Terry Pratchett

EsmeWeatherwax

So who else is a Pratchett fan? I cant be the only one! What a fantastic writer..the Discworld series is one of the best series ever written. I suppose anyone whos read them knows where I got my name from.

At the moment Im re-reading the young adult Discworld books, about Tiffany. Im 23...but I dont care, theyre excellent:o

C'mon all the Pratchettites..

secret_squirrel

Meh, they went downhill fairly rapidly after the first 2 imho.

The first 2 made my cry with laughter, the rest I have read only raised a smile at best.

MagnumForce

EsmeWeatherwax wrote:

So who else is a Pratchett fan? I cant be the only one! What a fantastic writer..the Discworld series is one of the best series ever written. I suppose anyone whos read them knows where I got my name from.

At the moment Im re-reading the young adult Discworld books, about Tiffany. Im 23...but I dont care, theyre excellent:o

C'mon all the Pratchettites..

Damn good writer, i just wish that he'd stop writing about Vimes and the bleedin Watch for a while! the past 5 books or something have been about the Watch, i want more Rincewind! or a new characture, that would be interesting.

Tar.Aldarion

Great writer, hilarious books. Needs more Rincewind and luggage.

passive

http://www.boards.ie/vbulletin/forumdisplay.php?f=338

Nevyn

MagnumForce wrote:

Damn good writer, i just wish that he'd stop writing about Vimes and the bleedin Watch for a while! the past 5 books or something have been about the Watch, i want more Rincewind! or a new characture, that would be interesting.

Really so you have not read, monsterous regiment or going postal or any of the Tiffany Aching books then ?

MagnumForce

Thaedydal wrote:

Really so you have not read, monsterous regiment or going postal or any of the Tiffany Aching books then ?

oh yeah...forgot about that...

Lafortezza

Small Gods was his best book, although I haven't read many of the more recent ones.

Crucifix

He usually manages to sneak Vimes into the non-watch ones anyway
I love Pratchett. Every few books I read I end up throwing in a Discworld book, they're such a safe bet, like some old trustworthy friend.

EamonnKeane

Ive read all of them n i'd say Moving Pictures, Small of Gods and Thief of Time are the best.

Fajitas!

He's a fave author of mine. Really enjoy his books... Read Going Postal last week, was pretty good, re-reading Thud this week methinks!

Tree

ah man, vimes rules!!

Terry Pratchett is one of my favourite writers. I like the City Watch stories as he can explore his darker side of writing i.e. Night Watch would be my favourite Vimes stories.

I loved Good Omens that he wrote with Neil Gaiman. I'm a huge fan of both so it was really interesting reading and being able to tell their different writing styles

EsmeWeatherwax

The Tiffany Aching ones are great, just finished Wintersmith, even though theyre the young adult ones...mans a genius!

r3nu4l

Yeah I think that even Pratchett himself knows that the Watch are the most popular although I personally loved teh Death books

The only young adult book I've read of his so far was 'The Wee Free Men' and that was great so I've bought WinterSmith and will be reading it soon.

I read Thud about two months ago and loved it. My only gripe is that while I love Sam Vimes as a character, there is just a little too much focus on him over other Watch characters. I'd like to see some further development of the newer city Watch characters. I suppose Thud did that to some extent before taking off with Vimes again

I really liked Monstrous Regiment and Going Postal. For me the great thing has been the continuing development of communications throughout the most recent books, the development of the clacks, modified clacks using lights, newspapers, re-development of the postal system etc. All good stuff and adds to the growing dynamic of Ankh-Morpork

As Passive pointed out there is a Discworld forum but Pratchett is equally well placed here, oh the dilemma!:)

Anton17

Haven't Read any of his stuff since my mid-teens. Kinda think my tastes might have evolved, used to be a big fan though. Must try pick up some of his newer stuff over the christmas hols, when I get some free time. Think the last book I bought of his would have been Carpe Jugulum or Jingo. Anything good been published since then?

deman

I haven't read any of his books although I've seen plenty of them in the shops. As a Discworld virgin, which one would you recommend I start with? Is there a continuing theme or can I just pick one out at random?

BossArky

"Going Postal" is the best of his recent ones in my opinion.. better than "Thud" anyway.

I find his books hilarious and a great read between more serious stuff... but I also need to be relaxed and in the mood. If I am stressed or feeling swamped with work or the likes I find that I cannot actually relax enough to appreciate the off the wall humour.

r3nu4l

Going Postal was a definite return to form for me, plenty of new characters and some good antics I found going postal better than Monstrous Regiment although I did like that a lot too.

If you want characters you may recognise and want to get reacquainted with then "Carpe Jugulum" contains the Witches with the addition of Vampires and "The Truth" is very interesting, contains watch characters but also covers new technology for the Discworld. It also covers vampires too so perhaps Carpe Jugulum should be read first

See here for a list of all books with short description of themes incorporated into the books.

EDIT: Deman, there are threads covering this issue in the Discworld forum but very quickly, they can all be read separately as each book is more or less a different story but you will miss many 'in-jokes' and references if you do this. Certain themes are carreid over from one ook to another and many characters appear and re-appear in different books, sometimes as cameos and sometimes centrally to the plot.

Tar.Aldarion

deman wrote:

I haven't read any of his books although I've seen plenty of them in the shops. As a Discworld virgin, which one would you recommend I start with? Is there a continuing theme or can I just pick one out at random?

You can pretty much just pick one a random.
I like teh ones with Rincewind best, although reading small gods atm, it's great.

BossArky

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

You can pretty much just pick one a random.
I like teh ones with Rincewind best, although reading small gods atm, it's great.

The first DiscWorld I ever read was "Thief of Time" - I had no idea what to expect... I was a bit disorientated for a while getting to grips with what the hell was going on

I thought Small Gods was one of the worst... perhaps due to be stressed out at the time.

edit - I did like the eagle trying to hop the turtle off the ground from a height every now and again.

One think I find with alot of the discworld books is that most of them seem to be about 60 pages too long. i.e. the story/plot ends... but Pratchett keeps writing anyway and the last section of the book seems to be just flapping about in the wind with no relevance to what came before. Anyone else find that?

r3nu4l

BossArky wrote:

One think I find with alot of the discworld books is that most of them seem to be about 60 pages too long. i.e. the story/plot ends... but Pratchett keeps writing anyway and the last section of the book seems to be just flapping about in the wind with no relevance to what came before. Anyone else find that?

I know what you are saying. I think that one of the things Pratchett tries to do with each book is to present the story but also preserve the continuity of the Discworld (oxymoron? ).

I think he's saying: 'Okay the story's over but life goes on in Discworld and other adventures will be had...'. I don't think it always works but I can forgive him that after all the enjoyment he's brought me over the years

The_Minister

Deepest: Reaper Man
First that I read: Lords and Ladies

Tar.Aldarion

I hear Lords and Ladies isn't that great atall?

The_Minister

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

I hear Lords and Ladies isn't that great atall?

I loved it, but it was my first

BopNiblets

I'm reading the Fifth Elephant (only one in the house, my brothers) and it's not that great, but it's getting better as I go on I think.

Nevyn

tSubh Dearg

The first Terry Pratchett I read was Reaper Man when I was about 12. I laughed and laughed out loud at some bits.

"Bonzai!" "Shrub!" etc

I have to say I have a bit of a soft spot for the wizards esp the Bursar, poor man and the Librarian.

I love the Death/Susan books I wish he would do more of those. Though I do realise that Death appears in all the books.

Recently discovered the Tiffany Aching books, they're great too even though they're aimed more at younger readers.

Like BossArky I like to read him in between other more serious reads as a sort of relaxation.

BossArky

I'm reading Carpe Juggulum at the moment. Kind of finding my concentration lapsing and hoping he moves on and and gets to the point of the story. About 140 pages into the 450.

Sir Digby Chicken Caesar

i didn't like carpe juggulm, thief of time or monstrous regiment at first.. but re-reading the first two a few months later was very nice... haven't got round to monstrous regiment yet... that was just awful

Cake Fiend

To any newbies, I'd recommend reading them in published order, so you get all the in-jokes. Plus, the earlier ones are, IMO, funnier. The later ones are deeper. I never liked the first two much, but I think they're good grounding for the ongoing Rincewind/Luggage/Twoflower saga.

TBH, I'm not nearly as fond of the later ones as I was of the first 15 or so. The Fifth Elephant was pants, Monstrous Regiment wasn't great (although I liked the idea)... now that I think of it, there wasn't much after Feet of Clay that I really enjoyed as much as the earlier ones (although I enjoyed Thief of Time and Thud more than the other later ones)

Favourites: Mort, Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Interesting Times

The_Minister wrote:

Deepest: Reaper Man

I'll see your Reaper Man, and raise you one Mort.

Tar.Aldarion wrote:

I hear Lords and Ladies isn't that great atall?

Oddly, when I first read it, I thought it was one of the best evar, but when I re-read it later, I didn't like it as much Haven't read it in years, so I'm not sure now.