2007-11-15 03:33:13 · 6 answers · asked by aladinsane 4 in Arts & Humanities ➔ Books & Authors
They are all loosely connected, but there are several sub-series within the overall collection. These tend to assume you have some background within that particular set of stories.
For a great graphical representation of the different series, see here:
http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-1-5.pdf
Most people recommend either starting with one of the standalone books - eg Small Gods - or at the beginning of one of the sequences, for example Mort or Guards! Guards!
2007-11-16 03:13:24 · answer #1 · answered by Daniel R 6 · 1⤊ 0⤋
these are separate stories though there are some books that appear to be continuation of a previous book (i.e light fantastic and color of magic, the tiffany aching series). the timeline of the stories do move in every installment of the series except for Small Gods where the events occured earlier than the rest.
most of the series are about different characters that either appear in other discworld books (Death appears in all but one, thief of time). while others only show up in only one. right now, discword books can be categorized as either stories about the watch (Guards! Guards!), witches (Wyrd Sisters), wizards(Sourcery), Death and/or his granddaughter Susan (Hogfather), or a one-and-done character (Small Gods).
pratchett is avoiding to write anything that is situated in Ankh-Morpork coz it eventually turns into a Watch story.
spoiler-alert:
carrot is the king of ankh-morpork
2007-11-15 12:18:11 · answer #2 · answered by m33p0 5 · 2⤊ 0⤋
Kinda both!
Although they are all set in the mythical place "Discworld", they have sets based around different characters.
They start with "The colour of magic" which is the story of Rincewind, the (not very good) wizard.
Then there's the three witches, who have a few vols, the night watch and his current character, Moist von Lipwig - who is on his second story.
2007-11-15 17:05:17 · answer #3 · answered by kgslacker 2 · 1⤊ 0⤋
Some are connected (i.e. follow the adventures of the same bunch of characters), but Pratchett seems to have tried as far as possible to avoid important references to other books, so you can really start reading anywhere. You'll pick up an extra allusion or two if you've read the others, but it's not a big deal.
2007-11-15 11:44:20 · answer #4 · answered by creousa 1 · 1⤊ 0⤋
They are all seperate stories but the characters sometimes appear in more than one book and therefore develop. For example Corporal Carrot appears in a few books and eventually gets promoted to Captain.
2007-11-15 11:41:56 · answer #5 · answered by Plocket 3 · 2⤊ 1⤋
You can start anyywhere but if you want to read the books about Susan D'Eath I suggest you start with Mort as you get to understand how Death gains a family.
2007-11-15 11:59:19 · answer #6 · answered by Anonymous · 1⤊ 0⤋