Posted by I have attempted and then subsequently failed several times to do a full series re-read accompanied by reviews for my blog. It’s never happened because I just don’t have time to physically read anymore, not even for Sir Pratchett. I don’t enjoy the old audiobooks (ducks the tomatoes being thrown by Stephen Briggs fans). The reason why I didn’t click with the original audiobooks was only slightly because of the narrator, but MOSTLY because of the audio recording quality. It never hit my ear correctly and so I actually avoided them despite have most or all of them on audible. They desperately needed an update and fuck yes, it finally happened! Now I get to do my full series re-read! It does mean I have to buy 41 audiobooks all over again, but I really don’t mind. I’ll always give Pratchett’s estate my money. There’s a heading halfway through this post that indicates when the actual review of the book starts. This beginning bit is for people unsure where to start with Discworld.
INTRO TO DISCWORLD
If you are completely new to this series you may notice there are two “#1s” in the title up top. Discworld is split into different subseries, and to make it easy, just think about it as if The Simpsons was called Springfield, and instead of just watching the Simpsons family each time, each episode focuses on a different grouping of characters. So, the Flanders family would have their own arc, and Moe would have his own arc et cetera. Here in the Discworld we have Wizards, Death, The Witches, Tiffany Aching, Moist, The Watch as the main subseries. Then there are true and utter stand alone books like Small Gods which only ever feature that particular grouping of characters once. Some people may choose to start with one of those sorts of books as their first Discworld novel. Really can’t go wrong with The Truth or Small Gods. It’s a recommended entry point if that sounds good to you.
Each subseries has a different flavor to it, too. Each will have a differing level of appeal for different people. I tend to prefer the Witches, The Watch, and Death over say, the Wizards. The Wizards tend to be a little bit more silly, a little more outlandish, and a little more Hitchhiker’s Guide in that its humor — random and absurd rather than nuanced satire. Some of the other sub-series focus more on the satire side of things with biting political and social commentary (looking at you, Watch). People often say that you shouldn’t start with The Colour of Magic, and honestly, you could take that advice and run with it if you want to. The first book is not the best, it’s not even close to his best writing. It’s a little haphazard, a little rushed, a little too dense with what it was trying to do and certain things were coming and going so fast they barely had time to register. Pratchett actually did say that he would not recommend it as a starting point as did one of his close friends and co-authors, Neil Gaiman, who’s quoted as saying,
“Part of the problem with Terry’s fiction, is a lot of people wind up starting that <picks up copy of The Colour of Magic>…it’s a romp, and it’s a terrible place to start…it’s a collection of jokes and in The Colour of Magic, they aren’t even very good jokes. The Terry Pratchett of fine and beautiful plots built like Swiss watches was a long way from turning up.”
I would suggest starting with The Color of Magic for people who enjoy watching an author hone their craft, witness an idea blossom from start to finish, or for those who don’t want to miss a single in-joke or reference from previous books. Other than that, there is no reason whatsoever you have to start with The Colour of Magic. There are very few books in Discworld I would say do not start with –> The Light Fantastic requires you to read The Colour of Magic first, it’s one of two in the series that’s like that. Shepherd’s Crown is the last book in the series and I would definitely say don’t start with the end. It just doesn’t make sense to start your journey there, and it’s a huge spoiler too, a lot of character arcs come to their ‘conclusions’ as it were.
Other good entry points would be the beginnings of subseries. You can read each subseries in order if that suits your fancy. Those books would be: Equal Rites for the Witches, Mort for Death, Guards Guards! for the Watch, Going Postal for Moist, The Wee Free Men for Tiffany Aching. Below is a frequently referenced reading guide that’s been around for a while. It’s quite a nice visualization of how everything interconnects and where to go once you’ve started one of the subseries.
There is also this delightful quiz you can take from the official Discworld website: QUIZ
This has been a really longwinded entry to this review, the rest of the reviews in this series won’t be like that!
THE ACTUAL REVIEW OF THE BOOK
There once was a world traveler whose dream was to experience adventure and see the world. He wanted all of the adventures possible. He was a tourist. The Discworld’s first tourist to be precise. Two-flower comes from a continent on the disc that those in Ankh Morpork reference as “the counterweight continent.” The Discworld is flat and it sits on the backs of four elephants which stand on the shell of an enormous turtle that’s swimming through space. If you think that sounds ridiculous and you’d never be able to get into it, please give it a shot anyway. It’s has of the most grounded, character-centric fantasies that I’ve read and it’s worth giving a try.
Anyway, the folks in Ankh Morpork have never ever once received a tourist. No one would ever think of visiting this city just to “see” it without any actual purpose for visiting. Ankh Morpork does not have kings, they have Lord Vetinari. He is very pleased with this situation and does not wish it to change (he’s one of the best characters in the series and he’s only just getting started in this book). So, when Two Flower comes to town, Vetinari very much so wants him to see the city, have a good time, and then LEAVE before something bad happens. Ankh Morpork is not known as a safe city, or a clean city, or a city that anyone would recommend a naive person to try and self-navigate. The reason Vetinari is nervous is because the counterweight continent is very rich. Which means it could have a huge army, an army that, say, Ankh Morpork is in no way prepped to deal with. Sam Vimes is a long way off from becoming a hero, and at this particular point in time he is likely drunk in a gutter mumbling to himself. (Sam Vimes is the main character from the Watch and I believe is the most changed character from his introduction to his conclusion, and is one of the most compelling arcs since he grows so much). So, without Vimes at the command of the Watch, Ankh Morpork is vulnerable if they piss off the counterweight continent.
Vetinari assigns Rincewind, the failed Wizzard, to be Two-Flower’s escort to make it sure he gets to see what he wants to see without being killed and then is sent right back home where he belongs with lots of great stories to tell. This is a strange decision since Rincewind is as aforementioned, not a great Wizzard and is fairly inept at keeping people alive. Rincewind is a self-professed coward. He knows his reaction to danger is to run and he has no intentions on ‘working on that’ or becoming brave. He has no intention of being a hero. He doesn’t want to be involved in adventures or action. Being assigned this task is a nearly impossible one which is then fortunate for Vetinari because he then receives a letter from the leader of the counterweight continent, and the counterweight continent wants Two Flower dead.
Here the adventure begins because Rincewind and Two Flower very much so do not want to be dead. Two Flower is an insurance salesman, and he introduces the idea of fire insurance to Ankh (this later leads to a lot “accidental” fires, which may lead to Ankh nearly burning to the ground). Two Flower has a “picture box” which has a little imp inside it that draws really fast, creating almost a Polaroid type product that’s a running joke throughout the book.
Two Flower is rich and unintentionally flaunts it since gold is such a common thing for him. This gets him a lot of really bad attention, lol. Two Flower is extremely naive and just wants to think the best of everything and everyone. He doesn’t sense danger like a normal person, and will happily walk into a dangerous situation smiling and taking pictures. This may have to do with the fact that he has a sentient pearwood trunk that walks on hundreds of little legs and works almost like a bag of holding. Except the Luggage gets to decide what comes back out of the bag of holding or not. When Two Flower puts in dirty laundry, clean laundry comes back out. When the Luggage eats someone who annoys it, they do not come back out, lol. The Luggage is one of the more popular nonverbal characters in the book and is a regular source of fan art.
There are tons of in world jokes that run throughout the series. One of the places that burns down in Ankh was called the The Broken Drum and after it gets fixed in later books it’s called The Mended Drum. There are small callouts like that throughout the series so if you truly don’t want to miss a single in-joke, maybe you should start here with The Colour of Magic. Be aware though this is not a stand alone and you’ve got to move on to The Light Fantastic to finish the adventure of Two Flower and Rincewind. There are so many references you’re never going to catch them all. Here’s a link to a list of references made just in this one short book. Some of them are obvious, and others are super obscure and each book is like that. I can re-read these books and still catch new things on my tenth read through. Discworld Wiki.
This also kicks off the relationship between Death and Rincewind. Death is a recurring character, and I believe is the only character to make it into every one of the 41 books. Death has a sand timer for everyone’s lifespan, once the sand runs out, your time is up. Rincewind’s timer is…. transdimensional-ish. This really annoys DEATH.
There is so much that happens in this book and it is SO short. It’s just one thing after another after another and if I have one main complaint about this book is that it was too much too fast. People, world building concepts, and scenes would fly in and fly off the page before I really had a lot of time to register what I was reading. It really needed to cut some stuff out or expand and slow down. Overall this is a fun book that kicks off one of the best worlds I’ve visited.