"Is Diskworld any good?" Topic

I am looking for a new line of books for my 16 yro son as a Christmas gift.
I keep hearing about the Diskworld books.
Right now, his favorite books are either MAD Magazine or the Salovatore D'rizz'ittt'itt D'oredd'en books.
Thoughts?
Thanks.

Yes !!!!

Yes

Hell yeah baby; absolutely love it….

I woud only rate half of them at 9.5 out of 10. The rest are only 9s.

you can watcch "The Hogfather" movie to get a taste.

Most of them are masterpieces. Some are just good.

If he reads MAD or D&D novels Pratchett´s humour might be too much for him, but you are morally obliged to try to get him to read them.

you can watcch "The Hogfather" movie to get a taste

And the Colour of Magic too

Absolutely ! And, you'd probably love 'em yourself.

Best satirist in the English language since Swift !

WARNING – some are 'punful' in the extreme !

The only other problem is with which one to start ?

I'd go with _Guards, Guards !_ since it introduces a
main character which many of the books involve as a
primary or major secondary character in the plots.

Or _Wyrd Sisters_, which also involves several characters
featured in other books.

Either book is a great entry point.

Oh, and it's 'DisCworld,' BTW…

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is terrific as a standalone novel. Very funny and very creepy at the same time.

The Tiffany Aching books, featuring the Nac Mac Feegle, or the " Wee Free Men," are probably the most laugh-out-loud funny novels in the series.

Well I'll go against the grain and say I didn't enjoy the discworld books I've tried just wasn't my cup of tea. Love RA Salvatore though Drizzt is one of my all time favorites.

Which book should I start him with?

Another big Pratchett fan. I'd also recommend the novel he wrote with Neil Gaiman "Good Omens". Some scary stuff in it but nothing that bad.

David S.

The Colour Of Magic is the first book, but I think Ed's onto a winner – within the series there are a handful of main characters that many of the specific books revolve around (Rincewind the wizzard, the City Watch, the Witches, Moist von Lipwig) as well as a number of books which stand alone. For my 2p, I think his suggestion of Guards Guards! is definitely a good pick, and if the lad likes it I'd probably set him down the city watch "series" as it were – Guards Guards, Men At Arms, Feet Of Clay….

The bibliography on wikipedia is pretty handy as it categorises the books by "groups" – the books within each group are best read in order, but the series as a whole doesn't need to be.

link

Dom.

The guys in our RPG group bugged me into reading 'Wee Free Men' and 'Wyrd Sisters' (Discworld far out distances Monty Python at our table for most often quoted media source).
I can totally see why people enjoy them so much, they're clever and funny and generally cheerful. Cute. Good, clear writing. I've bought a few copies for friends who I think would like them…
That said, they're not my sort of thing… too densely cute and clever… I find I can only read a few pages before I start to overdose (I'm generally not a big fan of comedies to begin with).

Beware of the Luggage! I have enjoyed everyone I read . funny but not stupid . A good choice

Death's Granddaughter is cute too

I'd go with Guards Guards, and I quite enjoyed Making Money, but mostly I've found Discworld is a bit "meh" for me.

Couldn't get into the books. The 'Colour of Magic' on BBC was watchable though.

Go for it, very funny books – I'd avoid the various tv adaptations though as none have worked imo.

I have read them all. Some are better than others but I am particularly fond of the "Sam Vimes" books. The later books are clever as well as funny and are full of apt social commentary; notably personal responsibility and the importance of community, if you care to look for it.

Guards! Guards! is a good starting point. Don't jump in with the latest one as you need to know the back story to appreciate it.
There are 39 Discworld books, Most fall into one of the main themes of Wizards, Witches or the Watch. They're all worth a go.

I bought the first 4 books in one go and I found the first two books ("The Colour of Magic" and "The Light Fantastic") a bit meh and nearly gave up. But thought Mort was superb, and have heard that it was the first book that Pratchett himself was truly happy with, so I'd start there.

Make sure he's seen The Blues Brothers before reading Soul Music, or he won't get half the jokes. Similarly, a quarter of The Colour of Magic is a parody of Anne McCaffrey's Pern books, and Cohen the Barbarian works better if you know who Conan is (no need to be picky – the films will do).

If he misses the jokes, there's always the Annotated Pratchett File, although it's increasingly outdated:
lspace.org/books/apf

Bleah. They're just too much… something. Plus, there's like three thousand of them, and they're all pretty much the same overdone parody again and again.

I'm in the minority, though.
-Kle.

Yes

Discworld is fantastic. Like any book series, I'm sure they're not to everyone's taste, but they're great in every sense. I think Going Postal is my favorite, though probably not an ideal introductory volume.

Discworld started as a parody of stereotypical fantasy (especially the first two books), but as you get deeper into them they take on a reality of their own, exploring ideas about philosophy, religion, morality, the "realness" of conceptualized ideas, and of course the significance of death. Sometimes Pratchett handles this well, sometimes not (and sometimes you wind up scratching your head and thinking, "what the heck was the point of that philosophizing moment? Oh well, great book anyway").

I do recommend the Vimes novels as typically being more down-to-earth but still very effective, yet accessible to a 16-year-old familiar with both popular cops-and-robbers media and fantasy novels. Guards! Guards! is the way to go on that one (but do, do, do eventually read The NIght Watch, which IMHO is the best of the Vimes novels— funny and poignant at the same time.

If you want to strictly go with no-philosophizing fantasy parody, The Colour of Magic is strictly that. Not great, but still quite good, and a good intro to Discworld proper, from the central concepts of the Hub to the great city of Ankh-Morpork and the Unseen University, as well as the very important character of Death. Doesn't have the depth of the later books, but doesn't wax weirdly philosophical either.

If you just want a great one-shot that will appeal to a boy, The Amazing Maurice… fits the bill. (One section has the creepy feel of a classic Aliens style space marines bug hunt in a dark, mysterious maze… only the marines are intelligent, normal-sized rats!) This one was written for teens, but will appeal to any age.

Thanks ya'll!

I'm not a fan, either, though I did enjoy The Amazing Maurice. The others – at least, the four or five I read – left me with the same feeling that Piers Anthony's Xanth novels did – too precious by half, and not worth investing any more of my time in.

I love 'em all. I started with Small Gods and then started reading them in order (as much as I could – some were very hard to find when I started reading them in the mid 90s).

Going Postal alos was made into a TV programme. Sir Terry himself has a cameo in it.

So who do you want to be remembered as the greatest horn player of all time? You or some felonius monk?

It helps if you are well read, know about decent music, history, popular culture, Nietzche, Greek philosophy, cinema, literature, tradition etc.

If you are a bit dim you won't get them.

Parzival,

I agree that Night Watch is absolutely superb – a remarkable balance of comedy, poignancy and darkness. My wife read that without ever having read any other Pratchett (after considerable badgering from her daughter and me) and thought it was an incredible piece of writing – she had no idea…

The latter Witches books also became considerably darker (but nonetheless funny), even dealing at one point with the subject of abortion – not a conventional topic for a comedy or fantasy novel!

LH, I agree. You won't get them if you're a bit 'twp' (as we say in Wales). I've always recommended them to my cadets over the years and the bright ones invariably love them.

The latter Witches books also became considerably darker (but nonetheless funny), even dealing at one point with the subject of abortion – not a conventional topic for a comedy or fantasy novel!

The last Tiffany Aching book – I Shall Wear Midnight – deals with domestic abuse, miscarriage and lynching in the first chapter. That's in a book for teenagers.

The Tiffany books are far better than Potter. Rowling wouldn't know 'dark' in a coal cellar at midnight.