What Discworld book do I read first?

Question

I would like to start reading this series and I can't figure out which books to read first. :)

Answer 1

I wouldn't start with "The Colour of Magic" and "The Light Fantastic" unless you are already sure you're going to read the whole series. If you are, fine. But not if you want to get a feel for what most of the discworld books are like.

Though they are good, even remarkable, books they don't have the "feel" and style that develops in the later ones.

I'd recommend "Guards Guards" or "Wyrd Sisters" as "taster books" that wouldn't spoil any series development.
There are several mini-series in the Discworld books, and a major character in one can appear as a minor or passing character in another .

"Guards Guards" will take you into the big city, and the troubles of the run-down "police" force.
"Wyrd Sisters" features three witches, a murdered king, a ghost , a dagger... a certain resonance with a Scottish play by William Shakespeare (which is explained during the course of the book)

Answer 2

1. The Colour of Magic (1983)
2. The Light Fantastic (1986)
3. Equal Rites (1987)
4. Mort (1987)
5. Sourcery (1988)
6. Wyrd Sisters (1988)
7. Pyramids (1989)
8. Guards! Guards! (1989)
9. Eric (1990)
10. Moving Pictures (1990)
11. Reaper Man (1991)
12. Witches Abroad (1991)
13. Small Gods (1992)
14. Lords and Ladies (1992)
15. Men at Arms (1993)
16. Soul Music (1994)
17. Interesting Times (1994)
18. Maskerade (1995)
19. Feet of Clay (1996)
20. Hogfather (1996)
21. Jingo (1997)
22. The Last Continent (1998)
23. Carpe Jugulum (1998)
24. The Fifth Elephant (1999)
25. The Truth (2000)
The Last Hero (2001) (with Paul Kidby)
26. Thief of Time (2001)
27. Night Watch (2002)
28. Monstrous Regiment (2003)
29. Going Postal (2004)
30. Thud! (2005)
31. Making Money (2007)

Answer 3

Well, the easy answer is whichever ones you like...

There are a number of different recurring characters, and it's probably easier to start off with an earlier book so you can keep track of them all... that said once you know the basics (it's a flat world on the backs of four elephants, atop a giant turtle) you can pretty much dip into any book.

I was going to summarise them all but I realised that would take quite a long time. So I'd recommend you start with either Mort, Wyrd Sisters, Guards! Guards! or even the actual first book in the series (gasp!) - The Colour of Magic. The books often have quite different styles... I couldn't get on with Thief of Time but loved Nightwatch, for instance... some I remember with fondness and want to quote, others I can't remember much beyond the title. But I know people who've loved the books I didn't and then didn't love the ones I did! So find one that sounds like something you'd like, and then get stuck in:)

(And why do I need to summarise when the person above has done it so nicely for me :) )

Answer 4

well, to get a real feel for it start at the begining. The color of magic. Once i started reading them i couldn't stop. I have them all and a few of the movies.

Answer 5

Start with "Colour of Magic" and "Light Fantastic". They are a two-parter.

Answer 6

1.The Colour of Magic Rincewind First published 1983. Came 93rd in the Big Read. Fantasy clichés; role-playing games; tourism; insurance
2 The Light Fantastic Rincewind First published 1986. Fantasy clichés; tourism
3 Equal Rites The Witches First published 1987. Fantasy clichés, Gender equality, Ursula K. Le Guin's Earthsea trilogy
4 Mort Death First published 1987. Came 65th in the Big Read. Death and its personification, Apprenticeship, the relationship between master and apprentice
5 Sourcery Rincewind First published 1988. Fantasy Stories, Apocalypse, Kubla Khan
6 Wyrd Sisters The Witches First published 1988. Came 135th in the Big Read. Shakespeare, especially Macbeth and Hamlet
7 Pyramids Miscellaneous, Gods First published 1989. School stories, Egyptian mythology, Quantum physics, Greek philosophy, UK driving tests
8 Guards! Guards! The City Watch First published 1989. Came 69th in the Big Read. Cop novels (with some hints of film noir including Dirty Harry), show dogs, dragons, fantasy stories, fraternal organisations, monarchists, social contract, million-to-one chances, aristocracy
9 Faust Eric Rincewind First published 1990 in a larger format, fully illustrated by Josh Kirby. Reissued as a paperback without illustrations. Faust, Dante's Inferno, Homer's Iliad, Evolution
10 Moving Pictures Miscellaneous, The Wizards First published 1990. Hollywood (especially silent movies and the early years of the studio system), the Cthulhu Mythos, Celebrity, Lassie Come Home, King Kong, Gone with the Wind and many other movies
11 Reaper Man Death, The Wizards First published 1991. Came 126th in the Big Read. Death, Alien invasion SF, "Man with No Name" Westerns, Modernization, Shopping malls, Minority rights movements, even the odd nod to Ghostbusters
12 Witches Abroad The Witches First published 1991. Came 197th in the Big Read. Fairy tales, The Wonderful Wizard of Oz, Voodoo, Louisiana, and tourism
13 Small Gods Miscellaneous, the History Monks, Gods First published 1992. Came 102nd in the Big Read. Religion (especially Christianity,Islam,Judaism and the Spanish Inquisition, with major thematic references to Nietzsche), Philosophy (especially Ancient Greek)
14 Lords and Ladies The Witches, The Wizards First published 1992. Shakespeare especially A Midsummer Night's Dream, UFOs, Fairy lore, pop-culture Wicca
15 Men at Arms The City Watch First published 1993. Came 148th in the Big Read. Cop novels, gun politics, racial prejudice, Tolkien-type 'kings in hiding', Leonardo da Vinci
16 Soul Music Death, Susan, The Wizards First published 1994. Came 151st in the Big Read. Rock music, Beatlemania, and related stories (A running joke, "He looks elvish", refers both to the urban legend that Elvis is not dead, and to a well-known Kirsty McColl song). Also scenes taken from The Blues Brothers film (eg: "We're on a mission from Glod"). The crash of the plane carrying Buddy Holly, Ritchie Valens and the Big Bopper features prominently as well. The Welsh language.
17 Interesting Times Rincewind, The Silver Horde First published 1994. Imperial China, Maoism, Lemmings (video game)
18 Maskerade The Witches First published 1995. Opera, The Phantom of the Opera, Some Mothers Do 'Ave 'Em, the Goth subculture, Celebrity
19 Feet of Clay The City Watch First published 1996. Cop Novels, Robots (RoboCop and Terminator 2: Judgment Day come in for particular attention), Jewish Mythology, atheism, murder (or, here, attempted assassination) mysteries, ethnicity and minorities, heraldry, slavery/serfdom, Golem legend
20 Hogfather Death, Susan, The Wizards, Gods First published 1996. Came 137th in the Big Read. Christmas; Children's stories; religion as mythology, partly a parody of Mary Poppins; Is there a Santa Claus (Hogfather), and What does the tooth fairy do with all those teeth, anyway?, belief
21 Jingo The City Watch First published 1997. War, Diplomacy, Racism and Xenophobia, Multiculturalism, Jingoism, Imperialism, the Kennedy assassination, Leonardo da Vinci, submarines, Lawrence of Arabia, Julius Caesar, Captain Nemo, the Cthulhu Mythos
22 The Last Continent Rincewind, The Wizards First published 1998. Australia (Mad Max, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, The Man from Snowy River, Aborigines and Dreamtime) Evolution/Creation, Waltzing Matilda
23 Carpe Jugulum The Witches & Überwald First published 1998. Vampire novels and films, Existentialism, Tradition versus Change, religion, morality
24 The Fifth Elephant The City Watch First published 1999. Came 153rd in the Big Read. Diplomacy, Eastern European folklore and literature, Political-conspiracy novels, petroleum, the global economy, national myths, werewolves, The Caine Mutiny
25 The Truth William de Worde, the City Watch First published 2000. Came 193rd in the Big Read. Watergate, Newspapers, Pulp Fiction, The Front Page and His Girl Friday, Organized crime, the power of the upper classes over everybody else
26 Thief of Time Death, Susan, the History Monks First published 2001. Came 152nd in the Big Read. Wuxia and Martial arts films, Chaos, James Bond movies, Quantum Physics, The Fab Four and the Apocalypse
27 The Last Hero Rincewind, The Silver Horde First published 2001. Published in a larger format, fully illustrated by Paul Kidby. Legends, Prometheus, D&D, Conan the Barbarian, the Space Shuttle program, Apollo 13, the designs of Leonardo da Vinci, Catch-22
28 The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents Miscellaneous First published 2001. A YA (young adult or children's) Discworld book. Winner of the 2001 Carnegie Medal. Beatrix Potter, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Secret of NIMH, Redwall, Watership Down
29 Night Watch The City Watch, the History Monks First published 2002. Received the Prometheus Award in 2003. Came 73rd in the Big Read. Cop Novels, Historical novels (esp. Les Misérables and The Napoleon of Notting Hill), time travel, the French Revolution, the Paris Commune of 1871, the Peterloo Massacre, the Spanish Inquisition, the Grandfather paradox, the achievements of revolution (or the non-achievements), the Remembrance Day flower-wearing tradition,Battle of Cable Street
30 The Wee Free Men Tiffany Aching First published 2003. Another YA Discworld book. Folklore, Mythic Scotland, as seen in Braveheart and Highlander, the fairy paintings of Richard Dadd; subjective experience, the Smurfs
31 Monstrous Regiment Miscellaneous, William de Worde, the City Watch First published 2003. The title is a reference to The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. Folk song (especially Sweet Polly Oliver), Joan of Arc, women who disguise themselves as men to join the army, the Napoleonic Wars (possibly as interpreted through Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels), First World War (especially the patriotism and "Home by Christmas" mentality), Vietnam War (in one character's "contagious visions"), feminism, Afghanistan and the Taliban, wartime journalism, deceitful military recruiting campaigns, the pointlessness of war and militarism
32 A Hat Full of Sky Tiffany Aching, Witches First published 2004. A third YA Discworld book. The history and folklore of witches in Britain, mind controlling aliens in science fiction, arguably Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch
33 Going Postal Moist von Lipwig First published 2004. Politics; con men; The Stainless Steel Rat; corporate crime and business practices; monopolies (Fox and Rupert Murdoch; and AT&T and its "Golden Boy"[5]); history of the Post Office; the Internet, cracking and phreaking; fraternal organizations; alternative medicine; stamp collecting and the hobbyist mentality in general; the three laws of robotics; Atlas Shrugged
34 Thud! The City Watch First published September 2005 Politics, Cop Novels, Affirmative Action, The Da Vinci Code, Plato, The Lord of the Rings, The Silmarillion, race relations, fatherhood, chess and tafl
35 Wintersmith Tiffany Aching, Witches First published September 28, 2006. The fourth YA book. The Snow Queen, Orpheus, Persephone, Sleeping Beauty, The Snow Maiden
36 Making Money Moist von Lipwig Future novel featuring Moist von Lipwig. The title and the end of Going Postal indicate that it involves the Ankh-Morpork mint. A brief excerpt was read at the 2006 (UK) Convention. Amazon has currently set a release date at 1 September 2007.
37 I Shall Wear Midnight Tiffany Aching Pratchett has stated that this is the next Discworld novel that will follow after completion of Nation (which itself may or may not be a Discworld novel)[6]