Saturday, February 15, 2014

Discworld Novels by Terry Pratchett

Me? Read Discworld? But I Don't Like Fantasy!

I'd heard about Discworld for years, but after reading The Hobbit and the Lord of the Rings trilogy back in the '70s, I wasn't drawn to fantasy any further. To me it just seemed like people were taking a lot of non-existent stuff like magic, dragons, monsters, etc. way too seriously.

Terry Pratchett, according to the video that follows, was having similar thoughts. So he invented an improbable world: a flat disc on the backs of four immense elephants standing on the shell of an immense star turtle, the Great A'Tuin. Not only is such a world highly improbable, it is populated with a motley collection of wizards, witches, thieves, assassins, an inept City Watch in the sprawling and highly disreputable city of Ankh-Morpork, and of course Death, who speaks in all capitals and rides a pale horse named Binky. Fantasy? Yes. Serious? Not so much.  





The Discworld Reading Order Guide

Straight through or jump around? It's your choice. 

I've created three Listmania lists on Amazon.com that list the first 20 novels in order of publication, the second 20, and the related books in order of publication within that list.

Some argue against starting with the first novel, The Colour of Magic. Usually they say some of the later books are much better, some say you might have trouble getting through the first book. Like most writers, Terry Pratchett got better as he went along. But The Colour of Magic is where it all began. If you start there, you'll know things will develop in future books simply because the series has grown to 40 books. From the beginning you'll see how Pratchett started developing the Discworld. And it's not like it was his first published work. He'd started with The Carpet People in 1971 and wrote two trilogies for young readers as well as two adult science fiction novels. The Colour of Magic is not the work of a beginning novelist.

This guide (above) is from The L-Space Web: Discworld Reading Order Guides where it can be viewed at a 1,000-pixel width. This copy is 600 pixels wide.

Wizards, Witches, Death, Old Times, and a Revolution

To say nothing of the Luggage 

Here are links to the three Amazon Listmania lists I've created. Clicking on the list titles will take you to each list, then you can link to each book you're interested in. I've listed the books under each list title by number (in order of publication) title, theme, and year published. For the related books, I have listed them by title, authors, and year of publication.

Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels 1-20:

1. The Colour of Magic - Rincewind -1983
2. The Light Fantastic - Rincewind - 1986
3. Equal Rites - Witches - 1987
4. Mort - Death - 1987
5. Sourcery - Rincewind - 1988
6. Wyrd Sisters - Witches - 1988
7. Pyramids - Ancient Civilizations - 1989
8. Guards! Guards! - City Watch 1989
9. Eric - Rincewind - 1990
10. Moving Pictures - Industrial Revolution - 1990
11. Reaper Man - Death 1991
12. Witches Abroad - Witches - 1991
13. Small Gods - Ancient Civilizations 1992
14. Lords and Ladies - Witches - 1992
15. Men at Arms - City Watch 1993
16. Soul Music - Death - 1994
17. Interesting Times - Rincewind - 1994
18. Makerade - Witches - 1995
19. Feet of Clay - City Watch - 1996
20. Hogfather - Death - 1996

Terry Pratchett's Discworld Novels 21-40:

21. Jingo - City Watch - 1997
22. The Last Continent - Rincewind - 1998
23. Carpe Jugulum - Witches - 1998
24. The Fifth Elephant - City Watch - 1999
25. The Truth - Industrial Revolution - 2000
26. Thief of Time - Death - 2001
27. The Last Hero - Rincewind - 2001
28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents - Young Adult - 2002
29. Night Watch - City Watch - 2002
30. The Wee Free Men - Young Adult - 2003
31. Monstrous Regiment - City Watch - 2003
32. A Hat Full of Sky - Young Adult -2004
33. Going Postal - Industrial Revolution - 2004
34. Thud! - City Watch - 2005
35. Wintersmith - Young Adult - 2006
36. Making Money - Industrial Revolution - 2007
37. Unseen Academicals - Rincewind - 2009
38. I Shall Wear Midnight - Young Adult - 2010
39. Snuff - City Watch - 2011
40. Raising Steam - Industrial Revolution 2012

Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Mapps, Guides, Science, and More:

The Streets of Ankh-Morpork by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs - 1993
The Discworld Mapp by Terry Prachett and Stephen Briggs - 1995
A Tourist Guide to Lancre by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs - 1998
Death's Domain by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Paul Kidby - 1999
The Science of Discworld, Revised Edition by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen - 2002
The Science of Discworld II: The Globe by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen - 2003
The Science of Discworld III: Darwin's Watch by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen - 2006
The Science of Discworld IV: Judgment Day by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, and Jack Cohen - 2013
Nanny Ogg's Cookbook by Tina Hannan and Stephen Briggs - 2002
The New Discworld Companion by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs - 2004
Where's My Cow? by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Mervyn Grant - 2005
The World of Poo by Terry Pratchett, illustrated by Peter Dennis - 2012
The Art of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby - 2006
The Folklore of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Jacqueline Simpson - 2008
The Wit and Wisdom of Discworld by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs - 2008
Turtle Recall: The Discworld Companion .. So Far by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs - 2012

The Luggage by MobyD


Every Summer since 2006 I have gone to the Faerieworlds festival near Eugene, Oregon. Since 2007 I have dressed as a wizard. In 2012 I saw an unfinished trunk for sale at a local crafts store. I immediately thought, "The Luggage!" Over the next few weeks, The Luggage took shape.

It's not made of sapient pearwood, and since I'm not a wizard outside of the Faerieworlds realm, I couldn't conjure up hundreds of tiny legs. So I mounted The Luggage on eight-inch wheels so I'd be able to pull it over the slightly rough ground. The ten legs aren't exactly tiny, but they needed to cover the wheels as much as possible. Since they're larger, I decided to make them colorful. The teeth are made of craft sticks.

I have two simple costumes to go with The Luggage, a brown robe and "WIZZARD" hat transform me into Rincewind, while shorts, a Hawai'ian shirt and a white bucket hat transform me into Twoflower. The back of The Luggage sports a photo-replica of an Oregon license plate that reads "2FLOWR."

The text and images above formerly were part of my now-deleted Squidoo.com lens "Discworld Novels by Terry Pratchett. The photo of Sir Terry holding a book is from Amazon.com. I am using it as an Amazon Associate promoting his books on that website.

No comments: