Question

[ewt]

If you were going to recommend a Terry Pratchett book to someone who has never read any Pratchett and also isn't really into sci-fi or fantasy in a big way but who does have a sense of humour, which book would you recommend?

Comments

[brain-opera.livejournal.com]

Mort!

[reddragdiva]

I started on that one. I got others thrown at me pretty quickly though.

Mort is about the first one that's any good.

[despotliz.livejournal.com]

Guards, Guards I think. Possibly Moving Pictures.

[the-elyan.livejournal.com]

Mort, Wyrd Sisters or Guards Guards at a guess, because they contain good character archetypes.

Or arguably Good Omens, though it's a collaboration.

[yaqub.livejournal.com]

Tricky question.

Still, I think Mort would be pretty good as an intro. It's not too heavy on the fantasy stuff, whilst still giving a good idea as to what he is on about. But I probably would add Strata as well, to show both sides of the coin.

[sea-bright.livejournal.com]

I think it depends to a certain extent on what else they like. For someone with more than a passing familiarity with/affection for Shakespeare, Wyrd Sisters has to be a good bet. For someone of a theological bent, perhaps Small Gods (or Good Omens, though that's of course not pure Pratchett). A crime fiction fan might like the Watch novels (though I am a crime fiction fan and had never really thought of them in that light until I read an interview with Pratchett in which he described them as police procedurals). Pyramids is also fairly high up on my introduction-to-Pratchett list, being both good and pretty much a standalone work.

[ksta.livejournal.com]

Mort was my first and favourite.

[brain-opera.livejournal.com]

Me too. It was my introduction to Pratchett after being very skeptical. The whole Death trilogy is brilliant.

[juggzy.livejournal.com]

Guards Guards is my favourite and retains the position of being my favourite whenever I reread it. I think Wyrd Sisters has more immediate cultural jokes in it, though.

[pfy.livejournal.com]

I know I've e-mailed you about this, but I'll put my votes down here too for completeness.

Not the first two Discworld books, they depend too much on parodying other fantasy works.

Mort, Pyramids, and Wyrd Sisters are pretty early in the storyline, so they don't depend too much on what's happened in earlier books.

Soul Music, Moving Pictures, and Small Gods are all good as parodies of some part of the real world.

If we're not restricted to Discworld, then Good Omens, which is one of my favourite books ever.

[redcountess]

Mort, Wyrd Sisters, or Guards! Guards!

[mirrorshard.livejournal.com]

Guards! Guards!, The Truth, or Monstrous Regiment. The last two are effectively standalones, with cameos from regular characters, and they're a lot less fantasy than almost any of the others - but they're also very funny and bring in a lot of the social-responsibility and humanist themes.

[timeplease.livejournal.com]

This guide might be helpful. (http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/)

[pink-weasel.livejournal.com]

Maybe one about their interests, like Soul Music if they like music or something like that?

[vashti.livejournal.com]

Night Watch.

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

The later Ankh-Morpork ones - The Truth, Night Watch, Going Postal, maybe/maybe not Making Money, maybe a couple of others.

[spangle-kitten.livejournal.com]

I'd say they were three of the weakest...anything after Carpe Jugulum was weak. They do, however, appeal slightly more to a larger audience as there are less in-jokes and geeky references so you may well be right - but if I read any of those as my first Pratchett I'd probably not go near him again!

[mstevens.livejournal.com]

Yeah.

I think they're some of the least sci-fi/fantasy of his books. And I think they're some of his best written.

What they are slightly weak on is the humour.

[spangle-kitten.livejournal.com]

They're certainly well written, no doubt about that, but what I love about Pratchett is the humour, and the fact he would write an entire section of plot just so the running joke had a brilliant punchline!

There just aren't enough jokes in some of the later ones, there are some fantastic characters (Mr Slant the zombie lawyer, who couldn't cope with dying if someone still owed him money...just like my boss!) but not much seems to happen, I keep expecting some of that biting humour and funny satire that many of the older books were full of. (and going on the geeky websites that point out all the jokes you missed or didn't get...that was always fun, there just aren't that many these days.)

Before, when a new book came out I would read it very quickly, the later ones will take me ages because I get a bit bored...I got Making Money when it came out and I'm still only on chapter 3...because it's just not holding the attention unlike a book like Soul Music, that I read from cover to cover in a day, then flicked back to the start and read the entire thing through again on the basis that it was possibly one of the best things I've ever read...many of the later Pratchett books I doubt I'll re-read.

[pfy.livejournal.com]

and the fact he would write an entire section of plot just so the running joke had a brilliant punchline!

Ohhhhhh yes. Right at the end of Soul Music, when Buddy gets a job at the chip shop after 300-odd pages of being mistaken for an elf, and we finally get hit with the punchline?

Genius. I don't think I've ever groaned that loud in my life.

[spangle-kitten.livejournal.com]

Witches Abroad...it's what got my father into Pratchett in a big way and discover he really likes fantasy novels!

[dyfferent.livejournal.com]

Good Omens and only Good Omens. The Discworld stuff is terribly uneven and a bad one could put them off fantasy forever.

[bob]

i wouldnt. i would burn them all.

id actually recommend tom holt instead.

[yaqub.livejournal.com]

Fascinating.

I like Pratchett a lot, and was actually quite unimpressed with Tom Holt. :o)

[harlicat.livejournal.com]

I haven't read any of the other comments, so I don't know what everyone else said, but...

Going Postal. There's something in there for everyone, and very little fantasy-wise.

[spodlife]

I think Going Postal is great too. The only back stories are the development of the semaphore 'clacks' system and the Ankh-Morpork Patrician. The story is more 'historical drama' than fantasy - I don't think this book even mentions the fact that Ankh-Morpork is the biggest city on the Discworld, and that this is a flat disc on the back of 4 huge elephants, standing on a giant turtle swimming through space.

[hopeevey.livejournal.com]

I'd ask what kinds of characters you enjoy reading about, and go from there.

mort

[korpora.livejournal.com]

mort, mort, mort,

I'd steer clear of a lot of the earlier stuff otherwise, but for a good recent one, then thief of time is nice.

it depends if you want a good Pratchett book, or a good introduction to discworld.

I've not read "Making Money" yet, but going Postal was just too analogous to round-world for it to be a good intro into the fantasy side of Pratchett.

Being a fan of Niel Gaimen and of Pratchett, i'd recommend Good Omens to anyhow,.. the story of the tape always makes me laugh.

So, Death trilogy, then the gods trilogy. But overall start towards the beginning, but skip the first few.

[elmyra.livejournal.com]

Good Omens. But then, I'm not a pterry fan, never got beyond the first 100 pages of The Colour of Magic.

[dakeyras.livejournal.com]

Mort. It's my favourite Pratchett book in that it's actually good). There is no Pratchett book in existence that is anywhere near as good as Good Omens, but that's not a good introduction to Pratchett as most of the wonder is courtesy of Gaiman.

[hairyears.livejournal.com]

Still Pyramids!

After that, Mort. Or Good Omens.

OT

[(Anonymous)]

Hi Kathryn,

Tony is trying to email you--I think he may have used your school address. Miss you.

Love,
Dad