This comment is about four years late, but I have to disagree with your friend. In my opinion, this is the worst book in the series by quite a large margin. If you want a more accurate representation, you should read one of the ones with Death as the main character, or the Night Watch.

Thanks for the comment. Maybe I'll give him another chance, some time.

I've been off Pratchett for a while after being disappointed by Reaper Man, but just started reading Night Watch to see if I can get back to the Pratchett I like. Off course, Pratchett's humour and style -- as with anyone writing humour -- can't be to everyone's liking, so there are certainly no guarantees that you'll like any of his books. As a general rule, he progressed from a slapstick kind of comedy in the early Discworld books (sometimes compared, rather unfortunately, to Douglas Adams), to more of a satirist, with more interesting references to real-world events, persons and culture. This works best, unsurprisingly, in the books with his more well-wrought characters -- notably the witches and the city watch. If you want to give Pratchett another chance, I'd probably suggest one of those books (though I suggest you skip the boring and somewhat heavy-handed Equal Rites). You can find a guide to how the Discworld novels fit together here: http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-o...

I just finished Reaper Man, and I quite enjoyed it (although it's nowhere near as good as the ones with the City Watch). What about it disappointed you?

Ashley: You can read my review for my full take on it (never mind the spelling mistakes, I should go back and fix those). To summarise however, I found it to be a book with a really good idea that Pratchett failed to capitalise on, and so the story never took flight. The big problem was with the Ankh-Morpork story line, which felt like second-rate slapstick, with very little actual direction or purpose. The Death part of the story was better, but failed to really gain momentum.

Yeah, a few people have suggested I try other books by him. Maybe I will, some time. Thanks for your suggestions.

Certainly, the time comes when you will just have to fold your tent and walk away. As I said, it is quite possible that you simply don't like Pratchett's style and humour, and if so, so be it. Looking at your books on Goodreads, however, it looks to me as if your sample of Pratchett might be less than representative. The books I mentioned above are those that most Pratchett fans I know who look for intelligence, wit and good characters tend to enjoy. Then of course, one should keep in mind that that Discworld is first and foremost light entertainment. Not that that should cause us to lower our standards, but we should not expect to get prime-quality oranges when buying bananas.

Hmm, that may have been my problem, expecting too much. I'd always heard him compared to Douglas Adams, but I found Pratchett light and silly, entirely lacking in the sharp insights that elevate Adams' humor to a more biting satire that really challenges assumptions about the world.

I find Pratchett, at his best, an accomplished and occasionally brilliant satirist, but altogether different from Douglas Adams, and always served with a good dose of light entertainment. There are examples of good (in my opinion) books among the early Discworld novels (Mort, Wyrd Sisters), but they tend to be rather straight-forward parodies. The more clever satire tends to come later (e.g. Jingo).

His books often parody some given theme, so your reaction to any given book will also depend on your relation to what's being satirised. For example, Carpe Jugulum heavily parodies (parts of) the goth subculture. I doubt that it would be as funny to someone who has never had much contact with that culture.

Dr M. You should try some of the most recent books in the series. I very much agree that most of the books tend to be lighter fare, with some satire, but the latest Tiffany Aching and Vimes books are quite dark with only intermittent comedy.

Keely, I disagree that the world building is only passable. The problem is that you need to read a few books in one story line to see the world grow. Pratchett started off with the basic Earth-equivalent regions of Asia, middle east, Europe in all its diverse glory and even Australia, and then let them change with the passage of time and events. The Ankh-Morpork of Guards Guards is very different from that of Night Watch and different again from that of Going Postal. To me that is what differentiates Discworld from other series, the development of the world feels much more natural, even if gods and the Patrician are involved. Character development also tends to be stretched over many books which will meant that if you don't like the series, unless you force yourself to read through it, you'll miss some of the best aspects of it. Pratchett, though, is not one whom you should force yourself to read. In the end it really is entertainment and it doesn't really do anything new with any of the genres it covers.

Katya said: "The problem is that you need to read a few books in one story line to see the world grow."

I guess I tend to think that, if the world comes off as fairly bland in one book, then even if he has built an interesting world, he's not effectively delivering it in the text. In my experience, an interesting world will be intriguing whether you read all the books or one book or one chapter.

But yeah, it may just be the fact that his parodies are fairly straight and don't do a lot to subvert the genre, which I might find less interesting.

That's the wonderful thing about Pratchett. You may read one or even two Discworld books and find you don't like him, but chances are there is one of them that will draw you in and show you how wonderful his writing is as a whole. I started with The Colour of Magic, wasn't too impressed, but then I read Guards! Guards! and then Going Postal. I fell in love. It'd be a shame for someone to just not enjoy his writing style or something, because he has so many fantastic books each with a wonderful setting and cast of characters.

Eh, usually if I read a book (or two) by an author and don't enjoy it, it doesn't make much sense to me to force myself to keep reading their work, especially when there are so many great authors on my to-read pile that I haven't gotten to yet.