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Guards! Guards! is the best of the earliest and the best starting point, but few would say it's the best Discworld book. I'd classify the stages like this: 1-3: Finding his feet 4-13: Getting into the groove 14 (Lords and Ladies) - 18 (Maskerade): Really, really great books (Soul Music is a bit of a throwback though) 19 (Feet of Clay) onwards: The Golden Age, which in my opinion peaks with 29, Night Watch, and then begins to slowly tail off I don't think anybody would dispute that the books which really won him the literature pedigree were the ones that came from the late teens onwards. But you can't start with those because they're all halfway through character and story arcs. I really think the best introduction to the series is to begin with the Watch arc and read the first three books in it: Guards Guards, Men at Arms, and Feet of Clay. If you still aren't hooked after finishing Feet of Clay, you aren't ever going to be. If, on the other hand, you read Guards Guards and absolutely love it, then hang around the earlier books and try to read in sequence, because there are rewards to be had by doing that, i.e. reading City Watch cameos in other books back when they're still a four-man joke.
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May 22, 2015 08:52
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I started reading the books from the beginning, and liked them from the start, but the first to really blow me away was Mort.
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May 22, 2015 20:04
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Mort was definitely something of a turning point. Arguably Discworld started to change from "just a parody of fantasy tropes" to a more realized world in Equal Rites, but Mort is the first book where we really start exploring that world.
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May 23, 2015 16:24
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At the risk of being self-aggrandising:Trin Tragula posted:I think the best entry point depends entirely on who's asking for it. If I'd started with e.g. Mort, or Guards! Guards!, I may never have read another one, but Jingo was exactly what I needed to help me get what Discworld was all about.
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May 24, 2015 21:31
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idonotlikepeas posted:Mort was definitely something of a turning point. Arguably Discworld started to change from "just a parody of fantasy tropes" to a more realized world in Equal Rites, but Mort is the first book where we really start exploring that world. My wife couldn’t get more than a couple pages into Colour, but she had seen and enjoyed the BBC Hogswatch thing so I recommended she start with Mort. It was a Good Idea.
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May 25, 2015 01:20
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Trin Tragula posted:At the risk of being self-aggrandising: After all the obituary praise, I read my first Pratchett novel. It was Mort, which I liked but didn't love. I plan to read more, but I'm also glad to hear that they get better.
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May 26, 2015 15:40
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Listening the the A Blink of the Screen on audiobook, I finally got to hear Stephen Briggs do the witches, and he's almost as bad at it as he is good at doing the Ankh-Morpork cast. I would really like to hear those books re-recorded with a female narrator. (Actually, I'd like to hear multiple narrators for lots of books, but I guess the market just isn't there.)
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May 28, 2015 03:40
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Rand Brittain posted:Listening the the A Blink of the Screen on audiobook, I finally got to hear Stephen Briggs do the witches, and he's almost as bad at it as he is good at doing the Ankh-Morpork cast. I would really like to hear those books re-recorded with a female narrator. Theif of Time had multiple narrators including Harlon Ellison. It owned bones.
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May 28, 2015 04:09
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Starting The Light Fantastic today 
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May 28, 2015 04:32
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I have yet to hear a good Pratchett audiobook.
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May 28, 2015 14:17
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For my money, if there's one author it's better to read off a page, it's Pratchett - you miss a lot when the puns are spoken, not to mention DEATH's, and the likes of Azreal in Reaper Man and alll that jazz*. I just can't see audiobooks doing proper justice to semi-subtle puns like the names of the pseudo-north-african nations in Pyramids etc. *and footnotes
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May 28, 2015 20:41
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Pidmon posted:Theif of Time had multiple narrators including Harlon Ellison. It owned bones. I really like that version's Death, as I think I've mentioned before (he did Death as deep and flatly calm instead of overdoing the bass), and a lot of the actors weren't very good at a variety of voices, either. Lobsang as read by the narrator from the Oi Dong scenes felt like a completely different character from the Lobsang voiced by Susan's narrator. Still, it was way above Briggs giving everybody from the monastery a generic bad Asian accent.
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May 29, 2015 04:08
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So I've just read Dodger. I see what people mean when they say it could've been easily set in the Discworld. Also reading through A Blink of the Screen. Just finished The High Meggas short story. It was quite interesting to read, if only to see just how much of The Long Earth series was Terry's idea. There's a lot more ideas from Terry in it than I initiallly thought.
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Jun 8, 2015 14:51
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The High Meggas story just made me realise even more that The Long Earth was a cool setting in desperate need of an interesting story.
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Jun 8, 2015 18:17
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idonotlikepeas posted:Mort was definitely something of a turning point. Arguably Discworld started to change from "just a parody of fantasy tropes" to a more realized world in Equal Rites, but Mort is the first book where we really start exploring that world. As someone who read them as they were published in America, Mort was absolutely a major turning point, it was the first one where I really got chills from how heavy the emotions and stakes were, rather than just giggling at puns.
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Jun 10, 2015 21:03
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For those of you hoping Rhianna would continue the series, I've got some bad news. The Shepard's Crown will be the final Discworld novel. http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-e...s-10312426.html
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Jun 12, 2015 14:13
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red plastic cup posted:For those of you hoping Rhianna would continue the series, I've got some bad news. The Shepard's Crown will be the final Discworld novel. That's for the best, really. Rhianna isn't a bad writer but she doesn't come close to Terry (though she has room to grow of course). As long as the Watch series is still being made.
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Jun 12, 2015 14:56
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Adaptions, spin offs, maybe tie ins gives a lot of leeway, including even future books set on the disc, so long as only the Pratchett books are classed as 'discworld novels'. I also note that the Shepherds crown has been branded as 'a discworld novel'. The other Tiffancy Aching books weren't branded as discworld novels, were they?
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Jun 13, 2015 14:09
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mediadave posted:Adaptions, spin offs, maybe tie ins gives a lot of leeway, including even future books set on the disc, so long as only the Pratchett books are classed as 'discworld novels'. I believe they are Discworld young adult. Granny is a recurring character.
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Jun 13, 2015 14:39
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mediadave posted:Adaptions, spin offs, maybe tie ins gives a lot of leeway, including even future books set on the disc, so long as only the Pratchett books are classed as 'discworld novels'. The first three were billed as "A Story of Discworld" in hardback, but all UK editions postdating ISWM hb are "A Discworld Novel".
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Jun 13, 2015 15:26
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Is the long utopia worth bothering with? long mars didn't really do it for me.
fluppet fucked around with this message at 22:32 on Jun 24, 2015 |
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Jun 24, 2015 21:52
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Ursine Asylum posted:My wife couldn’t get more than a couple pages into Colour, but she had seen and enjoyed the BBC Hogswatch thing so I recommended she start with Mort. It was a Good Idea. Minor note: the TV adaptations of Hogfather, The Colour of Magic and Going Postal were made by a production company called The Mob for satellite channel Sky One, not the BBC. They had planned to go on and make Unseen Academicals and then Sourcery but for reasons that were never really fully disclosed those projects were quietly shitcanned just before filming on Unseen was scheduled to start, and the rights all reverted to Pratchett's own company, Narrativia.
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Jun 26, 2015 16:33
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Which is for the best, the Hogfather was the best and Going Postal had some good ideas but the rest of the stuff they did was rubbish.
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Jun 26, 2015 17:11
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Going Postal had great casting but they didn't stick the landing very well. Still worth a watch, though Hogfather is by far the best adaptation of his work ever in my book.
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Jun 26, 2015 21:21
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precision posted:Going Postal had great casting but they didn't stick the landing very well. Still worth a watch, though Hogfather is by far the best adaptation of his work ever in my book. Agreed. David Jason was the perfect Albert. Why the gently caress did he suddenly think Rincewind was the better role?
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Jun 26, 2015 22:37
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SeanBeansShako posted:Agreed. I've always wondered if whoever was in charge of the casting ever read the book, or just simply looked at the cover.
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Jun 27, 2015 11:58
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precision posted:Going Postal had great casting but they didn't stick the landing very well. Still worth a watch, though Hogfather is by far the best adaptation of his work ever in my book. Going Postal gave us Charles Dance as Vetinari. 
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Jun 29, 2015 16:40
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Honestly that is one the better highlights of the Going Postal adaption.
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Jun 29, 2015 19:23
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SeanBeansShako posted:Honestly that is one the better highlights of the Going Postal adaption. Along with David Suchet as Reacher Gilt, "Well that's an embuggerance" and the props for Dave's Pin Emporium. I'm really regretting that I flew to the 2012 Con, because the sign for the Pin Emporium was in the auction and if I could have carried it home I would own it now.
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Jun 29, 2015 19:37
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I hated the adaptation's Reacher Gilt. Just a cackling saturday morning cartoon evilguy, when in the book he was a charming, honey-voiced, suave, partying motherfucker - and basically Moist's evil twin. He should have been an affable conman and instead he was basically Doctor Robotnik.
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Jun 30, 2015 10:10
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I wasn't a fan of the large number of times the Times showed his face on the newspaper transitions (or that Angua just flat out transformed in front of a criminal).
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Jun 30, 2015 15:22
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For some reason I always pictured Angua as a redhead. e: wait, Angua = Anger? That has to be on purpose
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Jun 30, 2015 20:15
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Pretty sure she was always blonde. She was from the uhh...Scandinavianny place with the other werewolves and the snow...oh, I'm a bad Discworlder. On that note, having just finished the Death series, I'm wondering where to go next. Tempted to already reread Night Watch after Thief of Time though.
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Jun 30, 2015 20:49
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VagueRant posted:Pretty sure she was always blonde. She was from the uhh...Scandinavianny place with the other werewolves and the snow...oh, I'm a bad Discworlder. Uberwald, and yes I think she was described as blonde in Men at Arms.
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Jun 30, 2015 20:58
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VagueRant posted:She was from the uhh...Scandinavianny place with the other werewolves and the snow...oh, I'm a bad Discworlder. Überwald. Which is western Europe Transylvania type place, not Scandinavia. But yeah, she's always been blonde. That's one of the ways Carrot works out that she's a werewolf; because blonde wolves are rather rare.
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Jun 30, 2015 21:54
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Stroth posted:Überwald. Which is western Europe Transylvania type place, not Scandinavia. But yeah, she's always been blonde. That's one of the ways Carrot works out that she's a werewolf; because blonde wolves are rather rare. Well, the blonde hair, and the fact that she transformed into a werewolf after they enjoyed a night in bed. That was a bit of a clue.
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Jul 1, 2015 00:22
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immoral_ posted:Well, the blonde hair, and the fact that she transformed into a werewolf after they enjoyed a night in bed. That was a bit of a clue. That doesn't happen to everyone? Um... I have to go now.
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Jul 1, 2015 00:35
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precision posted:For some reason I always pictured Angua as a redhead. I do recall reading that Carrot was undergoing Angua management training. Don't remember which book though.
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Jul 2, 2015 11:34
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I know it's wrong but I still pronounce it "AN Gyoo Ah" in my head.
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Jul 3, 2015 00:09
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freebooter posted:I know it's wrong but I still pronounce it "AN Gyoo Ah" in my head. That's how I've always said it too. How is it meant to be said? Ang-wah?
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Jul 3, 2015 00:25
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