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Kitchner posted:I think genuine naivety evaporates pretty fast though, but is sort of maintained as a facade. He's described in the books as simple, but the books also point out that simple isn't the same as stupid and that you'd "have to be pretty complex to be as simple as he is."
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# ? May 21, 2014 15:35 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:17 |
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Happy 25th! Reread or relisten to Night Watch to celebrate. Unless you're a nerd with a social life or something.
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# ? May 25, 2014 10:06 |
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Feet of Clay has been the weakest book of the series to me so far. I'm only a little ways through Jingo at the moment, mind. And I do wonder if Guards! Guards! will remain the peak...
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# ? May 25, 2014 11:06 |
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The Long Earh is $1.99 on Kindle today.
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# ? May 25, 2014 15:24 |
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VagueRant posted:Feet of Clay has been the weakest book of the series to me so far. I'm only a little ways through Jingo at the moment, mind. And I do wonder if Guards! Guards! will remain the peak...
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# ? May 25, 2014 16:36 |
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Almost worth it.
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# ? May 25, 2014 17:28 |
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FactsAreUseless posted:At least one other book in the Watch series (Night Watch) definitely tops Guards Guards. Guards is good, though, I'd put it in the series' top 10. Also Jingo is already definitely better than Men at Arms and Feet of Clay. quote:'We-ell, no point in going to war unless you're on the winning side,' said Nobby[...]
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# ? May 26, 2014 19:22 |
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The one after Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, is one of my favorites, too. You've got some great Discworld ahead of you.
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# ? May 26, 2014 19:43 |
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I love Feet of Clay to little pieces, you guys seriously didn't care for it?
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# ? May 26, 2014 19:57 |
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I've been working my way through the audio books at work. I've got to say, Nigel Planer is rather disappointing as a narrator, compared to Stephen Briggs.
Pesky Splinter fucked around with this message at 21:19 on May 26, 2014 |
# ? May 26, 2014 21:04 |
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YggiDee posted:I love Feet of Clay to little pieces, you guys seriously didn't care for it? WORDS IN THE HEART CANNOT BE TAKEN.
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# ? May 26, 2014 21:14 |
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So I have always been interested in Terry Pratchett books but have never had any idea where the hell to start. I saw this link on the first page: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld_reading_order#Reading_order So is there a group I should start with and read all of those or would I be best served starting with book one "The Colour of Magic" and just plowing through the books?
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# ? May 27, 2014 06:13 |
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Tiny Chalupa posted:So I have always been interested in Terry Pratchett books but have never had any idea where the hell to start. Narrative-wise, it definitely makes sense to read them in published order. Unfortunately that means you'll be starting with some of the weakest books in the series; they generally get better as time goes on. The early books aren't bad, but they aren't good representatives of the awesomeness your friends have been recommending to you. If you're a fan of old-school pulpy fantasy, or you have a good tolerance for light, silly poo poo, then just read in published order. The first few books are straightforward parodies of pulp fantasy tropes and only later does the series develop meaningful plot. If that doesn't sound particularly interesting I'd read in published order except skipping the "Rincewind" series (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, Interesting Times, and The Last Continent, which are mostly the straightforward fantasy parodies) and also Equal Rites ('cause it blows). Go back and read those later (don't skip them forever; Interesting Times is quite good at the very least). Also, skip Mort ('cause it's mediocre and not a good intro to the series) until just before or just after Moving Pictures. It's worth noting that if you do read them in published order or the order I recommend, you won't be reading about the same characters two books in a row (Discworld is split up into several sub-series) - but you will be reading in chronological order, in-universe, which is helpful in my opinion, especially when characters and events cross over between the sub-series.
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# ? May 27, 2014 07:29 |
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I actually like Equal Rites. It has the Liars, who are just neato, and lots of nicely observed details about Disc life. It just doesn't quite fit with the other books (though really only in how it portrays Granny W).
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# ? May 27, 2014 09:14 |
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Tiny Chalupa posted:So I have always been interested in Terry Pratchett books but have never had any idea where the hell to start. I suggest starting with the Night Watch books; they're a good introduction to the city of Ankh-Morpork, and the city is, in my opinion, the central character of the books. I'd start out like this: Guards, Guards! > Men at Arms > Feet of Clay. After that, you can go pretty much anywhere that interests you. I'd recommend starting the Witch books at Lords and Ladies, and I'd recommend reading Reaper Man from the Death books and only reading the others if you are interested. Reading the other books will show you enough of Death to make Reaper Man good as a standalone, which is fortunate, because Mort is fairly lovely as far as Discworld books go.
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# ? May 27, 2014 09:25 |
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Khizan posted:I'd recommend starting the Witch books at Lords and Ladies This is terrible advice. Witches Abroad is hands-down one of the funniest books I have ever read. It was the second Discworld book I read and sold me on the series. (The first was Jingo, which is okay but doesn't compare to Witches Abroad).
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# ? May 27, 2014 10:21 |
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A lot of people recommended starting with Guards! Guards! and that worked for me.
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# ? May 27, 2014 10:56 |
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Thanks for the replies, I'll see what I find on sale for my Kindle first basically and kinda go from there. Either the Night Watch books(or some other series) or the plain first book from the series and binge my way through. I'll report back at some point
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# ? May 27, 2014 19:01 |
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Cacto posted:This is terrible advice. Witches Abroad is hands-down one of the funniest books I have ever read. It was the second Discworld book I read and sold me on the series. (The first was Jingo, which is okay but doesn't compare to Witches Abroad). Witches Abroad is great. Wyrd Sisters is - in my opinion - even better. It's gotta be my second most re-read Discworld book, behind Night Watch.
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# ? May 29, 2014 00:57 |
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Witches Abroad suffers from having a great last half and taking forever to get there, but it's definitely worth reading. Everything involving Lily is solid gold.
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# ? May 29, 2014 12:00 |
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I liked the whole fairy tale subversion schtick that makes up most of the book. The farmhouse and the dwarves were good.
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# ? May 29, 2014 12:31 |
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DontMockMySmock posted:If that doesn't sound particularly interesting I'd read in published order except skipping the "Rincewind" series (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, Interesting Times, and The Last Continent, which are mostly the straightforward fantasy parodies) and also Equal Rites ('cause it blows). Go back and read those later (don't skip them forever; Interesting Times is quite good at the very least). Also, skip Mort ('cause it's mediocre and not a good intro to the series) until just before or just after Moving Pictures. Why are Equal Rites and Mort bad?
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# ? May 29, 2014 23:22 |
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Sam. posted:Why are Equal Rites and Mort bad? Presumably because they're earlier books and the characters aren't as developed as they got to be later. Equal Rites in particular felt weird mainly because magic didn't follow the same rules it did in the later books, and the supposed groundbreaking heroine kind of disappears after that book. I wouldn't call it bad though.
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# ? May 29, 2014 23:32 |
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Tardigrade posted:Presumably because they're earlier books and the characters aren't as developed as they got to be later. Equal Rites in particular felt weird mainly because magic didn't follow the same rules it did in the later books, and the supposed groundbreaking heroine kind of disappears after that book. I wouldn't call it bad though. Eventually.
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# ? May 29, 2014 23:37 |
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People say Granny Weatherwax is different in it. It's been like 3 years since I read Equal Rites, I can't really remember her portrayal in that book. What's different about her?
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# ? May 30, 2014 01:50 |
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She's kind of an amalgation of Granny and Nanny - there's a few moments where she's flirting pretty hard with the then-archchancellor (isn't immediate in telling him to get his hands off her tits when they're flying on a broomstick together), not as acerbic/kind of racist to forgeiners as she is in later books, other things that are just slightly off.
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# ? May 30, 2014 03:14 |
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Sam. posted:Why are Equal Rites and Mort bad? Mort's mediocre and that's only compared to the high standard of Discworld. I didn't particularly like Equal Rites but it's been a long time so I don't really remember why. I guess the story/characters didn't really grip me. They're still better than 90% of sci-fi/fantasy (since, after all, 90% of sci-fi/fantasy is crap).
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# ? May 30, 2014 03:44 |
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Nihilarian posted:She returns! In which one? She's basically Pratchett's standard smart young overly logical female protagonist, but I liked Esk.
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# ? May 30, 2014 05:01 |
sebmojo posted:In which one? I shall wear Midnight, albeit as a supporting character.
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# ? May 30, 2014 07:33 |
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We do get a pretty neat explanation as to where she vanished to.
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# ? May 30, 2014 11:29 |
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sebmojo posted:In which one?
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# ? May 30, 2014 11:42 |
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I've always really liked Mort. I don't really know why, I just have fond memories of it.
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# ? May 30, 2014 12:17 |
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I've been a fan of Pratchett for 20 years, but I couldn't finish Raising Steam . Boring, no tension, not funny. Is Snuff good?
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# ? May 31, 2014 19:00 |
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Hogge Wild posted:I've been a fan of Pratchett for 20 years, but I couldn't finish Raising Steam . Boring, no tension, not funny. Is Snuff good? It was better than Raising Steam in my opinion.
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# ? May 31, 2014 21:15 |
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Hogge Wild posted:I've been a fan of Pratchett for 20 years, but I couldn't finish Raising Steam . Boring, no tension, not funny. Is Snuff good?
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# ? Jun 1, 2014 04:46 |
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For some reason Vetinari is now the author insert narrator.
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# ? Jun 1, 2014 08:25 |
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I just finished Thief Of Time and realised there are no more books about Susan
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# ? Jun 1, 2014 10:27 |
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Hedrigall posted:I just finished Thief Of Time and realised there are no more books about Susan
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# ? Jun 1, 2014 15:34 |
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Corrode posted:I've always really liked Mort. I don't really know why, I just have fond memories of it. Mort is where I went from liking the Discworld to loving it (I was reading them in publishing order). It's a pretty drat good book.
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# ? Jun 2, 2014 07:10 |
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# ? Jun 3, 2024 22:17 |
I liked Mort too, though I did read the Graphic Novel from my local library before the book itself.
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# ? Jun 2, 2014 15:58 |