No need to be sorry, both of us seem to be new to Pratchett and it's easily done. You've probably answered the same question 1000 times. I was going to post here anyways and didn't want to confuse everyone.

I do have a question though, would watching Color of Magic and Hogfather wreck the books for me or enhance them? And which movie do I watch first?

my normal rules of thumb are that i watch the films first, they are not going to ruin a good book for me, but a good book will ruin a bad film!

if that makes sense.

i was not a big fan of either of the films, and in fact i taped colour of magic when it was on and haven't yet got round to watching the second half!

but that's how i see books/films.

if however you are a big fan of endings and not wanting spoilers for your books, then read the books first and watch the films with a ..okay, that's how *you* see it.

in these instances, i'd just read the books and watch the films should they ever be on tv/a friend lends you the films, they are not (in my opinion) good enough to buy.

however!

I would recommend searching out Soul Music and Weird sisters animated films, they are fun.

Thanks Smaug, I appreciate that.

I do things backwards, everyone always seems to read the books first before seeing the movies, then they complain that this was missing or that was wrong or the ending was different. I actually prefer to see the movie and then if it's good, then read the book for a longer storyline and more depth and character development.

exactly!

I read them all first. Hogfather, as a movie was decent, the book is better in many ways. Colour of Magic... eh. It's probably my least favourite book, although there are bits that I like, so this was destined to never be a favourite movie. The animations of Wyrd Sisters and Soul Music are lots of fun! Especially Soul Music, because of the added soundtrack.

But, yeah, what Smaug said

quote:

If I was going to reccomend one to start on it would be Mort

that was the first one that i read!

my favourite series is now the guards series, as I like how dark sam vimes has become (without giving too much away!)

but one of my best friends dislikes the realism of the guards compared to some of the others, and preferrs the death books.

so it really depends on what you are looking for.

i haven't seen either the colour of magic or the hogfather, and have no real wish to (i am very much a purist, and i know i'd be shouting at the telly!) the animated films are good, but only if you take them as seperate entities imo - weird sisters for me didn't really capture as much of the emotion as it could have done - it felt a bit simplistic and skimmed over things i would have liked to have seen more made of (does that make sense)

anyhow, i hope you enjoy foraging - let us know how you get on!

PTerry beat Tolkin in a favourite authors poll!

SFX post poll interview.

Smaug - Thanks for all that info. =D I'll have to read it all later, going to finish of Absolute Sandman 2 then get some sleep.

Second day of working as a dishwasher at a restaurant and it was one of the busiest days there in a long time, I'm very tired. Took an hour to close. :P

Alright, so even stand-alones are just parts of Discworld that can be read out of context. That's a lot of reading, since I wouldn't wanna just read one....

It appears my only Pratchett for a long time, possibly ever, will be Good Omens and maybe that "Nation" book he's working on, if it's not Discworld.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Alex Freeman,

I myself have only started reading Terry Pratchett books properly in the last year or so.

I remember buying Interesting Times where Terry was doing a signing (in Australia, i remember a guy with one of those milk crates with about 15 books in it, lol!). I'm not really sure why i chose that one, there were so many and i didn't know which one to get.
I started to read it but for some reason i couldn't get into it.

Now, some time later i am making my way through the Discworld series and i am up to Reaper Man.
Shame on me for not starting on them sooner! I am loving them!! And i really want Terry to do a book signing here again as i could appreciate it properly this time.

quote:

Originally posted by Alex Freeman:
Alright, so even stand-alones are just parts of Discworld that can be read out of context. That's a lot of reading, since I wouldn't wanna just read one....

It appears my only Pratchett for a long time, possibly ever, will be Good Omens and maybe that "Nation" book he's working on, if it's not Discworld.

that would be a loss, but the choice is of course yours.

sorry smaug this did not anwser my question. and now my topic has been closed...thanks again.

then post your question here.
it's a perfectly good thread and I'm sure there'd be people to answer your question here.

your thread was closed because the mods try to avoid multiple threads of repetitive topics. Search function is your friend and will help you find out in advance if your topic has already been posted, so that you can avoid such frustrations in future.

quote:

Originally posted by luckyfurtrapper:
sorry smaug this did not anwser my question. and now my topic has been closed...thanks again.

luckyfurtrapper, could you please read our faq's. I locked your thread because it broke one of these rules.

quote:

* Please post threads in appropriate forums. We have Coraline, American Gods, Gaiman's Other Works, and 'Thoughts on Neil' (Neil discussion not focused on a specific work) for all Neil related subjects, Other Writers for non-Neil literary discussions, a FAQ, a Flame area, and the World's End for all other discussion and silliness. Mods will move threads as appropriate.

there was no point moving your thread as there was a perfectly good one here you could either read through (and we have already had discussions on which pratchett book is the best to start from) or re-post your question if you wish to see if anyone wishes to discuss the topic again.

quote:

Originally posted by luckyfurtrapper:
sorry smaug this did not anwser my question. and now my topic has been closed...thanks again.

this question?

quote:

Originally posted by luckyfurtrapper:
where should one start from in the world of prachett... i read monsterous regiment,and night watch , both contained sam vimes ..is there a particular order one would suggest without saying quite simply the begining?

looking through this thread i directed you to i've found the following answers to your question:

first asked and answered in 2002
updated 2007
a fresh answer in 2008

and using the search engine as recommened by btb (putting in the words 'pratchett' and 'start', you not only find those 3 answers, you also find this one too.

so you'll find, the link i sent you did actually answer your question.

however, feel free to post in it the thread again, you may get some different opinions this time.

Quite frankly, there is no "good" place to start the Discworld series, just better ones than others. If you start up the witches books after Magret leaves but before Perdita's place is really solidified, you'll be confused all to heck, but you start out right at the beginning you're reading one of the weakest books in that arc. If you start out reading Small Gods, Monstrous Regiment and Pyramids which are only arguably standalone books, you'll get a good primer on the writing style but a shoddy introduction to the books as a whole. If you start with the first actual books you're likely to be quite disappointed, although I suggest you get to them eventually. If you like the Vimes books you've read so far, read more of those. The proper order is Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant and then Thud!. You're otherwise caught up there. If you're into a bit of light reading, the Tiffany Aching stories are among the best YA I've read, and I read a lot of YA. They're also a good introduction to the witches arc which the books you've read so far are very, very skint on. Scuttlebutt amongst the Pratchett fans is that the world will fall into entropy should Vimes and Granny Weatherwax ever end up in a staring contest - believe me, no one will win that, no matter who comes out ahead.

And that's the summary of the last four hundred-odd posts or so.

If you walk into a message board that's been around since the beginning of the 21st century and ask a commonly asked question, expect to get a lengthier answer than you're entirely prepared for. For your sake, I'm just thankful you didn't ask who the unnamed god is in American Gods.

quote:

The proper order is Guards Guards, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant nightwatch and then Thud!.

sorry, had to add those in. how could you forget nightwatch?!

i definitely echo dweller that the earlier books are weaker, as are the beginning books in each 'character set'. pratchett definitely takes a while to build up his characters, but in my opinion the end result is sublime, and more appreciated by having seen the steps that have been gone through to get the character to that level.

my first discworld read was mort, and i loved it. i have now read them all, many times, and they are in chronological order on my bookshelf. i have read them all the way through in that order, and was struck by the time i got to the end by how simplistic the original ones are. i haven't read colour of magic in a long time for that reason.

the tiffany aching books are awesome, and i absolutely love the wee free men (who appear in one of the witches books but really come in to their own with tiffany).

another standalone - ostensibly written for younger children but in reality very, very dark - is the amazing maurice and his educated rodents. definitely worth a read.

monstrous regiment is a standalone and rather good. going postal was a standalone until making money came out, and i like the characters in those.

anyhow, enjoy! and let us know how you get on. this thread is pretty much your start and end point for any pratchett-related musings.

oh and:

quote:

For your sake, I'm just thankful you didn't ask who the unnamed god is in American Gods.

In the closed thread, luckyfurtrapper mentioned she'd read the two you added, but you're quite right in including them to complete the order.

And good observations all on the Discworld books. I think in the beginning the humour's more forced and outlandish while later it just emerges as part of the landscape.

I'm pretty sure I've said all this before in this thread, but I'll be redundant.


I quite liked Wyrd Sisters, which pretty much introduces the trio of witches (but not Granny Weatherwax, she gets introduced in Equal Rites. And I remember that book fondly, but haven't read it in years - I lent it to someone and have never replaced it. Speaking as a rabid Pratchett fan, one who orders the books from England just because he's a British Author, this should give you a clue that I don't think much of Equal Rites.

I started my Discworld obsession with Pyramids and the Sourcery.

I would start:

Witch books: Wyrd Sisters, although frankly the stories start getting much better and stop ripping off Shakespeare with Witches Abroad. However, Wyrd Sisters and then Lords and Ladies aren't really thick books, so I'd guess they would be fast reads. I rather like the witch books and I aspire to be Nanny Ogg some day. (although I feel more like Agnes Nitt)

City Watch: Guards! Guards! It's silly, yes, and the City Watch books have just gotten better since this one, but... this starts it all off.

Death books: You should start with Mort, but... you can probably just start with Soul Music. (if you really want to read absolutely everything you should read Mort/Reaper Man/Soul Music, but I really think you can get the meat of those three books with just Soul Music) Thief of Time is possibly my favourite Death book, but you have to read SoulMusic/Hogfather first, to really get to know Susan.

Wizard books: oof. Technically they start with The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, but they changed so much with Sourcery that I would start with that one.

Most of the earlier published books tend to be sillier. TP's humour has steadily gotten more sarcastic and dark throughout the later books. I like that aspect, a lot, but then again, I pretty much started into the series early on, and I like Monty Python-esque silliness and dark humour.