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MonsieurChoc posted:Mort is where I went from liking the Discworld to loving it (I was reading them in publishing order). It's a pretty drat good book. First one I read was Wyrd Sisters, Mort was second and it was the one that got me hooked.
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Jun 2, 2014 19:48
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That's the magical thing about Pratchett. Nearly every one of his books is someone's favorite. Maybe not some of the early Rincewind stuff, and probably not Snuff or Raising Steam, but pretty much all the rest can be seen as good enough to be on some top ten list somewhere. Presuming, of course, they've read a good number of the books. Sample sizes and all.
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Jun 2, 2014 20:18
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Recently finished Raising Steam. After reading lots of opinions on it beforehand I was expecting a complete disaster (especially as I have an interest in the subject matter), so it was something of a relief that it wasn't that bad. Damning with faint praise, perhaps... Certainly not up to earlier standards though.
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Jun 2, 2014 21:39
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The best Pratchett book is Night Watch. That aside, I've decided I'm just not going to read Raising Steam. I'd rather end on a high note.
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Jun 2, 2014 23:07
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Khizan posted:The best Pratchett book is Night Watch. I agree with you on night watch, it's brilliant. I liked raising steam to be honest, it's worth a read.
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Jun 3, 2014 00:04
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Khizan posted:The best Pratchett book is Night Watch. Yeah, that's wise.
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Jun 3, 2014 11:00
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I generally sort of float a top 5 or so and can't pick between them all.
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Jun 3, 2014 17:56
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Kitchner posted:I mean Rincewind, the only living wizard who was able to defeat a sorcerer, did it with half a brick in a sock. Not exactly. He beat a sourcerer. A sourcerer is basically like a walking hole in the world, drawing magic into the world and spewing it everywhere like a supernatural firehose. (I've reread Sourcery recently and boy, do the wizards gently caress poo poo up in it. It was like WWI (Wizard Worldwar I). Lots of people died, if they were lucky.)
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Jun 3, 2014 22:24
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Libluini posted:It was like WWI (Wizard Worldwar I). Lots of people died, if they were lucky.) More like WW20. There's a reason no one intelligent has any objection to the wizards staying fat and happy and mostly useless in their University outside of Armageddon situations.
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Jun 4, 2014 02:15
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Speaking of sourcerers, has it ever been explained what would happen if an ex-wizard decides to have children? Some of the books suggest that they lose/give up their powers when they get married but they're still an eight son of an eight son, so would that still mean that any sons they'd have would be wizards/sourcerers? It doesn't seem to be the case in that none of the other wizards seem too worried about it when a wizard gives up his powers to get married.
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Jun 5, 2014 12:01
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I think they get off on a technicality. (The risk of sourcery as the reason for the celibacy rule is probably old enough now that it could be tactily ignored if Pratchett wanted to write about a wizard father.)
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Jun 5, 2014 22:09
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Pesky Splinter posted:I've been working my way through the audio books at work. I've got to say, Nigel Planer is rather disappointing as a narrator, compared to Stephen Briggs. Fred Colon being inexplicably Northern Irish was part of his charm! Now he's some kind of posh cockney or something? IT'S NOT RIGHT. I'm scared to find out what Vimes' nasal voice will have changed into or what Detritus' inexplicably Scottish accent will now be. (It might have been a bit racist that all trolls were Scottish, but still!)
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Jun 6, 2014 18:23
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I'm just glad that Briggs doesn't narrate all the footnotes from the bottom of a well. Although, yeah, it did take some time before I got used to it, but I eventually decided that Briggs is better.
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Jun 6, 2014 23:44
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VagueRant posted:Really? I've been listening to Nigel Planer the whole time and am literally five minutes into The Fifth Elephant with this Stephen Briggs guy and it's immediately super weird and I don't like it. Keep going, he'll grow on you. He's got a much wider and much more distinctive range of voices for the charioteers. Also, the recording quality is generally a lot better.
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Jun 7, 2014 13:47
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So, I'm enjoying The Fifth Elephant. Gaspode's defence of Carrot ("Mine! Mine!") against the wolves was adorable and reminded me why the characters are so utterly likeable. Because even when they're usually dodgy, selfish little liars, they have these great moments of sweetness, kindness, selflessness and humbleness. (See also: Sybil apologising for "letting Sam down" when she cried after a terrifying bandit attack.) I get bummed out every time it cuts to Fred Colon ruining the Watch though. He has not come off well in this or Jingo.  Also: quote:When the figure dropped down from the eaves it was amazed at the way Vimes spun and rushed it bodily against the wall.  I like Vimes being a total badass, but I can't help but wonder when he got so good at fighting. In the first book he was refreshingly, wonderfully useless. I guess kicking the booze helped? Stroth posted:Keep going, he'll grow on you. He's got a much wider and much more distinctive range of voices for the charioteers. Also, the recording quality is generally a lot better. Oh and please tell me if there's anything else I should spoiler tag in this post. It's really hard to tell what's a spoiler or not.
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Jun 10, 2014 07:10
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VagueRant posted:I like Vimes being a total badass, but I can't help but wonder when he got so good at fighting. Somewhere in the next couple of books you'll meet the guy who trained Vimes and find out.
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Jun 10, 2014 07:28
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VagueRant posted:
Mostly he's cunning and relentless rather than flat out deadly, but there's also Pratchett's standard Badass creep that many of his characters go through - e.g. Granny Weatherwax starts as a bumbling village wise woman and ends as the avatar of witch-hood, Vetinari starts as a standard (if cunning) politician and ends as a basically psychic super-tyrant. I flicked through the most recent two and decided to skip them - too sad seeing the decline.
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Jun 11, 2014 00:21
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The badass creep is one of my favorite parts of Discworld books. A lot of the protagonists develop a certain mythic quality, and it's great to see other characters react to it.
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Jun 11, 2014 03:47
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Silento posted:The badass creep is one of my favorite parts of Discworld books. A lot of the protagonists develop a certain mythic quality, and it's great to see other characters react to it. Narrativium at work. The more stories people tell about someone, the more that someone is able to live up to the stories.
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Jun 11, 2014 05:01
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Does anyone have, or can link to, a scan of the map from the start of Night Watch? It's really tiny and hard to read on my kindle. Anyway, I'm really excited to be beginning this booK!
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Jun 11, 2014 05:04
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You should be. Night Watch is the best book in the series, for my money. It's got everything, drama, comedy, Vimes, Vimes, Lu Tze, a Les Miserables parody, and a boiled egg. And a surprisingly touching scene of the birth of Young Sam.
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Jun 11, 2014 20:49
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It is, without question, my favourite book in the series.
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Jun 11, 2014 22:34
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I can't pick only one, but his best works were from The Truth (2000) to Going Postal (2004).
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Jun 11, 2014 22:49
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Night Watch is my favourite to read. Small Gods is a book that should be studied in schools.
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Jun 11, 2014 22:54
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Night Watch is the best book but you can never recommend it as someone's first Discworld book. Ideally they'd have to read most of the Watch books first, as well as Reaper Man.
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Jun 12, 2014 00:46
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bewilderment posted:Night Watch is the best book but you can never recommend it as someone's first Discworld book. Ideally they'd have to read most of the Watch books first, as well as Reaper Man. Why Reaper Man?
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Jun 12, 2014 01:40
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To know what Reg Shoe is like when he's not a copper?
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Jun 12, 2014 02:09
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Pidmon posted:To know what Reg Shoe is like when he's not a copper? Ahh that makes sense. I'd forgotten that subplot. In the course of googling that to refresh my memory, discovered this: http://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/index.php/Reg_Shoe posted:On revolutionaries and footwear:- one of the great leaders of the Mexican revolution was called Zapata by his followers. Zapato is Spanish for "Shoe". Layers.
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Jun 12, 2014 02:19
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I've just finished The Fifth Elephant and it looks like Night Watch is next. I look forward to be completely disappointed after all the hype! But will I be okay having not read Reaper Man? I DO like Reg Shoe, mind... And despite my aim to purely focus on the Watch books, I was also thinking about giving Going Postal a go after Night Watch - I've heard good things. Thoughts?
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Jun 12, 2014 06:40
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VagueRant posted:I've just finished The Fifth Elephant and it looks like Night Watch is next. I look forward to be completely disappointed after all the hype! But will I be okay having not read Reaper Man? I DO like Reg Shoe, mind... You might want to read The Truth first, as it comes juuuuust before Night Watch and the events of the former are referenced several times in the latter. It's also pretty interesting in and of itself, as it provides a look at the Watch from an outsider's point of view which you don't really get in very many other books in the series.
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Jun 12, 2014 06:55
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Acebuckeye13 posted:You might want to read The Truth first, as it comes juuuuust before Night Watch and the events of the former are referenced several times in the latter. It's also pretty interesting in and of itself, as it provides a look at the Watch from an outsider's point of view which you don't really get in very many other books in the series. Also Thief of Time is almost required reading before Night Watch, right?
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Jun 12, 2014 07:59
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Hedrigall posted:Also Thief of Time is almost required reading before Night Watch, right?
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Jun 12, 2014 08:54
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Nihilarian posted:Thief of Time is one of the books I never had a chance to read, but I still love Night Watch. You could probably read Thief of Time and Night Watch in either order; they actually happen simultaneously (sorta). Thief of Time provides the backstory to Lu-Tze and the history monks which help Vimes in Night Watch as well as explaining the lightning strike and why it disrupted time.
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Jun 12, 2014 11:06
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Related, be aware that Night Watch's biggest flaw is a long expository section about a quarter of the way through in which magical time monk and janitor Lu-Tze and Vimes have a long, pacing-ruining discussion, but otherwise the book is fantastic. It's really something that only becomes apparent on re-reads.
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Jun 12, 2014 11:43
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I think Night Watch and Thief of Time were the first two Discworld books I read, so that was a lucky break on my part that they happened to coincide. I picked them up based off their titles and back cover synopsis, if I remember correctly, and I was a sucker for time travel at the time, and thieves. I don't recall if I even knew what Discworld was or who Terry Pratchett was, but I had a tendency to notice certain author's books when browsing the library shelves. I ended up loving Night Watch and started working my way through whatever my library had, which ended up being this backwards order with the City Watch where I started with a very multi-racial Watch, and worked my way back to the human one. It was an interesting experience in filling in the blanks of who joined when, and earlier character portrayals. Obviously Night Watch isn't the ideal starting point, but it was good enough to get me intrigued in the series.
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Jun 14, 2014 11:32
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AXE COP posted:Night Watch is my favourite to read. Small Gods is a book that should be studied in schools. I've always thought Small Gods would end up being taught in high school lit classes.
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Jun 14, 2014 12:07
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Midway through Night Watch. I'm an eager person and also a jerk so I started it without looking at any of you guys' recommended reading beforehand. Sorry! (And from the sounds of it, I should add Small Gods to my list of other non-Watch books to check out?) I'm enjoying the focus on pure Vimes and very little cutting away to different, less interesting characters. Aaaand a mandatory quote I recently enjoyed: quote:Once he'd been standing so quietly, so withdrawn, so not there that a fleeing robber, who'd evaded his pursuers, had leaned against him to catch his breath. Khizan posted:Somewhere in the next couple of books you'll meet the guy who trained Vimes and find out. FactsAreUseless posted:Related, be aware that Night Watch's biggest flaw is a long expository section about a quarter of the way through in which magical time monk and janitor Lu-Tze and Vimes have a long, pacing-ruining discussion, but otherwise the book is fantastic. It's really something that only becomes apparent on re-reads.
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Jun 14, 2014 15:40
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I consider Night Watch to be a very strong second to Going Postal, but there is one passage in particular that is absolutely some of the best writing I've ever seen. It's great because it's not a climactic scene or a battle or anything like that, it's a description about how the partial blockade of a city affects the distribution of agricultural goods. It's a perfect example of what makes Pratchett a great writer, anyone can write about interesting things, but Pratchett can make even the most mundane and boring concepts sound absolutely epic. It's also an example of the razor-sharp, perfectly edited writing that seems to be missing from his recent books.
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Jun 14, 2014 22:59
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I'm halfway through Raising Steam and there's... just not really any conflict yet. Apologies if this has been discussed earlier in the thread, but I had to get it out. Seems like the more recent novels have had focused so much on "well, what if <roundworld concept> showed up on the Disc?", and this time he got so excited about trains that he forgot to write a conflict. I kind of thought the same thing about Unseen Academicals, there just wasn't enough of a story there. Also I just discovered that I missed "Snuff".
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Jun 15, 2014 08:05
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Pham Nuwen posted:Also I just discovered that I missed "Snuff".
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Jun 15, 2014 13:35
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