Currently reading: 10. Moving Pictures
9. Eric
1990
Series: Rincewind
Read: 4.9.2024
This one was short and sweet! It was basically Rincewind being dragged through all kinds of shit all the way from the dungeon dimensions where he was left in Sourcery. You love to see it. The Faust spoofing is fun, but even funner is Pratchett's imagining of how demon society functions, with the opposition between the traditionalists who want to stab people with tridents and the new guard who use beaurocracy as a form of torture. I also really enjoyed the part where Rincewind and a 14 year old incel literally go to the beginning of the universe and meet God. It reminded me of The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy.
8. Guards! Guards!
1989
Series: City Watch
Now this is officialy my favorite Discworld book so far. Everything about this one is perfect. The characters are so memorable, I especially love Nobby, who's just a little devious gremlin, but still somehow loyal and reliable. And the Librarian actually joins the team in this one which is pretty awesome. The book also expands on the setting of Ankh-Morpork very well, the city kind of becomes this force of nature that only the Patrician knows how to cultivate, but it's fun to see other people try. I'm really looking forward to reading the other books in this series!
7. Pyramids
1989
Series: N/A
I expected this to be filler and therefore not as good because it's not part of any series but I was really surprised by how good it was. It might be one of my favorite Discworld books so far. I love how ancient egyptian-esque religion is portrayed here, with the pharaohs making the sun rise every day, but not knowing how they do it, they just accept they're gods and that's it. And it's intentionally vague if they actually are gods or not. There's also a lot of political satire here that's pretty good, and some pretty weird mind-bending sacred goemetry. And a camel that is the Disc's best mathematician.
6. Wyrd Sisters
1988
Series: Witches
This time there's three of them! Beside Weatherwax, a woman who just wants to be left alone for the most part, there's also Nanny Ogg, a strong matriarch who has fifteen children and Magrat Garlick, a young hippie wiccan type of witch and they're all great. A lot like Rincewind, they just kind of want to do their thing in peace but they keep being swept up in big things, this time court drama. Unlike Rincewind of course, the witches are all very capable.
5. Sourcery
1988
Series: Rincewind
The premise of a wizard who doesn't know how to cast spells being continuously thrown into bigger and more dangerous situations will never stop being funny to me. This time Rincewind has to face a sourcerer (that in the lore is an eighth son of a wizard who already is an eighth son) who wants to basically ascend to godhood. And the luggage is there, and Cohen the Barbarian's daughter Conina is there, and Rincewind's weapon of choice against cosmic nightmares is a brick in a sock, you love to see it. Also I think this is the first book where The Librarian, one of my favorite characters, a wizard who got turned into an orangutan and doesn't want to be turned back, is given a somewhat larger role in the story.
4. Mort
1987
Series: Death
Death gets its own series! The premise of this one is basically one of those christmas films where Sanata dies and his job gets passed on to just a guy who has to discover the true meaning of christmas except this time it's Death and Death itself cannot die so it's just an apprenticeship situation and the true meaning of christmas is replaced with coming to terms with the cold and uncaring fact of life that everyone is destined to die but it's okay because of all the friends we made along the way. Maybe it's not really like the christmas films, but it's a good book! Even more than Mort as a mortal struggling with death (and Death) I enjoyed Death the character trying to blend in to mortal society and failing comically. It makes me think of what kind of character progression can a cosmic force of nature have in a story.
3. Equal Rites
1987
Series: Witches
The feminist (and trans?) Discworld book! Iconic! The good old days, when men were witches and women were wizards. I love Granny Weatherwax, she's badass! Yeah, I don't have much to say about this one except that it's based.
2. The Light Fantastic
1986
Series: Rincewind
Not as good as the first one but still really good. I like how instead of streamlining the sotry a bit to finish it off from The Colour of Magic, Terry Pratchett instead went balls to the wall and just increased the stakes. The eight spells that formed the universe, one of which was stuck in Rincewind's head, now play a major role. I rememeber reading this and being a little confused as there's a major character called Cohen the Barbarian, but it's a different guy from Hrun the Barbarian who was introduced in the first book and is not mentioned again. Cohen is better written though so I guess Pratchett decided to leave some things behind to consolidate a newer writing style from this novel on. Anyway I loved the multiverse-shifting store.
1. The Colour of Magic
1983
Series: Rincewind
When I decided I was going to get into Discworld and was trying to figure out a reading order, there were a lot of suggestions on the internet to start with one of the other books like Mort or Guards! Guards! But honestly I am so glad I did it chronologically because the first book in the series hooked me so hard. Maybe it's all the nerdy fantasy references that drive people away but I loved it. I also loved all the characters, Rincewind being a wizard that can't cast spells is a really funny concept, also Twoflower the tourist who works in insurance and of course the Luggage. THE LUGGAGE. There's some elements that the author was experimenting with that don't get mentioned a lot in later novels but I really liked, like the scenes in which the gods play a board game that determines the fate of the characters. All in all this is the perfect first Discworld book.