Quote:
Originally Posted by maianhvk
He might know the series already, but I don't. Thanks for the tip. I started with the first book, and it didn't had my attention as I expected  I heard other fans say that I should have some base knowledge about several well-known fantasy universes before reading Discworld, so I think at least I'd read LOTR first. |
You're welcome
and yeah, I found Colour of Magic really struggled to hold my attention and I've never gone back to it. I will eventually - I plan to do a complete reread once I catch up, which I'll probably blog, but it doesn't really...
entice me, if that's the right word.
Base knowledge of fantasy "tropes" does help, but he references a LOT of things, so it doesn't really matter if you don't get them all. For example, Moving Pictures and Soul Music respectively reference a lot of films and music that not necessarily everyone will know. In particular, Moving Pictures references a lot of films that younger readers likely wouldn't have seen. To be honest, as long as you're familiar with literary themes and cliches moreso than fantasy, you'll be fine.
Books I'd absolutely recommend for the beginner are:
- Small Gods
- Mort
- Guards! Guards!
Then you can either run with that series (Mort would be the Death series, Guards! Guards! the Watch series, which is arguably the best of them all and contains probably the single most celebrated TP book, Night Watch) or start from the beginning and read them chronologically - once you've got a few under your belt, reading them chronologically is probably better in terms of "getting" all the plot points.
tl;dr: read a couple of the "good" ones first, then read the books chronologically - that way lies maximum enjoyment (for me and the other TP fans I know, anyway. Everyone's different!)