The Colour of Magic - Terry Pratchet

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Anke Wehner

Published order isn't a bad idea, but it's not really neccessary with this series. If you find yourself bored or otherwise put off by Colour of Magic, I'd suggest jumping ahead to Equal Rites, Mort, or Guards! Guards!
If I had started with Colour of Magic I think I'd not have picked up a second book in the series, because it felt like I was missing most of the jokes - it felt like a parody of works most of which I didn't know.
My first Discworld book was Mort, and now I've got nearly the whole series on my shelf.

Actually, I do think published order is necessary the first time around. If not, you miss out on things. Pratchett does not do summations. He expects you to have read what came before.

[ardeegee]

(Question that fell through a wormhole from 5 years in the future)

Does it matter what order you watch the episodes of CSI: Ankh-Morpork?

[gmw]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Actually, I do think published order is necessary the first time around. If not, you miss out on things. Pratchett does not do summations. He expects you to have read what came before.

I just picked up "Lords and Ladies" which does in fact contain a rare "Author's Note" at the start. It says:

By and large, most Discworld books have stood by themselves, as complete books. It helps to have read them in some kind of order, but it's not essential.
This one is different. I can't ignore the history of what has one before. [...]

And he goes on to give the necessary background from the previous witches story line.

[thrawn_aj]

Originally Posted by gmw

I just picked up "Lords and Ladies" which does in fact contain a rare "Author's Note" at the start. It says:

And he goes on to give the necessary background from the previous witches story line.

Thanks for finally laying that to rest.
That intent on the author's part is somewhat obvious as one reads the books, but such clearly stated intentions are sometimes necessary for the more ... vociferous lot .

[BenG]

If you're planning on reading the entire series it's best to read them in order, but if you're just sampling one or two books it doesn't matter much.

I read Hogfather first and then started the series in publication order. I read one or two of the books every few months and I'm up to #26 right now. It's beginning to get a little repetitive so lately I've been waiting longer between readings.

Hogfather is still my favorite.

[DixieGal]

I'm reading The Truth, number 25, I think. It was slow starting out, but is getting good now. The reporter thinks Nobby is the werewolf, and Vimes says that they don't discuss Nobbs' species with the press. I was reading in bed and woke Tim up because that kept coming back to me, making me laugh again and again.

It would not have been funny without the previous books about the Watch bringing in all of the allusions with that one simple statement.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DixieGal

I'm reading The Truth, number 25, I think. It was slow starting out, but is getting good now. The reporter thinks Nobby is the werewolf, and Vimes says that they don't discuss Nobbs' species with the press. I was reading in bed and woke Tim up because that kept coming back to me, making me laugh again and again.

It would not have been funny without the previous books about the Watch bringing in all of the allusions with that one simple statement.

Interesting Times would not have been as funny had I not read the previous books with Rincewind and Cohen. Also, some of Maskerade will make you go "huh?" if you didn't read about the witches before. And then Soul Music references things past that are not explained. So really, you get the most out of it if you read in published order.