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Author Topic: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.  (Read 1639 times)

JoshuaFH

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An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« on: July 24, 2009, 08:06:34 pm »

So I got a bunch of books written by Terry Pratchett, the Discworld series, which I've heard are very good, but never took the time to look at them. So I finally have them, and I might make an effort to read one or two of them, if they interest me.

The first one I'm reading is the one I was told is the first in the series, "The color of magic".
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Pnx

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #1 on: July 24, 2009, 08:48:59 pm »

Technically with one or two exceptions every TP book has a specifc order, since they almost always manage to reference something that happened in a previous book, there's also several different series of books about different characters. If you're retentive like me you'll probably want to read them in order of release so that all the books make the most sense, it shouldn't be hard to find a list and just work through it.

EDIT: What I ment to say is that you can read them out of order, it's just I like to work in order and yeknow...
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sonerohi

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #2 on: July 24, 2009, 09:21:05 pm »

Gaurds, Gaurds!

My favorite. Then again, I've never gotten a chance to read any other Terry Pratchett books, unfortunately.
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LegoLord

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #3 on: July 24, 2009, 09:25:11 pm »

Small Gods is one of his best, and it even has it's own place outside of other Discworld stories; in other words, there isn't much referencing of other Discworld books.
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Ampersand

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #4 on: July 24, 2009, 10:32:19 pm »

I liked Mort, and The Hogfather. Maybe I just like the character of Death. Er. I mean. DEATH.
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Chalk

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #5 on: July 24, 2009, 11:08:18 pm »

Eh, I wouldn't start on The Color of Magic. His writing has gotten noticeably better since then.

Personally, I loved Feet of Clay, but that might start you out too much in the middle of his over-arcing plot. Hogfather is a really, really good place to start though.
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Karlito

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #6 on: July 25, 2009, 12:46:13 am »

Pretty much every book stands alone as a story.  You can get a lot more appreciation and enjoyment if you read them in some kind of order, but backwards works just as well.
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Leafsnail

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #7 on: July 25, 2009, 03:14:52 am »

They do actually stand alone pretty well.  I liked Moving Pictures quite a lot myself.  Might be hard to catch all the references (I know I didn't :P).
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Jackrabbit

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #8 on: July 25, 2009, 04:30:13 am »

Guards, Guards!

This. It introduces the most loved characters in the series and sets up most of the status quo for the series. Also you don't need to know much, if anything, about the series to read it.

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ChairmanPoo

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #9 on: July 25, 2009, 06:21:28 am »

IMHO the beggining of the series is better. Some of the latter books got a bit preachy
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JoshuaFH

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #10 on: July 25, 2009, 12:16:32 pm »

I found this:

http://www.listsofbests.com/list/382

I guess I'll start with the Guards one.
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DanJhonson

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #11 on: July 25, 2009, 12:36:53 pm »

It's not necessary but this is a reading order for discworld

http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-1-5.jpg
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Sutremaine

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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #12 on: July 25, 2009, 12:53:15 pm »

Although on that list you could skip Equal Rites, as the book is not that good and Granny Weatherwax -- who's not even a major character yet -- hasn't been properly constructed as a personality.

The middle books are the best for me. The later ones wear their real-world parallels on their sleeves and the very early ones lack polish and style. I think Vimes needs to be toned down a bit too, although he was very well-written in Night Watch (which is a good standalone due to its setting, although the references to characters who we already know can be a little distracting. Never mind, you don't need to know who Reg Shoe is to enjoy the book).
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Re: An effort to read more, maybe. The Discworld series.
« Reply #13 on: July 25, 2009, 09:20:00 pm »

Small Gods is one of his best, and it even has it's own place outside of other Discworld stories; in other words, there isn't much referencing of other Discworld books.
Well it is set the earliest chronologically.
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