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Old 11-19-2010, 10:19 PM   #39
ATDrake
Wizzard
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The early Discworld books are very different in both style and tone from the later ones. I always advise people to start with something around mid-continuity, unless they really love spoofy humour to start with and don't mind it getting serious later.

If TCoM & TLF aren't doing it for you, I'd skip ahead several books and start on one of the series-within-a-series. If you like Witches, then Wyrd Sisters is where they start getting good; Guards! Guards! if you like cops and are interested in Ankh-Morpork city politics, Reaper Man a very good starting point for the Death books (though after that, you should backtrack to Mort before reading Soul Music so you can best appreciate the backstory and character developments; but you can skip that until then as RM reads perfectly well standalone and doesn't spoiler the earlier book); Moving Pictures for the start of the modern-day Wizards setup, or maybe Lords and Ladies, which is also a crossover with the Witches and a bit better-written.

If you prefer standalone, then Pyramids is a good jumping-on point for Ankh-Morpork-based books and the mid-continuity primarily-funny-but-starting-to-get-serious style, Small Gods if you're interested in fictional theology from either a theist or non-theist side, and The Monstrous Regiment for an example of the latest "modern" character/plot/human-nature-even-if-they-sometimes-aren't-actually-human based Discworld books that you can read without knowing/spoilering yourself for the most of the previous developments.

Do give them another shot before giving up. Pratchett isn't for everyone, but generally the Discworld series overall are well worth the read, especially the later, better ones.
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