Discworld Reading Order Guides

http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/

by ColinWright • 13 years ago

43 21 13 years ago

ColinWright6• 13 years ago

In https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=6965433 it was proposed that Emacs users, true Emacs users, are like the Igors from Pratchett's Discworld novels. Someone clearly didn't understand the reference, and a little was explained.

This site provides charts to help see the structure of the novels, and decide on entry points into the canon. The actual chart is here:

http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discwor...

Enjoy!

Added in edit: It should be noted that there are geeks and hackers who don't like Pratchett, just as there are geeks and hackers who don't like The Princess Bride. Not sure what to say to them.

stevewilhelm• 13 years ago

just as there are geeks and hackers who don't like The Princess Bride

Inconceivable!

mickeyp3• 13 years ago

I'd recommend you just read them in chronological order. The universe evolves over time and there are many surprise appearances by a lot of characters -- notably Death -- in many of them.

mrich• 13 years ago

I assume you mean publishing date?

mickeyp3• 13 years ago

Yep.

Roritharr• 13 years ago

Yes, i've also read them all by publishing dates. It makes the most sense and since they are all very good you really shouldn't try to follow specific story arcs because there is nothing gained by doing that.

tomfakes• 13 years ago

Publish Date order was forced on me by circumstances - mainly that I started reading these books in 1986. This is a fine way of seeing the universe and Pratchett's writing craft evolve over time.

ColinWright6• 13 years ago

I'm not convinced. I've gone back and re-read "The Colour of Magic" and found it to be significantly less entertaining than "Guards! Guards!" In fact, I found "The Colour of Magic" much better after having read the other stories.

A colleague of mine agrees with you, saying that TCoM was published on its own merit - others may have ridden the wave of success, but I say that the canon of work is there, why not pick a good place to start?

As a metaphor, you don't insist everyone learn ForTran, then BASIC, then Pascal, etc., before learning a modern language. You choose where to start.

<fx: shrug />

Start somewhere.

mickeyp3• 13 years ago

The first two are standalone, yes. They're also different in style to the rest as Pratchett had yet to find his voice for the series.

However, they do introduce two very important characters that remain some of the most popular in the series.

I would call that a false dichotomy, Colin. Most of the books are standalone, technically, yes; but consider this: most people who look at the reading order wouldn't know why they should read the witches novels nor the watch novels - so why not just start at the beginning and let it unfold as the author wrote them?

coldtea3• 13 years ago

I love S.F (especially classic hard S.F fiction era, but also later stuff), and I like stuff like Hitchiker's Guide to the Galaxy, Neil Gaiman, and the like.

Never could like Discworld. The jokes are few and far between, and the insights are only insights if you are a fifteen year old. As for the story, it's mostly a lame subtext for the non-jokes.

salgernon• 13 years ago

I felt that way at first, with the color of magic, and other early books. But when "small gods" really resonated with me and I proceeded to consume and revisit all the books. The audio books by Nigel Planer are brilliantly performed as well, particularly "Last Continent" has become a favorite.

I do feel like the texture and tone if his books has changed recently, starting with "Thud!"

The folklore of discword book also helped give insight to how his world is created - much of it is based on existing myths and stories. (I love how he combined asimovs 3 laws with gollum legends. )

ColinWright6• 13 years ago

I wonder if you don't get all the cross-references and cultural comments. When I spoke with another programmer who preferred HHGttG over Pratchett it rapidly became clear that he was looking for jokes, not realising that the vast majority of the humour is not in the jokes, but in the structure, language, ping-backs, and other re-interpretations of external material.

So, in short, maybe you just don't it. That's fair enough. Not everyone has the context in which to insert it.

My wife has just asked if you're reading Craig Shaw Gardner, whose covers are also done by Josh Kirby.

PS: I wish people wouldn't downvote just because someone has a different opinion, especially when it's just a personal preference.

coldtea3• 13 years ago

I wonder if you don't get all the cross-references and cultural comments. When I spoke with another programmer who preferred HHGttG over Pratchett it rapidly became clear that he was looking for jokes, not realising that the vast majority of the humour is not in the jokes, but in the structure, language, ping-backs, and other re-interpretations of external material.

I doubt that's it. I'm a book freak and I've also consumed tons of music/TV/net, so I can get the cultural/cross references to external material in stuff ranging from Derrida to Woody Allen and the Family Guy.

I've actually had this contest with a friend who insisted on Pratchett: we'd read together a tome until we found a good joke. I gave up after 50 or 60 pages, and he too was buffled that nothing seemed as good as he remembered it so as to justify it.

My wife has just asked if you're reading Craig Shaw Gardner, whose covers are also done by Josh Kirby.

No, not really.

ubernostrum• 13 years ago

and the insights are only insights if you are a fifteen year old

I suppose if you only read a couple of the early Discworld books, before he really got rolling, this could be a valid statement.

But I simply cannot agree with it in the context of where the books ended up going; for example, the last few Vimes books have dealt with some rather mature themes, and not just the sorts of things tvtropes refers to as "adult fears" (though there is some of that).

coldtea3• 13 years ago

I suppose if you only read a couple of the early Discworld books, before he really got rolling, this could be a valid statement.

Well, I indeed read only a couple.

blumkvist• 13 years ago

What is "Bulgarian"?

ColinWright6• 13 years ago

Are you serious?

Bulgarian[0] is the official language of the country, Bulgaria[1][2].

[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgarian_language

[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulgaria

[2] https://maps.google.co.uk/maps?q=bulgaria+map

billyjobob• 13 years ago

Are you serious?

Vulgarian[0] is the official language of the country, Vulgaria[1].

[0] http://www.thefreedictionary.com/vulgarian

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vulgaria

gcb0• 13 years ago

this is a majot fail

how to start reading a book series promisse that delivers a jpeg with a graph with some 10 entry points.

title might have been "reduce your doubts from 30 to 10 on where to start reading"

...its probably an inside joke for people that already read the books

ColinWright6• 13 years ago

I don't understand your disappointment. It's a reading guide, it's a description of the connections between the books - the story arcs and dependencies. It's clear that there are dependencies between the books, and lets you know where you can choose to start, and where is best avoided because of the dependencies.

Perhaps you could be a little more explicit about what you were expecting, and why this doesn't help.

And if you really want more explicit advice, if you really don't want to understand the story arcs, and just want to be told what to do, read them in order of publication.

Discworld Reading Order Guides

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