5 Best and Worst Discworld novels

Nichololas

I'm currently reading Moving Pictures and thought of this thread because I feel Moving Pictures is one of Pratchett's weakest Discworld novels. Anyway, post what you think are the 5 best and 5 worst books the discworld has to offer, maybe even with some explanation if you feel like it.

5 Best

1. Small Gods - It's hard to choose a best discworld book because there's such a choice and a lot of it comes down to personal preference but this is what I always recommend to new discworld readers because (in my opinion) it has some really interesting ideas on religion and the nature of belief and is a stand alone story that came just as Pratchett was getting into the swing of writing about discworld.

2. Men at Arms - This was difficult to choose but the Guards series is my favourite and I'd consider this the strongest of them.

3. Interesting Times - Rincewind is awesome, classic Discworld, and I read this when I was studying Japanese, so the parody of culture was pretty funny, I thought.

4. Thief of Time - The first book (I think), where the History Monks played a big part and I just liked the idea.

5. The Last Continent - Same reasons as Interesting Times really. I liked the metaphysical/philosophical undertones of Aboriginal lore also.

5 worst

1. Moving Pictures - While it has it's moments, It seemed kind of forced and didn't quite fit the discworld style.

2. Going Postal - Found it too close to a direct parody of our own world, and not a fan of Moist von Lipwig, although I haven't read Making Money yet so I'll wait and see.

3. The Colour of Magic - (Possibly) a lot of people will disagree with me on this choice seeing as it's the first book and laid a lot of the groundwork and ideas for Discworld, but I don't think Pratchett had quite gotten into the swing of it and it just didn't have the same quality as the later books

4. Soul Music - Same reasons as Moving Pictures, fun but didn't do it for me.

5. Witches Abroad - It's hard to make a list of the 5 worst discworld books, because none of them are actually bad but this was the one that least stood out for me when I was reading over the list of novels.

Archytas

I agree and disagree...

Small gods was his best book - legendary.
Interesting times... absolutely brilliant.
Men at Arms. Brilliant too - My favorite was night watch though.

Going Postal and Moving Pictures in the worst? Not at all. I loved both of them. Moving pictures was hilarious - negglyiggle!!

The colour of magic wasn't bad either. In fact, to hell with this, I have not read a discworld book that I didn't like

Up there as my favorites along with the above, any book with death as one of the main characters - Mort, The Hogfather, etc. and of the wizard stories.

Actually, I'm sorry but I'm an unashamed Terry Pratchett fanboy! I love all of the books.

jimi_t

I really haven't read enough of prachett but in terms of top three...

Best
1. Nightwatch
2. Carpe Jugulum
3. Monstrous Regiment
4. Going Postal

Weakest (proportionatly)
1. Wee Free Men (Although the Mac NacFeegle (sp?) are genious)
2. The colour of magic (More of a standalone... still)

I love all of his books, his humur and writting skills are amazing,

I love small gods and i love any of the books that have the witches or Lucca Wooden Jelly in them, the problem i find is that there isnt the full selection of the books in the shops and iv no credit card to buy online. Where is a good place to get the books that i havent read yet. Iv tried easons and other smaller book stores. Im looking for the wee free men to buy.

Nichololas

I imagine you could get a good swathe of them in a dual-strike on Hodges Figgis and Waterstones on Dawson Street.

Zageroth

Well its Hard to put it,
Best:
1. Men At Arms (you gotta love the Watch Series, and its were it all gets good)
2. Theif Of Time (Lu Tze, Suzan, The FIVE horse-men of the Apocolypse)
3. Guards! Guards! (Well its got a good Dragon Story)
4. Wyrd Sisters (who doesn't love a good Shakespeare Rip-off)
5. Monsterous Regiment (I just enjoy reading it...)

Worst:
1. Moving Pictures (Was bored by page 15)
2. Eric (read through it, and felt like throwing it away)
3. Interesting Times (Not so Interesting)
4. The Last Continent Rincewind again, does not entertain me)
5. The Truth (William is just not funny, i like Otto though)

those are probably my favourites and pet-peeve ones i've got..

Zageroth

[quote=[Deleted User];55082654]I love all of his books, his humur and writting skills are amazing,

I love small gods and i love any of the books that have the witches or Lucca Wooden Jelly in them, the problem i find is that there isnt the full selection of the books in the shops and iv no credit card to buy online. Where is a good place to get the books that i havent read yet. Iv tried easons and other smaller book stores. Im looking for the wee free men to buy.[/QUOTE]

the best Audio Books in My opinion are in Hoggis and Figges and Waterstone, while where ever i go in Dun Laoghiare i've found the Full collection ready to buy..

quietsailor

[quote=[Deleted User];55082654]I love all of his books, his humur and writting skills are amazing,

I love small gods and i love any of the books that have the witches or Lucca Wooden Jelly in them, the problem i find is that there isnt the full selection of the books in the shops and iv no credit card to buy online. Where is a good place to get the books that i havent read yet. Iv tried easons and other smaller book stores. Im looking for the wee free men to buy.[/QUOTE]

I've heard of a new type of voucher scheme - 3V vouchers - that are accepted everywhere VISA is. You could email amazon and ask if they are acceptable? I'm not sure if I can include a link to the voucher website but if you google.ie it you'll find it. The 3V site says thay are acepted on ebay as well.

Good luck

johnnyskeleton

Enlil_Nick wrote: »

5 worst

1. Moving Pictures - While it has it's moments, It seemed kind of forced and didn't quite fit the discworld style.

2. Going Postal - Found it too close to a direct parody of our own world, and not a fan of Moist von Lipwig, although I haven't read Making Money yet so I'll wait and see.

3. The Colour of Magic - (Possibly) a lot of people will disagree with me on this choice seeing as it's the first book and laid a lot of the groundwork and ideas for Discworld, but I don't think Pratchett had quite gotten into the swing of it and it just didn't have the same quality as the later books

4. Soul Music - Same reasons as Moving Pictures, fun but didn't do it for me.

5. Witches Abroad - It's hard to make a list of the 5 worst discworld books, because none of them are actually bad but this was the one that least stood out for me when I was reading over the list of novels.

With the exception of Witches Abroad, they are my favourites. I would add in Reaper Man instead of Witches Abroad, and Guards Guards! gets an honourable mention.

Suff

My top 5 would be:

1. Reaper Man (can't get enough of Death)
2. Thief Of Time (fantastic imagination and concept)
3. Interesting times (I really love Rincewind and the whole wizzardry logic of his)
4. NightWatch (Vimes and Carrot, actually all Watchbooks are great)
5. Small Gods (a fantastic twist on the ol' religion thing)

I'm reading "Jingo" at the moment

Lockstep

Guards!Guards! was a literary masterpiece as far as I was concerned.

me-skywalker

Going Postal - Hilarious... clacks!!

Archytas

me-skywalker wrote: »

Going Postal - Hilarious... clacks!!

It really was excellent - You should check out Making Money as well. Another great Lipwig and Vetinari story.

cyberwolf77

Hogfater, Reaper Man, Jingo, Night Watch, Carpe Jugulum, The Fifth Elephant. These are my top six for the series. I can't think of five I didn't enjoy really

Sofiztikated

My top 6 (because when I tried to pick 5 I hurt my head) in no particular order

1. Night Watch - Vimes is a genius character, and Carcer is a perfect bad guy, and really could have appeared in more.
2. Moving Pictures - a wonderful parody of the film industry
3. Going Postal - Lipwig is again a genius character, similar to Vimes especially with the banter between him and Vetineri.
4. Monstrous Regiment - More twists than a twisty twist! Loved it. (must dig it out and read it again)
5. Jingo - I normally dislike political type thingies, but Vimes did it for me again, arresting a whole battlefield, and Carrot organising a kickabout!
6. Last Hero - Simply work of illustrated mastery.

4 That while not bad, didn't thrill me as much.

1. Making Money - Good, but not GREAT
2. Thud - Too political for my liking
3. Wee Free Men - but as said above, the Feegle were brilliant. "Yan, tan, tethra!" "Baaaaaaaaa"
4. Feet of Clay - Again, I think it was good, but the political/slavery bit was too forced for me

Thats all from me. There can only be one t'sand!

Trubertq

You've all missed the best of the lot, MORT! what better character is there than Death himself.
Also Wyrd sisters, any with Luggage in it (sapient pearwood, what an invention). Pyramids, Witches abroad, Reaperman...and so on....and on...and on...

Decerto

favourite - probs the fifth elephant or any of the watch series, love the witches/lancre ones two

least favourites - death series, i just dont find myself able to reread any of them especially hogfather, i like susan and death as characters and the other minor ones like albert just dont like the storys

994

Here's a list for those of you who can't think of them all:

The Colour of Magic – The Light Fantastic – Equal Rites – Mort – Sourcery – Wyrd Sisters – Pyramids – Guards! Guards! – Eric – Moving Pictures – Reaper Man – Witches Abroad – Small Gods – Lords and Ladies – Men at Arms – Soul Music – Interesting Times – Maskerade – Feet of Clay – Hogfather – Jingo – The Last Continent – Carpe Jugulum – The Fifth Elephant – The Truth – Thief of Time – The Last Hero – The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents – Night Watch – The Wee Free Men – Monstrous Regiment – A Hat Full of Sky – Going Postal – Thud! – Wintersmith – Making Money

I'll go
1. Thief of Time
2. Night Watch
3. Small Gods
4. Moving Pictures - maybe biased, it was the first one I read
5. Lords and Ladies

worst...
5. Thud!
4. The Light Fantastic
3. Witches Abroad
2. Wintersmith
1. Making Money

Teutorix

I havent read most of them, but thief of time is most definitely in my top 3

Pandoras Twist

1. Reaper Man
2. Fifth Elephant
3. Carpe Juggulum
4. Hogfather
5. Mort


Worst
1. Equal Rites
2. Pyramids
3. Colour of Magic
4. Light Fantastic
5. Last Continent

nicowa

I have some absolute favourites - Wyrd Sisters, Night Watch, Small Gods and The Truth (more a sentimental favourite cos it was the first I read). And I have some I would never pick up again.

I completely agree that Colour of Magic is bad - I think it's terrible actually and I can't believe they made that one as a film. It was a bunch of differing plot threads sown together badly. Light Fantistic and Sourcery as close behind (not for the same reasons.) I like the Wizards but can't stand Rincewind apart from in Eric.

I loved Going Postal but thought Making Money was the same book with a Find/Replace done on some of the words. Ok, maybe not that bad, but pretty bad.

But the characters are amazing. Granny Weatherwax, Vimes, Death and many of the secondary characters are just amazing - funny, witty, wise and just amazing people. The type of people I really respect - well Granny and Vimes anyway. Though I do think Susan is a rip off of another character I know. That could be just a coincidence - but with the hair and the attitude... I'm not sure...

petebricquette

Top 5 in no particular order after no. 1:

1. Night Watch - absolutely brilliant. Hands down one of the best books I've read; never mind best Pratchett.
2. Guards! Guards! - first book of his I read so it has massive sentimental value.
3. Sourcery - love it. Really well written and very entertaining.
4. Mort - the second of his books that I read. Great story.
5. Thief of Time - so cool. Lu Tze is definitely one of his best characters.

Worst (this is difficult...):

1. Feet of Clay - just wasn't feeling this one. It felt a bit like hard work.
2. Maskerade - I'm not a fan of any of the Witches' books really (Lords and Ladies excluded) because they seem to be half-arsed. I can't put my finger on it exactly.
3. Interesting Times - I don't really like Rincewind. There. I said it.
4. Monstrous Regiment - Thinly-veiled political agendas. It wasn't the Pratchett I'd come to know and love.
5. Making Money - some interesting insights into the world of banking, but to be honest it felt like a copy/paste of Going Postal.

Blackhorse Slim

There are some that stand out for me as particular favourites, and others I didn't enjoy as much, but in general I like all of them. So in the spirit of the thread....

Best;
1 Soul Music
2 Guards! Guards!
3 Thief of Time
4 Hogfather
5 Thud!

Worst;
1 Equal Rites
2 Maskerade
3 The Last Continent
4 Moving Pictures
5 The Light Fantastic

Daith

Best
Men at Arms
Night Watch
Mort
Small Gods
Wyrd Sisters

Worst
Soul Music
Last Continent
Thud
Equal Rites
Reaper Man

TrueDub

Best
Night Watch
Soul Music
Thud
Equal Rites
Men at Arms

Worst
Any of the Tiffany Aching books
Unseen Academicals
Making Money

TheBegotten

Best
1. Feet of Clay (Nobby as king? how could that NOT be funny?)
2. Men at Arms
3. Pyramids
4. Small Gods
5. Amazing Maurice (Childish but it was the first Discworld novel i read, deserves a mention)

Worst:
1. Maskerade
2. Carpe Jugleum
3. Soul music
4. Night Watch

Manach

My Favourites in no order: Wyrd Sisters, Colour of Magic, Going Postal, Night Watch, Small Gods.
Least Favourite: Carpe Jugulum,The last continent, Jingo,Monstrous Regiment, Equal Rites

strobe

Favourites:
1. Night Watch - Loved seeing all the characters back then. In particular Vetinari as a young student in the Assassins Guild. The whole novel was flawless in my opinion.
2. Thud! - I thought it was genius in relation to the whole racism thing. Loved the sub-plot with Angua and the new female vampire recruit to the Watch as well, very funny. Also has one of my favourite stand alone scenes of any of the Discworld novels where

Vimes goes to see Cyroprase in the Pork Futures factory.

3. Small Gods - Great stuff I thought, packed full of very quotable lines all the way through. Loved the Ephebian philosophers too.
4. Jingo - If only for the quote in my sig.
5. Soul Music - Puntastic! Loved spotting all the references to deaf leopards and the grateful Death etc. Cleaning up hotel rooms after gigs.

Least Favourites: Anything with Rincewind and the wizards.

Lady von Purple

Best:
1. Hogfather
2. Mort
3. Thief of Time
4. Night Watch
5. Going Postal

Worst:
1. Thud
2. Unseen Academicals
3. Making Money
4. Moving Pictures
5. Lords and Ladies.

Of course, Pratchett's worst is still comparable to the best of some authors!

deconduo

Best:
1. Night Watch - Just a fantastic book
2. Men at Arms
3. Guards! Guards!
4. Hogfather
Couldn't decide between these 4 for the last slot so they all get it.
5. Jingo
5. The Fifth Elephant
5. Feet of Clay
5. The Truth

Meh:
5. Thud! - Of all the Watch books its the only one I don't like
4. The Light Fantastic - First and second book so wasn't great
3. The Colour of Magic
2. Going Postal - Just a clone of The Truth
1. Making Money - Even worse clone of Going Postal/The Truth

mk1600

Top 5 (no order)
Mort
The Last Continent
The Fifth Elephant
Thud
Small Gods

-special mentions to ( equal rites and sorcery - haven't read them in a while and thief of time)

Worst
Moving pictures (bad book)
Monstrous regiment (took me a while to get through but not bad)
....... (no more)

Pawwed Rig

Best in no particular order
Interesting Times
Pyramids
The Colour of Magic/The Light Fantastic
Gaurds Gaurds
Small Gods


Not a huge fan of the Witches


Love it

Batigol

Best 5
Guards! Guards!
Reaper Man
Night Watch
Carpe Jugulum
Wyrd Sisters


Worst 5
Eric (seemed like an experiment that just never worked)
Moving Pictures
Soul Music
The Last Continent (see this in lots of peoples top 5, for some reason I hated it :pac: )
Pyramids


Has anyone else found the later books alot darker (quite possible from the troubles he faces in real life) ? Reading I shall wear Midnight at the moment and seems (to me anyway) to be alot darker than the previous Wee Free Men stuff and darker than the Discworld also.

Hercule Poirot

The best:

1. Thud
2. Hogfather
3. Small Gods
4. Eric (as a fan of Dante's inferno I loved it!!)
5. The Last Hero

The Worst:

None

johnnyskeleton

Hercule Poirot wrote: »

The best:

1. Thud
2. Hogfather
3. Small Gods
4. Eric (as a fan of Dante's inferno I loved it!!)
5. The Last Hero

The Worst:

None

Good post, but isn't Eric loosely based on Faust by Goethe?

Hercule Poirot

johnnyskeleton wrote: »

Good post, but isn't Eric loosely based on Faust by Goethe?

True, but I've never read Faust, Dante does get a few references though

esme003

usually wee free men series are in the kids section in easons, as opposed to with the rest of his novels, for some strange reason.

Conall Cernach

Best
Sourcery
Pyramids
Wyrd Sisters
Guards! Guards!
Mort

Worst
Going Postal
Making Money
Maskerade
Lords and Ladies
Carpe Jugulum

JD1763

Although I am loathe to list five bad Pratchett books, there are some which are noticeably to the bottom of the pile. But these are firmly overshadowed by the best of his work.

1: Nightwatch - without a doubt my favourite discworld novel.
2: The Light Fantastic
3: The Fifth Elephant
4: Thud
5: Guards Guards - it has a special significance for me.

Worst:
1: Unseen Academicals
2: Going Postal
3: Making Money
4: Pyramids

Morpork

Love Discworld! Can't wait for Snuff next week. Reading Night Watch again now which is my favourite.

My top 5
1-Night Watch
2-Feet of Clay
3-Mort
4-Equal Rites
5-Soul Music

The not-as-good-as-the-others list:
1-Going postal (only book I couldn't finish)
2-Pyramids
3-Colour of Magic
4-Light Fantastic
5-Jingo

As a bouns, one of my all time favourite games is Discworld Noir. It's actually how I discovered the series. Even though Terry didn't write the script (he edited it), it's brilliant. This game needs a re-release on gog.com or something.

me-skywalker

Ive only read 3

Nightwatch, The colour of Magic and Going Postal.

Really loved Going Postal, was the first Terry Pratcheet book I read, easily one of the funniest books I've ever read. I took it for what it was and was immersed in it.
The Colour of magic dragged a bit for me. but I got lore and background of what he was doing with the world.
While the Nightwatch was an absolutely masterpiece, every twist and turn and piece of language and inert relevance I ate up and the book read itself!

I have Thief of Time on my shelf, is it worth a read?

Hercule Poirot

JD1763 wrote: »

Worst:
1: Unseen Academicals
2: Going Postal
3: Making Money
4: Pyramids

Not a big fan Moist von Lipwig eh? I find him to be a likeable scallywag!!

Blackhorse Slim

Ok, I've gone back over all the posts in this thread that actually named their best and worst Discworld novels and added up the scores.

Most Popular;
Night Watch 13 votes
Small Gods 10
Guards! Guards! 8
Mort and Thief of Time 7

Least Popular;
Making Money 8 negative votes
Moving Pictures, Last Continent 6
Colour of Magic, Light Fantastic, Going Postal, Thud! 5

I haven't off-set positive and negative votes, just counted the most of each.
I haven't counted comments like "any Tiffany Aching" or "any Witches book", only books specifically named.

The only books that didn't get any votes either way are Hat Full of Sky and I Shall Wear Midnight - do some people not consider these proper Discworld novels, or not worth mentioning?

It's also probably worth noting that the last 4 books - Wintersmith, Making Money, Unseen Academicals and I Shall Wear Midnight didn't get a single positive vote between them, but 12 negative votes. Has the quality of Discworld novels taken a dive? Are we pinning our hopes on Snuff being a return to form?

The two books immediately preceding them, Thud! and Going Postal, were the most divisive, getting 10 positive and 10 negative votes between them (4 positive for GP, 6 positive for T!, and 5 negative each).

I know this is a very small sample, but it's just a bit of fun!

JD1763

Compared to Vimes, Lipwig has all the personality of a damp tissue. Definitely think he should just discontinue the Lipwig arc and go back to the much more interesting characters.

mikeyboy

It's taken me ages to do this.

My Definitive Top Five (subject to change at no notice)
Moving Pictures
Small Gods
The Truth
Carpe Jugulum
Making Money

Better Than Almost Everything Else But Not Quite As Good As The Rest Of The Discworld (see above)
Thief Of Time
Monstrous Regiment
Men At Arms
Feet Of Clay

RachaelVO

Why have I never seen this forum before!!!!!!! This is a great place

I tried desperately hard to pick 5 tops, but I couldn't cos I really did enjoy all the ones I've read (which is quiet a few). I have to say though, stand out for me

Monsterous Regiment - Loved it, loved it, loved it! So much so I've read it again and again!
MORT! - Funniest book of them all. Had to stop reading it on the train cos I'd start laughing and make an eejit outta meself!

My least favourite, but I did still enjoy it has to be
Unseen Academicals - Funny in parts, in as much as I did enjoy it, IMO it's one of the weakest of them all!

Typh

-Night watch.
-Jingo( so much so that I named a dog after the title)
-Thud.
-The Fifth Elephant.
-Small Gods/Guards! Guards!

Soft spot for the eccentricities and flaws of the Watch.

As for five worst, if I could bring myself to voice an opinion against T.P, I never quite got into the Wyrd Sisters or the Wee Free Men. I simply didn't find them as enjoyable as the others. Love the man as a writer and advocate of his causes.

Ridley

Small Gods
Night Watch
Jingo
The Last Hero
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

Those are the five I enjoyed most. I think. Small Gods is definately top though. The Last Hero should be the one adapted for a film. Bit surprised no-one tried to claim it during the original Lord of the Rings movie run.

rattusrattus

Without a doubt, Hogfather is the ultimate best.

johnnyskeleton

rattusrattus wrote: »

Without a doubt, Hogfather is the ultimate best.

Should I ban you for your extremist views?


(only kidding by the way, I haven't gone mad with power just yet).

Pawwed Rig

Blackhorse Slim wrote: »

Ok, I've gone back over all the posts in this thread that actually named their best and worst Discworld novels and added up the scores.

Most Popular;
Night Watch 13 votes
Small Gods 10
Guards! Guards! 8
Mort and Thief of Time 7

Least Popular;
Making Money 8 negative votes
Moving Pictures, Last Continent 6
Colour of Magic, Light Fantastic, Going Postal, Thud! 5

Kind of surprised about the negativity (well not negativity but you know what I mean) towards COM and Light Fantastic. Sure they were rough around the edges and flawed in parts but to use a famous quote "upon this rock I will build my church".

These books are where Discworld was born and shaped many books afterwards.
In later books the fact they were on a disc was pretty irrelevant but in the early ones I loved the guys collecting debris before it falls of the edge of the disc and Rincewind hanging onto a tree after going over.