Terry Pratchett and Discworld

This blog entry is about my 2nd favourite author and another of my collecting obsessions, Terry Pratchett.

Everybody remembers their first Discworld book with fondness and I am the same. My first was Mort and I loved It from the start, the character of Death is one of Pratchett's greatest achievements. From then on I was hooked on Discworld.

But why do I love his books? Here are 10 good reasons:

First, there are so many fantastic characters. Death, Granny, Vimes, The Librarian, Nanny, Tiffany, Rincewind, The Luggage, The Patrician, Moist, Carrot, Angua, Dibbler etc, the list goes on and on. And they are brilliant characters, some of the best written in fiction. You really do love them.

Second, the humour. It is subtle, it is very funny and there is a lot of it.

Third, the stories. There are so many great stories.

Fourth, the emotion. A lot of the books have got real emotion to them. You really buy into the stories and situations and they pull on your emotions.

Fifth, the real world issues in a fantasy context. The way real world issues, even big issues, are explored within a fantasy, but real, setting is brilliant.

Sixth, the whole series. Although each book can be read on its own, the whole series, and sub series, links together to give you something even more special. And there are over 40 books to enjoy.

Seventh, they are unique. There is nothing like them, just try to find anything close.

Eighth, the Discworld. A flat world, on the backs of four elephants, on the back of a giant turtle swimming through the universe. What more do you need.

Ninth, there are no chapters. Just readable sized chunks.

Finally the man himself. He was such a great man. British, humble (always grateful to his fans), genuine (he didn't start out to be a writer) and principled (right to the end).

So which are my favourite books?

My top ten are:
1. Night Watch - just brilliant, so very emotional and time travelling.

2. Going Postal - great story, the Moist character is excellent.

3. Small Gods - a god trapped in a tortoise with only one believer, enough said.

4. The Wee Free Men - very atmospheric, Tiffany is a great character and it has Nac Mac Feegles.

5. Moving Pictures - a wonderful parody of the movie industry.

6. Mort - Death is a genius character and he takes on an apprentice, plus it's the first Discworld book I read.

7. Monstrous Regiment - a great story with great characters, exploring war, woman's rights and racism.

8. Guards Guards - the first of the amazing guards series, a fantastic group of characters.

9. I Shall Wear Midnight - the peak of the wonderful Tiffany series.

10. Soul Music - a parody of the music industry, with some great humour.

There are a few weaker books, still good but, in my opinion, not to the same level as the others (although some people like these a lot). I'm not a big fan of Pyramids, Eric, The Last Hero or Hogfather.

Another thing I like about the Discworld books is the original cover artwork by Josh Kirby. It is original, fun and iconic, and I'm sure it added to the books original popularity. It is a shame that he died and couldn't do the whole series.

There has always been a heated argument about what is the best order to read the books. This is mainly based on the fact that the first 2 books (Colour of Magic and Light Fantasitic) are a bit weirder than the rest of the series and people can be put off if they read these first, therefore a lot of people, me included, recommend that you should start with one of the others (I always recommend Guards Guards). The other camp insist that the series should be read in order. I have been involved in a few heated exchanges on Goodreads about this.

There have been a few tv/film adaptations of some of the Discworld books. I'm not a fan of the 2 animated films. The newer tv films are better, very well made and quite good, I liked Going Postal, but I thought David Jason was poor casting as Rincewind in Colour Of Magic and Hogfather.

Collecting Pratchett and Discworld stuff is another of my hoarding obsessions. Unlike Tolkien there is not as much to actually collect. There are the books themselves, and the various versions.

 I have all of the series in paperback (a lot in different versions) and almost all of them in hardback, in fact the highlight of my Pratchett collection is a first edition Eric (which I got from a car boot for £1).

I have a lot of the Clarecraft figures, which are excellent. It was a shame that they stopped producing them. I also have some of the Clarecraft pewter miniatures

I have also collected all the Discworld calendars since they were first published.

I do have quite a lot of odd other bits and pieces. Other books, Pratchett did write some non Discworld novels (probably my favourite is Good Omens, with Niel Gaimen), and there are some books about Discworld. I have DVDs and Videos, t-shirts, puzzles, games etc.

I must admit that I don't collect the stamps, this is a large area in itself and I haven't had the time or money.