D'awww thank you. Discworld can often bring a tear to my eyes because Pterry's books were the first pieces of fiction that had written women characters that seemed like representations of the female role models I had in my family. Especially Jackrum, Granny Weatherwax, and even one-off characters
Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are such great characters and they work so well together. Sir Terry was always a champion for the under represented, man I wish he was still with us.
Lol she terrifies me! She seems so fun but her control over her family and the village is an iron grip, and she can read and play Granny. Awful awesomeness.
No worries. Shepherd’s Crown was a sad but fitting end to the Discworld but yes it did make me sad that STP is no longer with us. I was sad (selfishly) that I’d never read another new DW book but also just sad that STP is no longer with us as he was such a thoroughly decent man.
I have genuinely thought to myself, when in a quandary: "What would Granny Weatherwax do?"
The answer has always been: the hard thing, and the right thing.
And it's such a sweet love story, a plain woman who never thought she'd marry finds a guy who appreciates her for her qualities of being able to carry a pig under each arm, she joins up to be with him, he doesn't mind she gets promoted above him, wow, and she wears his locket for the rest of her life. And she finds a career she can shine in rather than just spending the rest of her life as a drudge on the farm.
Equal Rites was my introduction and instead of going in order I read all the Witches books, then the Watch, then Moist & De Worde, and finished it with the Wizards.
It took until maybe my 4th reading of the whole series, but MR is now a permanent top 3 for me. Single favourite is too hard to pin down, but it's usually whichever one I happen to be reading at the time
The only book I can't reread is Shepherd's Crown cause it makes me feel my mum's passing like it was yesterday.
Wonderful book, but I can't be having with any of that ending.
The first time I read UA I really didn't like it. It felt like massive departure from the established status quo of the previous wizard books and the tone of the whole thing felt a lot meaner. Seeing as is probably his first novel post-diagnosis, that kinda makes sense now. I'll have to return to it again and see how I feel about now I'm a bit older and allegedly wiser.
I didn’t feel it was meaner. I loathe football so I was surprised I liked it it. To me it was about friendship. A lot of his books are about the outsider. Look at Cheery, she just wants to be able to present as a woman but accidentally starts a revolution
I’m biased with Pyramids, it was the first ever Discworld novel I read, and for a long time it was the only one I had access to… then my sister bought or somehow got Maskerade, so for me it’s the gateway into Sir Pterry’s creations
I liked pyramids but it feels…pointless. Get it? But in all seriousness, it has no effect on the world really and we don’t see the characters again. As interesting as it was seeing the assassin guild school, there wasn’t nearly enough of it.
It would have had a huge effect if Pteppic had not saved the whole world!
Also it has math in it!! By camels!!!
Oops, almost went 4 exclamation marks mad...I need a cup of tea and some chocolate.
I'd agree with them. Probably my least favourite of the ones I've read, but so far light fantastic is looking to take that title.
It's a lot less interesting than small god's, or even hogfather, which is one I don't particularly like either. And it contains a similar belief message.
I don't think the books effect on the disk world or its book series effects how much I like a book really. Pyramids is one of my favourites because of Pteppic, seeing how I view that character from when I first read it when I was quite young to now. As most TP it just keeps getting better/finding nuggets and nuances with more reads. But I am do agree that I wish the assassins guild was in it more. In general if it was longer haha.
My local second-hand bookstore got a shelf full of Discworld paperbacks for the first time in years. *Pyramids* was one of the ones I picked up in that haul. I'm looking forward to getting to it, probably after I finish my current reread of *Carpe Jugulum*.
I just finished The Color of Magic for the first time. I agree it’s a bit disjointed and weird, but the scene where they somehow end up on a commercial airline was hilarious and frankly refreshing after all the high fantasy.
That's due to how it's written. Each loosely connected section is a pastiche of a different Fantasy style. I think designed as standalone short stories, to be printed serialised in magazines right down to chapter names.
PTerry takes us on a Tour with two viewpoints.with reader insert characters.
The Sensible Rincewind, constantly questioning the world and its lack of logic.
The Touristic Twoflower not seeing the bad parts of a world.
We pass through: Lankhmar, Conan+Lovecraft, Pern, a Moorcockian high magic setting and finally off the disc.
In 1983, these were the biggest genres of contemporary fantasy and very Po faced. Very deliberately non-Tolkien lest nerds scream at you, and ripe for being lightly swatted with a bladder on a stick.
I feel like Light Fantastic gets a lot of shade that really belongs to Color of Magic, it's still not up to par with his later books but it's a major step in the right direction and fixes a lot of the problems he had with the first one, the story is much more cohesive, the jokes get more thoughtful, the characters get a bit more depth, Rincewind stops being such a whiny asshole about everything, and altogether it really does feel like the first proper Discworld book.
TLF was the first Discworld book I read and I was instantly hooked. These days my favourites are any with Vimes or the Witches, but I hold abiding fondness for Rincewind.
A core memory for me of my Dad was when I was reading TLF on holiday in a restaurant and got to the bit where they run along a table grabbing food - Cohen (iirc) goes over the top and spears a melon, the Dwarf goes underneath, and when asked what he got he goes, "Umm...the cruet?", followed by, when Cohen starts eating the melon, "Want some salt on that?"
Well, reader, that just fucking *finished* me for some reason and I started giggling like a lunatic. Dad asked me what I was laughing at, and I tried to describe the scene but just kept laughing harder and harder until I was literally crying and couldn't get the words out, which made my Dad laugh, which made me laugh harder and so on and so forth until the whole section was looking at us in hysterics and the waiter asked Mum if I was drunk (I was *14*) which just made it worse. It's part of family lore now, all one of us had to do was mention a cruet and The Story would be Recounted and Dad and I would be utterly helpless all over again.
I already knew that Dad would love Discworld and Sir TP, but after that spectacle he insisted on reading TLF and then he was hooked too and we spent nearly 30 years exchanging books, talking about references we'd spotted, discussing characters and just basically being proper Sir TP fanpeeps. It felt like full circle to me; my Dad got me into sci-fi/fantasy by first reading The Hobbit and LOTR to us as kids a bit at a time at bedtime for ages, and then presenting me, aged 11, with a slightly battered copy of Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey which I still have and treasure that he dug out of a box somewhere (and sort of poetic justice, because that's actually the second DoP book just like TLF is #2 of Discworld, so no matter how brilliant you're always frustratingly aware that you're missing half the story). So it felt like I was returning the favour in a way. After I read Good Omens (if I could only read one book for the rest of my life it would be that one, over and over, and I *still* probably wouldn't get every little reference, nuance and level that thing is written on) I made him read it and got him into Neil Gaiman. I wish he'd lived to see Sandman.
He died in 2020 but every time I read a Discworld book I remember conversations we shared, references we exchanged as private jokes, the sheer uncomplicated happiness of two nerds sharing a fascination. So it really applies to any of the books but TLF, for all the valid criticism levelled at it, holds a special place in my heart because it was the beginning of something that immeasurably enriched my relationship with my Dad by adding another joyful facet to it that we could share.
GNU, Dad. We'll always have the cruet ❤️
I like them (they were my first Pratchett books), but I have also read the Sword and Sorcery books they were parodying, so I understand the jokes. They are in my opinion better than Equal Rites and Sourcery that were written just after.
A number of people don't seem to think much of "Raising Steam" possibly since it pushes Discworld in to too "Modern" (Victorian) a setting, but it's one of my favourites (Possibly because I'm a steam locomotive enthusiast)
When I read it I remember feeling that the pacing was a little odd, it seemed to be rushing ever faster towards the end. But thinking back on both the themes of the book and the conditions under which it was written, I suppose that constant increase in energy & movement makes sense.
I found weird that everyone seemed so... OP? Even Colon and Nobby were shown as competent fighters. And Moist defeating a group of armed dwarfs bare handed seemed so out of place.
I must admit I don’t remember a lot of the actual plot points. I read it when it was published, and I’ve not been able to bring myself to read anything since. I am going to commit to a full re-read soon though.
I'm a multi rereader and am seeing many different things this time round. It helps having life experience, I 'm seeing some very human layers and details.
TBF, there’s precedent for strong drink from small people turning milquetoast types into fighters. Consider Verence at the end of, I think, Carpe Jugulum.
It doesn't really have anything to do with the setting.
For me, it's just that the embuggerance is so present that it becomes a bit painful to read. Characters and plot slip away from him in a way that just doesn't feel pleasant.
In RS it's especially obvious when Vetinari starts monologueing in a way that just feels completely antithetical to the characters. The subtlety just dissappears.
I also love *Raising Steam.* Yes, the pacing is a bit hm, and it did seem a bit less...I guess polished? Than the others.
But when I want to read Discworld, I almost always reach for *Raising Steam* first.
What appeals to me is that Terry obviously spent a lot of time with people who knew steam Locos, he captures the fact that they were (And are) the only form of machine which has a "Personality" No two locos are alike, even if built in the same works to exactly the same specifications they can be widely different, they are also "Alive" in the way no diesel or electric loco is, and Terry caught this so well with "Iron Girder" who develops a "Life"of her own. (In passing, all steam locomotives, like ships, are always "She")
He loved trains, and talked to people who loved trains. It's very much a "look at this thing I love", and an invitation for us to love it too. (I am also passing fond of trains, of all sorts)
There was a well-known UK celebrity called Fred Dibna. He was the country’s last working steeplejack and first came to prominence in a documentary about demolishing industrial chimneys.
He was also a massive steam engine enthusiast. Presenting multiple series about all kinds of engines, and even building a road-legal steam-powered carriage in his shed.
A lot of the knowledge in Raising Steam probably came from him in some way, and the character of Dick Simnal is very much based on him.
I'm with you. I agree that it's a bit different than the others in terms of how people are characterized, but I really enjoyed that slightly different take. And while it's a bit slow to start, there's still some really interesting parts, and the last third is whirlwind as usual.
I feel like Jingo is so underrated. Even I underrated it! It was actually my first ever discworld book, my mum bought it for me for my 11th birthday but I ignored it because I didn't like the cover. It wasn't until my school friend introduced me to Small Gods when I was 14, that I got into Discworld, and it was a further 6 years before I FINALLY read the book my mum gave me... Jingo's now one of my favourites!
You got lucky really. I was a huge discworld fan and loved every book until I got to Jingo and i hated it because i was 14. Reread it as an adult and i loved it so much. I dont think you can properly take it in until your older.
I also first read it at… 12? 14? One of those. I liked it but I didn’t get it. Reread it a few years ago and I had a totally different appreciation. I feel a lot of the satire of many of his books I didn’t get when I was younger, and each time I read them I discover more.
lords and ladies is like genuinely frightening, i love it so much. that and i shall wear midnight, loved seeing him flex some horror chops in those two.
Is it underrated ? It is my favorite Witches book after Witches Abroad. I love stories about the Fair Folk.
But then I am a Breton, and that’s part of our folklore. We know weird things happen if you go dancing with the fairies in the forest at night.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror !
This book is so freaking good. I’m going through the series for the first time, and this one caught me totally off guard. So scary and so poignant.
“I ATE’NT DEAD!”
Yes, I think Terry talked it down a little as he was getting tired of writing books about Rincewind running away from Things, but it’s actually full of good stuff.
The best and funniest lines was the wizards requesting what might kill you on XXXX (which is a ref to castlemaine of course), and they nearly drown in paper. So they switch to ‘won’t kill you’ and got ‘some of the sheep’.
Truly, as someone married to an Australian, this is the best description of its flora and fauna that I’ve ever encountered
I think a lot of the Rincewind stories are quite underrated. Interesting Times, The Last Continent, and The Last Hero are all fantastic books. Sourcery and Eric also have their moments.
I think it's because Rincewind isn't nearly as interesting a protagonist as Death, Granny, or Vimes, and TCOM and TLF are very obviously still Pratchett's early work. It's easy to brush off Rincewind's better stories in favour of the gems that are the rest of Discworld.
I’d not realised until seeing this thread that Monstrous Regiment is underrated. There are some sublimely written characters in this book whilst still pulling no punches.
One of the few completely standalone books: *The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents*. Coming to the screen [later this year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Maurice)!
According to this guy:
https://medium.com/@leftoutside/every-discworld-novel-ranked-definitively-by-me-dc0578b9eb1
Thud! Is tenth worst. I’d have it top ten maybe even top five. I real cracker.
This man is a fool. I can excuse him for forgetting Feeney Upshot's name - there are 42 books' worth of characters to remember - but putting Thud in the bottom ten and Unseen Academicals in the bottom five (because he was never a fan of football) is unforgivable.
That honestly feels like the books have been randomly sprinkled across the list. And by randomly sprinkled I mean most of the books with young women as protagonists are down the bottom
I don’t think that’s fair; Equal Rites, Monstrous Regiment, and Thief of Time are all in the top half of that list, Soul Music is the median entry at #21, and Maskerade (which has Agnes/Perditax as a protagonist) is at #22.
That person just doesn’t like the Tiffany Aching books as much as the rest, and since the Amazing Maurice is down at the bottom too, it looks more like they just don’t like the YA Discworld titles.
Amazing Maurice also has a young girl as a main character. I was only being half serious - I hadn't gone over the list particularly thoroughly, and had thought Thief was in the bottom half. I also haven't read Equal Rites in Twenty years and just think of it as a Witches novel, but you're right it is about a young girl.
Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the only people who liked Moving Pictures and Soul Music. Their strengths are different from the other books, true. I like them because they're full of absolutely dreadful puns. Soul Music especially is chock-full of them - plus, as a fan of the late Kirsty MacColl, I loved the ending.
I absolutely love Soul Music and really like Moving Pictures. To be honest, everything with creative endeavors as a focus just sucks me in. May it be music, movies, art or dancing. Also, I get chills at Death playing that chord in the end.
I haven't reread Soul Music in ages but I love, love, live Moving Pictures. It's the perfect satire of old Hollywood, introduces or let's shine some beloved characters and the wizard dialogue after the climax is some of the funniest wizard dialogue there is (right up there with the mistletoe stuff in Hogfather)
I came to say Moving Pictures. I read it while working on my film studies degree at uni and it had me howling with laughter. It is, like the best of Pratchett, deceptively astute.
I remember losing it whilst reading the scene where CMOT's "livestock" are being delivered, and a couple characters try to waylay them.
I found Moving Pictures to have so many little in jokes and nods to the early days of film.
Sourcery isn't one of my personal top choices, but the drunken Luggage and the bit about how a wizard will always come back for his hat were great moments. Rincewind's half brick in a sock is the unsung hero of the series.
I've come to love the portrayal of Susan in Soul Music, she's both a really needy kid and a brat at the same time. I especially like the scene with Albert in the kitchen. He's firm but doesn't just brush her off. He gives her cocoa, bed and explanations minus the raven's ta da da daaa all with out being soppy. So brilliantly written.
Idk I found her very un-Susanish compared to the latter books, and I really didn't care for her half-assed romance/obsession with the half-assed character of Buddy.
Me neither but I think TP was letting her have a little adolescence before making her an adult in Hogfather. She used the word 'stupid' all the time in Soul Music too to show she was juvenile but stops by the end.
She's allowed a good character development. It reads to me like he wanted to portray her as held back by not knowing who she was and by being in an emotionally suffocating school then she gradually comes into her own as the book progresses. Very cleverly written. The scene with Albert acts as a kind of hinge.
I love Maskerade. It may be a little too reliant on parodying Phantom of the Opera, but the scenes with Nanny and Granny are some of my favorites of all time. I appreciate that it talks about beauty standards and perceptions based on appearance, mainly through Agnes/Perdita, Chr!st!ne!, and Andre. Walter Plinth is such a sad character, very similar to Mr. Nutt.
This one was my first contact with the witches series. I was fourteen and had no interest in opera, did know Phantom only by name and reading about a couple of elderly witches did not seem very appealing to me. Still, I had read a couple of Rincewind books and Reaper Man and really enjoyed them and I was prepared to give Maskerade the benefit of the doubt.
Man, that book had me howling, and to my delight I discovered there were already a couple of witches-stories published. Lords and Ladies may be my favourite Discworld book.
Last Continent if we're taking "underrated" in th sense that nobody seems to rate it at all.
I'd hold that some of the post embuggerance ones are traditionally underrated, especially Unseen Academicals.
Snuff is light on the multilayered jokes, but it’s a brilliant work of literary fiction that brought me to tears. How many authors could make a reading audience feel empathy for that
I really like all three Moist von Lipwig books, but a pretty vocal group does not. I started with these, so maybe that's my bias.
Also, all of the Tiffany Aching books are solid except for Wintersmith. I thought it kind of dropped the ball compared to the others.
That's so odd to me. Going Postal is, to my mind, one of the best books in the series. I didn't expect to like Moist, but he conned his way into my heart. The only one I didn't much care for was Raising Steam, but that's more the fault of the embuggerance.
I like the Moist books in general but Going Postal is magnificent to my mind. It is also very personal and probably my most reread book but I love it a lot and think it's very, very good.
There's a lot to like in this one, even if the plot is a bit on the slow-cooking side. Fist appearance of Ridcully and Ponder, Dibbler's rise and fall as a producer, Gaspode and Laddy, the elephant-subplot,...
A friend of mine tackled Discworld after I gently nudged them towards it, and The Truth was the first one they started calling their absolute favorite. They have Very Strong Feelings about things like public infrastructure (which in their book includes quality journalism) so that and Going Postal were their top two in the series.
I liked The Truth a lot because De Worde was a pleasant change of pace and it did great things for the later books, continuity-wise. Loved seeing Sacharissa, William, and Otto crop up in later books (and in the Going Postal tv adaptation).
No one's mentioned this so far and I don't see it mentioned much in general, so it's probably underrated, but I have a great love for The Last Hero. It's not just because I have a beautiful hardcover edition and the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, I love the story. I'm also always a sucker for the kind of books where and more and more beloved characters interact. In particular Cohen and The Silver Hoard's arc has a lot of heart and pathos, not just humour. To me it's very special.
Oh for sure the team-up! It's even better than the one in Jingo. I really fell in love with Cohen and Co in Interesting Times and this was an incredible ending for them, I loved it.
All the Rinsewind Wizzard books. From The Colour of Magic where we meet Rinsewind, the Luggage (who doesn’t love ❤️ the Luggage) Twoflower the Discworld’s first Tourist and a wide range of other strong characters, heroes and the Watch. Lots of laughs to be found even though the Discworld and Ankh-Morpork were not fully formed.
I simply adore each and every Rinsewind book and think they are highly underrated by most. The Eternal Coward and his Luggage.
My god the hate I see for Rincewind makes no sense to me; he's one of my utmost favourite characters in literature. Even the people who recommended Discworld to me try to convince me it "gets better" after the early Rincewind novels, and are shocked when I explain that I love him dearly
In the broader audience of All the People Who Have Read Some Discworld Books, my guess would be the Tiffany Aching series. Many even chalk those up as some separate YA corner of the universe.
Of the rest, my guess is Monstrous Regiment, too. It’s not exactly a part of any of the series, it’s more poignant than funny, and there’s more direct representation of marginalized people without the softening effect of metaphor. It’s also probably the best one out of all of them.
On the other hand, the Rincewind/wizards series isn’t my favorite (though I have read all of it), so there's probably something there that I underrate.
(Ok, I fibbed — there is one book I was not able to finish: Unseen Academicals. It was just painful to read, somehow. Maybe it takes a while to get going, or maybe I’ll have a different perspective now, so given the recommendations here, I will give it another try.)
Reaper Man. I think it's one of his best, but I hardly see it discussed.
Moving Pictures. A book that speaks to every fan of the golden age of Hollywood
The Death half of the book is brilliant. The Wizard half... not so much IMO.
It's also the first DW I've read, and have re-read it way too many times. Now I just skip the wizard chapters.
It depends on at which time, age and station the reader hopped on the Discworld Train I guess.
I was 17, it was the late 1980's in The Netherlands that I came across TCOM and TLF...and in that era the books and their references were still fresh and relevant and at my age I had already read more than around a thousand books in English so the language was no problem. Those books were perfect for me then. Mort was out then too but I bought also all the non-Discworld books.
From that moment I bought the books as they came out so from almost the beginning I saw the growth and at the end I saw the decline, I was in for the whole ride of like 3 decades and there was no better travel companion. For me there are no bad books because each led to the next being written...until the last one. I am 51 now and I have almost two whole bookcases with Terry Pratchett stuff (some signed in person by him and even an original Eric as it was intended) everything is my treasure until I die. And after I die because my name is in all of them. 😀
I've always felt that Monsterous Regiment was one of the best of them but i don't know if it's underrated. I don't see it discussed much or the characters referenced very often. It's one of my favorites for sure. I love the characters.
It's so hard for me to figure out what books are generally underrated. As you can see from these comments, we all seem ro have very different ideas of which are the best ones and weakest ones. I love UU (and I dont care a wit about football). Jingo is one of the best..
Dark side of the sun is Terry's novel from 1976, parts of it are spoof of Larry Nivens Ringworld and it was the first novel of Terry's that I've read. I've never saw anybody mention it but I found it quite good and it led me to his other works.
I know there was a mini series of Going Postal but I’m a big fan of the sequel Making Money.
It’s a bad title but a pretty good follow up of the Moist series.
I love them all, it’s hard to see any of them as underrated when I rate them all so highly.
As the mood takes me, my favourite parts of books are Rincewind and The Luggage, or wizards in general, or the Watch, or witches, or Death…
Sometimes I’m more in the mood for a concept than a character/group, and I love the magic, time, or belief system.
I love how the Patrician carefully prunes the edges of the city, and guides events subtly. I love that he keeps promoting/giving honours to Sam.
I love the guilds, especially the ones that have direct conflict with other guilds.
I like CMOT Dibbler, and his various alters. Also the homeless group.
The thing I love most about the Discworld is that time and time again, hated minorities are shown to not actually be all that bad, and are allowed their differences by the formerly intolerant, who learn better.
I almost think that the beauty (and underrated thing) about discworld is what I'm getting from this thread: I don't think it's possible to have underrated and overrated books. There's such a breadth of type of story and social commentary that I think everyone gets something different out of them.
I love MR because Jackrum spoke to my little non-binary soul. Jingo because I studied international politics. Night watch because Revolution! Thud! Because of the commentary on extremism and fundamentalism. Pyramids because I have a soft spot for stories about people who realise they're not what they're 'destined' to be and that's OK. Unseen Academicals has one of my favourite minor characters, Reaper Man has some of the best humanist philosophy I've read.
Other people like different books for different reasons, and that's *the best thing*. There's a discworld out there for you!
Jingo doesn’t get a lot of love despite
being rather brilliant and perfectly suited to the zeitgeist of today.
I feel Eric is pretty underrated despite being a fun little adventure through disc history, the classics and fleshing out the UU experience.
I don’t see Feet of Clay talked about often enough, and that was my first disc world novel, probably the one I’ve read most as well. “Art brought forth the candle” in Latin is genius. As well as the fish lamp. If you know, you know.
Carpe Jugulum and Monstrous Regiment. The first because nobody seems to talk about it, and I wonder if that's just because it's a loooong way along the Witches reading order. The second because imo it's one of the best, meatiest Discworld books but usually only manages to hit mid-table.
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But as someone has said elsewhere about Pyramids, it was my first exposure to Discworld when I was about 17 years old, so it will always hold a special place.
The Science of Discworld series is great but it's such a departure from Discworld proper that it takes some time to get into if you are used to the standard TP stuff.
While Small Gods and Night Watch are two of my favorite books ever written, I don't re-read them often because I don't always want heavy thoughts.
The ones I probably re-read most? Thud!, Going Postal and The Truth. Not saying they are shallow - they can certainly pack a punch but they don't hit my brain like Small Gods and Night Watch do.
I feel like The Truth may be underrated - but I really love it as a whole letter of love to the absolutely vital work of real journalism.
I think Equal Rites, Jingo, and Monstrous Regiment are woefully under appreciated.
I particularly love Monstrous Regiment, brilliant book.
This might sound weird, but the book was endearing to me because Sergeant-Major Jack Jackrum reminded me of my late mum.
Bless you my friend, have a virtual hug and a GNU for your Mum ❤️
D'awww thank you. Discworld can often bring a tear to my eyes because Pterry's books were the first pieces of fiction that had written women characters that seemed like representations of the female role models I had in my family. Especially Jackrum, Granny Weatherwax, and even one-off characters
Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are such great characters and they work so well together. Sir Terry was always a champion for the under represented, man I wish he was still with us.
It's my hopes that I age into someone like Nanny Ogg.
Lol she terrifies me! She seems so fun but her control over her family and the village is an iron grip, and she can read and play Granny. Awful awesomeness.
I just wish I had that many daughters-in-law to do my domestic work.
Did the end of Shepherds Crown make you feel Terry's loss again? Edit: Sorry for the sad question.
No worries. Shepherd’s Crown was a sad but fitting end to the Discworld but yes it did make me sad that STP is no longer with us. I was sad (selfishly) that I’d never read another new DW book but also just sad that STP is no longer with us as he was such a thoroughly decent man.
I have genuinely thought to myself, when in a quandary: "What would Granny Weatherwax do?" The answer has always been: the hard thing, and the right thing.
Granny’s moral compass will never let you down.
And it's such a sweet love story, a plain woman who never thought she'd marry finds a guy who appreciates her for her qualities of being able to carry a pig under each arm, she joins up to be with him, he doesn't mind she gets promoted above him, wow, and she wears his locket for the rest of her life. And she finds a career she can shine in rather than just spending the rest of her life as a drudge on the farm.
For someone with no war experience, it's an incredible book.
MR really conveys the futility of war I think.
So good! I stood on line for two hours to get it signed!
Equal Rites is brilliant! There are so many truly wonderful moments in it and the story is great.
It made me a bit sad Esk didn't show up really for any of the Unseen University Wizard plots after that book and only shows up in the story once more.
Monstrous Regiment was my first foray into Discworld! I missed a lot of the character references at the time. Re-read it recently and it was so good
Equal Rites was my introduction and instead of going in order I read all the Witches books, then the Watch, then Moist & De Worde, and finished it with the Wizards.
Reading Jingo right now. It’s my last Citywatch book. Loving it so far
I love the scenes with Nobby & gang the most in that one. Jingo and Snuff are the books that made Nobby my favourite.
Jingo is an absolute belter
I really enjoyed Leonard getting a little field trip. That whole side story was the highlight of Jingo.
Leonard is such a great character. His 'going under the water safely device' line had me crying with laughter
When he's holding up Colon & Nobby, but halfway through gives them the weapon to hold so he can redesign it. 
It took until maybe my 4th reading of the whole series, but MR is now a permanent top 3 for me. Single favourite is too hard to pin down, but it's usually whichever one I happen to be reading at the time
The only book I can't reread is Shepherd's Crown cause it makes me feel my mum's passing like it was yesterday. Wonderful book, but I can't be having with any of that ending.
Unseen academicals
Definitely, I'd have loved to see more of Nutt and Glenda
Same here. I would have loved a Glenda, Nutt, Agnes and Oats book set in Uberwald
One of my favourites. Heavy on the psychology focussed themes.
I love Glenda’s character development, she comes a long way in one book
The first time I read UA I really didn't like it. It felt like massive departure from the established status quo of the previous wizard books and the tone of the whole thing felt a lot meaner. Seeing as is probably his first novel post-diagnosis, that kinda makes sense now. I'll have to return to it again and see how I feel about now I'm a bit older and allegedly wiser.
I didn’t feel it was meaner. I loathe football so I was surprised I liked it it. To me it was about friendship. A lot of his books are about the outsider. Look at Cheery, she just wants to be able to present as a woman but accidentally starts a revolution
I did not like it when I first read it (I hate football), but it grew on me. Glenda and Nutt are such great characters.
I loathe football with a passion. To me it was a book about friendship
Yes, really enjoyed UA, must re-read it again soon.
This was my response too! I definitely think people are way more focused on the football aspect of the story than the actual plot.
Which is a shame if that’s the case as the plot has a lot to enjoy about it.
I rather enjoy Pyramids, but I think it's often seen as a weak one-off as far as Discworld goes.
I’m biased with Pyramids, it was the first ever Discworld novel I read, and for a long time it was the only one I had access to… then my sister bought or somehow got Maskerade, so for me it’s the gateway into Sir Pterry’s creations
I liked pyramids but it feels…pointless. Get it? But in all seriousness, it has no effect on the world really and we don’t see the characters again. As interesting as it was seeing the assassin guild school, there wasn’t nearly enough of it.
It would have had a huge effect if Pteppic had not saved the whole world! Also it has math in it!! By camels!!! Oops, almost went 4 exclamation marks mad...I need a cup of tea and some chocolate.
The need for additional complexity is itself pointless.
I'd agree with them. Probably my least favourite of the ones I've read, but so far light fantastic is looking to take that title. It's a lot less interesting than small god's, or even hogfather, which is one I don't particularly like either. And it contains a similar belief message.
I don't think the books effect on the disk world or its book series effects how much I like a book really. Pyramids is one of my favourites because of Pteppic, seeing how I view that character from when I first read it when I was quite young to now. As most TP it just keeps getting better/finding nuggets and nuances with more reads. But I am do agree that I wish the assassins guild was in it more. In general if it was longer haha.
My local second-hand bookstore got a shelf full of Discworld paperbacks for the first time in years. *Pyramids* was one of the ones I picked up in that haul. I'm looking forward to getting to it, probably after I finish my current reread of *Carpe Jugulum*.
I think the first two are really good but get a bit of shade for being…weird (that’s not really what I mean but I’m in the pub a couple of pints in).
I just finished The Color of Magic for the first time. I agree it’s a bit disjointed and weird, but the scene where they somehow end up on a commercial airline was hilarious and frankly refreshing after all the high fantasy.
That's due to how it's written. Each loosely connected section is a pastiche of a different Fantasy style. I think designed as standalone short stories, to be printed serialised in magazines right down to chapter names. PTerry takes us on a Tour with two viewpoints.with reader insert characters. The Sensible Rincewind, constantly questioning the world and its lack of logic. The Touristic Twoflower not seeing the bad parts of a world. We pass through: Lankhmar, Conan+Lovecraft, Pern, a Moorcockian high magic setting and finally off the disc. In 1983, these were the biggest genres of contemporary fantasy and very Po faced. Very deliberately non-Tolkien lest nerds scream at you, and ripe for being lightly swatted with a bladder on a stick.
I feel like Light Fantastic gets a lot of shade that really belongs to Color of Magic, it's still not up to par with his later books but it's a major step in the right direction and fixes a lot of the problems he had with the first one, the story is much more cohesive, the jokes get more thoughtful, the characters get a bit more depth, Rincewind stops being such a whiny asshole about everything, and altogether it really does feel like the first proper Discworld book.
TLF was the first Discworld book I read and I was instantly hooked. These days my favourites are any with Vimes or the Witches, but I hold abiding fondness for Rincewind. A core memory for me of my Dad was when I was reading TLF on holiday in a restaurant and got to the bit where they run along a table grabbing food - Cohen (iirc) goes over the top and spears a melon, the Dwarf goes underneath, and when asked what he got he goes, "Umm...the cruet?", followed by, when Cohen starts eating the melon, "Want some salt on that?" Well, reader, that just fucking *finished* me for some reason and I started giggling like a lunatic. Dad asked me what I was laughing at, and I tried to describe the scene but just kept laughing harder and harder until I was literally crying and couldn't get the words out, which made my Dad laugh, which made me laugh harder and so on and so forth until the whole section was looking at us in hysterics and the waiter asked Mum if I was drunk (I was *14*) which just made it worse. It's part of family lore now, all one of us had to do was mention a cruet and The Story would be Recounted and Dad and I would be utterly helpless all over again. I already knew that Dad would love Discworld and Sir TP, but after that spectacle he insisted on reading TLF and then he was hooked too and we spent nearly 30 years exchanging books, talking about references we'd spotted, discussing characters and just basically being proper Sir TP fanpeeps. It felt like full circle to me; my Dad got me into sci-fi/fantasy by first reading The Hobbit and LOTR to us as kids a bit at a time at bedtime for ages, and then presenting me, aged 11, with a slightly battered copy of Dragonquest by Anne McCaffrey which I still have and treasure that he dug out of a box somewhere (and sort of poetic justice, because that's actually the second DoP book just like TLF is #2 of Discworld, so no matter how brilliant you're always frustratingly aware that you're missing half the story). So it felt like I was returning the favour in a way. After I read Good Omens (if I could only read one book for the rest of my life it would be that one, over and over, and I *still* probably wouldn't get every little reference, nuance and level that thing is written on) I made him read it and got him into Neil Gaiman. I wish he'd lived to see Sandman. He died in 2020 but every time I read a Discworld book I remember conversations we shared, references we exchanged as private jokes, the sheer uncomplicated happiness of two nerds sharing a fascination. So it really applies to any of the books but TLF, for all the valid criticism levelled at it, holds a special place in my heart because it was the beginning of something that immeasurably enriched my relationship with my Dad by adding another joyful facet to it that we could share. GNU, Dad. We'll always have the cruet ❤️
I like them too. They've got some excellent bad puns, and some of the little allusions to classic sword and sorcery novels are a delight.
They're... Fine They're primarily parody rather than being satire, and fantasy parody is only funny for a short time Satire has legs
Too many legs..
That's the Luggage...
I like them (they were my first Pratchett books), but I have also read the Sword and Sorcery books they were parodying, so I understand the jokes. They are in my opinion better than Equal Rites and Sourcery that were written just after.
A number of people don't seem to think much of "Raising Steam" possibly since it pushes Discworld in to too "Modern" (Victorian) a setting, but it's one of my favourites (Possibly because I'm a steam locomotive enthusiast)
When I read it I remember feeling that the pacing was a little odd, it seemed to be rushing ever faster towards the end. But thinking back on both the themes of the book and the conditions under which it was written, I suppose that constant increase in energy & movement makes sense.
I found weird that everyone seemed so... OP? Even Colon and Nobby were shown as competent fighters. And Moist defeating a group of armed dwarfs bare handed seemed so out of place.
I must admit I don’t remember a lot of the actual plot points. I read it when it was published, and I’ve not been able to bring myself to read anything since. I am going to commit to a full re-read soon though.
I'm a multi rereader and am seeing many different things this time round. It helps having life experience, I 'm seeing some very human layers and details.
TBF, there’s precedent for strong drink from small people turning milquetoast types into fighters. Consider Verence at the end of, I think, Carpe Jugulum.
I always say the plot is on rails.
It doesn't really have anything to do with the setting. For me, it's just that the embuggerance is so present that it becomes a bit painful to read. Characters and plot slip away from him in a way that just doesn't feel pleasant.
It’s the dialogue mainly, I think. It just doesn’t sound as much like how real people talk in Raising Steam and the later Tiffany Aching books...
In RS it's especially obvious when Vetinari starts monologueing in a way that just feels completely antithetical to the characters. The subtlety just dissappears.
I also love *Raising Steam.* Yes, the pacing is a bit hm, and it did seem a bit less...I guess polished? Than the others. But when I want to read Discworld, I almost always reach for *Raising Steam* first.
What appeals to me is that Terry obviously spent a lot of time with people who knew steam Locos, he captures the fact that they were (And are) the only form of machine which has a "Personality" No two locos are alike, even if built in the same works to exactly the same specifications they can be widely different, they are also "Alive" in the way no diesel or electric loco is, and Terry caught this so well with "Iron Girder" who develops a "Life"of her own. (In passing, all steam locomotives, like ships, are always "She")
He loved trains, and talked to people who loved trains. It's very much a "look at this thing I love", and an invitation for us to love it too. (I am also passing fond of trains, of all sorts)
There was a well-known UK celebrity called Fred Dibna. He was the country’s last working steeplejack and first came to prominence in a documentary about demolishing industrial chimneys. He was also a massive steam engine enthusiast. Presenting multiple series about all kinds of engines, and even building a road-legal steam-powered carriage in his shed. A lot of the knowledge in Raising Steam probably came from him in some way, and the character of Dick Simnal is very much based on him.
I'm with you. I agree that it's a bit different than the others in terms of how people are characterized, but I really enjoyed that slightly different take. And while it's a bit slow to start, there's still some really interesting parts, and the last third is whirlwind as usual.
For me Raising Steam is two books packed into one (one Moist and one Watch book) and it’s not done too well.
I've started it three times and haven't gotten far 😅 I need to go give it another go.
I feel like Jingo is so underrated. Even I underrated it! It was actually my first ever discworld book, my mum bought it for me for my 11th birthday but I ignored it because I didn't like the cover. It wasn't until my school friend introduced me to Small Gods when I was 14, that I got into Discworld, and it was a further 6 years before I FINALLY read the book my mum gave me... Jingo's now one of my favourites!
I always get chills at the end with the disc-manager spouting off appointments from the wrong trouser leg…
YESSS
You got lucky really. I was a huge discworld fan and loved every book until I got to Jingo and i hated it because i was 14. Reread it as an adult and i loved it so much. I dont think you can properly take it in until your older.
I also first read it at… 12? 14? One of those. I liked it but I didn’t get it. Reread it a few years ago and I had a totally different appreciation. I feel a lot of the satire of many of his books I didn’t get when I was younger, and each time I read them I discover more.
'Lords and Ladies' is amazing folk-horror and features scary af 'fair folk' and Granny Weatherwax absolutely at the height of her powers.
lords and ladies is like genuinely frightening, i love it so much. that and i shall wear midnight, loved seeing him flex some horror chops in those two.
I desperately want a good film adaptation just for the scene of the Elves stalking Magrat through the castle.
'come out, pretty lady...'
And Magrat going full action-Ynci on their asses...
Is it underrated ? It is my favorite Witches book after Witches Abroad. I love stories about the Fair Folk. But then I am a Breton, and that’s part of our folklore. We know weird things happen if you go dancing with the fairies in the forest at night. Elves are terrific. They beget terror !
This book is so freaking good. I’m going through the series for the first time, and this one caught me totally off guard. So scary and so poignant. “I ATE’NT DEAD!”
Last Continent had me howling so bad first time I read It I got kicked out of class, but I never see It brought up much.
It's the reason I say Nullus Anxietas in real life a bunch, and part of the reasonI've adopted the less formal no worries
I seem to say No Worries a lot, but that's a cultural thing, mate.
Same! 'no worries' entered my lexicon at the age of 15 due to this book and has never left.
I agree! It’s my favourite Rincewind story
The bit in the jail nearly had me in tears. I love folk music and outlaw stories, and that section was just a perfect summation.
Yes, I think Terry talked it down a little as he was getting tired of writing books about Rincewind running away from Things, but it’s actually full of good stuff.
I've only read it once, because I was underwhelmed. Maybe I should give it another go.
I'm Australian, and it's my favourite Rincewind book. He did his research.
The best and funniest lines was the wizards requesting what might kill you on XXXX (which is a ref to castlemaine of course), and they nearly drown in paper. So they switch to ‘won’t kill you’ and got ‘some of the sheep’. Truly, as someone married to an Australian, this is the best description of its flora and fauna that I’ve ever encountered
I think a lot of the Rincewind stories are quite underrated. Interesting Times, The Last Continent, and The Last Hero are all fantastic books. Sourcery and Eric also have their moments. I think it's because Rincewind isn't nearly as interesting a protagonist as Death, Granny, or Vimes, and TCOM and TLF are very obviously still Pratchett's early work. It's easy to brush off Rincewind's better stories in favour of the gems that are the rest of Discworld.
I’d not realised until seeing this thread that Monstrous Regiment is underrated. There are some sublimely written characters in this book whilst still pulling no punches.
Same for jingo. I adored both of these.
Also shocked by this, it's in my Top 5. It's such a grown up sort of story.
One of the few completely standalone books: *The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents*. Coming to the screen [later this year](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Amazing_Maurice)!
The trailer looked great. And it makes perfect sense to adapt that book as a Pixar-style animated movie.
According to this guy: https://medium.com/@leftoutside/every-discworld-novel-ranked-definitively-by-me-dc0578b9eb1 Thud! Is tenth worst. I’d have it top ten maybe even top five. I real cracker.
Discworld presents a thorny metaphysical problem: there are least twenty, and probably twenty-five top-10 books. I reckon it’s due to quantum.
I agree absolutely
Holy shit Thud is a top Watch procedural and the golem story is filled with pathos.
It’s not Night Watch but it’s up there
This man is a fool. I can excuse him for forgetting Feeney Upshot's name - there are 42 books' worth of characters to remember - but putting Thud in the bottom ten and Unseen Academicals in the bottom five (because he was never a fan of football) is unforgivable.
That honestly feels like the books have been randomly sprinkled across the list. And by randomly sprinkled I mean most of the books with young women as protagonists are down the bottom
I don’t think that’s fair; Equal Rites, Monstrous Regiment, and Thief of Time are all in the top half of that list, Soul Music is the median entry at #21, and Maskerade (which has Agnes/Perditax as a protagonist) is at #22. That person just doesn’t like the Tiffany Aching books as much as the rest, and since the Amazing Maurice is down at the bottom too, it looks more like they just don’t like the YA Discworld titles.
Amazing Maurice also has a young girl as a main character. I was only being half serious - I hadn't gone over the list particularly thoroughly, and had thought Thief was in the bottom half. I also haven't read Equal Rites in Twenty years and just think of it as a Witches novel, but you're right it is about a young girl.
Thud is literally my favorite Pratchett book, period. I have the summoning dark symbol on the short list of tattoos I want to get.
Thud! is definitely in my top five and also my number one Watch book.
Thief of time is the only one of the 42 I couldn’t get on with and I have no idea why
Sometimes I feel like I'm one of the only people who liked Moving Pictures and Soul Music. Their strengths are different from the other books, true. I like them because they're full of absolutely dreadful puns. Soul Music especially is chock-full of them - plus, as a fan of the late Kirsty MacColl, I loved the ending.
Moving Pictures is incredibly legit. Fun, creepy adventure, PRIME candidate for a television adaptation.
I love moving pictures, it's my favorite book from a comedy perspective.
I love Soul Music but I'm embarrassed to admit that it took me nearly ten years to get the "elvish" joke.
I definitely appreciated it a lot more once I learned about the annotated Pratchett file!
I absolutely love Soul Music and really like Moving Pictures. To be honest, everything with creative endeavors as a focus just sucks me in. May it be music, movies, art or dancing. Also, I get chills at Death playing that chord in the end.
I haven't reread Soul Music in ages but I love, love, live Moving Pictures. It's the perfect satire of old Hollywood, introduces or let's shine some beloved characters and the wizard dialogue after the climax is some of the funniest wizard dialogue there is (right up there with the mistletoe stuff in Hogfather)
I came to say Moving Pictures. I read it while working on my film studies degree at uni and it had me howling with laughter. It is, like the best of Pratchett, deceptively astute.
I remember losing it whilst reading the scene where CMOT's "livestock" are being delivered, and a couple characters try to waylay them. I found Moving Pictures to have so many little in jokes and nods to the early days of film.
The livestock really feel like the ultimate brick joke - perfectly paced. My first time through I was so excited to see it land.
I was just looking for someone to talk about Moving Pictures! I also think Sourcery is never mentioned but is great.
Sourcery isn't one of my personal top choices, but the drunken Luggage and the bit about how a wizard will always come back for his hat were great moments. Rincewind's half brick in a sock is the unsung hero of the series.
I've come to love the portrayal of Susan in Soul Music, she's both a really needy kid and a brat at the same time. I especially like the scene with Albert in the kitchen. He's firm but doesn't just brush her off. He gives her cocoa, bed and explanations minus the raven's ta da da daaa all with out being soppy. So brilliantly written.
Idk I found her very un-Susanish compared to the latter books, and I really didn't care for her half-assed romance/obsession with the half-assed character of Buddy.
Me neither but I think TP was letting her have a little adolescence before making her an adult in Hogfather. She used the word 'stupid' all the time in Soul Music too to show she was juvenile but stops by the end. She's allowed a good character development. It reads to me like he wanted to portray her as held back by not knowing who she was and by being in an emotionally suffocating school then she gradually comes into her own as the book progresses. Very cleverly written. The scene with Albert acts as a kind of hinge.
I love Maskerade. It may be a little too reliant on parodying Phantom of the Opera, but the scenes with Nanny and Granny are some of my favorites of all time. I appreciate that it talks about beauty standards and perceptions based on appearance, mainly through Agnes/Perdita, Chr!st!ne!, and Andre. Walter Plinth is such a sad character, very similar to Mr. Nutt.
This one was my first contact with the witches series. I was fourteen and had no interest in opera, did know Phantom only by name and reading about a couple of elderly witches did not seem very appealing to me. Still, I had read a couple of Rincewind books and Reaper Man and really enjoyed them and I was prepared to give Maskerade the benefit of the doubt. Man, that book had me howling, and to my delight I discovered there were already a couple of witches-stories published. Lords and Ladies may be my favourite Discworld book.
Last Continent if we're taking "underrated" in th sense that nobody seems to rate it at all. I'd hold that some of the post embuggerance ones are traditionally underrated, especially Unseen Academicals.
Snuff is light on the multilayered jokes, but it’s a brilliant work of literary fiction that brought me to tears. How many authors could make a reading audience feel empathy for that
I love that book! It's my favourite of the Rincewind series!
I loved this one as well! I think I have listened to it on audible like 20 times now 😅😅😅
If you extend the question to underrated Pratchett books, I really love the dark side of the sun.
This is one of my favourite books, never mind favourite STP book!
Likewise. I re-read it most years.
I really like all three Moist von Lipwig books, but a pretty vocal group does not. I started with these, so maybe that's my bias. Also, all of the Tiffany Aching books are solid except for Wintersmith. I thought it kind of dropped the ball compared to the others.
That's so odd to me. Going Postal is, to my mind, one of the best books in the series. I didn't expect to like Moist, but he conned his way into my heart. The only one I didn't much care for was Raising Steam, but that's more the fault of the embuggerance.
I like the Moist books in general but Going Postal is magnificent to my mind. It is also very personal and probably my most reread book but I love it a lot and think it's very, very good.
I think the Tiffany/Granny relationship is one of my favourites, and I'm 99% certain he wrote going postal purely for the 'DELIVER US!' line
Monstrous regiment! Might not be underrated-don’t know what is really-but it’s great!
it’s one of the best imo
I've heard some people had trouble finishing Moving Pictures, but that's in my top 3 for sure
There's a lot to like in this one, even if the plot is a bit on the slow-cooking side. Fist appearance of Ridcully and Ponder, Dibbler's rise and fall as a producer, Gaspode and Laddy, the elephant-subplot,...
Maybe not top 3 but at least top 10 for me. It's probably one of my favourites of the standalones.
Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies - and as a standalone PTerry but non discworld, Nation!
Nation is absolutely sublime. It really got me in the best way possible.
idk if it's underrated but i absolutely love The Truth and i haven't seen it mentioned here
A friend of mine tackled Discworld after I gently nudged them towards it, and The Truth was the first one they started calling their absolute favorite. They have Very Strong Feelings about things like public infrastructure (which in their book includes quality journalism) so that and Going Postal were their top two in the series. I liked The Truth a lot because De Worde was a pleasant change of pace and it did great things for the later books, continuity-wise. Loved seeing Sacharissa, William, and Otto crop up in later books (and in the Going Postal tv adaptation).
I wish I could upvote you more than once. I loved The Truth and thought Otto was such a wonderful character
No one's mentioned this so far and I don't see it mentioned much in general, so it's probably underrated, but I have a great love for The Last Hero. It's not just because I have a beautiful hardcover edition and the illustrations are absolutely gorgeous, I love the story. I'm also always a sucker for the kind of books where and more and more beloved characters interact. In particular Cohen and The Silver Hoard's arc has a lot of heart and pathos, not just humour. To me it's very special.
I never knew how much I wanted Rincewind, Carrot, and Leonard to team up until I read it. And I agree, it's a great end to the Silver Horde's story.
Oh for sure the team-up! It's even better than the one in Jingo. I really fell in love with Cohen and Co in Interesting Times and this was an incredible ending for them, I loved it.
All the Rinsewind Wizzard books. From The Colour of Magic where we meet Rinsewind, the Luggage (who doesn’t love ❤️ the Luggage) Twoflower the Discworld’s first Tourist and a wide range of other strong characters, heroes and the Watch. Lots of laughs to be found even though the Discworld and Ankh-Morpork were not fully formed. I simply adore each and every Rinsewind book and think they are highly underrated by most. The Eternal Coward and his Luggage.
My god the hate I see for Rincewind makes no sense to me; he's one of my utmost favourite characters in literature. Even the people who recommended Discworld to me try to convince me it "gets better" after the early Rincewind novels, and are shocked when I explain that I love him dearly
In the broader audience of All the People Who Have Read Some Discworld Books, my guess would be the Tiffany Aching series. Many even chalk those up as some separate YA corner of the universe. Of the rest, my guess is Monstrous Regiment, too. It’s not exactly a part of any of the series, it’s more poignant than funny, and there’s more direct representation of marginalized people without the softening effect of metaphor. It’s also probably the best one out of all of them. On the other hand, the Rincewind/wizards series isn’t my favorite (though I have read all of it), so there's probably something there that I underrate. (Ok, I fibbed — there is one book I was not able to finish: Unseen Academicals. It was just painful to read, somehow. Maybe it takes a while to get going, or maybe I’ll have a different perspective now, so given the recommendations here, I will give it another try.)
Unseen Academicals
Reaper Man. I think it's one of his best, but I hardly see it discussed. Moving Pictures. A book that speaks to every fan of the golden age of Hollywood
I agree on both counts. I really don't understand the dislike for Moving Pictures, if you're even a casual fan of golden age Hollywood it's brilliant.
The Death half of the book is brilliant. The Wizard half... not so much IMO. It's also the first DW I've read, and have re-read it way too many times. Now I just skip the wizard chapters.
My favourite is The Last Continent but it could be because I’m Australian however the UU wizards have a great role plus it’s Rincewind!
It depends on at which time, age and station the reader hopped on the Discworld Train I guess. I was 17, it was the late 1980's in The Netherlands that I came across TCOM and TLF...and in that era the books and their references were still fresh and relevant and at my age I had already read more than around a thousand books in English so the language was no problem. Those books were perfect for me then. Mort was out then too but I bought also all the non-Discworld books. From that moment I bought the books as they came out so from almost the beginning I saw the growth and at the end I saw the decline, I was in for the whole ride of like 3 decades and there was no better travel companion. For me there are no bad books because each led to the next being written...until the last one. I am 51 now and I have almost two whole bookcases with Terry Pratchett stuff (some signed in person by him and even an original Eric as it was intended) everything is my treasure until I die. And after I die because my name is in all of them. 😀
I see a lot of people suggest that his last few novels suffered due to his Alzheimer's, but I think they're wonderful.
I absolutely agree
I've always felt that Monsterous Regiment was one of the best of them but i don't know if it's underrated. I don't see it discussed much or the characters referenced very often. It's one of my favorites for sure. I love the characters.
It's so hard for me to figure out what books are generally underrated. As you can see from these comments, we all seem ro have very different ideas of which are the best ones and weakest ones. I love UU (and I dont care a wit about football). Jingo is one of the best..
Dark side of the sun is Terry's novel from 1976, parts of it are spoof of Larry Nivens Ringworld and it was the first novel of Terry's that I've read. I've never saw anybody mention it but I found it quite good and it led me to his other works.
Carpe Jugulum and Thief of Time are two of my favourites that don’t seem to get much play in the ‘best Discworld’ stakes.
I know there was a mini series of Going Postal but I’m a big fan of the sequel Making Money. It’s a bad title but a pretty good follow up of the Moist series.
I love them all, it’s hard to see any of them as underrated when I rate them all so highly. As the mood takes me, my favourite parts of books are Rincewind and The Luggage, or wizards in general, or the Watch, or witches, or Death… Sometimes I’m more in the mood for a concept than a character/group, and I love the magic, time, or belief system. I love how the Patrician carefully prunes the edges of the city, and guides events subtly. I love that he keeps promoting/giving honours to Sam. I love the guilds, especially the ones that have direct conflict with other guilds. I like CMOT Dibbler, and his various alters. Also the homeless group. The thing I love most about the Discworld is that time and time again, hated minorities are shown to not actually be all that bad, and are allowed their differences by the formerly intolerant, who learn better.
I almost think that the beauty (and underrated thing) about discworld is what I'm getting from this thread: I don't think it's possible to have underrated and overrated books. There's such a breadth of type of story and social commentary that I think everyone gets something different out of them. I love MR because Jackrum spoke to my little non-binary soul. Jingo because I studied international politics. Night watch because Revolution! Thud! Because of the commentary on extremism and fundamentalism. Pyramids because I have a soft spot for stories about people who realise they're not what they're 'destined' to be and that's OK. Unseen Academicals has one of my favourite minor characters, Reaper Man has some of the best humanist philosophy I've read. Other people like different books for different reasons, and that's *the best thing*. There's a discworld out there for you!
Ah lot of people seem to think there's something wrong with the first three, personally I thought they were all brilliant
Jingo doesn’t get a lot of love despite being rather brilliant and perfectly suited to the zeitgeist of today. I feel Eric is pretty underrated despite being a fun little adventure through disc history, the classics and fleshing out the UU experience.
I don’t see Feet of Clay talked about often enough, and that was my first disc world novel, probably the one I’ve read most as well. “Art brought forth the candle” in Latin is genius. As well as the fish lamp. If you know, you know.
Carpe Jugulum and Monstrous Regiment. The first because nobody seems to talk about it, and I wonder if that's just because it's a loooong way along the Witches reading order. The second because imo it's one of the best, meatiest Discworld books but usually only manages to hit mid-table.
I havent seen anyone mention those yet so for me it would have to be Interesting times and Making money.
I dunno, folks don't talk much about The Truth, but I think it's a total banger. Maybe it's because it's kind of a standalone.
The Truth easily. It somehow never gets mentioned.
I don’t think Thief of Time or Monstrous Regiment are talked about anywhere near enough.
Interesting Times for me.
Underrated is a ridiculous term
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~~Faust~~ Eric But as someone has said elsewhere about Pyramids, it was my first exposure to Discworld when I was about 17 years old, so it will always hold a special place.
Frankly, the Colour of Magic, based on opinions I've read online
Personally I found "The Colour of Magic" to be his best Discworld book, but I'm in a small minority there, so I consider that underrated.
The Science of Discworld series is great but it's such a departure from Discworld proper that it takes some time to get into if you are used to the standard TP stuff.
Nope. They are all great.
I think the whole Weatherwax series is pretty underrated. I love them.
Equal rites! I think Eskarina could give us more
Similar to Small gods but I consider Pyramids to be underrated.
While Small Gods and Night Watch are two of my favorite books ever written, I don't re-read them often because I don't always want heavy thoughts. The ones I probably re-read most? Thud!, Going Postal and The Truth. Not saying they are shallow - they can certainly pack a punch but they don't hit my brain like Small Gods and Night Watch do. I feel like The Truth may be underrated - but I really love it as a whole letter of love to the absolutely vital work of real journalism.
Sourcery!!! Super funny one