posted
Is Small Gods a book that can be appreciated fully without having read any of the other discworld books? If not, in your opinion which others should be read first?
I’ve read several, but not Small Gods, and it seems to me that some of them would be a good first introduction to the series, and others not so much.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Small Gods works great as a stand-alone. There aren't any major characters in common with other books in the Discworld. Of course, the whole thing still takes place on the Disc, so you've got that whole cosmology to contend with. But it's pretty self-explanatory.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Per Tom's suggestion, I've started with the Death books [Mort would be the first one there] and am thoroughly enjoying them.
If you haven't seen them already, you should check out the Discworld reading order guides. I've found them quite useful.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
and, people, DON'T START WITH MORT. it's hands down the best one. if you start with it, where can you go but down?
Posts: 3956 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
Great. Thanks, celia. At least you could have left me with the illusion that there was another one out there as or even almost as good.
Posts: 3423 | Registered: Aug 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I disagree about Mort. I read it relatively early on, and I'm sure I enjoyed it, but I really don't remember much of anything about it, and I've never had the urge to reread it.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I agree with celia on Mort. It was my first one, many moons ago, and it remains my favourite.
I read Small Gods for fun while in a philosophy-heavy program and enjoyed it hugely. It works well as a stand-alone.
Posts: 3932 | Registered: Sep 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I haven't seen the reading guides, I started with "The Color of Magic" and have largely read them as they come out."Small Gods does work well as a stand alone. Anyone else read "The Last Hero"?
Posts: 2711 | Registered: Mar 2004
| IP: Logged |
posted
The Last Hero was good, but mostly because of the illustrations. It wasn't one of the best stories, however. And it felt really unnatural to have so many of the recurring storylines come together momentarily -- I would rather Carrot, Rincewind and Leonard not spend so much time together.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Don't get me wrong, the Last Hero was lots of fun. I didn't agree with some of the illustrations (they didn't match up well to my imagination), but most were really good. I loved the pictures of the Silver Horde. In fact, the parts that focussed on the barbarians were quite good. I even liked the spaceship, and enjoyed seeing the schematics of it.
One of my problems was seeing Pratchett try to allot the spotlight between some of his premium characters. Rincewind becomes the main character, aside from Cohen himself, but that just means that Carrot is shortchanged. Not only is he shortchanged, but his very nature is altered. He just doesn't seem the same guy that I grew to love from the Watch books.
The Last Hero did convince me of something that I had suspected anyways -- that Rincewind is in fact the central character of all of the Discworld books, even the ones he does not appear in.
Posts: 1652 | Registered: Aug 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
To appreciate Small Gods, you have to know two things. Neither is a spoiler:
1.) The world really does rest on the back of 4 elephants riding on the back of a giant turtle swimming through space. This isn't conjecture, myth, or theory. People have seen the turtle and the elephants.
2.) The character that talks in all capital letters is Death.
That's it. Small Gods does take on a pretty heavy topic and does have a more serious tone than the two others I've read.
posted
Hmm. I forgot about the all capital letters. That's going to be interesting for reading aloud.
Posts: 9866 | Registered: Apr 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
Are these books particularly worth getting into? I may lug around the first with me during my very upcoming bike trip, but god help you if you leave me chauffering another Robin Hobb...
(I'm shaking my fist at the screen, if you can't tell.)
Posts: 3293 | Registered: Jul 2002
| IP: Logged |
posted
these are the kind of books you find yourself reading snippets of to other people whether they want to listen or not.
quote:There are, it has been said, two types of people in the world. There are those who, when presented with a glass that is exactly half full, say: this glass is half full. And then there are those who say: this glass is half empty. The world belongs, however, to those who can look at the glass and say: What's up with this glass? Excuse me? Excuse me? This is my glass? I don't think so. My glass was full! And it was a bigger glass!
posted
Re: the evolution of Carrot's character. (*SPOILERS*)
I think it's possible that Pratchett is DELIBERATELY "maturing" Carrot's character. Beginning in Jingo, we definitely see Carrot embracing his role as the "secret" king, and he's clearly become more manipulative and self-confident in that role. He wears the role of rube, still, but I think Pratchett is steadily hinting that, more and more, it IS a role, and that Carrot -- while remaining firmly good -- is not nearly as naive as he used to be.
This makes Carrot a slightly less embraceable character, since we're conditioned as a society to think of manipulation as a poor character trait. But it makes him a slightly more interesting character, and I'd like to see Pratchett go somewhere with that (especially since Vimes' character arc is, as far as I'm concerned, pretty much filled out -- to the point that he's had to start shoveling in backstory to keep it fresh.)
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
I loved reading Mort out loud to my wife. She said that I could pronounce capitols very well. Posts: 16551 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
You guys know there's a play version of Mort? Rahl was in a production of it. He must read all caps very well.
Posts: 3956 | Registered: Jun 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
I just finished Mort. I don't think its as good as, for example, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Night Watch, or Men at Arms. But it was good.
Speaking of which, I definetely enjoy the Watch books. I've read Gaurds Guards, Men of Clay, Night Watch, Men at Arms... what else should I read?
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
The first couple books aren't really representative of the rest. The first were obvious parodies of classic fantasy works - and funny as hell - while the rest are more satirical of... well, pretty much everything.
Posts: 7790 | Registered: Aug 2000
| IP: Logged |
posted
Pratchett doesn't GENERALLY use chapter breaks. But he DOES occasionally put in a line of asterisks or something. Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Dana, that works for me wonderfully! Although, it is most often me, the listener, who falls asleep before Tom tires of reading. Pratchett is so fun read aloud, although I have read a few just myself and have enjoyed them.
Posts: 1777 | Registered: Jan 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Never thought of the emboldened capitalization as loundness, m'self, but rather as a basso profundo -- carrying power that attracts attention, cuts through louder voices -- ala BarryWhite.
posted
Well, online THIS IS GENERALLY CONSIDERED SHOUTING (or at least very emphatic). So I figured it might apply in this instance as well.
Posts: 32919 | Registered: Mar 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Well, Death isn't heard in Pratchetts books. The voice is described as entering the brain without passing through the ears. And there aren't quotation marks around it.
Posts: 4112 | Registered: May 2001
| IP: Logged |
posted
In the Discworld cartoon miniseries that ran on BBC4, Death is voiced by Christopher Lee. And as Terry Pratchett has ALWAYS said in interviews that he thinks of Christopher Lee whenever he's writing Death's voice, and as he absolutely refused to let the cartoons get filmed without first signing Christopher Lee, I think we can safely assume that, to Pterry, TALKING IN ALL CAPS JUST LIKE THIS sounds more than a little like Christopher Lee, except perhaps when Susan does it.
Posts: 37449 | Registered: May 1999
| IP: Logged |
posted
Is there a list of the different "cycles" of Discworld books? For example, The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic are clearly related, and the second makes no sense without the first. But Small Gods is independent.
So I'm wondering which sets of books go together and in what order?
posted
Thanks! That's the problem with 16-day old threads with only one page - I think I can remember everything that's been posted...
Posts: 26071 | Registered: Oct 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
Most of his books can be read in jusa about any order. There are groups that go better together, but he has always felt that any book worth writing should be able to stand alone.
And unlike other authors, he has suceeded for the most point.
Terry Pratchett's best book, bar none, is the book Feet of Clay. Honestly, you people.
Terry Pratchett's novels generally follow specific characters, enough to be categorized into particular groups:
Ankh-Morkph - The Patrician and his ever-loving Watch
Witches - the granny from Hell
Death - sometimes, he really is here for the cake
Rincewind - yeah, you try locking this luggage pal
I'm not a big fan of the witches or Rincewind, but Death is always a favorite and the Watch is always worth an evening of undivided attention.
Generally speaking, you don't need to read any of the previous books to enjoy whichever book is currently holding your imagination captive, but it can make the experience more rewarding.
If you are still referring to Pratchett, there is The Science of Discworld which is a combination of a novella with some wizardly and scientific&mathematical commentary on how the Discworld and our own "Roundworld" works.
Printer-friendly view of this topic
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Big Grin]](biggrin.gif)
![[Evil]](graemlins/evil.gif)
![[ROFL]](graemlins/rofl.gif)
