Is it just me...

Well if someone is looking for straightforward parody and humour then his early stuff would be good. For the more subtle parodies and deeper insights then the later books are a good read, although overall the central stories in his books have always been Hexcellent :)
 
akfarrar said:
:mad:

How wrong can you get?

Monstrous Regiment is one of the best things El Prat has written - and Thief of Time as good as any other.

As I almost said in an earlier post - horses for courses.

If I wanted to get certain people into El Prat - the recent stuff and the more thoughtful would be my starting point.
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I guess you're right about horses and courses . Tbh I found TOT to be over-complicated and not particularly funny , whilst MR felt like a short story which had been dragged out too far , with a highly predictable story , not Pratchett at his best at all for me.

His new creation Albert Spangler is a great character , and I guess we'll see him crop up in a few of TP's future works - would like to see the return of Rincewind though
 
Rincewind - certainly good to see a return!

What did you make of Thud? - Odd bod in the recent novels - but I really liked it.

Suspect that El Pratt will be more likely to go for the 'Victorian' - it's not just the characters, its the style of writing he's adopted.

(Mind you - with only a couple left to come from him given his medical condition I bet he does something to foul up all bets!)
 
Ramoth's Rider said:
Nah i like the Witches ones! Granny Weatherwax rules!!!

I would try lords and ladies or Carpe Jugulum.
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I'm deeply offended so it's Nanny Ogg to you :p Seriously though and I don't want to take the thread off topic but as a fantasy die hard who doesn't do sci-fi would anyone recommend me reading Douglas Adams, bearing in mind I never bought into the HH series on TV all those years ago :eek:
 
You should try listening to the radio series of H2G2 or maybe read The Long Teatime of The Soul. The H2G2 books started ok but you got the feeling he was just writing them to fulfil a contract there was a bored air about them.
 
I don't think Adams and Pratchett's books can be compared. Sure they fall under the umbrella term of "Fantasy" but they're very different in the way they tell their stories and likewise their humour is different as a result.

I say give another couple of his books a try as recommended.
 
Out of Pratchett's books, NightWatch was the first one I ever read. It isn't my favourite though.
I love The Fifth Elephant, that one had me in tears, and I really love the Feegles! They are cute but undeniably Scottish at the same time.

One of my friends absolutely adores Monstrous Regiment, and takes great delight in quoting (or something like it, I can't remember) 'See, the problem is that you bulge where you shouldn't, and you don't bulge where you should.'

That alone has made me determined to read the book, it sounds hilarious.
 
I have a few of his books, but he's certainly not on my "must buy" list.

I can take him or leave him.

His stuff is ok.

The 3 adventure games are brilliant though.
 
I agree with Essie - Pratchett hardly ever refers to previous books in the series to enlighten a new reader and thus confusion can arise. Best read in order I think - and I reckon they are very funny.
 
Call me Gytha said:
I'm deeply offended so it's Nanny Ogg to you :p Seriously though and I don't want to take the thread off topic but as a fantasy die hard who doesn't do sci-fi would anyone recommend me reading Douglas Adams, bearing in mind I never bought into the HH series on TV all those years ago :eek:
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I'd have a go at Dirk Gently's Holistic Detective Agency and The Long Dark Teatime of the Soul by Douglas Adams rather than HHGttG.
get used to DA's style in a "familiar" setting before travelling around the Universe ;)
 
There seems to be a bit of confusion here.

Reading the Discworld in order isn't as straightforward as it sounds;

MP, Pyramids, The Truth and MR were written to stand alone.

COM, LF, Sourcery, Eric and IT are an arc.(Rincewind).

ER,WS, WA, LL, etc form a second arc, to get the best from them, these should also be read in order.(the Witches

Mort, RM, SM, Hogfather and TT form yet another story arc.(Death)

GG, MAA, FC, Jingo, FE,NW and Thud, comprise yet another series (the Watch)

Although probably not intended to originally, the Discworld has grown into a number of series, each dependant on its predecessors within its own arc. Thus, reading 'The fifth Elephant,' or 'Jingo,' before 'Guards, Guards,' would detract from these a bit.
 
Shamu said:
I don't think Adams and Pratchett's books can be compared. Sure they fall under the umbrella term of "Fantasy" but they're very different in the way they tell their stories and likewise their humour is different as a result.
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I agree. I like them both. I think Adams is much more of Monty Python type and he really has a way with words! TP's humour is subtler and the plots are meatier. Adams is hilarious but the plot can be thin at times.
 
The Ace said:
There seems to be a bit of confusion here.

Reading the Discworld in order isn't as straightforward as it sounds;

MP, Pyramids, The Truth and MR were written to stand alone.

COM, LF, Sourcery, Eric and IT are an arc.(Rincewind).

ER,WS, WA, LL, etc form a second arc, to get the best from them, these should also be read in order.(the Witches

Mort, RM, SM, Hogfather and TT form yet another story arc.(Death)

GG, MAA, FC, Jingo, FE,NW and Thud, comprise yet another series (the Watch)

Although probably not intended to originally, the Discworld has grown into a number of series, each dependant on its predecessors within its own arc. Thus, reading 'The fifth Elephant,' or 'Jingo,' before 'Guards, Guards,' would detract from these a bit.
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I would add The Truth to the Watch series as Vimes and the Patrician play a significant role although not as the main protagonists.
it could be read as a stand alone, but I would recommend at least reading in order up to Feet of Clay before reading The Truth (or Monstrous Regiment, for that matter, just so you have a fuller picture of Vimes' character for his appearances in that book as well)
 
Mmm I must say that it depends. I find Pratchett to be very tyring to read. If you read fast and skim over words, it's impossible to read. Well in my opinion at least.
 
scalem X said:
Mmm I must say that it depends. I find Pratchett to be very tyring to read. If you read fast and skim over words, it's impossible to read. Well in my opinion at least.
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Hmm...true for most books, I'd have thought - and it's not a race, you know. Reading fast and skimming may lead to a lot of missed jokes and allusions...:p
 
biodroid said:
Because I can't seem to get into Pratchett, he just doesn't seem funny unlike Douglas Adams. Anyone else having this problem?
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You are not alone. I think he is grossly overrated too.

I have read a few of his books, mostly his earlier ones and the only one I really enjoyed was "Mort". If you don't even like that one, I think you had best give up on him altogether.

Last year I read a more recent one of his books, "Making Money" and was extremely disappointed. I found it generally dull and didn't care about what happened. He included many in-jokes and lots of self-referencing (which I imagine pervades all his books these days) that meant if you hadn't read most of his other discworld books you simply aren't going to get much from it. I also found his writing style very annoying and smug. It was as if I could imagine Pratchet giving me a nudge and a wink with each of his attempts at humour.

At the end of the day, discworld is a formula and Pratchet is a factory that turns out books using his estaliblished formula as an easy way of making money. Reading this kind of thing really doesn't do it for me.
 
Not to be snarky - but why then are you browsing the boards for a writer you don't like?
 
I took the plunge and stopped Going Postal as my friend has read them all and he leant me The Colour of Magic, I am about a 3rd through and it's quite funny so far.
 
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