, and only somewhat Discworld related Strata which I found to be one of his better novels.
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The sci-fi one with an actual discworld?
 
"satire of our own society" This is indeed on of the things that makes his work not only good, but great. For people unfamiliar with the books:

Little list of Pratchett topics: (only selecting those with a strong real life theme)

Moving Pictures. Holywood.. Especially the early years (pre war) Stardom and studios
Small Gods Religion (in politics)
Lords and Ladies. Shakespeare
Soul Music After movies this time it is time for pop music ( stars and record compagnies)
Maskerade Opera (with strong ties to the Phantom of the ... )
Hogfather Christmas
Jingo (Cold) (and hot) War, Middle East combined with a bit of Leonardo da Vinci
Carpe Jugelum Youth culture (in vamperic form)
5th Elephant Diplomacy and racism
The Truth Newspapers
Night Watch Social revolt (like in the 1960s but also the 1790s)
Monstrous Regiment Feminism, Religion and the Army
Going Postal Capitalism (and the postal system of course)
Thud! Ethnic social problems
Making Money Banking/ Finances


Of course all of these books deal with a lot more, they are all multi layered stories with many different subthemes. This is just to show the poor people here who haven't read them because they are allergic to fantasy that these wonderfull stories are not about fantasy.

There are just a lot of Dwarves, Trolls, Werewolves, Igors, Elves, Witches, Wizards, Murderers and Sausage (inna bun) Sellers in them + 101 other wonderful characters.

If you don't read them, it's your loss....
 
No idea. I don´t recall any dark side of the sun.

But Strata was fun, "I made a mountain range in the shape of my initials".
 
The Annotated Pratchett Files seem to be gone :(

Anyone knows of a mirror? I was just in the mindset for footnote-related procrastination...

As to reading order: I just gave Night Watch to a total Pratchett virgin and will be interested to see how that plays out. It was my judgment that for a well-read person it works well enough as a standalone, just by merit of how nicely it riffs on mystery fiction and the history of revolutions. We'll see.
 
Worm said:
and in passing - doesn't 'Thud' fit into the City Watch series?
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"Thud" was the first Pratchett book I read. I've since read most of the others. If I had started with "The Color of Magic" or "The Light Fantastic" I probably wouldn't have read further, and that would have been a real shame.

The Rincewind books are ok, but certainly not his best. There are some humorous moments, but they are a bit like a sit-com: let's put this one-dimensional character into different predicaments and see what happens.


The City Watch books are my favorites. I really like how Vimes has developed as a character over the series. On a different board, someone suggested that Vimes and Granny Weatherwax are essentially the same character. But I like him and don't care so much for her. Maybe it's because she doesn't change from book to book. She starts off where Vimes ends up.


Some of the stand alone books are really enjoyable, too. The Truth, the Von Lipwig books, and Small Gods especially.
 
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