Discworld Reading Order

[GlennD]

Hasn't the Discworld reading order been discussed enough in other threads, including a dedicated one, that it doesn't need to be in this thread?

[GlenBarrington]

Originally Posted by GlennD

Hasn't the Discworld reading order been discussed enough in other threads, including a dedicated one, that it doesn't need to be in this thread?

Apparently not, I am one of those poor unfortunate souls who just doesn't "Get" the Discworld series. Just couldn't get into it.

[BetterRead]

Originally Posted by GlennD

Hasn't the Discworld reading order been discussed enough in other threads, including a dedicated one, that it doesn't need to be in this thread?

Yes, it has.

But it seems like every time there is a deal on a Discworld book, JSWolf has to jump in and tell people to READ THEM ONLY IN THE PUBLISHED ORDER. Frankly, it comes off as rather bizarre. It also seems to make no difference that there are others here who have a different opinion.

For my part, I first read The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic in a 2-for paperback. I struggled to get through them, as the humor seemed rather flat & juvenile. Because I had read so much praise for Pratchett's work, however, I decided to give Discworld another shot. The third Discworld book I read was Guards! Guards! -- and the series was saved for me.

I now have a dozen Discworld First Editions (picked up on visits to the UK) and cherish the series immensely. But, still, I would NOT recommend people read Colour of Magic first.

[Uncle Robin]

I also started with The Colour of Magic and was a little annoyed by it, because to me it came off as an attempt at copying Douglas Adams' style. I decided to cut him slack as not having found his own voice, and continued reading the series publication order. It was an interesting exercise to watch him find his way into the world he was making. One upside of that for me was reading Mort as my 4th Discworld novel. DEATH is possibly my favorite character ever from any series, so much as I enjoyed the City Watch (LOVE Vetinari), I am pleased I read them in publication order. But join a jihad over it I will not.

[gmw]

I'm big fan of Pratchett and not long finished revisiting the Discworld series (excluding the Tiffany series and Amazing Maurice, which I'll save up for another time). Yes, I read them in publication order but mostly so I didn't have to make decisions. The Watch are my favourites, the Wizard stories are probably the least favourite, too much farce for my tastes, although I did really like Interesting Times. The last two or three books were not as well edited, it seemed to me, not as tight. One of the things that always strikes me about Pratchett's work, until those last few, is how much he fits into relatively short novels.

I really don't mind the first couple of books, but can certainly agree they are not the best and might put people off. On the plus side they do offer a sort of fast and easy to read introduction the world.

[latepaul]

Read them in any order you like but let me just stick up for Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic.

A friend lent me Colour of Magic in 1987 and I read it in a day. That's no big deal for some of you but I rarely did that, much less rarely now. But it's a sign of how much I enjoyed it. I went right out and bought Light Fantastic which I devoured in a couple of days. Then I had to wait for Equal Rites to come out. So obviously I read them in publication order because I was buying them as they were available.

I was initially disappointed with Equal Rites because it didn't seem as funny but later I realised it was the first time he tried to write an actual novel as opposed to a string of comic scenes riffing on standard fantasy tropes. The lazy comparison is to say he did for fantasy what Douglas Adams did for SciFi but really apart from add humour to a usually non-humourous genre they both did things very differently. (I love Adams by the way, no shade intended there)

If someone were looking for a recommendation of where to start I'd ask what kind of thing they like to read, and try from there. One possibility might be publication order depending on the person.

After a while I found my relationship to Discworld books settled down. I think you are always guaranteed a certain level of quality, but some are really good. Also I think that read-it-in-a-day enthusiasm came from a) me being young and b) never having read anything like it before. Once you've read a dozen or so you get the feel for the humour and can see the jokes coming. Still raises a smile but not as often LOL.

The better books rely on story and character. And there are some great characters in Discworld.

[JSWolf]

The problem is that nobody else is saying to read in publication order for the first read as an option. So I'm sticking up for that. After the first read, any order is not a problem for rereads.

If you are reading Discworld for the first time, how do you know that reading in published order is not the better way to read the series? You don't. How do you know some things will be spoiled by reading out of order? You don't.

So when you give the suggestion to read out of order, also give the pros/cons of reading in order. And a lot of people do like the first few books.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The problem is that nobody else is saying to read in publication order for the first read as an option. So I'm sticking up for that. After the first read, any order is not a problem for rereads.

If you are reading Discworld for the first time, how do you know that reading in published order is not the better way to read the series? You don't. How do you know some things will be spoiled by reading out of order? You don't.

So when you give the suggestion to read out of order, also give the pros/cons of reading in order. And a lot of people do like the first few books.

How do people know that another order is better? Or at least ok? Easy, they come here and ask what the best order is, you say "publication order", and others reply with alternative orders and reasons why they are good orders.

Jon, it is unlikely that someone would now start the Discworld books completely blind. Odds are someone will have suggested it. And they will probably suggest where to start (probably their favourite sub-series). At worst, they well see one of the books somewhere, get interested by it (cover, title, description or whatever) and go and look for the first book to read. And then they will find one of the many discussions on this and make their own informed decision.

[Dr. Drib]

Thank god there is now a dedicated thread so that this can be discussed intelligently.

Now here's the method I use:

Right down every title on a piece of paper. Tape all the titles, in a random order, to a dart board. Inbibe 3 glasses of Pisco Sour and one bottle of beer (Note: Cuscuena is my preferred choice.)* Now, step back about 20 feet. (It's important that no one be standing next to the dart board. I cannot emphasize this enough!) Throw the darts - all at the same time. And there you go.


* = Do not attempt any drinking without adult supervision.

[JSWolf]

When going into a series, I do go in at the first book. I don't want to spoil the series by reading a book out of order.

[issybird]

Sometimes you spoil a series by reading the first book.

[haertig]

I have not started into this series yet, but when looking into it in the past I found this reading order chart. Someone put a lot of work into it (graphically). I'll probably refer to it when (if) I ever start reading this series.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Guide_3.0.jpg

[haertig]

Originally Posted by issybird

Sometimes you spoil a series by reading the first book.

That's probably more true than we would like to believe. And it is actually a fear that I have. Being a slow reader, if I read a book in a series (or by an author) that I don't like, I generally won't go back to that series/author. Since I don't fly through books like many here do, I don't feel I have the time to pursue something that I may not like, just to see if it gets any better later. So I just abandon it. And that may be cutting me out of a bunch of good books where the author took a little time to find their stride.

It would be handy to have a thread here, "Series that started off bad, but got good later". Maybe including a "recommended insertion point" for slow readers like myself to jump in at to avoid the earlier not-so-good books. I wouldn't be the best person to start a thread like that, because I would have zero to contribute (since I currently abandon series rather than persevere if they start out bad).

The opposite situation, where a series starts off good then goes bad, is easy to recognize and each reader can apply their own ideas about what "goes bad" means.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by haertig

I have not started into this series yet, but when looking into it in the past I found this reading order chart. Someone put a lot of work into it (graphically). I'll probably refer to it when (if) I ever start reading this series.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikiped..._Guide_3.0.jpg

That chart is for a reread, not a new read.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by haertig

That's probably more true than we would like to believe. And it is actually a fear that I have. Being a slow reader, if I read a book in a series (or by an author) that I don't like, I generally won't go back to that series/author. Since I don't fly through books like many here do, I don't feel I have the time to pursue something that I may not like, just to see if it gets any better later. So I just abandon it. And that may be cutting me out of a bunch of good books where the author took a little time to find their stride.

It would be handy to have a thread here, "Series that started off bad, but got good later". Maybe including a "recommended insertion point" for slow readers like myself to jump in at to avoid the earlier not-so-good books. I wouldn't be the best person to start a thread like that, because I would have zero to contribute (since I currently abandon series rather than persevere if they start out bad).

The opposite situation, where a series starts off good then goes bad, is easy to recognize and each reader can apply their own ideas about what "goes bad" means.

With some series, starting where it picks up doesn't work. So that bit of information should be mentioned if such a thread was to be started.