h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Knowing where to start is often a difficult thing with Discworld. Reading the whole series in chronological order is not necessary (and in fact not necessarily advised), but it is wise to try to read each of the "sub-series" in order. E.g. read Equal Rites, then Wyrd Sisters, then Lord and Ladies etc..

Personally I went through an obsessive Terry Pratchett phase about eight to ten years ago and read pretty much everything he'd ever written (at the time), but I became somewhat disillusioned after reading Hogfather and The Last Continent neither of which really inspired me.

For the record, I thought The Colour of Magic was one of the best Discworld novels, none of the others are quite as dark and sinister. But my favourites have to be Lords and Ladies, Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms.

I haven't really read much of his material since The Last Continent, but I'm told that some of his newer stuff is better and after reading some of the synopses on this article I might give them a try.

Yeah read the rest now as you stopped rteading them just too short!

Carpe Jugulum is one the best books Pterry has ever written, its a VERY dark witches book and is probably the reason why he's written 8 'real' discworld novels since it but none of them have been witch novels. I

That said some of the other 8 books since carpe jugulum have been good also, Night watch is good as is The Truth. You say stopped reading them at Hogfather and Last Continent two of Pterry's lower quality discworlds...stick with them they get better again!

I've read them all in almost the right order. I bought them all up to Jingo, then have been buying them as they came out. They are legend.

Now to find My Cow...

I am a bit of a discworld nerd
i got every single book (including the anthologies contaning troll bridge, theater of cruelty and turntables of the night, which i felt were not represented in enough detail in this article)
i also have the poster from the last hero, several of the satatues, all the computer games, and the cartoons of wyrd sisters and soul music (which i felt could have done with a greater mention)

my fav book is definatly soul music although i enjoied almost all of them.
i also felt that small gods and hogfather were not up to pratchett's normal high standards but lords and ladies and jingo more than made up for them.

also i heard tell of a plan to make a sequel to good omens, callld 668 the neighbour of the beast i should like to kno if anyone can verify this?

I am told that there are discworld conventions and gathering type things held. maybe they should be mentioned in the article?

did anyone else hear mr Pratchett presenting the awards in a crime award thing the other day, i was upset that most of what i heard on radio 4 was him quoting from his books, as radio 4 is intended for the cleverer part of the population it could be easily assumed that all listeners are familliar with the discworld books.

I thought that Hogfather was alright (it gets better when you read it a second time) and The Last Continent was a nice comedy novel. I loved Jingo (in between those two). An old friend of mine thought that Carpe Jugulum was the best and The Truth was the worst, and I can see where he's coming from on both counts. Fifth Elephant was ok, as was Thief of Time. Night Watch I thought was brilliant. Monsterous Regiment was ok. Going Postal was quite good. And I'm only half-way through Thud! at the moment.

Sorry, I seem to have rambled quite a bit there.

Need sleep...

I think Men At Arms is my favourite... I've read it more times than I can count!

Men at Arms is my favourite too. Followed by Mort, Jingo, Small Gods and Sourcery.

Actually, now that you mention it, I remember reading Carpe Jugulum. A friend lent it to me at a later date and I thought it was pretty good.

This is a great article- everything summarised for leisurely perusal I've started to forget which books are which, so this should help

His later novels are the best, The Truth, Thief of Time, Night Watch and Going Postal being pretty much my favourites. Oh, and anything with Death in
However, I really didn't like Monstrous Regiment, it seemed to be a little random, weakly linked to the rest of the Disc, in a place previously (i think) unmentioned. The main joke was also quite predictable.

Looking forward to Thud in the new year

I posted when this thread was in Peer review about his short story discworld novels but they obviously never made it through to the article which is a bit of a shame really, The sea and Little fishes is a stunningly good little story.

I don't think Borogravia was mentioned in a novel prior to Monstrous Regiment (although possibly in the Fifth Elephant) but it is marked on the discworld map!

As you can probably guess I'm a major fan of Pterry's work, if your also intereted in it check out the lspace website. I don't know why it wasn't linked to from the entry as I think it should have been.

For the record my favourite book is Guards Guards (the rooftop archery scene has me in stiches everytime).

Hmmm...i dont know if i could pick a favourite. most of them are brilliant, although i did find Small Gods, Jingo and Interesting Times a bit harder to get into the rest, and not quite as enjoyable.

I think The Truth was pretty good, although it seemed to me that Pterry had too many underlying messages which kinda took the fun out of it.

I have to say tho, that i think Reaper Man (and im suprised nobody has mentioned it yet) is one of his best novels...although personally i dont think you can go wrong with a Death book. saying that tho, i immensly enjoyed reading Witches Abroad and Going Postal among many many others.

and thats enough rambling for now.

~ Nen