I just finished Pratchett's The Colour of Magic. I honestly didn't love the book that much but I want to give the Discworld series a second chance. I have heard that TCOM is not one of the best in the series so I am thinking I should try one out that is considered one of the best.
If you could only suggest one Discworld book that would convince me to read more after that, which book would it be?
by Jeranda
24 Comments
Skip to Equal Rites or Guards, Guards! The first two of the series aren’t that great. Equal Rites kicks it up a notch but Guards is classic Discworld – you could also try Mort.
*Small Gods* is a good one to start with. It’s a standalone, it has many of the major themes of his other work, and it’s very well written. I think it will give you a good idea of how you will feel about the best of his work; personally, I liked it but didn’t love it, and that feeling carries on to many of his other books for me. (Whereas I didn’t like The Colour of Magic very much.)
If you do end up liking Small Gods, I’d recommend then moving to the first Sam Vines or Granny Weatherwax book, depending on your preferences; the first one of each series won’t be as good as SG (though better than The Colour of Magic), but later books in each series will be as good as SG.
Mort, Guards! Guards!, or Equal Rites. Mort is a better intro book, imo, and the other two are the first books in the Watch and Witches series, respectively. Whichever series sounds more up your alley, give it a try
You could also jump straight to Men At Arms, which is a Watch book and the first in what I think of as Second Era Discworld (where it got *really* good). Spoilers aren’t really a concern in Discworld
Night Watch or Wyrd Sisters
It really depends on your preferred type of MC. I have a hard time with Rincewind and Ridcully exasperates me. I have a deep respect for Vimes, but I enjoy Moist’s rascally perspective. I prefer Granny to Susan but love them both in their ways.
All that said to say that The Truth is my absolute favorite, and I recommend it to anyone, whether they’re interested in the Disc or not.
What type of books do your normally like?
I tend toward woman centered fantasy so would recommend starting with the witches books. If you like YA then start with Tiffany Aching. If you like mystery/cop dramas start with the Watch…
Depends on what you like in general; TCoM is mostly highly specific jokes about sword-and-sorcery authors from the early-mid 20th century, and fall flat else.
*Small Gods* stands alone and doesn’t need any background, that one’s got a lot of the social commentary he’s famous for and a story following an unwilling prophet.
*Guards! Guards!* is a political thriller/mystery in grim’n’gritty Ankh-Morpork, a good establishing setup and one of the classic entry points.
*Wyrd Sisters* is about witches, and most of the references are Shakespeare jokes, especially MacBeth
*Monstrous Regiment* mentions some characters from elsewhere but you don’t need to know who they are, a war story
*The Truth* is a later and more stable Ankh-Morpork, another one-off about the news trade
I genuinely like Rincewind, but Color of Magic is not Pratchetts best work.
Like witches and Shakespeare? Wyrd Sisters
Police work and social commentary? Guards! Guards!
Personified being having an existential crisis? Mort
That’s because TCoM isn’t a particularly good book. Neither is the second Discworld book, TLF. Generally speaking, good entry points to Discworld are Mort (Death book 1), Wyrd Sisters (Witches book 2, but the first that’s really on brand), and Guards! Guards! (City Watch book 1, and my personal pick).
The Rincewind books were always my least favourites, and the first 2 are really really bad examples of what the Discworld series is all about.
Guards Guards! Or Hogfather since it’s the holidays; it was my first. 🙂
Mort, Wyrd Sisters (satirizes Shakespeare). I’m going to differ from a lot of folks here and throw in Pyramids or Moving Pictures (satirizes movies) because I loved those as well when I was discovering Pratchett. My absolute favorite is Reaper Man (all about Death, capital and lowercase) and it doesn’t hurt to start there either. You can jump in almost anywhere but the first two books don’t do the rest justice, really.
It’s the holiday season! Try Hogfather.
Try Pyramids, Guards Guards or Going Postal
Try Hogfather. It’s a winter holiday that certainly isn’t Christmas sort of book, perfect for this time of year, and contains every good thing people say about Pratchett.
Did not like TCoM! But really enjoyed Mort!
Yes Guards! Guards! The Watch books are my favorites of him, most of them are
I haven’t read The Colour of Magic because I know it’s not supposed to be good.
I can’t say what book is the right entry for you but I can give you the info to figure it out:
His skill as a writer can be classified by publication year. If I split the common subseries entry points and stand alones out into writing skill categories over the 32 years of Discworld I get the following:
1983-1986: Not there yet
* The Colour of Magic
1987 – 1987 : Transitional, improving
* Equal Rites
* Mort
1988 – 1990: Starts to hit his stride. Also, the most common entry points for a couple of excellent subseries are here.
* Wyrd Sisters
* Guards! Guards!
1991 – 2005: Peak Discworld. His best work was in these years
* Reaper Man
* Small Gods
* The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
* The Wee Free Men
* Monstrous Regiment
* Going Postal
2006 – 2007: Transitional, declining (Altzeimers)
2010 – 2015: Rapid decline; last published posthumously
….
Within the years 1988-2005, choose whatever entry point novel catches your eye by the blurb,
“Guards! Guards!” – the 1st book in the Night Watch subsequence of Discworld
“Wyrd Sisters” – the 2nd book in the Witches subsequence of Discworld (1st one is Equal Rites, and it’s good, but I feel it doesn’t really serve as a gateway drug)
“Mort” – the 1st book in the Death subsequence of Discworld
All of these are classic gateway drugs to Discworld. You can pick any.
Sir Terry took somewhat of a slow start. His first novels (not related to Discworld) are borderline unreadable to my taste. But he got so much better later on it’s almost unbelievable. The whole gradual transformation of a mediocre second-hand fantasy author into the master of fantasy bestsellers took a span of several novels to fully complete, so the first Discworld ones are really lacking in quality.
Going Postal or Small Gods
Monstrous Regiment. It’s a standalone and it’s great. There are references to other things in Discworld, but nothing that will interfere with your understanding or enjoyment of the book.
I really struggled with The Colour of Magic and practically gave up on the series. Years later my partner encouraged me to read Mort, and I enjoyed it so much more! I have read multiple Discworld books since then.
So yes, Mort is a much better (and humorous) entrance into The Discworld, unlike the The Colour of Magic which just felt like an unenjoyable bombardment.
Guards Guards! or Small Gods
I had a REALLY hard time getting into Terry Pratchet. Then I listened to the first Tiffany Aching book on a road trip with a friend, and I can’t recommend that series enough, especially on audio. The narrator of that series is fantastic, and the characters and writing really shine. Gave me a whole new perspective on his writing.
I jumped in at Going Postal and loved it, start there if comical heist/con about the post office seems to taste!