# Best Discworld books?



## Incanus (Jul 19, 2016)

I was just wondering if there was something like a consensus as to which books in this series are considered 'best'.

I did read one about ten years ago, or so, but I didn't like it all that much.  Wasn't terrible or anything, just OK.  I think I prefer Douglas Adams for this sort of thing.

So, are there any fan favorites I should know about?  Or should I just pick up the first one or two?


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## Ireth (Jul 19, 2016)

My personal faves, in no particular order:

Reaper Man
Hogfather
Thud!
the Tiffany Aching quintet (The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight, The Shepherd's Crown)
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Going Postal
Making Money
Snuff


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## Peat (Jul 19, 2016)

Definitely do not pick up the first one or two. They are very different books to the rest of the series and, imo, markedly inferior too. The first bit of that sentence is generally consensus.

For my money, the Discworld series hits its full magnificence about book 12 as the transformation from fantasy parody to satire in a fantasy land starts to take place. 

General consensus (and my opinion) is that best mini-series in them are the Guard books, which starts with Guards!Guards!, and the Witches books, which starts with Wyrd Sisters. I'd try one of those two first. Some will say the Witches books starts with Equal Rites, but I don't agree. Mort, the start of the Death series, would be another good starting point.

And Small Gods would be the best stand alone imo - I think there's a general consensus behind that too.


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## Incanus (Jul 19, 2016)

Hmmmm.  The plot thickens, as it were.  Thanks for the replies/info.

So there are mini-series' in the greater series?  Maybe standalones would be the way to go.

It's interesting to note that there is no overlap between Ireth's and Peat's choices.  How to decide?  I'm not sure.  There is one thing though:  I'm much more interested in satire than parody.


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## Peat (Jul 19, 2016)

Oh yeah. I mean, we're talking about 40 books written in the world.

I mentioned the mini-series because I know a lot of people like to read in order. If you don't mind about that sort of thing, I wouldn't bother too much. Pretty much all of the Discworld books work as standalones. 

And yeah. You can get some pretty big swings in taste because of all the mini-series. I agree with Ireth on Reaper Man, Hogfather and Thud!, all of which I think are amazeballs to the power of awesome. I think that I would use that description for a solid 15 books in the series though. The Tiffany Aching books and the Moist von Lipwig (Making Money/Going Postal) books, I merely liked a lot. An awful lot. Rabid fanboy over here.

I think my favourite five Discworlds would be Night Watch, Carpe Jugulum, Small Gods, Hogfather and Jingo. Ask me again tomorrow and I might have changed it again. The Von Lipwig books and The Truth might appeal more if you're more in the mood for satire.


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## La Volpe (Jul 20, 2016)

To throw my opinion into the pool: My two favourites are Reaperman and Mort.


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## Ireth (Jul 20, 2016)

Also, his non-Discworld books are generally very good too, from what I've read. Nation is my fave of those. The Carpet People is also good. Dodger is okay, but it doesn't have nearly as much of his standard humor.


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## Incanus (Jul 20, 2016)

Maybe I'll let the used bookstore I live near decide for me:  I'll write down a handful of the titles suggested here and then see if any are actually on the shelves.

The reason I'm interested in this at this time is that I've had a sudden idea for using fantasy to satire various things in society and wanted to brush up on what's been done.  I don't think I'd like parodies of the fantasy genre very much, but using it as a vehicle for satire--that's something I can get behind.

Thanks for all the ideas!  (BTW, the one I read and didn't care for all that much was called Soul Music.)


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## psylenda (Oct 25, 2016)

My personal favorite is going postal.


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## DragonOfTheAerie (Oct 30, 2016)

Maybe I should read them; I don't typically write satire, but all my best received writing seems to have been satire, so...I've been meaning to read them for a while.


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## CupofJoe (Oct 30, 2016)

Anything with Sam Vines or Tiffany Aching.
Captain-Duke Sam Vimes is one of the best characters I have ever read. Tiffany Aching comes a close second [and you get the Nac Mac Feegles as an added bonus].


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## mrsmig (Oct 30, 2016)

Incanus said:


> I was just wondering if there was something like a consensus as to which books in this series are considered 'best'.
> 
> I did read one about ten years ago, or so, but I didn't like it all that much.  Wasn't terrible or anything, just OK.  I think I prefer Douglas Adams for this sort of thing.
> 
> So, are there any fan favorites I should know about?  Or should I just pick up the first one or two?



It may just be that you're not a fan of Pratchett's style. Not everyone likes "Brit" humor (Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker series comes to mind, as well as almost everything P.G. Wodehouse wrote). I happen to love it, and have been slowly working my way through the Discworld books in chronological order. My favorite characters are Rincewind, Sam Vimes, Death and especially Granny Weatherwax.


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## Gribba (Oct 30, 2016)

As a Douglas Adams worshiper, my favorites are definitely Reaperman and Mort.


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## Geo (Oct 31, 2016)

Incanus said:


> I was just wondering if there was something like a consensus as to which books in this series are considered 'best'.



For me the Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic (that are the first and second of the series and often sold as one volume) are two of the best. 

Personally I also liked Equal Rites and Mort (which in the US was sold as Reaper Man).

But if you want to truly appreciate the series I would strongly recommend to start with the first two. After that, if you skip a book or three there is no much problem with continuity.

Now on my personal less favorite, I must mention Moving Pictures (took me forever to finish it).


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## Ireth (Oct 31, 2016)

Geo said:


> Personally I also liked Equal Rites and Mort (which in the US was sold as Reaper Man).



Mort and Reaper Man are two different books, regardless of where they were sold.


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## cydare (Oct 31, 2016)

It's really hard to choose. I'm constantly reading a Discworld book in between others, and they build on each other wonderfully. My personal favourites today are Night Watch, Going Postal, Small Gods, and Witches Abroad.

In terms of where to start, I'd recommend 'Guards Guards!' as it seems like the best introduction to the world (followed by Wyrd Sisters perhaps, which shows you a different part of it.) I also think the Watch books are best read in order, not because it's necessary, but because seeing the character growth and the growth of the Watch is great.


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## Steerpike (Nov 1, 2016)

I love Brit humor. Douglas Adams, Python, Red Dwarf, Faulty Towers, the Young Ones, even going back to Jane Austen. Can't get into Pratchett.


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## Geo (Nov 2, 2016)

Ireth said:


> Mort and Reaper Man are two different books, regardless of where they were sold.



Hi, then it may be different editions of Mort, because I have an old copy of Mort, one i got years ago, and a much newer copy of Reaper that my brother brought from the US and gave to me, and they are exactly the same book. Minus some colours and behaviours, of course.


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## Ireth (Nov 2, 2016)

Geo said:


> Hi, then it may be different editions of Mort, because I have an old copy of Mort, one i got years ago, and a much newer copy of Reaper that my brother brought from the US and gave to me, and they are exactly the same book. Minus some colours and behaviours, of course.



That's bizarre, because Mort as a character never shows up in Reaper Man (at least in my/my mom's copy). They have entirely different plots. Reaper Man deals with Death receiving a lifetimer full of sand and essentially going AWOL while spending it, and the resulting chaos when nothing and no one can die. Mort, iirc, deals with the eponymous character's master/apprentice relationship with Death and his romance with Ysabell.


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## Peat (Nov 5, 2016)

They did do some weird things with publishing Pratchett in the US to begin with from what I hear.

Anyway, I'd encourage reading Pratchett to everyone. He's not for everyone - nobody is - but he is for an awful lot of people and I think incredibly important as a general fantasy author.


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## AngelaRCox (Nov 15, 2016)

As a US reader, I'll confirm that Mort and Reaper Man are different books (I read Reaper Man before I got my hands on Mort--I read out of order  )
As for where to start, I have to know a person's interests to know where to direct them. There's something for everyone *somewhere* in the series, but you have to know where to look. But part of what I LOVE about the Discworld books is that it doesn't matter where you start, or what order you read in. There are orders that are beneficial, but even if you ignore those entirely it's possible to piece everything together. 
I second the people who recommended standalones, especially Small Gods. That was my introduction, because I was in 5th grade and I judged a book by its cover and decided Soul Music (which I love now) was "too mature" for me, but let's read the one with the turtle on the cover. If you've read Small Gods, which satires religious fundamentalism and corruption, you'll see immediately why this is kinda funny. 
If you like procedurals and suspense, go with the Watch books: Guards! Guards!, for instance. If you like literary allusions and small town stuff/provincial intrigue, go with the witch books: Lords and Ladies, for instance. If you like supernatural and existential themes (outsider's view on humanity kind of thing), the Death books (my favorite): Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, etc. The Rincewind books tend to deal with travel adventures (The Colour of Magic, for instance), and anything dealing heavily with the wizards is going to provide some academic/scientific satire (Unseen Academicals was excellent, it's probably my brother's favorite). The Tiffany Aching sequence is good if you want coming of age/ YA style and is solid writing.
Outside of Discworld, I love love love the Bromeliad trilogy (also YA), which is kinda like The Borrowers but with Pratchett's trademark satirical comedy and recognizable character development. 
Anyway, that's how I do Pratchett recommendations.


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## Dark Squiggle (Nov 28, 2017)

_The Light Fantastic_. I've read them all, and yes, this is the first one I read, but it really has the widest scope of all the books, and actually ties up nicely in the end, unlike _The Color of Magic_, which is a mess like _Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows_,  I guess every writer needs a book to ramble in. But Twoflower is my favorite character, Rincewind and the Luggage are at their best, The book has the best opening (falling off the world) and the best subplot (The Red Star). Okay, none of the really fun later characters like Death or the Watchmen or Granny have appeared, but unfortunately it was written first, so what can you do.


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## TheCrystallineEntity (Dec 8, 2017)

I'm steadily collecting the Discworld books on my shelf. I like so many of them, it's hard to pick just a few. Death is my favourite character.


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