Comments on my previous post suggest to me that there is an unsatisfied demand among readers of this blog for my views on the work of the late great Terry Pratchett. which is fine with me, because (i) i love terry pratchett stuff and i’ll grab any excuse to talk about it with both hands, and (ii) i just got my first covid-19 vaccine so i feel happy and self-satisfied. terry pratchett’s work is funny, smart and wise, you should check it out.
But if you’re not sure where to start, because pratchett was always prolific, well, I’m here to help! I’ve read just about everything Terry Pratchett* wrote, and I’ve read some of them multiple times. I have also read several of them to my 10 year old son. so just for one day, the motto of this blog changes from “fine novit vulpes” to “de chelonian mobile“.
You are reading: Best terry pratchett books to start with
terry pratchett work summary
Terry Pratchett is best known for the series of 40 disco world fantasy novels set on the disc, a flat world transported through space on the backs of four giant elephants riding a giant tortoise. Calling them “fantasy” novels really sells them short, because they are so much richer and more distinctive than the term “fantasy” might suggest.
You can read the Discworld books in order, and there are a few reasons why. many characters recur across multiple books, developing over time as they do. and later books build on and reference events from earlier books in ways big and small. but you definitely don’t have to read them in order. the discworld books are divided into subseries depending on who the protagonist is. each substring is for the most part independent of the other substrings. so if you want to get into the disco world, a good way to do it is to start at or near the beginning of one of the subseries. there are also some unique discworld books that don’t belong to any of the subseries.
The other thing you should know about the Discworld books is that they started out as joke parodies of other fantasy books and various other things (for example, the movie industry). over the years, they gradually became less of a joke and stopped being parodies (with a few exceptions). all discworld books have their strengths. but the best books on the discworld are the ones in the middle of the series, because you get ideas, themes, precise plots and well-drawn characters, as well as jokes. (Towards the end, Pratchett’s writing went downhill due to early-onset Alzheimer’s.)
pratchett also wrote a bunch of non-disco books, some of which are aimed at kids or teens.
recommended pratchett entry points for kids (and kids at heart)
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if you want a pratchett book to give or read to kids ages 9-10 and up, here are my suggestions:
the bromeliad trilogy (also known as the nome trilogy). not discworld books. about a society of gnomes (well, “nomes”) who live in a department store. they think that the store (as they call it) is the whole world, that it is a paradise created for them. then the store closes. The nomes question everything they thought they knew and embark on an adventure to find a new place to live. the first book is truckers; the action then splits into two parallel tracks, and thus the last two books, bulldozers and wings, can be read in any order. Anyone who likes the Toy Story movies will like the Bromeliad Trilogy. the nomes know nothing about humans, thinking of them as big slow, dumb animals that roam the store during the day. Imagine Toy Story if all the toys were initially in the position of Buzz Lightyear (who doesn’t realize he’s a toy at first), and you’ll have a pretty good idea of the Bromeliad Trilogy. Just like in the Toy Story movies, kids will enjoy them as a fun adventure. adults will also appreciate the big theme of how individuals and societies deal with mass upheaval.
the painful books of tiffany. this is a subseries of discworld books, aimed at younger readers. Tiffany Aching is a precocious nine-year-old farm girl who grows up to be a powerful witch over the course of five books. A pair of witches from the adult Discworld books appear in supporting roles as mentors to Tiffany. witchcraft on the discworld consists mainly of learning not to do magic. So while there’s definitely magic and adventure in the Tiffany pain books, there’s also a lot of Tiffany growing up and learning to deal with fantasy versions of the kind of problems that many people her age have to deal with. she has to become the best version of herself and learn that most problems cannot be solved with magic. tiffany is a fabulous character. The humor comes from Tiffany’s cronies, the Nac Mac Feegles (also known as “The Little Free Men”), a clan of fairies who were kicked out of Fairyland for being drunk and disorderly. They are a hilarious parody of Mel Gibson in Braveheart. they are blue, wear kilts, speak with a Scottish accent, are feisty, and are six inches tall. my 10 year old loved the nac mac feegle.
recommended pratchett entry points for adolescents and adults
For teens and adults who want to get started with pratchett, these are the entry points I would recommend. read the footnote if you care why I say “teens and adults”.**
the color of magic. if you insist on starting discworld from scratch, this is the book to start with. It is pure slapstick parody, a parody of other fantasy series that were in fashion at the time (conan the barbarian, red sonja, dragonriders of pern, h.p. lovecraft…). you can enjoy it as a parody of fantasy books in general, even if you haven’t read the specific books it makes fun of (which I haven’t). but there is no plot, just a sequence of random events, and almost no characterization. it’s basically a series of monty python sketches. If you like Monty Python and the Holy Grail, you’ll probably like Color Magic. but if you want, you know, a proper novel, choose one of the other entry points below. Also, just FYI, The Color of Magic is the first book in the sub-series focusing on the incompetent wizard Rincewind and the other wizards on the disc. it’s the weakest subseries on the discworld, I think. It’s the funniest subseries, but the problem is that Rincewind is a one-joke character (he’s a coward who always runs away from danger, but keeps saving the world by accident). The Other Wizards are a parody of Oxford or Cambridge Senior Professors, so academic readers will definitely appreciate them. but they have cameo appearances in many discworld books, so you don’t need to read the wizard subseries to get a taste of wizards.
pyramids. a unique discworld book from fairly early on, not part of any sub-series and not featuring any characters from any other discworld books. set in the parodic version of the ancient egyptian discworld. the pteppic teenager unexpectedly has to become the new pharaoh and has to deal with both sociopolitical and magical problems. he wants to modernize the country but the high priest opposes him. and the magic pyramid being built for the last pharaoh might be too magical…one of the first books on the discworld that isn’t just a parody; There are great themes here about personal religious faith versus organized religion, and tradition versus modernity. there are also many science and math jokes, which I assume will be up the alley of many readers of this blog. for example, the most brilliant mathematician on the album is a camel… although it is not a perfect book. the last third drags. and maiden traci is a one-note character and she doesn’t have much to do (pratchett got a lot better at writing about women as she went along). Pratchett then went back to the same themes and handled them even better in Little Gods, another unique record world book not part of any subseries. little gods is great, it’s many people’s choice for the best novel on the discworld, but I wouldn’t start with it.
wyrd sisters. The second book in the Discworld subseries focused on witches, specifically, the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and (in the previous books in the subseries) Magrat Garlic. The first book in the sub-series, Equal Rites, features Grandma, but I recommend skipping it and coming back to it later if she really wants to. granny weatherwax is one of the two best characters on the album, but the version of granny in equal rites is version 1.0. she doesn’t quite fit in with the version of grandmother we get from the wyrd sisters onwards. *** you definitely don’t need to read equal rites to understand the wyrd sisters. wyrd sisters is a parody of shakespeare (mainly macbeth, hamlet and king lear), which puts the witches at the center of the action. the king of lancre is assassinated by the duke; the witches try to restore the true heir to the throne. wyrd sisters is fun. has three distinctive protagonists who play well with each other. and it is one of the first books on the discworld to address one of Pratchett’s great recurring themes: “narrative causality”. it’s about the power of the stories we tell each other (and ourselves) to change the world, not just describe it.
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guards! guards! the first discworld book of the city watch subseries. The City Watch books are set in Ankh-Morpork (the largest city on the record; a parody of Victorian London). When we first meet our hero, Sam Vimes, Captain of the Night Watch, he has passed out drunk in the gutter. guards! guards! Follow Sam Vimes and the other ragtag members of the Night’s Watch as they rise to the occasion and save the city from a dragon. Along with Granny Weatherwax, Sam Vimes is one of the two best characters on the album, a flawed man who develops through the city’s watch books into a fantasy version of the ideal cop. guards! Guards!, along with its follow-up, Men-at-Arms, features a host of the album’s best supporting characters. guards! guards! it is also a prophetic political allegory of the years of triumph. (aside: note that the recent tv series, the watch, is loosely based on the town watch books. Emphasis on “loosely”. haven’t watched it, but it seems to have received mixed reviews at best cases. clearly, it doesn’t look much like the city watch books. so if you watched the series and didn’t like it, don’t let that keep you from the city watch books).
reaper man. the second book in the discworld subseries focused on death. that is, the embodiment of death: the Grim Reaper, the skeleton with the black cloak and the scythe, whose job it is to collect the souls of the dead and send them on their journey to the afterlife. death has very funny cameos in most of the discworld books, but there is also a subseries with death as the protagonist. You could start the death subseries with mort, the first book in the subseries. but personally i think mort is one of the weakest books on the discworld, and nothing in it is essential to understanding reaper man. So why not start with Reaper Man, whose main plot is one of the best things Pratchett ever wrote? in reaper man, death is relieved of his duties and sent to live among humans until new death comes to claim his soul. Death gets a job as a reaper (after all, he already has his own scythe), hangs out with humans, and learns to deal with himself. it’s a fish-out-of-water comedy; death has no emotions and makes hilarious mistakes when he tries to act human. but it’s also a profound meditation on what makes life worth living, and it has the most perfect (and heartbreaking) ending of any book on the discworld. unfortunately the rest of the book is not as good as the main plot. there are a couple of subplots that take place elsewhere, about all the wacky consequences that come when death stops collecting souls. one of the subplots turns into a now dated parody of…malls. the subplots have nothing to do with the main plot, and are such a jarring contrast to the main plot that they seem more like an odd interruption than necessary comic relief. Pratchett then got better at comic relief and subplots that mirrored and enriched the main plot instead of getting in the way.
good omens. not a discworld book; a satire on the book of revelations, written with neil gaiman. it’s hard to say it was written with gaiman, honestly it all sounds like pratchett. auspiciously, it is the end of time, the period prior to the final battle between god and satan. except that one of the angels and one of the demons are working together to stop it, because they like the earth the way it is. The television series is the only good film or television adaptation of Pratchett’s work. the book is a lot of fun and also has great themes about the blurring of the line between “good” and “evil”. if you liked the TV series, you’ll like the book, and vice versa.
nation. not a discworld book; a unique novel set in an alternate version of our world in the 19th century. Mau, a boy from the Pacific Islands, and Daphne, a white British girl, end up stranded on a small island after a big storm. They have to figure out how to survive and how to save Mau’s tribe, while Daphne waits to be rescued. The Nation was Pratchett’s own choice as his best book. A Robinson Crusoe-esque adventure that also tackles clashing worldviews and colonialism in a rich and unbiased way. he’s not joking at all, although a bit of humor emerges from the situations the characters find themselves in. Perhaps not the most representative introduction to Pratchett in terms of writing style, but a very good one nonetheless.
Looking forward to meeting other pratchett fans in the comments. 🙂
*I haven’t read the johnny maxwell children’s trilogy (it’s on my list). I haven’t read the latest adult discworld book, Raising Steam, because I’ve heard it’s bad. if I never read it, I’ll always have the pleasure of having one more discworld book to look forward to, without the disappointment of reading a bad one. I haven’t read the long terrestrial science fiction series. I didn’t finish Pratchett’s Dodger novel (I just couldn’t get into it). And I haven’t read anything by Pratchett besides his novels, except short fiction collected in the blink of an eye.
**there is no graphic violence on the discworld, but several discworld books contain raunchy jokes (I skip or edit those jokes when I read them to my 10 year old). and there are a couple of discworld books with scenes implying that two characters are about to have sex. bawdy jokes and very occasional implied sex mean that Discworld books are best read by teenagers and adults. plus, you’ll appreciate discworld books more if you’re old enough to get at least a few of the many, many scholarly references.
***Also, Equal Rites is meant to be a feminist book, but I’m not sure it will work. esk is nominally the protagonist. she is a young woman who becomes a magician, previously an exclusively male occupation on the record (women who can do magic are supposed to become witches). but the book is really about Grandma Weatherwax. esk basically has no agency and no inner life. The book appears as Grandma and Fate deciding that Esk will be a wizard, without herself having much to say. Pratchett then got much better at writing women as unique individuals with agency, and at writing characters struggling to find their place in the world. I think of tiffany aching as basically esk 2.0, for example. tiffany is what esk could and should have been. In fact, in one of Tiffany’s grief books, Esk has a supporting role revealing what she’s been up to in the many years since the equal rites. i think that walking part exists because pratchett wanted to give esk some of the agency and character arc that she never had on an equal footing.
**** which, aside, is why some readers with leftist political views are suspicious of vimes and the city watch books. if you think that the main function of the idealized fictional police is to blind us to the problems of the real police, the city watch books may not be your thing (and if so, that’s fair). on the other hand, maybe they are your thing! I know this may seem totally random that I’m even talking about this. But recently I’ve listened to several podcasts from Pratchett fans who are wary or even hostile to the police, but who like city watch books anyway. I have no idea how representative those people are of someone besides themselves. but still i found their mostly positive reactions to vimes and the town watch books surprising. I think those positive reactions illustrate three broader points. one is that the discworld books are fantasy stories. they reflect and comment on our world, yes. But they are not intended to convey all of Terry Pratchett’s views on politics or anything else, much less take a stand on any real-world political issue. There are no democracies on the album to begin with (with the exception of Ephebe of sorts), but that doesn’t mean Terry Pratchett disapproves of democracy! so I think most readers will be able to suspend disbelief and just enjoy the discworld books for what they are. Second, Pratchett is more interested in individual people. he is interested in the choices people make and why, and how those choices affect them and those around them. he sees the good and bad sides of everyone, even if he is more skeptical of some people than others. and he knows that people often have mixed or contradictory feelings and opinions (on politics and everything else). I think many readers of various political persuasions will find characters they can relate to on the discworld. Third, Pratchett was able to write convincingly about points of view with which he probably did not agree. In one of the latest city watch books, Night Watch, we get Sam Vimes’ backstory through an excellent plot. Vimes accidentally gets sent back in time and has to train his younger self to be a cop. oh and he has to keep his younger self alive as ankh-morpork undergoes a violent revolution inspired by wretches. In Night Watch, Pratchett seriously entertains the idea that leftist revolutionaries may be right, that sometimes we need to burn everything down. Night Watch also asks what it means to be a policeman, a civilian dedicated to preserving the status quo, when there is no longer any status quo to be preserved or worth preserving. and the night watch enriches our sense of sam vimes as an individual. we learn to understand, if not necessarily agree with, Vimes’s own motives and subsequent choices. Night Watch is my pick for the best book on the Discworld, but to appreciate it you need to read the City Watch books that come before it.
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