Am I losing my love of Discworld?

Simbelmynë

Simbelmynë

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As a young teen, if anyone asked me who my favourite author was I would have said Terry Pratchett, hands down. Despite that, I only read probably less than ten Discworld books at that time (in a weird order because we didn’t think to ask the internet how to read books back then), mostly because I spent most of my spare time playing the guitar or listening to music rather than reading.

I read a few more over time, but hadn’t read any for about five years until recently reading Moving Pictures, and now I’m about halfway through Reaper Man (found a load in a charity shop and planned to fill in the gaps chronologically). I have to say the humour aspect is just totally lost on me now. Is Pratchett’s humour becoming outdated, does anyone think? I wonder if it’s just these particular books. I’m definitely not enjoying them the way I used to, and I even find myself getting irritated by the narrative style, which I know I used to think was great years ago.

I wonder if anyone else has had this experience with Discworld? Does anyone have a recommendation of a single entry in the series to reignite the joy of my old fave?

I’ve read from the beginning up until Reaper Man, and also Interesting Times, Thief of Time (I remember loving this one when it was published!) and I audiobooked about half of Thud when it came out. I never finish audiobooks so it wasn’t the book’s fault.
 
I personally loved them all, and I got the first eight or nine in order as they were published.
A member here has set off a thread on them that might interested you

Bick's thoughts on the Discworld novels

I was in the middle of reading other books, and had quite different plans, and then I made the mistake of picking up a Discworld book and read a few pages, found myself dragged into it and ended up reading it in a day or so. I then pulled the next one down off the shelf and read that similarly...
www.sffchronicles.com www.sffchronicles.com
 
I first read them in the 80s, up to Pyramids (which I happen to be currently re-reading for the first time in almost thirty years). Then I didn't read any more until 2002, when I had a friend who loaned me lots of them, and I became a fan all over again. Then in 2006 while searching online for a Pratchett forum I discovered this marvellous place we're all in, but only read more Discworld now and then. Until a few years ago when I decided it's time I owned and read them all. Currently I am lacking only a few, and have now read almost all of them.

The narrative style changes, from the early magical strangeness to the later industrial revolution and a teenager with a frying pan.
Try the Science Of The Discworld, for another angle on it.
 
I adored the Discworld series for a long time in my early twenties, until around the release of the Hogfather and just stopped enjoying them. Not for any particular reason at the time. They were still well written and packed colourful characters, but I was finding many of the jokes not funny at all. I don't think that the humour outdated, just that my tastes simply changed.

I fully intend to revisit the Discworld and I have started downloading some of the later novels that I can get cheaply on Kindle.

I'd also like to go back and read the Rincewind books, (Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic and Sourcery), as these were the ones I started on and in my opinion, the funniest.
 
Simbelmynë said:
As a young teen, if anyone asked me who my favourite author was I would have said Terry Pratchett, hands down. Despite that, I only read probably less than ten Discworld books at that time (in a weird order because we didn’t think to ask the internet how to read books back then), mostly because I spent most of my spare time playing the guitar or listening to music rather than reading.

I read a few more over time, but hadn’t read any for about five years until recently reading Moving Pictures, and now I’m about halfway through Reaper Man (found a load in a charity shop and planned to fill in the gaps chronologically). I have to say the humour aspect is just totally lost on me now. Is Pratchett’s humour becoming outdated, does anyone think? I wonder if it’s just these particular books. I’m definitely not enjoying them the way I used to, and I even find myself getting irritated by the narrative style, which I know I used to think was great years ago.

I wonder if anyone else has had this experience with Discworld? Does anyone have a recommendation of a single entry in the series to reignite the joy of my old fave?

I’ve read from the beginning up until Reaper Man, and also Interesting Times, Thief of Time (I remember loving this one when it was published!) and I audiobooked about half of Thud when it came out. I never finish audiobooks so it wasn’t the book’s fault.
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Can't really answer that question for you.

But given that Pratchett's style did morph somewhat over the years, if you've mostly read the early books, maybe try a later standalone like The Truth or Monstrous Regiment and see how that goes down?
 
I'm with Stephen on this one. I read them as they came out in the 1980s and I think I got to Guards! Guards! I then didn't keep up, partly because they were getting a tad samey and I was looking for other worlds, new authors and new things.

Also tastes do change all the time. Perhaps I might go back and fall in love with the latter stuff, or I might think meh.

I loved ACC as a kid, but haven't read much since adulthood. I'm pretty sure I won't have the same sense of wonder from his stories that I got as a ten year old.
 
I love the Discworld books but I think I've only read Moving Pictures once and never re-read, didn't grab me. Reaper Man is not a favourite either.
What I've noticed is that different people like different threads. My equal favourites are the Witches - starting with Wyrd Sisters - and Ankh Morpork starting with Guards Guards.
Death thread is OK, and I like his appearances in Witches books, but I re-read them far less often.
Rincewind mostly annoys me. I've read them all a couple of times, but he is a bit of an annoying nerd, and I've been annoyed by enough people who he reminds me of, to find him unrelaxing.
Also, I think reading in order is best - as there is build on previous books. Thud is very late on in the Guards series and I think it does build on earlier books.
Twere me, I'd give Wyrd Sisters a go next - MacBeth will never be the same again.
 
Personally, my favourate Discworld books are Tiffany Aching's saga. They are wrote for a younger audience, but Wee Free Men might be worth a go.
 
Looked it up out of curiosity and Pratchett had 4 different books in 4 non other non-Discworld settings by the time of Guards! Guards!; he ended up with 17 non-Discworld books. There's probably something in there that'll appeal to someone who likes early Pratchett but wants something different from the Discworld... although I'd still stand on something like The Truth being just as different.
 
Ashleyne said:
Personally, my favourate Discworld books are Tiffany Aching's saga. They are wrote for a younger audience, but Wee Free Men might be worth a go.
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Great books, I loved them all, bittersweet reading the last (posthumous) one and knowing I'd never read another new one by the great Terry
 
The Big Peat said:
Looked it up out of curiosity and Pratchett had 4 different books in 4 non other non-Discworld settings by the time of Guards! Guards!; he ended up with 17 non-Discworld books. There's probably something in there that'll appeal to someone who likes early Pratchett but wants something different from the Discworld... although I'd still stand on something like The Truth being just as different.
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I did read one about a flat 'medieval' earth and the team of aliens that somehow got onto it. And another kids book about gnomes(?) at the same time as all the other books. (I think :), can't remember when the gnome one came out)

But honestly his style wasn't too different at all in those. And it's that rather than different settings that I think I just got a tad tired of.

But it's fine - if you love the style, well, that's good then - loads of similar books!

I went through a similar waning of interest in Iain M. Banks in the 90s. He could write SF that wasn't set in the Culture universe, but it all felt very similar. Possibly with the exception of Feersum Endjinn, but that was a bit one-off (Although I noted he did try and replicate an alien 'accent' and strange speech in one of his Culture novels - the one about the huge alien artifact that had numerous different 'worlds' embedded in it - but it didn't really work for me.)
 
Venusian Broon said:
I went through a similar waning of interest in Iain M. Banks in the 90s. He could write SF that wasn't set in the Culture universe, but it all felt very similar. Possibly with the exception of Feersum Endjinn, but that was a bit one-off (Although I noted he did try and replicate an alien 'accent' and strange speech in one of his Culture novels - the one about the huge alien artifact that had numerous different 'worlds' embedded in it - but it didn't really work for me.)
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off-topic-alert-.jpg
 
I don't mind if we go off topic a little. the question in the title of this thread is just a conversation starter.

Thanks for the recommendations. I've already read Wyrd Sisters, but I'm sure I've had The Truth recommended to me before so I'll give that a go at some point.

Perhaps I'm just a more critical reader than I used to be, and I notice now when something doesn't quite work for me. But I've read enough Discworld books to know that actually they are quite varied, so perhaps the two I've read recently just aren't for me.

I've been meaning to try The Long Earth, having enjoyed Baxter's Proxima.
 
Venusian Broon said:
I did read one about a flat 'medieval' earth and the team of aliens that somehow got onto it. And another kids book about gnomes(?) at the same time as all the other books. (I think :), can't remember when the gnome one came out)

But honestly his style wasn't too different at all in those. And it's that rather than different settings that I think I just got a tad tired of.

But it's fine - if you love the style, well, that's good then - loads of similar books!

I went through a similar waning of interest in Iain M. Banks in the 90s. He could write SF that wasn't set in the Culture universe, but it all felt very similar. Possibly with the exception of Feersum Endjinn, but that was a bit one-off (Although I noted he did try and replicate an alien 'accent' and strange speech in one of his Culture novels - the one about the huge alien artifact that had numerous different 'worlds' embedded in it - but it didn't really work for me.)
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Yeah the early stuff was very similar in voice and plot-light story; my comment was more about anyone liking Pratchett's style back then but maybe wishing he'd explored other ideas.

If you want a change of tone and style, you'd need to look at the later stuff. Might be something you'd like there, might not be. I know I like the later books a lot more, but everyone's different innit.
 
The Big Peat said:
If you want a change of tone and style, you'd need to look at the later stuff. Might be something you'd like there, might not be. I know I like the later books a lot more, but everyone's different innit.
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Fair point. I'll add them to the mega list of books I should possibly pick up and read. :)
 
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