The Discworld Thread

Oh, it's a Susan story, is it? I loved Hogfather so I'd enjoy seeing her again.

After I reread Night Watch, I'll check it out for sure! I rather like Lu-Tze. Or "Sweeper" as he's called. I read about him in Small Gods and now I am seeing him in Night Watch too.

I don't know why, but I liked that scene where he first met Vimes.

He also has a cameo in Going Postal.

I just reread Going Postal a while back. I don't remember his cameo in that one.

When Moist goes to "pray" at the Temple of Offler for the money to rebuild the Post Office. It's a blink and you'll miss it kind of thing.

A fifth Tiffany book is in the works.

Huh. I felt I Shall Wear Midnight was a good ending for Tiffany.

I've got to agree with this.

Ageeing with that lead me to wonder if it would substantially age Tiffany. It was a fine ending...for a particular stage of her life. While convention has it that books for younger readers need younger protagonists, Tiffany Aching has grown up quite a bit in her series.

My actual first thought was that maybe they'll go quite far in the other direction and tell a story of a Granny Tiffany but that would require going quite a lot further into the Discworld's future. Then I remembered Esk and thought "Time travel shenanigans!". But then a tiny Graham Chapman dressed as a Brigadier General stepped into my head.

No, I think though that Tiffany Aching just a few years older is now no longer a "young witch" and more just a young "witch" and it would be interesting to see the story from the perspective of a young married woman.

Ah, yes, they do get married.

I wish we'd seen more of Esk. Maybe she's too cool not to be Put on a Bus? But then we've got SupermanCaptain Carrot...

I Shall Wear Midnight was the last good book. It was the last one before Snuff and Raising Steam.

I loves me some Tiffany Aching, but Pratchett's track record is looking spotty right about now. I might wait till my local library picks up a copy. I ain't wasting another $15 on a new Discworld book.

Picked up a copy of Snuff this week. I liked it a good deal. I likes me some Vimes adventures, and this one, unlike Night Watch also was able to keep in some cuts to the rest of the Watch and Watch-related characters.

One quibble, though: Wasn't Detritus's "crossbow" named the Piecemaker? Seems odd that that name was given to Willikns's someone's brand of concealed crossbow, and Detritus's weapon was renamed Peacemaker.

I also read the first Tiffany book a little while back, and am interested in getting the others. It was interesting reading a witch-related book from a diferent character's perspective.

I finished Raising Steam a few weeks ago. I enjoyed it quite a bit, and I have to confess I'm not sure why so many people seem to dislike it.

Wow, I missed that back when I read it. Yeah, Detritus's weapon was the Piecemaker, because that is what it does to anything in front of it. I wouldn't think anything small enough to be concealable would be worthy of the name.

I've finished going through Snuff a few days back, and now I'm reading Unseen Academicals.

I really liked Snuff, except for Vimes being something of a jerk to everyone who doesn't immediately comply with his every whim. I much prefer characters who need to be smart and daring (like Moist von Lipwig) rather than just plain bullies.

On the same page, reading Unseen Academicals, so far the Guard seems to be there just to be Bad Cops, sorting to threats and browbeating to get what they want. A shame, really.

What's a good starting point? My library doesn't have The Color of Magic and the earliest book they have is Equal Rites. Would that be good or would I be missing a lot of context?

Colour of Magic and Equal Rites are about different people. Colour of Magic is Rincewind, whom I personally find to be profoundly boring (though I did like the movie). Equal Rites is Granny Weatherwax (though she's actually the secondary protagonist to Eska)

Equal Rites has a bit of Early-Installment Weirdness for Granny Weatherwax, but otherwise it's an excellent entry. In fact, it was my first Discworld book.

Dear old Granny Weatherwax, helping out the wizard girl from the town of Bad Ass. Literally. The town is called Bad Ass. A very recalcitrant donkey was involved, I'm told.

edited 17th Sep '14 11:06:56 PM by Eagal

I would say start with Mort or Guards! Guards! I think I like the Color of Magic a lot more than most people but I can see finding it underwhelming if you aren't familiar with all the material being parodied, making it maybe not the ideal starting point.

edited 17th Sep '14 11:11:00 PM by mrshine

I don't think Colour of Magic and Equal Rites share anything but the general setting of Ankh-Morpork and the Disc, so you won't be missing anything.

Thanks. From what I'm getting, Equal Rites establishes the setting so I'll go and read it.

Until you get to Witches Abroad, they're all pretty much stand-alone. There's the odd reference you might miss, but everyone always misses something; getting worried that you might have missed a joke is a waste of time.

The exception to the standalone rule being that Light Fantastic is a direct sequel of Colour of Magic. As in, it starts right at the moment when Light Fantastic ends.

Curses, now that I know, I have to go find it!

Yeah, there is a lot of Early-Installment Weirdness to the books. Generally, the Discworld took the shape most people know it as and what would become what is known as around Guards! Guards!

So I started reading Equal Rites and it's pretty good so far. I can't believe he didn't bother to check the baby's gender before he began the ritual. I'll post sporadically on my opinions as I read along.

So I have a discussion question: what, if any hanging threads, do you think need/want a Discworld book about them? I heard about the new Tiffany Aching book just a bit ago and I kind of agree that the 4th one would have been a good stopping point if a stopping point was needed (and I keep being reminded that Terry's life timer can't have that much left in it). Raising Steam, I thought, brought Moist's arc full circle pretty nicely. Vimes, it's been pointed out in-story, doesn't have much higher he can go. Rincewind's arc has been wrapped up for quite a while and it would take an act of gods to drag him out of the university again. Lancre witches, well the point has been made that people want to see what happens to Agnes, but I'm not sure what sort of stories there are for Granny and nanny. Place wise, the main place I can think of that hasn't been covered in a big way in the books (besides its cameo in Snuff) is Howandaland.