A Discworld Readthru: intro

[jazzfish]

So, I'm finally getting around to reading Discworld.

I've read a handful of early ones (Sourcery to Guards! Guards! inclusive, plus Small Gods and Lords & Ladies) before, but not this century. I've seen the first half or so of the BBC Hogfather (Ian Richardson <3). And as a SFF geek I've absorbed bits and pieces of the lore here and there. But functionally this is a first read for basically the entire series.

And what the hey, may as well blog it.

This is something I've been vaguely inclined towards for, oh, since the start of the plague. Sarah is a big Discworld fan; something consistent and comforting would be nice in These Times; Erin has a bunch of the paperbacks lined up on her bookshelf.

It turns out that wrangling someone else's physical books was beyond me, to the point of not even wanting to discuss it. However, there exist not-horrendously-priced ebook compilations of all the books. And ebooks are, well, hyper-portable. So here we go.

The plan is to read all forty-one of the novels. I do not currently plan to seek out the illustrated novels (FaustEric, The Last Hero, The Wee Free Men) in illustrated format, but who knows. I'll also be reading the half-dozen or so Discworld short stories. I have at this time no intention of digging into supplementary material (The Science of Discworld, etc), although I do want to find a copy of Where's My Cow?.

I'm starting with The Colour Of Magic, for two reasons. First and foremost, PUB ORDER OR GTFO. This I believe: references and callbacks are best encountered in the order in which they are written, and it's a joy to watch a writer's skill develop as a series goes on. Secondly, to quote Shiv Ramdas on Twitter, I should start with The Colour Of Magic "because The Luggage is a top 5 Discworld character but also because you can ignore the haters who diss it and start there or believe them & remember that the worst Pratchett would be career best work for most others & now you can start there anyway".

I doubt this will happen at any kind of speed. I've got a bunch of other things I'm sort of in the midst of at the same time (Sandman, Merchant Princes), a number of other books coming out soon or soonish (Jade Legacy, Merchant Princes again, some stuff from SubPress if it ever %&$ ships), and I just strongly suspect that breaking up the wry humour will be better for me in general.

So. Here we go. I'm excited!

1. The Colour of Magic
   
2. The Light Fantastic
   
3. Equal Rites
   
4. Mort
   
5. Sourcery
   
6. Wyrd Sisters
   
7. Pyramids
   
8. Guards! Guards!
   
9. Faust Eric
   
10. Moving Pictures
    
11. Reaper Man
    
12. Witches Abroad
    
13. Small Gods
    
14. Lords and Ladies

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Comments

[reedrover]

I think that’s the only Discworld I ever read, and yes, the only character I remember loving was the luggage.

[jazzfish]

I am definitely fond of the Luggage! Though the imaginary dragon Ninereeds is fun as well.

[sorcyress]

Where'd you find all the ebooks? I'd maybe be interested in re/reading them sometime too (I've read about a dozen total)

[jazzfish]

Hrm. On the Apple bookstore, at least in Canada, they're listed as "Terry Pratchett Discworld novels collection" and come in three ten-book sets and one eleven-book, for I think under $40 CAD each. Which is reasonable to me, four bucks feels about right for an older ebook. (Publisher is New American Library, which seems legit.)

I'm not seeing them on Google Play and I don't know where else people get ebooks from, so I don't know that I can be of any more help than that. Bonne chance!

[green_knight]

Pratchett fans are split in which order the books should be read, but mostly united in that publishing order is the worst possible.

Just for future reference.

[jazzfish]

Heh. I guess we shall see. In the case of something as braided and complex (and, apparently, as subject to First Instalment Weirdness) as Discworld, I have some sympathy for that... but I am also scarred by the people who insist that Narnia should be read in chronological order, and thus skeptical of anyone who tries to tell me what order I should be reading things in.

[culfinriel]

I'm really interested to follow along with this! I decided at some point that I feel like series should be read in pub order so I can experience them as they originally happened, and then I can decide if there are other orders in which they could be read, with pros and cons. I think of it as the author didn't even invent this, yet, so they were going back, too.

However, the imposition of one or another interpretation of linear time on how to read a book seems overall silly to me. Like, do whatever. Oh, you found the fourth book of an eight book series and read it first and now you want to read all the other books? Cool! Would that surprise in book three have been better if I hadn't read book four first? Probably. Did that just ruin everything! for me? No. Sheesh.

[jazzfish]

Following along is welcome, and is the point of why I'm putting it online! :)

Your opinion of pub order as proper order basically aligns with mine, though I feel a bit more strongly. (Basically: whenever I've tried reading in chronological order, I've been disappointed; whenever I've read in "this just turned up" order, I've been vaguely dissatisfied.)