Thyroid Posted January 28, 2013 I received a head of these as a gift and I've been working my way through them, reading one after every few serious, brooding novels. The best cure for that Anthony Trollope (who is awesome) novel is a bit of Terry Pratchett. They're very good, as most of you may know. They're funny, yes, but it's not just that: 1. Terry Pratchett writes three-dimensional, fully-realized characters, even if they are exaggerated in a lovely Dickensian way. He doesn't have to, but he does, and that's terrific; 2. the books are funny, but also have genuine profound insights into things, like your average work of "serious literature". For example, this line from Guards! Guards! got to me: If there was anything that depressed him more than his own cynicism, it was that quite often it still wasn't as cynical as real life. 3. They parody stories, and especially "stories of imagination"/'speculative fiction" (a ridiculous phrase if there ever was one), but in a fond, loving way, and are, as of the three I've read, good, engrossing stories in their own right. As of right now I've made my way through Mort, Guards! Guards! and Monstrous Regiment. I have another ten or so to read, as well. It's nice to parcel them out and sandwich them between Marcel Proust or George Saunders or whoever. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
BigJKO Posted January 28, 2013 Ah, there are some really good ones. You make some great points as to why they are so well-liked. One that stuck out particularly to me, was Moving Pictures. It was just such a funny deconstruction of the Hollywood machine as a mind-numbing, manipulative and hypnotic monster. Also, anything with the Night Watch is great. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
osmosisch Posted January 28, 2013 I also really recommend his non-Discworld stuff, ie. Nation and Good Omens. He's even better when he's a bit outside his comfort zone. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted January 28, 2013 I like Small Gods. I've read a lot of them, but that's probably my favourite. Making Money is good too. Surprising amount of insight about how money works. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
vimes Posted January 28, 2013 I've read all of them and I'll back up Small Gods too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thyroid Posted January 28, 2013 I've left that one and Going Postal for later, as they are my friend's favourites. I think I'm tacking Sourcery next, since it's the first of the Rincewind novels that I have, and his cameo in Mort was memorably funny. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tabacco Posted January 28, 2013 Small Gods was a great one, for sure. I also really loved Night Watch, though for different reasons Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Astro Creep Posted January 28, 2013 This seemed like a pretty intimidating series to get into, considering the sheer volume of mainline books and spinoffs, but I had heard great things about it for years. I finally picked up Mort a few weeks ago, and thoroughly enjoyed it. I grabbed the rest of the Death-related novels, so I hope to break into the rest of those when I have the chance (I'm catching up with the Book Club, and I've fallen down the Warhammer 40k rabbithole). What would you guys recommend after I finish those? I've heard a lot of good things about the Watch series. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
osmosisch Posted January 28, 2013 Just read them in order if you're not in a hurry. None of the books is so bad as to not be worth reading, and they get mostly better as you go which is a bonus. If you only want to read a subsection, Small Gods is also my favourite of the bunch and largely stands alone. The City Watch books and the Witch books are usually fan favourites. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thyroid Posted January 28, 2013 What would you guys recommend after I finish those? I've heard a lot of good things about the Watch series. I'm following these. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Berzee Posted January 28, 2013 The books about Tiffany Aching (that's The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, and Wintersmith) are among my favorites, and they're likely to be in the Young Adult section so you might accidentally overlook them which would be a SHAME! Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tegan Posted January 28, 2013 I've been reading these! I got out of the habit of reading prose for a long time, but I ended up picking up a bunch of Terry Pratchett books this winter after recalling that I enjoyed what I read of Discworld in high school. Most recently I finished Moving Pictures, which kind of felt like a prototype for Soul Music (which was probably my favourite). My experience thus far has been that the Vimes novels are the best ones overall though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
subbes Posted January 28, 2013 I really like the Discworld books. My favourite used to be Interesting Times, and I'm not sure what my current favourite is; possibly Thud or Going Postal. I got Dodger recently but haven't read it yet - it was going to be my inflight reading for my move to SF but I ended up sleeping instead. My party trick used to be the ability to, given any unattributed quote from a Discworld book, provide the book, speaking character, and surrounding context. Then Pterry wrote a bunch more books and I ran out of brain space. ETA: Every time there is a new book I get it as a present, in the UK hardcover edition. Marvellous. If you're in the US, you're missing out on lovely cover art. I'l be sad if/when Terry takes his trip to Dignitas. I have Choosing to Die on my hard drive but haven't watched it because I expect it will make me cry a whole bunch. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
brkl Posted January 28, 2013 God I love the art on the earlier books. That style is seared into my brain. At first I couldn't figure out why they changed it... then I found out the guy who made them died. Look at this cover art for Small Gods: Most genre book covers seem to be by artists who don't know nad don't care about the books, but these covers have a ridiculous amount of detail that comes directly from the pages of the book. I wonder if he read all of them or if they just gave him some highlights or something. Hah, one of his covers depicts a character with glasses with four actual eyes because I suppose he was described like that in the book: http://www.lowbird.com/data/images/2011/05/josh-kirby-the-light-fantastic.jpg Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elmuerte Posted January 29, 2013 Discworld, and pretty much all of T Pratchett's work, makes me sad I'm not really a reader of fiction. The attention to detail, the incredibly worked out jokes, absolutely awesom. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tanukitsune Posted January 29, 2013 Ah yeah, Discoworld is probably my favorite book series... I never knew they existed until the first adventure game, but I couldn't get my hand on them in my country. Luckily, we went on a family trip to London and I bought ALL THE BOOKS! It killed me to sell the books, specially when I found out about the cover art, but I was out of space and I got them all in audiobooks... Now that I have a tablet I might by the ebook versions of all of them again. I have no idea whether to get the audio or ebook version of Dodger... Has anybody read the Johnny Maxwell and Bromeliads books? Those were pretty awesome too. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nappi Posted January 30, 2013 Discworld, and pretty much all of T Pratchett's work, makes me sad I'm not really a reader of fiction. The attention to detail, the incredibly worked out jokes, absolutely awesom. What do mean by "not really a reader of fiction"? If you appreciate Pratchett's work, what is stopping you from reading more* of his books? * Assuming that your opinion is not based on the video games/movies/series. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
ThunderPeel2001 Posted January 30, 2013 Yes, that was an odd thing to say. So: I'm not sure if I've said this before, but I'm surprised that Terry P's books have so many fans here. I've always looked down my nose at them, but never actually read one. I did the same with Harry Potter and Buffy - and then I became huge fans. Maybe the same will be true of Mr P? Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Nappi Posted January 30, 2013 Worth trying, I guess? I have only read a couple of his books, and long time ago, so I'll let others recommend the starting novel. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Thyroid Posted January 30, 2013 So: I'm not sure if I've said this before, but I'm surprised that Terry P's books have so many fans here. I've always looked down my nose at them, but never actually read one. I did the same with Harry Potter and Buffy - and then I became huge fans. Maybe the same will be true of Mr P? You're missing out, and I'm fairly sure you'd like them. Try Guards! Guards! It's an introductory book that debuts a handful of the popular characters, has appearances from characters from the other books (Death has a couple of memorable scenes), gets the general idea of the world and the tone of the books across, is very funny and it's got a good plot to boot. The characters that don't debut in it are re-introduced. There was one that featured in Mort, which had come out a few years before, that I had no idea were returning characters. I wouldn't recommend reading a synopsis; there's no way it'll make it sound good. Just trust me on this and read it. Mort is a good introductory work, too, but it's a little less refined, with Pratchett still smoothing out some rough spots in his craftsmanship. It's still quite good, though. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
osmosisch Posted January 30, 2013 So: I'm not sure if I've said this before, but I'm surprised that Terry P's books have so many fans here. I've never been anywhere on the internet that wasn't populated with at least a majority of people who enjoy PTerry. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elmuerte Posted January 30, 2013 What do mean by "not really a reader of fiction"? If you appreciate Pratchett's work, what is stopping you from reading more* of his books? * Assuming that your opinion is not based on the video games/movies/series. There are other things which I enjoy way more than reading books. The problem with fiction is that you cannot easily spread it out of weeks of irregular reading. And some point you more or less lost parts of the story and the whole thing starts to feel like a season of Lost. Also, I can't sit down and read a book for 2 hours straight (I either get sleepy, or my mind starts to wander due to things I read). My first experiance with Terry P's work was a Video game though, it was the first Discworld graphical adventure. After that I read a couple books for school work (if they're going to force you to read stuff you might as well read something fun). Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Tanukitsune Posted January 30, 2013 That tends to be the average reading experience unless you're REALLY really into. Doesn't that apply to games and shows too? If you play a game or watch a show irregularly you also lose parts of the story, or in case of the game, you'll forget how to play it altogether. How on Earth did you get Discworld as school work? I never got anything actually fun to read when I was in school. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
elmuerte Posted January 30, 2013 TV shows and games are much much lighter. Especially when you compare it to proper fiction where your brain is constructing the world you are inhaling only via the letters on a page (and not audiovisually). For school we were mostly free to read what we wanted, there were just a few requirements (at least a few books for certain eras). So for English I read some Pratchett and even some King. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
empika Posted January 30, 2013 Love me some Terry P! I must have started reading them in my early teens and have read them sporadically over the last 16/17 years. Over the last 2 or 3 years I've been listening to the audio books, which are pretty much all excellently read. The first bunch were read by Vivian off the Young Ones and he is awesome. The new guy is pretty good too, just took me a while to convert to the different voices. I think what I love about them most is that there is so much variation, it's not just wizards and witches. I remember reading Feet of Clay and realising after that it was actually a bloody great detective story. I think up until that point i'd only ready the Rincewind stuff so i was pretty surprised. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites