Introducing my kids to Pratchett: which book first?

[danskmacabre]

As the title, I want to introduce my kids (12 and 14) to Terry Pratchett books, but not sure what to start them on.

I was thinking just starting with "The light fantastic" which I THINK is the first of the Discworld books, but isn't one of the better books IMO, still it's quite good and might be more useful to read the books chronologically.

I should add they're quite advanced readers, so read well above their age.

[ATDrake]

Do you think they can handle Small Gods? It's technically chronologically first (unless you count parts of Eric and/or The Last Continent), is a self-contained standalone story which later has resonance on others, and manages to introduce important stuff like Death and the History Monks and L-Space without requiring any foreknowledge, and happens to be one of the very best books in the series, IMHO.

ETA: I should note that I did in fact first read this myself when I was about 12.

[eschwartz]

The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic are parts one and two of the first book, practically speaking.

DO NOT start them on those! They are his weakest books. I have accidentally turned several people off him, permanently, like this.

My favorite is Small Gods, but I think Going Postal and Making Money are also excellent starting books.

EDIT: Ninjaed! I quite agree.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by ATDrake

[...] Small Gods? It's technically chronologically first (unless you count parts of Eric and/or The Last Continent), [...]

Well, there is also Pyramids.

[danskmacabre]

I thought Guards, Guards was very funny and would appeal to them.
I'd like to start them on something light, but fun just to get them into Diskworld in general.
Mort and Sourcery were good too.

They're also avid Tabletop RPG players (Dungeons and Dragons mostly) , so the Pratchett humor would appeal to them.

Yeah I agree Colour of magic and Light fantastic weren't his best stuff at all.

Small gods is a good idea I think too.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

As the title, I want to introduce my kids (12 and 14) to Terry Pratchett books, but not sure what to start them on.

I was thinking just starting with "The light fantastic" which I THINK is the first of the Discworld books, but isn't one of the better books IMO, still it's quite good and might be more useful to read the books chronologically.

I should add they're quite advanced readers, so read well above their age.

Have they read a lot of SF/Fantasy? Do you think they'll get a lot of the jokes? If yes, start then with The Colour of Magic. The series is written to be read in published order. If you read out of order, you will spoil the series unless it's a reread.

[poohbear_nc]

Girl children might prefer the Tiffany Aching series.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Have they read a lot of SF/Fantasy? Do you think they'll get a lot of the jokes? If yes, start then with The Colour of Magic. The series is written to be read in published order. If you read out of order, you will spoil the series unless it's a reread.

No the series was not written to be read in published order.

https://scifi.stackexchange.com/ques...world-books-in

Guide of guides: (ginormous picture here)

Spoiler:

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by poohbear_nc

Girl children might prefer the Tiffany Aching series.

My daughter reads huge amounts of books, she's read the Hobbit, all the Harry Potter books. Lloyd Alexander, Percy Jackson, some cats series (all of them) and all sorts of other stuff she picks up at the library and from our home collection.
she's currently reading LOTR and likes it, so she's used to pretty heavy reading.

She especially likes Anthropomorphic type books (intelligent animals), so she's also reading the Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster.
Oh and empowered female type characters, so I'm thinking Sourcery for her.

My son likes teen and older Fantasy, Urban Fantasy stuff, such as the Dresden files, which he's nearly finished the series, so I'm on the look out for something else for him.
I figure Pratchett will be some light relief for him.

I'll check out the Tiffany Aching books tho thanks.

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Have they read a lot of SF/Fantasy? Do you think they'll get a lot of the jokes? If yes, start then with The Colour of Magic. The series is written to be read in published order. If you read out of order, you will spoil the series unless it's a reread.

Yeah they've read lots of Fantasy books and of course playing Tabletop RPGs (dungeons and Dragons mostly) helps too. As a lot of the humor is present in DnD.

[ATDrake]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Well, there is also Pyramids.

Yeah, I forgot that one wasn't strictly chrono-sequenced either. Closed time-loops vs timeline-hopping do complicate things.

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

I'd like to start them on something light, but fun just to get them into Diskworld in general.

In addition to the other suggestions, Pyramids and maybe Moving Pictures would probably be pretty decent jumping-on points if not starting at the very beginning.

They are mostly self-contained (especially Pyramids) with non-recurring main characters and plots that don't tie into other plots, but at the same time introduce other strong supporting characters and concepts (such as Detritus and Gaspode the Wonder Dog and the Assassin's Guild and the wizards under Ridcully) at early points in their development which are mostly not too spoilery for previous appearances (if any; IIRC, MP is the actual 1st appearance of Gaspode and Ridcully) if you want to avoid that, and tend not to refer back to previous books in a way that tells you the outcome of a previous tale.

And they're both very funny and relatively light-hearted compared to some of the future books, eldritch abominations of the silver screen notwithstanding.

ETA:

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

She especially likes Anthropomorphic type books (intelligent animals), so she's also reading the Spellsinger series by Alan Dean Foster.

Oh and empowered female type characters, so I'm thinking Sourcery for her.

If Sourcery for your daughter, then definitely follow up with the Tiffany Aching series, which does eventually have a callback to that further on in the series (ETA: oops, wrong book that has a sourcerer in it, I was thinking of Equal Rites). They're tilted to younger readers to begin with, but they "grow" a bit in tone as Tiffany does.

Also, she might enjoy The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, which is chock-full of anthropomorphic animals, and has empowered female characters in it, even though again, it's written more towards a younger audience.

[Dazrin]

I think you could start at the beginning of any sub-series and do alright. The first couple books in each sub-series generally don't have any/much overlap with the other books.

Here is a visual map of that: http://io9.com/how-to-read-terry-pra...e-h-1567312812

At that age, I would probably lean towards the City Watch books, but that really depends on your kids. If they do RPGs any of them would probably be fine but if they start with The Color of Magic/The Light Fantastic make sure they know that they get much better from there.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

I think you could start at the beginning of any sub-series and do alright. The first couple books in each sub-series generally don't have any/much overlap with the other books.

Here is a visual map of that: http://io9.com/how-to-read-terry-pra...e-h-1567312812

At that age, I would probably lean towards the City Watch books, but that really depends on your kids. If they do RPGs any of them would probably be fine but if they start with The Color of Magic/The Light Fantastic make sure they know that they get much better from there.

Yeah, that visual map shows excellent flow and does indeed help figure out the chronology. I have spoilered it inline, above.

[Dazrin]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

Oh and empowered female type characters, so I'm thinking Sourcery for her.

Equal Rites and the rest of the Witches sub-series are also good. I would start there rather than Sourcery for empowered female types. The only books that skips are the first two which most people agree aren't the best.

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by Dazrin

Here is a visual map of that: http://io9.com/how-to-read-terry-pra...e-h-1567312812

Ooh that map is great, actually Equal rites is also a good starting point for my daughter.