Terry Pratchett's Discworld: Introduction and Hub

From The Colour of Magic: "In a distant and second-hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part...

"See ...Great A’Tuin the turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf, hydrogen frost on his* ponderous limbs, his* huge and ancient shell pocked with meteor craters. Through sea-sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and asteroid dust he* stares fixedly at the Destination.

"In a brain bigger than a city, with geological slowness, he* thinks only of the Weight.

"Most of the weight is of course accounted for by Berilia, Tubul, Great T’Phon and Jerakeen, the four giant elephants upon whose broad and star-tanned shoulders the Disc of the World rests, garlanded by the long waterfall at its vast circumference and domed by the baby-blue vault of Heaven."

*Note that some philosophers and fans believe that A’Tuin is female.

Inspired by recent discussions and after spending most of my recent vacation tearing through boxes and bins that have barely been touched for the last twenty years, I located my 33 Discworld books, got them organized, and ordered the rest of the 41 main line books, and some of the secondary tomes as well. This made me realize that A) Doux Reviews would be a great place to post about the books, and B) New people are going to get confused in a hurry, and constantly referring to various other reviews would get annoying. So I created this article as a kind of anchor for the books and for new folks to get acquainted with my favorite author and book series ever. As I review the books, I’ll also add links to them here, so it can be a central repository for the reviews as well as a quick reference.

A bit of a mish-mash, but note the left side is dominated by Discworld books.

The Discworld books are the most well-known and beloved series of books created by the genius of Sir Terry Pratchett, who was unfortunately lost to us back in 2015. Originally touted as ‘The Douglas Adams of fantasy’ which is reasonably accurate, but I feel that he surpasses Adams early on, and for the record, I really enjoy Adams’ books and most of his work on Doctor Who, so that’s high praise for Pratchett rather than any denigration of Adams.

Another thing I really liked about Sir Terry is that unlike some other authors, such as H.P. Lovecraft, who has many works I enjoy but I despise his stances on nearly everything, Terry was genuinely good by any standard I can find. He did write Good Omens with Neil Gaiman but I cannot find a shred of evidence that he knew what was going on there, and I doubt he’d approve if he did know. His daughter Rhianna, who has worked on video games and books of her own also went after gender critical people that wanted to commandeer her father for their anti-trans rhetoric, pointing out that her father was not only not anti-trans but many trans people wrote to him about how his books, especially the book Monstrous Regiment, and the dwarf character Cheery Littlebottom from the city watch books, helped them with their own situation in real life. Sir Terry was never about hatred, even when he was criticizing the broken systems present in our world via satirizing them in Discworld, so the idea that he’d be part of a hate group is utter nonsense.

His daughter pointing out that A) her father is not one to hate, and B) Anyone who has actually read the books would know better.

What is Discworld? Discworld is a satirical series of books that I describe to people as "Monty Python meets Dungeons and Dragons." It has the comedic tradition of dry wit and sarcasm that I have always enjoyed from British humor, combined with Pratchett’s wonderful way with words and his inherent decency as a human being. They can be silly or dark, and often both in succession, and while he often makes us laugh, the books deal with real issues. We can see ourselves in many of the characters and can sympathize with those that feel left out or overlooked. This combination of tackling real world issues with humor and outlandish situations is made even better by how seriously the characters take even the most absurd circumstances. We the readers will chuckle, guffaw, and even howl with laughter, but the inhabitants rarely even bat an eye at the most outlandish situations.

Even the nations here feel much like our own, albeit in exaggerated versions. For example, the massive Agatean Empire is largely based on ancient China and Japan, while Klatch is Arabic, Djelibeybi is based on ancient Egypt, even if it is pronounced as "jelly baby," and so on.

Magic is important here, as the disc couldn’t even exist without it, although the magic used by the inhabitants here tends to be less flashy and powerful than some may be used to. The tiny sun orbits the Discworld and due to the effect of this magic, it’s actually slower than light anywhere else, which has some interesting effects on many of the stories that take place here.

Reading order. This one is tricky. Some people don’t recommend reading them in chronological order as his first couple of books, while still very good, may be less inviting for new readers. I largely agree with this, and in fact some of the established characters aren’t fleshed out well or even run counter to what fans are largely used to from later books, such as Death that I mention later in this article.

The books are also based on several story arcs that make sense to read in their own order, but you don’t need to read the other books to enjoy any of them. The arcs I feel are best to begin with are as follows:

1: The City Watch of Ankh-Morpork (Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, Night Watch, Thud!, and Snuff).

2: The Witches (Equal Rites, Wyrd Sisters, Witches Abroad, Lords and Ladies, Maskerade, and Carpe Jugulum).

3: Death (Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, Hogfather, and Thief of Time).

There are other arcs as well, but the very late ones I haven’t got to yet, and some of the others are less cohesive and/or less new reader friendly.

My own personal recommendations are to start with one of the following: Mort, Guards! Guards!, or Small Gods and then proceed from there. Small Gods is not a part of any of the other arcs, but is genuinely hilarious, gives a lot of world building for the Disc, and especially the religions of the Disc, and a lot of food for thought for real world institutions.

I read them more or less in chronological order myself, so that may work for you, too. There are no bad books here, but some are simply better for new folks to jump into. If you prefer to go in the order in which they were written, you will definitely have a good time, and you can see his style evolve and improve while doing so.

Regardless of which way you wish to read the books, I highly advise you to at least read the arcs in order, so as to avoid spoilers from later books reducing your enjoyment of earlier ones.

Important things (people, places, and so on). With so many books, one can expect a lot of these. I’ll touch on some of the longest running and most important characters here. Some things that could also be posted here are not, in the interest of brevity and to avoid spoilers.

Great A’Tuin. As already seen, this huge space turtle is very important as they carry the 4 elephants that support the Discworld while it swims through creation. The elephants are obviously important too, but they don’t get named often, while A’Tuin is mentioned by name consistently.

The twin cities of Ankh-Morpork. To paraphrase one of my favorite portions of The Light Fantastic, ‘There are bigger cities, there are richer cities, and there are certainly prettier cities, but no city in the multiverse can rival Ankh-Morpork for its smell.' The twin cities are key to many of the books. Home to Unseen University, the greatest magical academy on the Disc, the city watch, and an important trading hub to boot.

Unseen University. It is a pivotal location in its own right, beyond just being a key point of interest in Ankh-Morpork. Wizards go there to train and to ensure they get plenty of square meals every day. Sometimes they even do magic!

Death. Part of what got me to dig in boxes of 20 years was our discussion on An Honest Fangirl’s review of Final Destination and Death. Death is actually much crueler and downright vicious in the first book, The Colour of Magic, but even by the second book, he’s already more of the Death we know and adore, and by the fourth book, and the first book of the Death cycle, Mort, he’s truly becoming the death that is so beloved by Discworld enthusiasts that terminally ill fans of the series wrote to Terry with the hope that when they met Death, he was like Discworld’s version. This had a profound effect on Sir Terry, as one would expect.

The City Watch of Ankh-Morpork. This group changes over time, but in a city where the thieves’ guild is not only legal but has quotas to make (make sure to get your receipt), they work a bit differently than one may normally expect. It’s an interesting collection of people to be sure, and it only grows more diverse and unusual as the books play out.

The Witches. Originally, we focused on Granny Weatherwax, who we meet in Equal Rites, but it includes other colorful characters such as Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick, who together make the core of the original coven, but some other witches are at least loosely connected over time.

Cori Celesti and Dunmanifestin. Cori Celesti is the mountain at the center of the Disc at the hub, and Dunmanifestin is the palace of all the gods of the Disc that resides above it. The Disc has a lot of gods, so it’s a busy place.

The gods. Speaking of gods, some stand out more than others. Blind Io is somewhat akin to a leader of the gods, and he can still see despite his moniker and the blindfold he wears as he is accompanied by several hovering eyes. Offler is the crocodile god with large tusks, so he speaks with a pronounced lisp. Om is critical to Small Gods and has a lot of parallels with real world religions of today.

Rincewind. A mostly failed and cowardly wizard. He’s one of the main characters early on, but not as often in later works. He is voiced by Eric Idle (of Monty Python fame) in both Discworld PC games.

Lancre. A small nation hubwards from Ankh-Morpork. Mostly notable for giving us the witches and being quite vertical and snowy.

Trolls. Discworld trolls are silicon-based lifeforms that can grow to enormous sizes before succumbing to philosophy and becoming mountain ranges. Most trolls we encounter are big and tough and rather thick, although when the temperature drops, they become living supercomputers. They tend to be hired as splatters, which are like bouncers but messier.

Dwarves. Dwarves on the Discworld are largely stereotypical, being short, loving gold, and mostly living underground. They present as male thanks to them all having beards, so part of their complicated courtship ritual is determining the gender of the other dwarf. This is challenged by the aforementioned Cheery Littlebottom in Men at Arms, is expanded upon in later novels, and is another one of Pratchett’s takes on real world events.

Dungeon Dimensions. Discworld’s version of cosmic horror. There are things there that want to enter our dimension, and they can’t unless something lets them in, which happens alarmingly often.

The Librarian. Changed into an orangutan very early on, and resisting all efforts to change him back, the librarian finds his new form very handy for dealing with the bizarre dimensions of Unseen University’s library. Never call him a monkey!

The luggage. If you’ve ever played the games Don’t Starve or Don’s Starve Together, you’ll likely be familiar with Chester, who is a helpful chest on legs, and very likely inspired by the luggage. The luggage is made of sapient pearwood and is quite dangerous to those that threaten it or its master but is also great at getting your laundry done.

Lord Havelock Vetinari, Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. Loosely based on Niccolo Machiavelli, he rules Ankh-Morpork on the principle of ‘one man, one vote,’ where of course he is the man that has the vote.

Conclusion. While I’ve barely scratched the surface of this wondrous world and its many books, I hope I’ve given enough to whet your appetite for more, and reviews of the books will follow this primer over time. Few authors can make something so humorous yet so profound and well-written as Sir Terry did, and while he may be gone, his works live on, inviting new fans to join us on this marvelous journey to his fantastic creation. I hope you’ll be one of them.

Links to reviews in chronological order. Note that while I’ll be avoiding spoilers for each book in its particular review, I will often reference previous books as needed, so older books may have some spoilers in later books.

1. The Colour of Magic
2. The Light Fantastic
3. Equal Rites
4. Mort
5. Sourcery
6. Wyrd Sisters
7. Pyramids
8. Guards! Guards!
9. Faust Eric
10. Moving Pictures
11. Reaper Man
12. Witches Abroad
13. Small Gods
14. Lords and Ladies
15. Men at Arms
16. Soul Music
17. Interesting Times
18. Maskerade
19. Feet of Clay
20. Hogfather
21. Jingo
22. The Last Continent
23. Carpe Jugulum
24. The Fifth Elephant
25. The Truth
26. Thief of Time
27. The Last Hero
28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
29. Night Watch
30. The Wee Free Men
31. Monstrous Regiment
32. A Hat Full of Sky
33. Going Postal
34. Thud!
35. Wintersmith
36. Making Money
37. Unseen Academicals
38. I Shall Wear Midnight
39. Snuff
40. Raising Steam
41. The Shepherd's Crown

Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.

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