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Yeah, the Night Watch and Jingo audiobooks are hard to find on US sites. I had to my way into Night Watch
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 12:02 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:13 |
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Jedit posted:If you go back to Mort you might like it less for how it ties in to the later books. i always read that less of him being cold and more "that was the best I could do". Mort was going to die, his sand had run out, and the only option was to flip it. They had 16 years to bring about the 'correct' history that Mort originally prevented. Him hammering home to Susan that he took them the instant they crashed to make sure they didn't suffer was similar. She was also talking with Death from 16 years ago, moments after the fight with Mort. Post-Reaper Man Death was the one willing to bluff Fame or whatever that force was by playing the Final Chord and going "BRING THEM BACK". Mad Hamish posted:I was referring to Death's decision in Mort to let Ysabelle leave even though he knew it meant he'd lose her forever. Death's hatred of whomever it was that harmed those kittens in Mort struck me even as a kid as a major change. Plus the bit in Small Gods where he doesn't let himself feel enjoyment about reaping some people but does allow for satisfaction. He also didn't lose her forever - Susan had vague memories about swinging near the wheat field and bouncing on her grandfather's knee. Or, rather, a pillow tied to his knee. Mort and Ysbella just freaked out and stopped the visits as she got older and they realized that death was hereditary. Mad Hamish posted:It's such good book. It is. And at the risk of oversharing the reason i'm posting about it today is that i reread it during a dark time.
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 13:03 |
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I feel Mort isn't the best Discworld book, but it might be the one I'd want to see given the movie treatment.
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 13:53 |
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IshmaelZarkov posted:I feel Mort isn't the best Discworld book, but it might be the one I'd want to see given the movie treatment. Just remove the whole Death angle and you've got a deal!
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 13:55 |
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IshmaelZarkov posted:I feel Mort isn't the best Discworld book, but it might be the one I'd want to see given the movie treatment. It’s arguably the first one that feels like ‘proper’ Discworld.
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 13:58 |
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To my recollection there was a time Disney was considering a movie based on Mort, I think, but it fell through. I assume the seed of that idea became Coco.
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 13:59 |
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I'm still not sure that it's fair to weigh some of the earlier books against the latter, stronger ones. Except for Pyramids. I think that's the only one i've not found the desire to revisit.
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 14:01 |
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The_Doctor posted:It’s arguably the first one that feels like ‘proper’ Discworld. agreedo
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 14:05 |
citybeatnik posted:Except for Pyramids. I think that's the only one i've not found the desire to revisit. Mort was my first Pratchett and I've been hooked ever since. It's not so strong when compared with the laters but it's still a leap ahead from Equal Rites (even if just because it doesn't involve The Dungeon Dimensions Plot). I do think the book where Discworld comes into its own is Wyrd Sisters, though. anilEhilated fucked around with this message at 16:25 on Mar 25, 2024 |
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 16:23 |
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citybeatnik posted:Except for Pyramids. I think that's the only one i've not found the desire to revisit. I'd still call it the best standalone introduction to the series. It's got immediate hilarity (especially if you've ever taken a driving exam), a monstrous villain with surprising depth, recognizable points from history, the camels...
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 22:22 |
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Arist posted:To my recollection there was a time Disney was considering a movie based on Mort, I think, but it fell through. I assume the seed of that idea became Coco. Yes! They talk about it in the biography, apparently the deal was that Disney owned the characters in perpetuity, and everything they did, and Terry laughed in their face once that was clear.
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 22:49 |
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Arbite posted:I'd still call it the best standalone introduction to the series. It's got immediate hilarity (especially if you've ever taken a driving exam), a monstrous villain with surprising depth, recognizable points from history, the camels... Vorbis is a classic Pratchett villain, though i also have a soft spot for Reacher Gilt.
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# ? Mar 25, 2024 22:50 |
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Arbite posted:I'd still call it the best standalone introduction to the series. It's got immediate hilarity (especially if you've ever taken a driving exam), a monstrous villain with surprising depth, recognizable points from history, the camels... I love Pyramids, but I think best standalone introduction has to go to Small Gods, which is kind of Pyramids but done much better. That said, you don't really get to see Ankh-Morpork at all in Small Gods, which is pretty vital to understanding what the series is going to be like on the whole. Strange Cares fucked around with this message at 23:55 on Mar 25, 2024 |
# ? Mar 25, 2024 23:50 |
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I started on Guards! Guards! Sam Vimes, always.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 00:09 |
Strange Cares posted:I love Pyramids, but I think best standalone introduction has to go to Small Gods, which is kind of Pyramids but done much better. That said, you don't really get to see Ankh-Morpork at all in Small Gods, which is pretty vital to understanding what the series is going to be like on the whole. Small Gods is my favourite book of his without qualifications, barring perhaps Nation. That said, it is extremely not the first Discworld book I'd recommend people since it is almost entirely isolated from any of the other books. Mort is actually the point I tell people to start since it's the first really character-building book. If Death and his apprentice don't get you into the series I think nothing will.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 00:15 |
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Monica Bellucci posted:I started on Guards! Guards! The city is a woman
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 00:18 |
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Fighting Trousers posted:The city is a woman Too loving sober.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 00:19 |
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Monica Bellucci posted:I started on Guards! Guards! That was the one that I got my nephew for Christmas as an intro to the series. According to my brother he devoured it in a few days and then went off to find more, so I'd say mission accomplished. I think Vimes books are generally more straightforward adventure/whodunit plots so they're an easy way to draw people into the setting.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 03:31 |
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The City Watch books are fantastic because they are pretty much all standout examples of the genre they're parodying.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 04:18 |
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Osmosisch posted:If Death and his apprentice don't get you into the series I think nothing will. If you'd given me Mort first, I would have just bounced off it; but whoever introduced me to Discworld made the perfect call with Jingo. It didn't matter that it was in the middle of a series, what mattered was it was the right book for me at the right time. The joy of Pratchett is there's so many different ways in that something will speak to most people on that deep level, then the general style carries me through books like Maskerade or Interesting Times where I'm clearly missing a lot of things but it's still a good time. If I'm trying to introduce a fan of operas or musicals to Discworld, I'm probably going to give them Maskerade, where I'd give the crime maven Men at Arms, the Fritz Lieber fan gets The Colour of Magic, and the YA head gets Tiffany Aching or Johnny Maxwell.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 12:52 |
Trin Tragula posted:If you'd given me Mort first, I would have just bounced off it; but whoever introduced me to Discworld made the perfect call with Jingo. Haha, wow. That's probably my third-least favourite in the entire (after Moving Pictures and Interesting Times). Goes to show I guess.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 16:03 |
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Where would y'all recommend on starting Terry Pratchett? I've been seeing his quotes pop up in a lot of different places, and I think it's a sign I should read his stuff. The most recent was the instruction booklet for the board game Welcome to Doomrock.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 17:45 |
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Guards! Guards! is probably the best possible place to start. It doesn't explain every detail of the setting like starting with Colour of Magic would, but G!G! is very contained in setting to just Ankh-Morpork so that doesn't really matter. The important stuff gets explained, and it's the origin of the classic "Knowledge = power = energy = matter = mass," which is one of the building blocks of the entire setting and tells you everything you need to know right there. It's also just one of my favorites.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 17:55 |
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Guards, Guards! is a common recommendation. It's the first book in the popular Vimes storyline.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 17:55 |
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I think the main rub with starting there is that it might not be immediately clear who this mysterious gentleman who speaks in small caps is, but I think you would figure it out quickly enough
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 17:57 |
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Wyrd Sisters or Small Gods would be my personal recommendations, but there's a few good choices.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 17:58 |
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LifeLynx posted:Where would y'all recommend on starting Terry Pratchett? I've been seeing his quotes pop up in a lot of different places, and I think it's a sign I should read his stuff. The most recent was the instruction booklet for the board game Welcome to Doomrock. Do you like urban fantasy and police procedurals? - Guards Guards Do you like rural fantasy, Shakespeare, and witches? -Wyrd Sisters Do you like pastiches of classic fantasy? - The Colour Of Magic Do you like...uhhhh.. Death? - Mort Do you like/hate monotheism? - Small Gods Do you like early modern warfare and gender roles? - Monstrous Regiment (maybe read this after the Watch books) Gravitas Shortfall fucked around with this message at 18:03 on Mar 26, 2024 |
# ? Mar 26, 2024 18:00 |
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Publication order, don't listen to anyone else I'm the correct one
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 19:37 |
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Whichever book you find first as a tattered paperback somewhere
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 19:47 |
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At my job I typically hand people Guards! Guards! or Wyrd Sisters. Occasionally I give people Wee Free Men but that’s mostly if they have a YA reader
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 20:11 |
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sebmojo posted:Whichever book you find first as a tattered paperback somewhere This is the way.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 20:14 |
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sebmojo posted:Whichever book you find first as a tattered paperback somewhere Alternately, the first one you grab off your library's shelf.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 20:23 |
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Guards! Guards! is the best place to start because the main character of the Discworld is the city of Ankh-Morpork and it's the best introduction to the city.
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 21:36 |
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ya9MK4y3R3w
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# ? Mar 26, 2024 23:33 |
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ONE YEAR LATER posted:Publication order, don't listen to anyone else I'm the correct one I'm in general a big fan of publication order in reading anything... but I really am not a fan of Rincewind and I find the first couple books where it feels more like a proto-discworld that hasn't fully congealed yet are a bit rough... my advice to folks who start with the first book and it doesn't click for them is to pick up something a bit further on give it a try before giving up on discworld entirely.
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# ? Mar 27, 2024 18:54 |
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start with whichever catches your eye at the library and then just work your way out
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 01:16 |
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Publication order starting at either Equal Rites or Mort. Worked for me.
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 02:28 |
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sebmojo posted:Whichever book you find first as a tattered paperback somewhere This is the way. I started on a dogeared copy of Pyramids I found left at a bus stop, which then got passed on to a friend.
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 03:17 |
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Personally I don't think there's really a bad place to start. My first was Interesting Times, and I definitely lacked some (major) knowledge of setting and characters and previous events but the book grabbed me. I also read Men at Arms before Guards! Guards! and can't say I lost anything.
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 03:20 |
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# ? May 15, 2024 04:13 |
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I think that's the thing, each book is part of like, the long running drama that is Discworld but each novel is still a self-contained narrative. You're given enough previous information that starting a series halfway through isn't going to cause problems.
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# ? Mar 28, 2024 03:36 |