Terry Pratchett's Diskworld Series

[Replacement Account]

Spider was from The Hogfather, right?

Nono, Hogfather's villain was the Assassin trying to Die Hard his way into a vault.

Spider's from Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents.

 

[Betonhaus]

Nono, Hogfather's villain was the Assassin trying to Die Hard his way into a vault.

Spider's from Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents.

Oh yeah I never got that book. I did get a copy of the movie I intend to watch though.

 

[Anon88]

I started the Discworld series earlier this year. Only read the first five books so far. I have to say that Mort is my favorite of them Death is a good character. Is there any bad books in the series worth skipping or should I just read them all?

 

[Replacement Account]

I started the Discworld series earlier this year. Only read the first five books so far. I have to say that Mort is my favorite of them Death is a good character. Is there any bad books in the series worth skipping or should I just read them all?

I don't remember really disliking any of them*, but I didn't like the last couple as much as the earlier ones.

*Aside from Eric which I never actually read so can't judge.

 

[glass_houses]

I don't remember really disliking any of them*, but I didn't like the last couple as much as the earlier ones.

*Aside from Eric which I never actually read so can't judge.

Eric didn't do much for me, I've only read it a couple of times and I don't own a copy. However, I believe that some prior knowledge of Faust is helpful when you approach it.

 

[Betonhaus]

I started the Discworld series earlier this year. Only read the first five books so far. I have to say that Mort is my favorite of them Death is a good character. Is there any bad books in the series worth skipping or should I just read them all?

The rincewind the wizzard books lack the relatable messaging that the other books have, but it does a significant amount of world building and describing what is on the disk world.

 

[IDanceonTrannyGraves]

I own a few of the books and have been meaning to get into this series forever. I have both the PS1 games that were released in NA and a rom of the EU only one. They're primitive but fun and I like the humour.

 

[Betonhaus]

Just watched The Amazing Maurice and aside from a terrible attempt at a musical number it was really good. Forgotten about the girl and thought she was Susan for a few minutes

 

[Sumptinsfuckey]

I've read them all, my favorites are the Vimes Books, the Rincewind books second. As an aside he onve said rincewind was an homage to Flashman, which I never got because although both characters are admitted cowards, being a lech is so integral to Flashman's character, whereas Rincewind always came across as being asexusl. But that might also be due to the writers... peculiar views. Pratchet was a damned good writer, and it was a great series, but one thing about the man himself comes through very, very clearly. The man was utterly terrified of women. I have no idea what his mom/governess/teachers/sister etc did to him, but its obvious that to him at least, the single most terrifying thing in existence is a woman wearing sensibke shoes who has a stern attitude. Which kinda makes Rincewind being Flashman minus the sex drive make a bit more sense.

Nono, Hogfather's villain was the Assassin trying to Die Hard his way into a vault.

Spider's from Amazing Maurice and his educated rodents.

Mr Tee-ah-tim-ah. Not Mr Teatime.

 

[reptile baht spaniard rid]

I started the Discworld series earlier this year. Only read the first five books so far. I have to say that Mort is my favorite of them Death is a good character. Is there any bad books in the series worth skipping or should I just read them all?

You could skip Raising Steam imo; but since it's the last book you can read it last.

The discworld books span so many genres it's almost certain you'll have ones you don't like quite as much - eg some of the vimes books are basically murder mysteries, some others are action thrillers (Thief of Time here), many are love stories but some more explicitly than others

 

[OutInTheRain]

Discworld was a large portion of what I read growing up. I do like the evolution from broad parody, to a more toned down satire as Pratchett's skills a writer evolved. Nightwatch was always one of my favourites as it kind of felt like the culmination of Vimes's arc. Thud was pretty good too though.

I always kind of felt his post Alzheimer's diagnosis was the start of his downward slide in quality. I found the books didn't flow like they used to. I know he got Steven Baxter to co-write Long Earth, and I have always had sneaking suspicion he had someone ghost write later Discworld novels.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Eric didn't do much for me, I've only read it a couple of times and I don't own a copy. However, I believe that some prior knowledge of Faust is helpful when you approach it.

It was meant to be a graphic novel, or a heavily illustrated story, like The Last Hero. It feels incomplete without that final component.

 

[Dupree Home Edition]

My dad had them all when I was a kid. Along with Artemis Fowl, Harry Potter, Golden Compass, A Series of Unfortunate Events, and Redwall they were core childhood reading for me. Some of the cover art on the paperbacks was mesmerising as well, pic related.
If you like Discworld I HIGHLY recommend the "MYTH Inc." series as well.

 

[Pledged22]

I never liked the rincewind books. I tried reading a couple last year and again they never really gelled with me, not really sure why as such. I thought I might like then more more I’m older but I still just found them boring.

I think my favourite are the nights watch books.

 

[teriyakiburns]

Raising Steam is not a good book. It has flashes of good bits, but it is clear that Terry was already far beyond his prime with that one; it feels much more like disjointed scenes/notes than an actual book.

Missed replying to this before.

Shepherd's Crown and Raising Steam were clearly meant to be a duology, closing off both of the book lines by symbolically exiling the elves - the inspiration of both creativity and suffering - from the world, by wrapping it in bonds of iron. They both suffer the same problem of incompleteness, but it seems like different people view one or the other as more incomplete depending on their various views of things.

For instance, I've said elsewhere (and seen said elsewhere) that Raising Steam, though it feels like vignettes and moments glued together, works rather well for what it is. It's structurally like a railway journey, viewed from within the train; lots of momentary visions of things passing by, telling parts of a story that never have more than a middle,without a beginning or an end. Flashes of scenes that leave you forever wondering what could have been. I liked that structure, as it felt like Terry working with the mental problems he was suffering rather than trying to fight against them. It was a long goodbye to all of his favourite characters, and if he re-used tropes or moments from those characters' lives, well that was just how it had to be.

I've not read Shepherd's Crown, so I can't offer the same level of opinion on it, but from what others have told me about it, there are parts that feel like it was clearly ghost-written from notes, and parts where plots simply taper off because either Terry forgot to write it down, or just didn't have time. Characters look like they're getting to play a major role in the plot and then get shunted off to the side, or just disappear entirely.

Thing is, these are the same problems, which both appear to carry in equal measure. I think they were written concurrently, rather than one coming before the other. Probably with a lot of help from Rhianna.

---

Speaking of Rhianna, I find it a little cheeky that she made a big show of destroying her father's notes in accordance with his will, but then apparently kept a copy to incorporate into the show bible for The Watch. She outright complains that the usurping producers of the show used locations and ideas, which had only appeared in Terry's notes and not in his books, in ways that didn't fit the original conception, but neglects to mention that they could only have had access to those notes because of her.

 

[Cryptojew]

I've not read Shepherd's Crown, so I can't offer the same level of opinion on it, but from what others have told me about it, there are parts that feel like it was clearly ghost-written from notes, and parts where plots simply taper off because either Terry forgot to write it down, or just didn't have time. Characters look like they're getting to play a major role in the plot and then get shunted off to the side, or just disappear entirely.

I have not read Shepherds Crown either. I Shall Wear Midnight was the last of his (chronologically) that I read, and it felt very clear how far his alziemers had progressed by the time he had written it. Also the Feegles were barely in it.

 

[Replacement Account]

It's a shame The Watch thing was co-opted by current year subhumanoids, actual adaptions of the Watch books would work best as a series...hilariously I remember the response to it being 'angry Discworld fans' and 'angry Russians who thought it was the other Night Watch and are also annoyed'

The actual adaptions are pretty ok, even the animated ones of questionable quality.

I'd actually recommend watching the fan adaption of Troll Bridge. It's on youtube and doesn't take up too much time.

 

[Sumptinsfuckey]

Honestly the last book I really enjoyed was either Thud, or Unseen Academicals. Snuff wasn't bad, but I really feel like Vimes arc came to end in Thud. I also never really thought Moist was a very good protagionist.

 

[glass_houses]

Honestly the last book I really enjoyed was either Thud, or Unseen Academicals. Snuff wasn't bad, but I really feel like Vimes arc came to end in Thud. I also never really thought Moist was a very good protagionist.

That's interesting, I thought Moist was a great character! I loved the way he thought quickly and on his feet, and how he changed and grew throughout his books. The way he managed and manipulated the people around him was amazing to an autist like me. I can't get a grasp on individuals like Moist irl, so it was really illuminating seeing what was in his head. The Moists that I've met throughout my life have generally extremely destructive, so it was cool to see his powers used for good and not for evil, as it were.

EDIT: a word

 

[Alouatta Simia Belzebul]

I've read them all, my favorites are the Vimes Books, the Rincewind books second. As an aside he onve said rincewind was an homage to Flashman, which I never got because although both characters are admitted cowards, being a lech is so integral to Flashman's character, whereas Rincewind always came across as being asexusl. But that might also be due to the writers... peculiar views. Pratchet was a damned good writer, and it was a great series, but one thing about the man himself comes through very, very clearly. The man was utterly terrified of women. I have no idea what his mom/governess/teachers/sister etc did to him, but its obvious that to him at least, the single most terrifying thing in existence is a woman wearing sensibke shoes who has a stern attitude. Which kinda makes Rincewind being Flashman minus the sex drive make a bit more sense.

I never really thought about Rincewind as representing a fear of women, but he does definitely come off as asexual. I thought he was just a very old fashioned type of adventure hero (plus the coward twist, obviously) where women were basically irrelevant to the story and therefore not there. Flashman was a spin on those same kinds of books.

Pratchett explicitly made the number one employer of women to be the seamstresses guild, basically creating an off-page legion of happy hookers, and also anachronistically inserted condoms into the proxy medieval era, so that he never had to include any negative consequences. Pretty much any women that isn't a happy hooker is the stern upper class governess type. I like Nanny Ogg, but Nanny Ogg is literally a cheerful fucker and Granny Weatherwax is Granny Weatherwax, basically the same dichotomy.
I always thought that the governess types were supposed to be plays on the matron/nanny fantasy of the upper class boarding school boy - probably not the case any more, but stereotypically true in the near past that he was writing in & about.

I also assumed he was a bit like Paul Newman - not very interested until he met his wife who really did it for him, as that's the basic dynamic of Carrot and Angua (from his perspective), and Magrat and Verence (from his wife's perspective), and he uses them to bang on about chemistry / pheromones / true love etc. (edit: also Moist & Adora). He did start to talk about the negatives later on (domestic violence, sexual abuse in Monstrous Regiment) but that was all after he had his daughter.

-

I read most of them as a teen, I do consider myself a fan, but I think they're YA. They can be enjoyed by adults but are first and foremost for a teenage audience, whereas most of the fans I've met (and / or seen on reddit) are constantly complaining about that and think that he's way deeper than that. 90% of the everything is terrible, the fact that 90% of YA is worse than discworld doesn't mean that discworld isn't YA.