Pratchett Fans inside

I love Pratchett's books too. The only ones I could never read again were soul music and moving pictures. Really hated those. I like the idea of some parallels with contemporary life but there is a risk of him taking it too far. Thudd was a classic example of that for me anyway. The troll junkies and crysophrase (spelling?), just did not work for me. I think he needs to choose which era he's in and try to stay there as much as possible.
The sky version of hogfather was a low point I think. Characters were crap and I always thought the disworld was a medieval setting not dickenzian :confused: Still love the majority of his work. The witches to me are essential as they add the wilder (in a rural sense) aspect to the discworld. Very good characters.
 
I think the earliest books in the series are indeed a little tough to get into. It was my impression that he was still developing as an author and 'borrowed' some of his wording from Blackadder in an attempt to make things more comedy. The Colour of Magic put me off his stuff completely until I must have got bored and picked up some of his later books - what a difference. Now he's a mature, inventive, funny and very readable author, totally his own style. The Witches are probably my favourite characters, I recall laughing out loud at some of their antics.
 
I tried to read The Colour Of Magic when I was younger and just couldn't get into it, then after reading a few later ones I re-read it and loved it. I think it's only a couple of the newer ones I don't have now which I need to pick up. This is the only series of books where I've read through them about 15 times or so now.


wyrdo said:
I'm a huge Pratchett fan, love the Discworld novels. Was introduced to them with The Colour of Magic 20 years ago and have all the books.

I used to code on the Discworld MUD too :p
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My sister still hangs around on the Discworld MUD, not keen on it myself though she really likes it.
 
mulpsmebeauty said:
It was my impression that he was still developing as an author and 'borrowed' some of his wording from Blackadder in an attempt to make things more comedy.
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Perhaps it was the comedy of the time, but not black adder itself - black adder wasn't shown until June 83 - about the same time com was published.
 
Think my favourite is Reaper Man, but I love them all. The Guards stories are great, Commander Vimes is ace. Love any book with Death in, and the monks of time he seems to be going with lately are also good. Thief of Time is excellent.
 
Funnily enough, Going Postal was the last book my wife read, which she really liked, and before that she was listening to the audio book of Thief of Time, which she really liked.

She listened to it about seven times in few than that many weeks!

I've only read one myself, many years ago so I don't even remember it, but everyone I know that's read them loves them.
 
Got them all, read them all.
Enjoyed them all.

Rincewind makes me laugh.
"Oh **** Oh ****Oh ****Oh ****I'm going to die!"

The Guards series is what I think is the best series of books from Pratchett though. Thud was a superb addition to the collection.

Going Postal was also a good laugh. Didn't enjoy it that much to start with, but it got going very quickly.

Even got the two animated DVD's with Christopher Lee as DEATH. Perfect voice for the role.

And apparently next up on the Discworld Series is:
Making Money - Moist von Lipwig - Future novel featuring Moist von Lipwig. The title and the end of Going Postal indicate that it involves the Ankh-Morpork mint. A brief excerpt was read at the 2006 (UK) Convention. Amazon has currently set a release date at 1 October 2007.

I Shall Wear Midnight - Tiffany Aching - Pratchett has stated that this is the next Discworld novel that will follow after completion of Nation (which itself may or may not be a Discworld novel)

Simon/~Flibster
 
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I have a question...

I have CoM, Light Fantastic that I've read, and about 2 more that I haven't read etc...

Does it matter if I don't read them in order, or do you get more out of it and a sense of continuity that you would otherwise not get if you didn't?
 
Maniac618 said:
Does it matter if I don't read them in order, or do you get more out of it and a sense of continuity that you would otherwise not get if you didn't?
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I think the books are all pretty much standalone, with very few references to earlier ones. It's the character development that makes up much of the fun of reading Pratchett's stuff. If you read one book featuring a collection of characters, you can then go back and read any of the other books with those characters, in any order and get full enjoyment.
 
Going postal is the only one I have read. I couldnt put it down and I found it very very funny. I will read some others at some point. Wish I wasnt such a slow reader. :p
 
Got into discworld after I read the Colour of magic graphic novel in the school library, bought the Light fantastic and Reaperman shortly afterward, because it had a cool book cover :p.

Small gods would have to be 1 of my favourites, the whole setting to the book seemed really boring, but it completely surpised me.
Moving pictures is the only 1 that I didn't enjoy, had to force myself to finish it.

I've been suprised by the screen adaptions of his books, I enjoyed Soul Music/Hogfather more then the books, not so much with Wyrd sisters.I had a massive grin on my face when Death of rats appeared in Hogfather, lil guy neds his own series :D

I've still got the latest Tiffany book in doors unread, shame I'm such a lazy reader.

Edit - He needs to bring Rincewind back.
 
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camping events this year are:

wadfest
Jamboree
i'm going to wadfest, should be good, everyone's dead friendly, and the man himself should be along again this year afaik. if you can't get to them and live in somerset there's always something on in wincanton throughout the year, just pop into the ankh morpork post office
 
I think the syle of books changed after Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic, so like most people I would reccomend Guards! Guards! as a good place to start. They don't have to be read in order but Ankh Morpork and the Discworld in general has evolved throughout the series (the clacks for instance) so it makes a certain sense to start at the beginning and go from there.
So far the one I've enjoyed least was Jingo or Going Postal. It's hard to pick a favourite as thw overall standard of the books is so high but Reaper Man or Feet of Clay I remember enjoying a lot.
My girlfriend pulled one off my shelf not long ago, read it in two days and then started another one, two days later she started another one. Then went down to Borders to try and fill the few gaps I had in the early books.

For the people who were put off by the cover art you'll be happy to hear it's been replaced by some very grown up (and dull) black theme now.
 
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