I decided to enlarge my collection of literature with some Discworld books, but thanks to large number of releases I can't decide which one I should read first.
Normally you start with the first one, but I know this is not really necessary. I'm sure some of you can suggest me a good start.
#2
Hailey Knight
Guards, Guards! is the first Watch novel, and one of the best Discworld books I've read.
Guards Guards! is definately the place to start no questions. It's an amazing introduction.
Now after that you can of course branch out. Following the Nightwatch books would be good. But I think you maybe should go with the one shots, The Truth, The Hogfather, then go back to the Nightwatch series.
I know somebody has a great flow chart that breaks down the various arcs and how they lie on a timeline
#4
Hailey Knight
I don't know if posting the chart is a good idea--it's scared people off when they misunderstood it, thinking you needed it to understand the books, when each book can really tell its own story. The chart just shows the order if you're following any of the plot lines.
#5
AshburnerX
I highly recommend the books that feature Death and Susan as main characters. I'd probably pick Reaper Man as the best and it's rather stand alone too. Alternatively, read Hogfather because it's December and Hogfather is an awesome Christmas book. The only character in it you'd really need to know about is Susan, and all you really need to know is she's Death's granddaughter and thus has odd powers as a result.
#6
PatrThom
I think I started with MORT and have also read Good Omens. I have Thief of Time and am currently reading Making Money. I've missed so many in the middle.
I think I started with MORT and have also read Good Omens. I have Thief of Time and am currently reading Making Money. I've missed so many in the middle.
Most of the Death and Susan (Goth Marry Poppins) books need to be read in order to understand Susan's development. I'd recommend reading them thus:
- Mort (To understand events in Soul Music)
- Soul Music (Susan's introduction and why she reacts so negatively to Death showing up in later books)
- Hogfather (Susan tries to reject what and who she is and fails.)
- Thief of Time (Susan accepts what she is, but on her on terms. She seems much happier for it... well, as happy as SHE can be anyway.)
Soul Music can probably be read as a stand alone too. Looking back, it's almost hilarious how alike the Musician's Guild and the RIAA are. The Wizards turning into pirates is also funny, when they make the box that can record music (So you'd no longer NEED Musicians).
#8
Gryfter
What discworld book you start with sort of depends on the major characters you want to follow as more often than not the books are self contained stories. You don't have have to read them in order but it can sometimes add to the humor and story if you do.
For the Anhk-Morpork Watch; start with Guards! Guards!
For the Witches of Lancre; start with The Weird Sisters
For Death's Family; start with Mort
For Rincewind the Wizzard start with Color of Magic.
The series is also peppered with some great one-shot stories and too be honest you can't really go wrong with any of them.
#9
figmentPez
The first Discworld book I read was "Thief of Time" and I absolutely loved it. Later, I read through all the books in published order (as best I could, my library didn't have all of them.) At that point I re-read "Thief of Time" and got so much more out of it.
So, my advice is that if you start in the middle (and that's a fine thing to do), go back and re-read those books later.
#10
Cog
I'm reading all the books in publication order. I'm currently reading Maskerade and until now, this is the only one I dislike.
