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General => General Discussion => Topic started by: ehra on January 27, 2012, 07:35:58 PM
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There's a lot of them. Like, 39? I'm not buying 39 books at once. That's too many. I think 1 sounds good for now. Maybe someone who's familiar with them could make some suggestions?
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Start at the beginning. The Colour of Magic is a great novel all on its own. I'd even suggest buying the initial trilogy, which includes The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, and Equal Rites.
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That was my initial thought, but I wanted to make sure the first ones weren't bleh and he ended up hitting his stride later on or something. Thanks!
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Understandable. I haven't read the entire series, so I can't say the first three are definitively the best, so maybe someone else can tell you what the 'best' book is. But the first three are damn good.
Enjoy. :tup
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Jaffa, Equal Rites isn't part of the opening story, it's just Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic that are directly linked.
However, I would agree with you that it's best to start from the beginning. Ehra, the first book is lots of fun, very whimsical, and it's a good sattire on real life. But there's not a huge amount of depth to it, so don't worry if you read it and thing "well that was good fun but I don't see what all the fuss is about". Not saying you will, I enjoyed it a lot when I first read it, just when I go back to it I realise it has less substance than pretty much everything from Equal Rites onwards.
But I still think it's best to start from the beginning. Some of the later books (particularly in what is now I guess the middle-era) are phenomenal and he really hit his stride about 5-10 books in, but I think it helps to have that background from the rest of the series first.
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I started reading Terry Pratchett with the Tiffany series... My first book was A Hat Full of Sky.. it did work.. but today, I would start with the first book as well...
oh and I asked the exact same question to million people too :lol
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You do definitely see an improvement in the writing and the richness of the world as you go to later books, but the early books are still fantastic and you definitely benefit from reading them chronologically.
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definately a good idea to read them in order as there are charicter threads that weave thier way through the books and its nice to see them develope as the series progresses ;D
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Thanks again for the suggestions, everyone. Somewhere on the wiki page made it sound like there wasn't much continuity between most of the books which is what made me wonder where to start, but maybe I misunderstood. I'll be ordering The Colour of Magic soon. :)
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Jaffa, Equal Rites isn't part of the opening story, it's just Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic that are directly linked.
Hmm, really? I have to admit, it's been a while since I read Equal Rites. I knew Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic were more connected, but for some reason I was thinking Equal Rites was pretty connected, too. Maybe they just feel that way to me because that's how I started the series: read the first three in order, then started jumping around more randomly to whatever looked interesting.
Sorry bout that, ehra. Didn't mean to misinform you. :)
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Like everyone else said, start with Colour of Magic.
Hate to derail the thread but I never get to talk about Discworld in real life...which 'types' of books does everyone enjoy the most? What I mean is, do you prefer Rincewind books, Witches books, City Watch books, etc...
Personally I really enjoy the books about Death, the City Watch, and the Wizards. I also really enjoyed Small Gods.
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I obviously don't have anything to contribute myself, but if you guys want to use this as a general Discworld / Terry Pratchett thread that's fine. I give you permission.
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As stated, Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic are a good place to start, but as Pyramids isn't part of any recurring character series, it doesn't matter too much if you read that one out of order, but it's really good.
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Like everyone else said, start with Colour of Magic.
Hate to derail the thread but I never get to talk about Discworld in real life...which 'types' of books does everyone enjoy the most? What I mean is, do you prefer Rincewind books, Witches books, City Watch books, etc...
Personally I really enjoy the books about Death, the City Watch, and the Wizards. I also really enjoyed Small Gods.
Small Gods is definitely one of my favourites, such an amazing standalone book.
In terms of the "series", on the whole my favourite is probably the Watch ones. Guards! Guards! was good, but then they really hit their stride - Men At Arms and Feet of Clay are outright brilliant, Jingo was friggin' great, as was Night Watch.