just a friendly reminder, new Pratchett book out on the 28th
By
Blue Rabbit,
Posted on: 2010-09-16 13:16 in Comic and Hero-Villain Culture
I think pretty much any of the sub series need to be read in order with the exception of Equal Rights for the witches. the first two or three Rincewind books are fairly safe to skip, though the first two are pretty much the foundation of Interesting Times,and could make reading that one book perhaps slightly troublesome.
I do not think it is to good of an idea to get much farther in any series then any other, as there is some degree of cross over. this is also true with some of the individual one off books. It is nice to have the background of the Omnian church from Small Gods before you read Carpe Jugulum. So there is a lot to be said for trying to maintain some chronological order.
More then anything I just think it needs emphasized that the series represents a hefty amount of evolution in Pratchett's writing style, and if someone picks up Colour Of Magic and finds themselves a little perplexed by why folks on these forums rave so much about Terry Pratchett, you may want to skip ahead just a bit instead of stopping.
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Don't agree with this really. The only reason I'd recommend reading them in any sort of "sub-series" order is to know what's going on. Stand-alones like Small Gods or whatever can be read any time you like really.|
Originally Posted by Blue Rabbit
I love each and every book in the Discworld continuum and, in my view, there is only one order in which they should be read which is chronological order. Any other order is disrespecting the author.
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Quote:
| I have every book he ever published and haven't regretted reading any of them. Some of them (if not all) I've read more than once. "Thief of time" is one of my all time favourites, but then again, so is "Strata". |
The witches are brilliant as well, possibly my favourite characters in the entire series. (I won't rest until I see Miriam Margoyles play Nanny Ogg!).
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Casting for the Witches will be troublesome now, since Harry potter as two of the best people for the job will always be known as Professor Magonnagal and Professor Sprout.|
Originally Posted by Carnifax_NA
The witches are brilliant as well, possibly my favourite characters in the entire series. (I won't rest until I see Miriam Margoyles play Nanny Ogg!).
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Anyway, I know the perfect person to play Nanny Ogg.....my wife, Rosie! She's like Nanny in so many ways! Not afraid to be blunt, a great cook with that added extra
and people open up to her without knowing it and she knows their life stories within about 5 minutes of meeting her 
Not sure who that makes me though.......
We built this city on Rock and Roll!
Saying that though, Pterry himself started saying about halfway through the series that it was reaching the point that reading the older books would make the books make more sense. Things like the witches start referencing back to stuff from previous backs a lot more, look at the development of Magrat and Agnes as a perfect example.
Same goes for The Guards, so much happens in previous books, you can read the later books and still enjoy them, but as his writing is so nuanced, reading them all in the original order means you'll get the little in-jokes and references more (things like L-Space get a small reference in Small Gods, for instance, if you've read the earlier books you'll understand that small section of the book much more if you know who's saving the books in the library
For me, I've always preferred to read any series in order, but I can understand why people disagree with the Discworld series. The first 2 books especially and arguably the first 4 are before Pterry really got into the style of the series, but then, even that has been refined in the latter half of the run.
Either way, someone new to Discworld is in for a real treat and I am immensely jealous of them! I wish I could forget all the books so I could go back and read them all again
We built this city on Rock and Roll!