It feels like the right time to be reading (or rereading) Terry Pratchett, doesn’t it?
A lot of us are exhausted, the truth often seems to pass people right by, and we could all use something comforting, I think. So here’s a little corner of the internet where we can perhaps spend some time together and enjoy some very good books.
If you are unfamiliar with the work of Terry Pratchett, I won’t razz you for it because that would be rude. Suffice it to say, he is responsible for the Discworld series and many other enjoyable books and stories besides, the first of which was published in his school’s magazine in 1962 when he was only thirteen years old. He was an only child as well, and wrote about many more only children in his books because he believed they were more interesting. Being an only child myself, I understand this mode of thinking all too well.
He was a journalist as a young man, and an avid believer in reading as education rather than being part to it. He also loved astronomy, though he lacked the mathematical prowess to pursue the career professionally. Eventually, he saw his way toward writing novels, starting with a couple of science fiction tomes, and then working his way over to the concept for Discworld with the release of 1983’s The Colour of Magic. By 1987, he was a full-time author.
Pratchett was not overly-precious about his career as a writer; when receiving a knighthood for services to literature in 2009, he said, “I suspect the ‘services to literature’ consisted of refraining from trying to write any. Still, I cannot help feeling mightily chuffed about it.” He was a master of satire, of humor, and of fantasy and science fiction tropes. He was also a defender of fantasy literature, insisting upon its place in the literary pantheon as “the oldest form of fiction.”
We lost Sir Terry in 2015 to Alzheimer’s Disease, and the world misses him to this day. We will never know the stories we have lost without him tapping away, and that’s how he wanted it—he insisted on having his computer hard drive steamrollered after his death, assuring that no one could take his unedited work and try to stuff it into pages as some sort of “lost manuscript.” What we have is all we’ll likely ever get.
How Does This Thing Work?
You’re probably wondering why we’re not calling this The Great Pratchett Reread, or something like that.
I have read some of Pratchett’s work, but not all of it. (Because there’s, you know… a lot of it. My completist impulses utterly failed me here.) In addition, much of what I read was years and years ago—and my memory gets wobblier by the minute in this media-saturated world we live in. So this isn’t a reread! More of a guided book club. A place to come and appreciate the work of a great author who knew how to make sense of senseless things. Or at least knew how to think through what baffled and frightened us all, and pare it down to something a little easier to understand.
He wrote three other novels before starting Discworld, but I’m going to start with that series anyhow. If we want to come back to those three books at some point, we can always do that, and I think they might be more fun to read in retrospect—the science fiction ones in particular, The Dark Side of the Sun and Strata introduced concepts that Pratchett used in Discworld. The first, The Carpet People, was a comedic fantasy that Pratchett would later rewrite in the 90s (which is fair, I would probably rewrite most of the stuff I wrote in my early twenties, too).
So we’ll begin with The Colour of Magic, the very first Disc book—and the second Pratchett novel I ever read. (The first was Good Omens, if you’re curious.) We’ll split it up by its very helpful sections, starting with the eponymous part one. My plan is to just run through Discworld by publication order, but we might pause for other books, or do something else entirely. Who can say?
So let’s have a go and see where we end up! Hopefully, we’ll have a lot of fun along the way.
Come back this Thursday, June 18th, for Part I of The Colour of Magic.
Emmet Asher-Perrin had to grab an e-copy of the book because all of their books are still in storage due to The Great Bedbug Infestation of 2019, so that’s been odd. You can bug them on Twitter, and read more of their work here and elsewhere.
Our local public library has the ebook available, so count me in!
Great idea! Thanks!
A note of caution. If you’ve not read this one, it is very different to the rest of the series. Sir Terry himself recommended that it was not a good starting point for the Discworld saga. I’ll be interested to see what others think.
SOLD!
Looking forward to the future books especially.
Exciting new series! I’ve actually never read the first two in English since my dad lovingly got me translated copies back when I was failing Icelandic Spelling. They didn’t translate well, what with the way Terry played with language a lot, so I’m hyped to finally have an excuse to read them in the original language!
Rediscovering Pratchett is an awesome idea! Incidentally, I think you meant to use “pare” instead of “pair” in your post.
Yay! As you imply above, I still miss Sir Pterry on what feels like a personal basis. I was only fortunate enough to meet him once, at a book signing when he was utterly charming to all attending in spite of what must have been a horribly rushed day arranged by his publishers.
I pre-ordered one of his books at a signing that I couldn’t attend (Night Watch) and I opened the signed page to see –
“Boo!” then long gap, then “best wishes, Ian, Terry Pratchett.” (At least I assume it said Terry Pratchett – he used to say you could tell how long he’d been writing because his signature was tending towards a straight line. To bother to do something different for the different purchasers tells you a lot. He also used to joke that his unsigned books were probably worth more than the signed ones, because there were fewer of them!
If people are reading this and haven’t discovered the joys of Discworld yet, honestly, do join in, I can’t believe you won’t love it!
YAAAAAY!!!!! Mark Oshiro’s awesometastic first-time read of the whole Discworld series has just ended, so I’m extra happy for a new place in which to discuss this wonderful series.
If anyone can’t/wouldn’t acquire all of the books, and/or wants to watch a delightful person read them and get spectacularly tormented by their puns, social commentary, emotion-inducement, and “dragon puppies,” I very highly recommend those Mark Reads Discworld archives. You can watch the videos on YouTube, or watch them and read extensive commentary by Mark and their commenting community at http://markreads.net/reviews/past-books/
(Endless thanks to Tor.com for directing me to Mark Reads in 2013, through a link in the LotR Reread.)
@6: Fixed–thanks!
Hoo boy. I just read the entire Discworld series in publication order last fall/winter. Not sure if I’m ready to jump back in so soon.
I’m already in a re-read of the series myself having re-bought the entire series in paperback last year.The full paperback collection I grew up with officially belonged to my sister and I started buying them in hardback once I got a job in order to get them sooner (starting from Jingo). I prefer to read paperback and gave my half hardback collection to charity so I could just start over. I’m planning to go through all the discworld books and PS1 games in release order and I’m currently up to Lords and Ladies (book 14).
I have done a full re-read of the series before (quite a few years ago now, but it went a lot faster than my current one is) and it felt strange then to go back to the beginning of each mini series and experience the characters before Sir Pterry had really nailed down their personalities. As such it is a rare series where I find the second book (per mini series) is a better place for newbies to start in order to really get the proper discworld experience. To me the discworld does not truly feel like the discworld until about book 10 where a lot of the long term concepts are hammered out better.
Witches Abroad and Reaper Man make good stand alone entry points to the Witches and Death mini series as they are not so reliant on the established continuity. Men At Arms feels like a stronger entry than Guards Guards (to me). By the time of Tiffany Aching and Moist Von Lipwig however the first entries are as strong as the rest.
I did try reading a few of the last discworld books on Kindle when they came out (as an alternative to the hardbacks) but it didn’t gel with me and the (essential for Pratchett) footnote system is not great on an e-reader.
@3, Sir Terry knows his own work. I started on the series with Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic after having seen the adaptation with Sean Astin and stopped after Equal Rites and maybe Mort (I really can’t remember it’s been so long) and didn’t come back to the series for years. It didn’t help that these all focused on different characters whereas I tend to like following the same characters across several books at a time. I’m still on my first time going through the series but I didn’t start getting into it until I stopped trying to read it in overall publication order and started focusing on each sub-series instead.
Great idea, I’m in!
I’m ready to re-read again. I’m in!
My go-to novels to reread from the Discworld are the City Watch series; I began with Guards! Guards! in March and am now at the last, Snuff. I am looking forward to this series.
In terms of reading for joy, I read hit and miss throughout the series, but I periodically do a chronological read-through and rather like it for seeing how Pratchett developed and fine-tuned his ideas. There are so many times where you can practically see a throw-away line in one book turn into a full plot several years down the road.
Oh yeah!! I don’t know if anyone has played the game, but Baldric from Black Adder did some of the voice work. LMAO!! Some of my copies of books have been read to pieces, and am having a hard time finding a copy of “Interesting Times” I almost got to go to a signing at a bookstore in San Diego, but had to go to a funeral. I still don’t think he wrote “Snuff”.
I agree that Color of Magic is not a good book for a Pratchett beginner. A much better first book to read is Mort.
Yay!
@3, 12
I agree that the first novel is pretty weak compared to some others (I’ve only read 6 I think. Going Postal was by far my favorite.) But, hey, if you’re delving into the whole thing you might as well start there. I would recommend adding the caveat of “it gets better” though, for new readers.
Looking forward to this!
OMG YAY!!!
Never done one of these before but I have nearly the whole series in paperback and it’s been years. Hm…
I haven’t touched my Discworld books since my dad died – he was a big fan of Carrot and Death and the clever silliness and everything else – but this seems like a great way to finally give a re-read a try. I can’t wait to get started. Thank you for organizing this!
(And the books definitely get much, much better.)
Only thing I’ve read from Sir Terry was Good Omens & a little of Mort (I think was Mort lol). I’ve always wanted to read the Discworld series but didn’t know where to begin… lots of stuff lol. I’m glad this is happening lol. I’ve got a good library here & a quick look shows they have most of his books in ebook format. So, as a newbie to this huge series, is it going to basically summarize each book in one post or do a few chapters at a time?
As others have mentioned, The Colour of Magic is not recommended for starting Discworld by many. I disagree, but I am also more of a completeist anyway. This novel differs a bit in structure and voice. Pratchett would figure things out quickly, however. His voice is pretty well set by Equal Rites, two books later. This book holds his irreverent tone together. Later books would get dangerously close to self-serious, particularly the Watch books, but I think he maintained a high degree of quality almost to the end.
The height of Pratchett, in my opinion, is the period her wrote The Truth, Thief of Time, and Night Watch. There is no noticeable dip in quality after, but these are him operating at the height of his capabilities. Thief of Time especially delivers on all his potential.
What sets Colour of Magic apart for me is it’s written as more of a straight parody than his later books. Pratchett develops a stronger parody sense, writing more pastiches and homages as he improves. CoM is much more straight parody, but lovingly done. More of the humor hangs on fantasy trappings. The Light Fanastic dips a little, in my opinion, but by Equal Rites Pratchett is all there and the Discworld voice is present.
What’s absolutely terrific is that CoM may be near the bottom of Discworld books, and is still very good. It’s well written. The only flaws in it are continuity errors with later books after the world-building was stronger. That’s a positive! There is, perhaps, some problematic displays of Twoflower, perhaps more so in Interesting Times. Like his other works, it stays with you as well. Life reminds me of Discworld scenes time and time again.
Above, a commentor stated they felt the 2nd entry of each sub-series was typically better, and I agree somewhat. However, I do think Guards Guards is the perfect entry for the Guards series – confession time, Feet of Clay was my first DW of all. Using Wyrd Sisters as the “2nd” book in the Witches books is technically correct, but Equal Rites, while featuring Granny Weatherwax, is hardly part of the Lancre Witches series.
Sadly, the last few Discworld books demonstrate Pterry’s early onset. I had an almost impossible time getting through Raising Steam. Such a shame, too, as the steampunk industrial age of Discworld continued to be very interesting.
I am very excited for this series! Currently, I am in a bit of a Vonnegut re-read, but I suspect I can make time for some Pratchett.
So many are saying that The Colour of Magic isn’t a good book to start with. So many are saying not to read Discworld in publication order. And yet…
When the first Discworld book was published, people read that one first. Readers who were in on the series from the start would naturally have read Discworld in publication order; they would be reading each new book as it came out. Anyone who began the series later but still caught up with then-existing material while Pratchett was still producing books might not have started in publication order, but when they caught up they would’ve continued in that order. Publication order is how the reading world at-large was exposed to these books, the same as with any book series. So how can it be bad to experience a series the way its original fans did?
I began the series with the Colour of Magic and enjoyed it immensely. I do not think it is a bad starting point at all.
It is not the best, but it is very funny and a great introduction to the Discworld.
Starting with the “lower-quality” earliest books may carry a risk of losing interest and not reading further. But those early books are likely to be less enjoyable if read after the “better” ones. Mark Oshiro flipped out constantly when reading The Color of Magic, and ended it exclaiming it with disbelief that the subsequent books could possibly be better. Many books later, they read Eric, a reversion to lighthearted parody, and were much underwhelmed. (The other late books in that subseries also got a milder response, except the detested hot mess that was Interesting Times.) I luckily started with Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards! because they happened to be at the library when I went looking, not knowing that they’re often and rightly recommended as starting points, but publication order has its merits.
I’m in!
Here’s hoping you include the Tiffany Aching books in this reread.
I am one who holds that Colour of Magic is a less than ideal starting book for readers new to Terry Pratchett. Its tone utterly put me off reading more of Discworld. The writing feels disjointed, coy and oh-so-clever. It came out during a period of science fiction/fantasy when cleverness and wordplay sometimes seemed more important than storyline or character development. I really learned to appreciate Discworld with Small Gods, dipped in and out of the whole series with no regard to time or storyline, and recommend Mort as the first to read.
I won’t reread Colour of Magic, Eric, or Interesting Times.
I do hope the reading list will include the Science of Discworld trilogy, and Nation (imho his very best novel)
Count me in!
Present, and Thrilled!!! Gleefully off to reread Colour of Magic. Thank you.
@26, I wouldn’t say it’s bad to start with Colour of Magic, just not the easiest. For me personally I often rely on momentum to carry me through especially when I’m playing catch-up on an ongoing series, and the momentum just wasn’t there when I started on the series, and it was years before I came back to the series.
@25, I came off another fairly long hiatus from Discworld with the Moist von Lipwig books, and like I said I’m only on my first read through of the series and not in publication order so I’m not sure how good of a judge I am but Raising Steam to me wasn’t too significantly different from Going Postal or Making Money, it just read much more like a straight fantasy/steampunk novel as opposed to a satirical work, and I guess it was slightly heavier in that way but it’s interesting that you’re attributing it to his medical condition.
Yay, looking forward to this! Thank you :D
I do agree that Colour of Magic may not be the best jumping off point (I did start with it but there was too much dissonance between the first two books and the next few so it took me a long time to “get into” the series). Really hit the ground after over a year when I read Guards, Guards, and that’s what I usually recommend to newbies, try that to get an idea of what to expect. However, publishing order is the most logical way to go about it so bring it on :)
The good thing about this series is that there are so many awesome books that each person has a different set of favourite books (fwiw mine are Thief of Time and Going Postal) and favourite characters (mine include, but are not limited to, Vimes, Carrot, Granny Weatherwax, and Lu-Tze) and that even the weakest books would be among the highlights of a lesser author’s oeuvre.
You do know that “The Terry Pratchett Book Club” already exists and is run by the publishing house Transworld (Terry’s publisher)?
https://facebook.com/groups/438861943208189/
I love COM for purposes of nostalgia and look forward to re-re-re-reading it. But I’m currently in the middle of “Men at Arms” (again) and it’s hard to find a Pratchett book that is a better fit for our current social situation: racial issues (though perhaps better called “speciesal”); thoughts on the purpose of the police (noting that policeman comes from the word “polis” or “city” as in “man of the city”); observations on the manner in which unfounded rumors spread during times of unrest and on the behavior of mobs; and the question of whether some weapons are better left unused. It’s a great example of how Pratchett’s world and ours often overlap and how his point of view can speak to us with intelligence and wonderful wit from all the way back in 1993.
We’ve been reading the books in publication order for our podcast for the last few years and it’s actually a really rewarding experience. Tracing the evolution of characters and concepts is very interesting. Pratchett had a habit of returning to an idea a few times and refining it, as if he was chasing a sort of protean ideal he had in his head; it’s intriguing to see what aspects of those ideas get chopped and changed as he revisits them. Also, I feel that The Colour of Magic has a sort of manic energy that is distinct in all the Discworld canon. While it lacks the depth and deftness of some later books, it has its own peculiar merits.
I just finished Guards! Guards!, my first foray into Discworld. I’ve only otherwise read (and watched) Good Omens. I picked up a used paperback of Monstrous Regiment for $1 last summer, so I’ll probably start that soon. Otherwise, I’m waiting for other volumes in the series to become available via my local public library.
As chance would have it, I started re-reading the Discworld series in publication order back in mid-February just before this quarantine business really took off and I’m enjoying them A LOT (I’ve already read them all but out of order and separated by years). I’m up to “The Last Continent,” which I think is volume 22 in the series.
Terry Pratchett has been keeping me alive during quarantine. Really looking forward to this! :)
I’ve always enjoyed “The Colour of Magic.” Yes, it’s raw, but that’s part of the beauty. Seeing Pratchett’s evolving writing style over the years. Watching his characters grow alongside him. I like to think, over the 25+ years I’ve been reading his books, I’ve kind of grown up in tandem with them all.
GNU Sir Pterry.
I still haven’t been able to bring myself to read Shepherd’s Crown.
Really looking forward to this club. People may argue the merits of Discworld novels in relation to each other, but when the worst you can say about any one is that it is an enjoyable read, who cares? You really can’t go wrong.
Yessss. Looking forward to this! :)
There might be a lot of books by Pratchett, but I slowed down my reading after 2015, knowing that after two dozens more, I’d never experience the feeling of reading one for the first time again. But there are still a lot I have yet to read in English, and that book club is a great occasion to do so!
If you’re doing the Disc World books in chronological order, I would have started with Strata, as it has clear inspiration for the books that would come later, but that’s your book club!
Will there be an online discussion at some point? Maybe a Zoom meeting, or a YouTube live stream, or something, where we can participate and talk about this?
Or is the book club entirely in this blog and its comments?
Thanks!
— Maria
It’s now June 25th when I learn about this from the Tor email.. So I’m already a week late to the game. Then I discover that I’m number 6 in line for the only copy my library has. Maybe you will see me again in October!? *sigh*
@Radio Morpork: You mentioned a podcast where you’re going through Terry Pratchett’s book. Has it a name?
I first read Strata not long after it came out, so imagine my surprise when I found The Colour of Magic!
It was wonderful. I LOVED Rincewind!
I was a pretty avid DnD gamer back then so the idea of a wizzard who’s primary weapon was a half-brick-in-a-sock and who’s first compulsion was to run away was hilarious.
Thankfully Sir Terry never let me down as I trundled along the books of the Discworld.
I always remember something he said at a talk that his editor told him about making the news relevant. “Make news always local”, which is why the headline in his paper on July 22nd 1969 was “Men walk on Moon over High Wycombe”
I am delighted to join this! Even in the early books, Pratchett shines. The phrase ‘a thin high sound, like the breaking of a mouse’s heart’ still stays with me though it has literally been decades since I read it.
I just reread this! 3rd or 4th time? I dont remember.
I have never read any of his work and always wanted to.
Some other books always managed to sneak its way into my Reading pile.
I’m here for your shenanigans! Let’s GOOOO
Yesss this is awesome! I’m still (slowly – I fear the moment I run out) working my way through Discworld, and nearing the end (after over 10 years of intermittent reading). I will definitely be following along here!
I just now found this, so I’m starting now.
Suggestion: It would be helpful to have a link at the end of each post that leads to the next post in sequence.
Ah. I found the index. Thank you.
So has this re-watch ceased publication? Last post was December 10. We’re roughly only a quarter of the way through. What’s up?
I’m glad I found this. I just started collecting the whole series and I’m starting with the Color of magic. Loving it so far and I’m glad I could engage with these posts, however late to the game I am.
Good Omens would have been an excellent first read. I’m not sure what mine was, it’s been ages. But my most read is Night Watch (or maybe Wyrd Sisters, it’s a tie). What’s yours? Thanks for this btw. I’m at Snuff in my reread. Glad to be doing it along with someone else.
Google was great and put this series on my recommendations. I’m currently wandering through Tiffany Aching, and I loved your article on The Wee Free Men. Going back through the archive, I realize you had a couple articles on it, so I’ve decided to follow-up with all the places we’ve overlapped. Thanks for the series, and thanks for your commitment to it!
@58
Coming up on another Aching book next week