this post was submitted on 06 Feb 2024
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Discworld

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A community for all things related to the Discworld series of books by Sir Terry Pratchett.

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[–] jjagaimo@lemmy.ca 83 points 1 year ago (4 children)

Why give them unique shapes in the legend and then proceed to NOT use them in the actual diagram? ,`:•|

[–] themusicman@lemmy.world 8 points 1 year ago

Lol I never noticed that

[–] Droechai@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

Because someone really dislikes colour blind people :P

[–] horsey@lemm.ee 3 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It also seems the color for “young adult novel” isn’t used at all.

[–] Master@lemm.ee 5 points 1 year ago

That's the purple.

[–] snooggums@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago
[–] MelodiousFunk@startrek.website 39 points 1 year ago (2 children)

I'm one of those heathens that read through for the first time in publication order. The ancient civilization side trips were a bit disorienting at first but I managed.

[–] BeigeAgenda@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 year ago

I just finished The Last Continent next up is Carpe Jugulum

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago

I’m considering that for my next read through.

[–] Psionicsickness@reddthat.com 21 points 1 year ago (7 children)
[–] BestBouclettes@jlai.lu 15 points 1 year ago (1 children)

You can do whatever I think, either read them by series (rincewind, witches, city guard, etc.) or by publishing order, starting with the colour of magic.

[–] NuraShiny@hexbear.net 4 points 1 year ago (2 children)
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There's a lot of opinions on this. I found Small Gods to be a good jumping in place because it's a stand alone book and late enough that he had found the tone he wanted for the series. But a lot of other people recommend picking a subseries and starting with the first book there. The Vimes books are very popular so a lot of people recommend Guards, Guards as a starting point.

The reason a lot of people don't recommend publishing order is that the first two books are written in a very different style to the later ones. They're pretty straight parodies of heroic fantasy. But Pratchett becomes so much more later.

[–] FenrirIII@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Witches look self-contained. For the rest, pick a group and read up to before the series crossover, then proceed to the next series's starting book

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 7 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Witches aren’t bad to start it’s where I did. But I recommend ending with Tiffany Aching. The shepherds crown wasn’t intended to be the final book, he was writing until he died and would’ve kept going if he could’ve, but it is the perfect final book.

I’d say start with Rincewind, Witches, or Death. City Watch is good too but it’ll hit you hard with Industrial Revolution stuff and is very much the story of the world progressing as people try to deal with it.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago

I recommend ending with Tiffany Aching.

I heartily agree. It reads like a beautiful capstone on Sir Terry Pratchett's life's work.

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 2 points 1 year ago (1 children)

The books represented by the orange dots are typically recommended starting points between fans. They start some of the more popular longer running character arcs.

That said, every book is a solid stand-alone story. No story requires reading more than the book it is in.

That said, every book is a solid stand-alone story. No story requires reading more than the book it is in.

Yeah, I will mention that at the time I started reading them, availability of the series in the US was pretty spotty so I read a lot of the books out of order. I didn't find it impacted my enjoyment. Some of the later books have more continuity, particularly the later watch books, but I think the majority of them could be read in any order without too much problem.

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[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 18 points 1 year ago (4 children)

I was the weird one and started with The Color of Magic and didn't regret it. Weird Pratchett advised to skip 2 of his own books.

[–] alex@jlai.lu 14 points 1 year ago

I think starting with Color of Magic is just fine, IF you know and enjoy classic heroic fantasy. Otherwise it's very hard to enjoy without understanding what tropes it's mocking.

[–] captainlezbian@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago

They’re very different from the rest so it makes sense. IMO you’ve really got 4 eras: The first two, the era where he’s got an idea of what he wants but it’s still forming and being explored (pre industrial, lots of new stuff, characters change a lot as he explores them), his stride (longer series, less satirical, beginning to display his feelings on people as a whole), and then the embuggerance books (frustrated and powerful stories that leave very little of himself held back). They definitely bleed into each other, but there’s a reason Snuff feels a lot more like I Shall Wear Midnight in tone than it does to Guards Guards.

I think what he’s really saying is “don’t start with the books that came with an assumption that this was a one off parody, start where it’s being written as a series meant to evolve, then when you have a feel for it go read them”

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[–] sourcery@lemmy.one 17 points 1 year ago (2 children)

Don't sleep on Small Gods, it's incredibly good.

[–] reverendsteveii@lemm.ee 4 points 1 year ago

my personal favorite after decades of dedicated fandom, and self-contained enough that it's one I recommend everyone start with.

That was the first one I read, and it got me hooked. Very good stand alone book with minimal references to the rest of the series.

[–] Pofski@lemmy.world 14 points 1 year ago

Sir Terry Pratchett.

[–] Flyberius@hexbear.net 14 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Holy crap the Watch series are so good.

[–] TheCaconym@hexbear.net 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

It's good right up until the last two books or so (thinking specifically of Snuff, but also Raising Steam here), where Vimes becomes a complete parody of himself, and there is also a large drop in quality.

Maybe Pratchett's disease had something to do with it.

[–] huf@hexbear.net 5 points 1 year ago

raising steam was disjointed and its second half felt like a farewell to the discworld. and yeah, snuff is just a rambling mess.

[–] 6daemonbag@lemmy.dbzer0.com 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Did Pratchett really recommend starting with sourcery? I've been stumped for years on where to start

I think pterry was personally fond of Rincewind as a character, which may have influenced this recommendation.

[–] Skelectus@suppo.fi 10 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Funny how you made this post now. I decided to get into Discworld very recently and finished Mort just the day before.

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[–] maniacalmanicmania@aussie.zone 9 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Basically, while all of the novels take place in the discworld, different books in the series focus on different groups of characters, making it so that there are different subseries within the series. A lot of people choose to read the subseries in order instead of going through the books in publication order. This is also because the first two books, while not bad, have a very different tone from the later books. They're kind of straight parodies of heroic fantasy rather than being more focused on the unique setting and characters within the discworld.

So most people would recommend starting with one of the major subseries. The city watch books start with Guards Guards (this is probably the most popular subseries). The witches start with Equal Rites. Death starts with Mort. And Rincewind starts with The Color of Magic. Or you could pick one of the stand alone books to get a taste of Pratchett's style without continuity. Small Gods is probably the best choice for this IMO.

[–] Boomslang@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

Does reading this count as reading one of the books

[–] Siethron@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

I asked Pratchett's ghost. He said it didn't matter.

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 6 points 1 year ago (1 children)

I JUST bought the books on humble!

This is great.

[–] Neato@ttrpg.network 7 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (8 children)

This one?

https://www.humblebundle.com/books/terry-pratchetts-discworld-harpercollins-books

Sad it doesn't have quite all of them.

Hmm looks like it's just missing Raising Steam?

And it looks like it's through kobo.com? Do you just get the files or have to use their site/app?

Edit: looks like these books can only be downloaded as .ascm files. DRM-managed adobe files. Very lame.

Welp I just burned $18 as I'm absolutely not going to use Adobe Digital Editions or the Kobo app to read books. Humble's "Use on Any Device" is an absolute lie.

[–] Crashumbc@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Humble gives you a code to use on kobo.com

Which isn't ideal, but for the price....

[–] MajorHavoc@programming.dev 3 points 1 year ago (7 children)

I've heard it's not too hard to recoup your value for your $18, by making the books actually readable on your devices:

https://github.com/subdavis/kobo-book-downloader?tab=readme-ov-file#alternatives-to-kobodl

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[–] NOFF@lemmy.world 5 points 1 year ago* (last edited 1 year ago) (3 children)

I grabbed the humble book bundle a while ago, so this will be really useful. Thanks.

Edit: what category are the purple books?

[–] db0@lemmy.dbzer0.com 4 points 1 year ago

Young Adult.

The Tiffany Aching books are a young adult subseries that spins off from the witches series. Very much worth reading even if you're not huge on YA stuff, especially since they essentially finish off the witches storyline.

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[–] ME5SENGER_24@lemmy.world 4 points 1 year ago

Don’t kill me but I finally started reading Discworld. I saw this image and after reading some posts I ended up reading Guards! Guards! It was great and can’t wait to read another

[–] Toneswirly@lemmy.world 3 points 1 year ago (3 children)

Ive only read the color of magic but it was amazing.

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[–] Aatube@kbin.social 3 points 1 year ago

Full version with bordering decor: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Discworld_Reading_Order_Guide_3.0.jpg

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