Discworld noob

Woden

Howdy going to give this discworld series a try. Apparently theres loads of books. Can someone tell me the first book in the series and i'll start from the start as it where.

Regards

Data

Sarky

The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic are the first two.

I'd recommend them because I really like Rincewind. But It's up to yourself where you start really. I'd go for Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music, and The Hogfather.

Woden

Thanks sarky. i typically read an author by when the books are published. i'll give the first couple a go and see if i like his style (apparently he's quite amusing yes?) and i'll move on from there.

Tree

Originally posted by Dataisgod
Thanks sarky. i typically read an author by when the books are published. i'll give the first couple a go and see if i like his style (apparently he's quite amusing yes?) and i'll move on from there.

discowlrd is a v difficult series to approach from the "in order" by virtue of the numbeer of books and there's always one goes walkabout and is impossible to find, but good luck to you.

i'm not such a big fan of the first few, think his later style is much better. you can also try reading by the witches/guards/death categories. death and the city guards are my fav's

Woden

thanks for the input, if needs be i'll get them online if i have difficulty finding them. is there anything it compares to fantasy wise?

Capt'n Midnight

No.

Havelock

Mr Pratchett is wonderfully unique, hope you enjoy the trip.

Sarky

Originally posted by Havelock
Mr Pratchett is wonderfully unique, hope you enjoy the trip.

And yet you'll find little "homages" to so many other fantasy works. Funny ones.

fozzle

Actually, Tom Holt is very good too. Not in the same class as TP but then he doesn't go in for creating a world in the same way, afaik his books are all stand-alones. Mighty funny though.

Capt'n Midnight

One of the things I like best is the observational humour - esp. with Vimes and the Patrician compared to the ideals you see on TV.

Woden

is he anything like douglas adams?

Capt'n Midnight

Think of a cross between HHGTTG and LOTR.
Terry is also quite well up on technology you'll the references.

Sarky

Originally posted by Dataisgod
is he anything like douglas adams?

I think Pratchett is a bit stranger, and doesn't do logic as well. He does do excellent awkward conversations, insane people, and bloody mindedness. And there are no Apple Mac references in any of his books that I can see...

ozt9vdujny3srf

The 2 Science of Discworld Books are a great read aswell. I think its worth reading them from the start in order to see how his style changes as you move towards his later books. If you dont feel like doin thta then the City Watch Books and the DEATH books are the most popular in the series.

shock

Originally posted by Sarky
And there are no Apple Mac references in any of his books that I can see...

I always thought Hex was more of a Mac than a PC.

AL][EN

Yes definalty go for

the color of magic and then the light fantastic my personal favourites are the guards books, If you wanted to get into prachet you could try the following three books in order:

1) the color of magic
2) the light fantastic
3) interesting times *funniest fantasy book i have ever read*

That is enough if you like terry after that then we can suggest more book depending on what your into.

good luck dataisgod hope you like them

Woden

thanks folks i'll pick up a few offer the next few weeks, i've seen that 3 for 2 in waterstones that was mentioned, i'll see how the funding is after xmas.

AL][EN

Originally posted by shock
I always thought Hex was more of a Mac than a PC.

I always pictured Hex as running linux as an operating system,

can you imagine if hex ran windows? I can just picture when it blue screens half of Ankh-Morpork is instantly transported to the dungeon dimesions and a scared little white rabbit then pulls a carrot out of a hat and diseappears again!

Nevyn

can you imagine if hex ran windows? I can just picture when it blue screens half of Ankh-Morpork is instantly transported to the dungeon dimesions and a scared little white rabbit then pulls a carrot out of a hat and diseappears again!

Bravo

shock

But what about the mad paper clip roaming the streets, jumping out on people asking them if they need help then following them home?

Silent Bob

Originally posted by shock
I always thought Hex was more of a Mac than a PC.

Two words that refute that: "Anthill Inside"

Capt'n Midnight

In a MAC (68000 series) data and code are kept separate so self modifying code is difficult. => HEX is a PC.
Love the concept of self modifying hardware.

BTW: some mainframes had microcode firmware in the CPU - you could change or program in new instructions - very handy for emulators.

watty

Discworld Noir PC game is re-released cheap and is a "real" Terry Pratchett Discworld story.

If you havn't watched Maltese Falcon, The Big Sleep etc, watch or read them first!

It also incidently is a not bad click n point adventure game.

The Floppy Drive (8" then) was INVENTED to load the firmware (microcode) into the IBM mainframe after a power failure.

Originally "bootstrapping" involved manually setting a row of toggle switches for each binary word and pressing the load button till either the microcode, startup program or both where loaded. I remember a DEC computer (PDP8?) in 1974 the Electronics dept was proud of.

Hex is more the sort of generic concept of computer that predates PC (1981) or Windows or MAC. I first used a desktop microcomputer in 1979. They started in 1975.

Mainframes with compiled programs 1956.

First Electromechanical computers in 1930s

Read about Terry Pratchett's background. Hex is a more "generic" idea of a Discworld version of our computing than "representing" specific implementations such as MAC or PC.

I quite agree on Data / Program separation and that feature can be "turned on" since the 80286! MS/IBM chose not to have Windows on DOS, OS/2 or MS OS/2 VER 3 (AKA NT3.1) use such a feature. The "next" Windows may use the feature to aviod buffer over-run type exploits.


I think you have to be VERY widely read to get the full value of the "take-offs" of other authors. Though like Muppet Show, perhaps Authors are now queuing up to get fun poked at their work.. a compliment really.

Woden

i picked up the first 3 novels today in waterstones, then went book crazy and picked up another 5 books whilst shopping (star trek though ) anywho i'll let you know how i get on with them, after i somehow get through the first book of a song of fire and ice, the whole nights dawn trilogy and all the bloody books i got for xmas ah i think i'll reprioritise and give the first one a read soon, thanks for all the info

data

SHAMAN

I've always loved his way of poking fun at everything, then putting a full stop at the end. Genius. And it's so much what he says but what he doesn't. For instance, the Omnian Church believeing the world is a perfect sphere revolving around the sun, when Discworld is in fact a flat disc coasting through interstllar space atop four gigantic elephants, who in turn ride on the shell of a giant turtle.

shock

But what does the turtle stand on?

Sarky

Don't be silly. It's turtles all the way down!

AL][EN

Originally posted by shock
But what does the turtle stand on?

the cold hard vacum of space i would imagine. That or an intersteller highway complete with traffic lights and traffic jams

ozt9vdujny3srf

Originally posted by shock
But what does the turtle stand on?

But what does the earth stand on?

shock

The earth doesnt stand. It floats in a vacuum caught in the suns gravitational field, in turn the sun is caught in the gravitational field of the galaxy.

ozt9vdujny3srf

Originally posted by shock
The earth doesnt stand. It floats in a vacuum caught in the suns gravitational field, in turn the sun is caught in the gravitational field of the galaxy.

In that case, the turtle doesnt stand, it swims, like any other turtle.

dudara

But what about the mad paper clip roaming the streets, jumping out on people asking them if they need help then following them home?

after a trip through the Shades, it would be found abandoned on the surface of the river