DW: Possible reading orders for the series (no spoilers)

[Joanna Chaplin]

There's a couple of ways to read the over 40 books in the Discworld series. The simplest way is probably the publication order. That way lets you see the evolution of the world, starting from its more standard fantasy beginnings, through the amazing middle, to the latter works that came after his diagnosis. One of the things I like about the series is that the world moves from medieval technology and starts in on an industrial revolution.
https://www.goodreads.com/series/4065...

The second way is to pick a track, usually defined by a set of characters and a sort of overall feel. For that, we have a handy chart. The fact that there are at least 4 different tracks is why lovers of the series urge newcomers to try at least two different books before they decide that there's nothing there for you.
http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-o...
This chart does not include several of the newer titles. Does anyone have a chart that includes everything, including the not-yet-published Tiffany Aching book?

The other way is to read them as they come to you, at random. That's basically the way I did so first, taking them almost at random off the library's shelves. He usually does a good job at letting you know all the principles are in each book, although you might not recognize a cameo. That might be less true in the last few books, where it seemed he was making sure to say goodbye to all the characters. By the time Going Postal was published, I had gone back over them all in publishing order and from then on, I read them as they came out.

What order did you read them in? I am particularly curious to hear about anybody who didn't like the first one but tried another and liked it. I fell in love with the first book, and only fell harder as they got better and better.

[Paul]

Wonderful resource, thanks!

I've been reading Pratchett since the mid 80s, so started at the beginning, with The Colour of Magic - I wasn't in quite from the get-go, but not far off, so read them in order as they were published.

I've read around two-thirds - I fell off a bit in the early 20s as I thought there was a run of sub-standard books, although the later Night Watch vies to be be one of my favourites, and I have The Truth and Thief of Time lined up, which I've been told were very much a return to form.

Never read the Tiffany Aching books, not for any particular reason - just down to the "so many books, so little time!" business.

[Brendan]

Started randomly with Thud! and that book, along with Iron Council, basically convinced me to get back into fantasy again after a decade of reading only SF. It was a real revelatory moment like "Wow, fantasy books can actually say important things and aren't just for kids!". Read The Color of Magic and then started following the different character tracks, though my favourites are mostly the standalones (Monstrous Regiment, Pyramids, Small Gods).

[Rob, Roberator]

I *think* this one is the most recent.

http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2014/04/28...

[Rob, Roberator]

And I'm doing publication order myself..

[Wastrel]

I read originally in publication order, mostly, except that I got a 'witches trilogy' omnibus so read WS and WA before I moved on to Pyramids. And I haven't read Maurice or Tiffany, because those were advertised as YA at the time, and not part of the main sequence. And at that time, I was a YA, and hence naturally refused to read anything marketed as YA.
I also may have read The Last Hero out of order, because it wasn't marketed as main sequence, but I did get it and read it in hardbook illustrated form at some point.
[Eric was also not marketed as main sequence, but it had joined the sequence before I got to it, so I read it in order. However, I've never read the illustrated edition]


This wasn't an intentional decision. I just read them in order because why wouldn't you (this was before you could just nip onto the internet and have people tell you to read them in a different order, with diagrams and everything), and because I caught up to the publication order at 'Feet of Clay' and just bought everything as it came out from then on.

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After years of occasionally re-reading random entries, I'm now reading them all in order again (I'm up to The Fifth Elephant). And I do feel publication order seems to make a lot of sense, not just to the development of in-jokes and linking characters but also just because of the way the style changes over time. 'Guards! Guards!' has more in common with 'Wyrd Sisters' than it does with 'Night Watch', imo.

So I think the 'subseries' idea is good as a way of keeping things clear in your head, knowing what to expect, and knowing which books you can safely skip, but the cycle as a whole is probably more enjoyable in publication order.

[Alan]

I read them largely in publication order as they came out until I fell behind and avoided some of the strands until I could start at their beginning. I still haven't read any of the Tiffany Aching books yet.

One thing that's sometimes recommended and I agree with - if you fall in love with the series, you still need to pace yourself and not read too many of his books back to back.

I burned out on the DW industrial revolution books by reading too many of them at once. They are each really good books but reading them that way made it seem like for about 10 books, all he was doing was putting a modern invention into his fantasy setting (post office, banking, fax machines, soccer, newspapers, rock music, movies, fashion, etc.)

[Wastrel]

That's one reason I think publication order works better. It lets you skip between settings and characters so you don't get burned out. Like not binge-watching episodes of a procedural for weeks on end, and instead interspersing them with other series.

Also, I get slightly pissed off with people who insist that only their diagram will tell you "the proper reading order" (that they made up)...

[Joanna Chaplin]

Rob wrote: "I *think* this one is the most recent.

http://www.geeksofdoom.com/2014/04/28..."

Oh, yikes. My browser doesn't seem to like that link at all.

[Rob, Roberator]

Hmm. I can see about rehosting it tomorrow. The only other place I can find it is pintrist, and they to require you to login to view images. Which seems dumb to me.

[Visible]

This should solve the login issues;

* Discworld Reading Order Guide 2.0
https://visibleprocrastinations.files...

* Discworld Reading Order Guide 2.2 (May 2013)
https://visibleprocrastinations.files...

* Discworld Reading Order Guide 2.21 (April 2014)
https://visibleprocrastinations.files...

[Rob, Roberator]

Thanks Visible.

[Serendi]

I saw that video! Cosplay fun.

I'm actually the other way around - read what will get you to *care* about the series first (I've bounced off it in several places). Then, when you've got it down, reread it in publication order and pick up all those nuances. I routinely read autobuy books at least twice when they come out, once in semi-random order and once straight through.

On the other hand, I read everything that way - I read the end, multiple parts of the middle, all that of *any* book (nonfiction included) to sort of build an armature, then read through to get all the nuances. (Plus I hate suspense.)

[Brendan]

Serendi wrote: "I'm actually the other way around - read what will get you to *care* about the series first (I've bounced off it in several places). Then, when you've got it down, reread it in publication order and pick up all those nuances."

I'm nearly always a publication order kind of person, but Discworld and the Culture series are the two exceptions. I agree with Serendi, read what interests you first then go back and read it all the way through if you wish. I don't much care about continuity in Discworld because Terry didn't much care about it either, he changed stuff all the time.

Colour of Magic seems like such a rough book to start with if you're not a fantasy reader, its all genre jokes.

EDIT: Also Elizabeth, your videos are great! Loved the one on great science fiction authors.

[Joseph]

Well, when I first read the series (back in the late 1990s), many of the books hadn't gotten a US release, so over the course of about 21 days I read through maybe 20 books, whichever ones I could lay hands on, in whichever order I laid hands on them.

Years later I went back and reread the entire series in chronological order, which I thought worked just fine as long as you know the first few books aren't the best in the series.

[Kate]

It's not a big deal but there's a mistake in the Discworld reading order guide that drives me crazy.

"A Collegiate Casting Out of Devilish Devices"* come before Unseen Academicals dammit!

[Joanna Chaplin]

Kate wrote: "It's not a big deal but there's a mistake in the Discworld reading order guide that drives me crazy.

"A Collegiate Casting Out of Devilish Devices"* come before Unseen Academicals dammit!"

Methinks that the chart does not contain enough dimensions to mark that one correctly.

[Simon]

Hi elizabeth I loved the video and I agree with you it is how I feel and I will miss his books
There was nothing quite like the feeling of starting a new DW book and seeing what brilliant story line had been crafted with a mix of old familiar characters and new ones to become friends with

[Paul]

I read The Colour of Magic when there were only two books out, and I went out and bought the The Light Fantastic as soon as I'd read the first. So I read them as they came out, with the exception of Small Gods which I skipped. I was very religious at the time and was worried that Pratchett would be too good at skewering faith. It seems odd to me now but it's what I did.

I gradually got slower and slower at reading the books and I wasn't reading as much anyway, so I got behind. A few years ago when I got into reading again I decided one of the things I wanted to do was catch-up with DW books. So I read Small Gods and then The Last Continent. I continue to read in publication order except I re-read Witches Abroad for a book club earlier this year. So far I'm up to Monstrous Regiment.

[Anna]

I've only read the Colour of Magic so far. I thought it was ok, but I wasn't really that impressed. I've discussed this with several Terry Pratchett fans and they always tell me the same thing: try the witch books. So, I'm giving Pratchett another change and will go with Equal rites (I'm normally a bit anal about reading everything in publication order, so I really have to fight my mental state about this. But so many people with similar reading tastes to mine love these books, so I will give it another go. Then again, it might just not be for me: Game of Thrones sure wasn't.

[Wastrel]

I hope people don't object to the self-pimping, but some may be interested in an essay I wrote recently, discussing why The Colour of Magic may not be the best place to start, the advantages and disadvantages of different reading order principles, and some of the best (and worst) books in the cycle to start off with.
Might help inform anyone who still is uncertain.

[Joanna Chaplin]

There's a handy guide!

http://io9.com/the-io9-guide-to-discw...