| Please note that there have been several
further Terry Pratchett Discworld novels published since I wrote this
overview!
The Novels of Terry Pratchett
– Where to start?
Terry Pratchett (TP) is a very popular author, a cult figure i.e fans who
like him buy his latest books as soon as they are published; and one of
his claims to fame is that he is the most shop-lifted author in W.H.Smiths.
For those of you who have never read him, here is a ‘quick’ guide on
where to start. His style is light, and generally quite funny. He has
written books in a number of different series, but by far his major work
are the novels concerning the Discworld. TP is very popular on the
Internet. Just enter his name in a search engine, and get surfing.
A The Discworld
24 novels so far in 16 years, with another due in November.
The Discworld is a flat world located on the back of four elephants
which stand on the shell of a giant turtle. The world is populated by a
host of magical and heroic characters. Each book concentrates on a theme
or character. The books can be read in order of publication, but you may
find it easier to concentrate of one of the more developed characters, and
follow them through the series. Be warned, liberally scattered throughout
the novels are puns – some gloriously blatant, others more obscure!
The Main Characters
Twoflower: the Discworld’s first tourist. He uses The
Luggage to carry all his possessions on his travels
The Luggage: made of sapient pear wood, The Luggage is sentient and
will faithfully follow it’s owner anywhere on 100’s of cute little
legs. It can be deadly if cornered
Rincewind: an inept magician who cannot remember spells. He lives
at the Unseen University, the Discworld’s premier site of wizardry,
located in the twin city of Ankh Morpork
DEATH: every world has to have a grim reaper, but this one is more
memorable than others in that he rides a white horse called Binky, likes
cats and enjoys the occasional curry. DEATH always TALKS IN CAPITALS, and
generally has walk on parts in most books, but has a starring role in a
number of them
The Librarian: he started off as human, but was transformed into an
Orangutang in book 2. As an Ape, with four ‘hands’ he has found the
form so useful in the Library that he refuses to be changed back. Do NOT
call him a Monkey. Oook!
Granny Weatherwax, and subsequently the Witches: Granny
Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick form a small coven of witches in
the mountain kingdom of Lancre.
The Night Watch: including Captain Vimes, Corporal Carrot (technically
a 6 foot dwarf), Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable
Angua (a woman . . . most of the time) and Corporal Nobbs (disqualified
from the human race for shoving)
The Discworld Series
- The Colour of Magic (1983)
Themes: Tourism, Science Fantasy / Barbarian Heroes
Summary: On a world supported on the back of a giant turtle (sex
unknown), a gleeful, explosive, wickedly eccentric expedition sets
out. There’s an avaricious but inept wizard, a naïve tourist whose
luggage moves on hundreds of dear little legs, dragons who only exist
if you believe in them, and of course The Edge of the planet . . .
Further reading:
Rincewind & The Luggage - #2, #5, #9, #17, #22
Twoflower - #2, #17
- The Light Fantastic (1986)
Themes: Book 1, Part 2 (Tourism, Science Fantasy / Barbarian Heroes)
i.e more of the above
Summary: As it moves towards a seemingly inevitable collision with a
malevolent red star, the Discworld has only one possible saviour.
Unfortunately, this happens to be the singularly inept and cowardly
wizard called Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of the
world . . .
Further Reading:
Rincewind & The Luggage - #5, #9, #17, #22
Twoflower - #17
- Equal Rites (1987)
Themes: Rite of Passage
Summary: The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before DEATH laid
a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the
eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the
chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to
check on the new-born baby’s sex . . .
Further Reading:
Granny Weatherwax - #6, #12, #14, #18, #23
- Mort (1987)
Themes: Apprenticeship
Summary: Death comes to us all. When he came to Mort, he offered him a
job. After being assured that being dead was not compulsory, Mort
accepted. However, he soon found that romantic longings did not mix
easily with the responsibilities of being Death’s apprentice . . .
Further Reading:
DEATH - #11, #16, #20
- Sourcery (1988)
Themes: Magic
Summary: There was an eighth son of an eighth son. He was, quite
naturally, a wizard. And there it should have ended. However (for
reasons we’d better not go into), he had seven sons. And then he had
an eighth son . . . a wizard squared . . . a source of magic . . . a
Sourcerer.
Further Reading:
Rincewind & The Luggage - #9, #17, #22
- Wyrd Sisters (1988)
Themes: Shakespeare, and his plays
Summary: Witches are not by nature gregarious, and they certainly don’t
have leaders. Granny Weatherwax was the most highly-regarded of the
leaders they didn’t have. But even she found that meddling in royal
politics was a lot more difficult than certain playwrights would have
you believe . . .
Further Reading:
The Witches - #12, #14, #18, #23
- Pyramids (1989)
Themes: Middle East, Assasins
Summary: Being trained by the Assassin’s Guild in Ankh-Morpork did
not fit Teppic for the task assigned to him by fate. He inherited the
throne of the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi rather earlier than he
expected (his father wasn’t too happy about it either), but that was
only the beginning of his problems . . .
Further Reading:
Largely standalone, but #13 has a lot of sand in it, as does #22
- Guards! Guards! (1989)
Themes: Police Buddy Stories, Dragons
Summary: This is where the dragons went. They lie . . . not dead, not
asleep, but . . . dormant. And although the space they occupy isn’t
like normal space, nevertheless they are packed in tightly. They could
put you in mind of a can of sardines, if you thought sardines were
huge and scaly. And presumably, somewhere, there’s a key . . .
Further Reading:
The Night Watch - #15, #19, #20, #21, #24
- Eric (1990)
Themes: Faust
Summary: Eric is the Discworld’s only demonology hacker. Pity he’s
not very good at it. All he wants is his three wishes granted. Nothing
fancy – to be immortal, rule the world, have the most beautiful
woman in the world fall madly in love with him, the usual stuff. But
instead of a tractable demon, he calls up Rincewind, Probably the most
incompetent wizard in the universe, and the extremely intractable and
hostile form of travel accessory known as the Luggage. With them on
his side, Eric’s in for a ride through space and time that is bound
to make him wish (quite fervently) again – this time that he’d
never been born.
Further Reading:
Rincewind & The Luggage - #17, #22
- Moving Pictures (1990)
Themes: The Movies & Hollywood
Summary: The alchemists of the Discworld have discovered the magic of
the silver screen. But what is the dark secret of Holy Wood hill? It’s
up to Victor Tugelbend ("Can’t sing. Can’t dance. Can handle
a sword a little") and Theda Withel ("I come from a little
town you’ve probably never heard of") to find out . . .
Further Reading:
First appearance of Gaspard the Wonderdog who also occasionally
appears in the Night Watch novels #15, #19, #20, #21, #24
Major starring role for "Cut me own throat" Dibbler who has
walk on parts in any of the novels set in Ankh Morpork
- Reaper Man (1991)
Themes: DEATH goes on holiday
Summary: DEATH is missing – presumed gone. Which leads to the kind
of chaos you always get when an important public service is withdrawn.
Meanwhile, on a little farm, far away, a tall dark stranger is turning
out to be really good with a scythe. There’s a harvest to be
gathered in . . .
Further Reading:
DEATH - #16, #20
- Witches Abroad (1991)
Themes: Fairy Tales, New Orleans / Voodoo
Summary : It seemed an easy job . . . After all, how difficult could
it be to make sure that a servant girl doesn’t marry a prince? But
for the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick,
travelling to the distant city of Genua. Things are never that simple.
Servant girls have to marry the prince. That’s what life is all
about. You can’t fight a Happy Ending. At least – up until now . .
.
Further Reading:
The Witches - #14, #18, #23
- Small Gods (1992)
Themes: Religions
Summary: In the beginning was the Word. And the Word was : "Hey,
you!" For Brutha the novice is the Chosen One. He wants peace and
justice and brotherly love. He also wants the Inquisition to stop
torturing him now, please . . .
Further Reading:
Largely standalone
- Lords and Ladies (1992)
Themes: Invasion
Summary: The fairies are back. but this time they don’t just want
your teeth. Granny Weatherwax and her coven are up against real elves.
It’s Midsummer Night, No time for dreaming. With full supporting
cast of dwarves, wizards, trolls, Morris dancers and one orang-utan.
And lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place.
Further Reading:
The Witches - #18, #23
- Men at Arms (1993)
Themes: Detective novels
Summary: ‘Be a Man in the City Watch! The City Watch needs Men!’
But what it’s got includes Corporal Carrot (technically a dwarf),
Lance-constable Cuddy (really a dwarf), Lance-constable Detritus (a
troll), Lance-constable Angua (a woman – most of the time) and
Corporal Nobbs (disqualified from the human race for shoving). And
they need all the help they can get. Because they’ve only got twenty
four hours to clean up the town and this is Ankh-Morpork we’re
talking about . . .
Further Reading:
The Night Watch - #15, #19, #20, #21, #24
- Soul Music (1994)
Themes: Rock Music
Summary: Other children get given xylophones. Susan just had to ask
her grandfather to take his vest off. Yes. There’s a Death in the
family. It’s hard to grow up normally when Grandfather rides a white
horse and wields a scythe – especially when you have to take over
the family business, and everyone mistakes you for the Tooth Fairy.
And especially when you have to face the new and addictive music that
has entered the Discworld. It’s lawless. It changes people. Its
called Music with Rocks in. It’s got a beat and you can dance to it,
but . . . it’s alive. And it won’t fade away.
Further Reading:
DEATH - #20
- Interesting Times (1994)
Themes: China, Barbarian Heroes
Summary: Mighty battles! Revolution! Death! War! (and his sons Terror,
and Panic, and daughter Clancy). The oldest and most inscrutable
empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the
revolutionary treatise ‘What I did on my holidays’. Workers are
uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. War (and
Clancy) are spreading throughout the ancient cities. And all that
stands in the way of terrible doom for everyone is : Rincewind the
Wizard, who can’t even spell the word ‘wizard’; Cohen the
barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a
lifetime’s experience of not dying; and a very special butterfly.
Further Reading:
Rincewind & The Luggage - #22
- Maskerade (1995)
Themes: Opera, Musicals e.g Miserable Les, etc
Summary: The show must go on, as murder, music and mayhem run riot in
the night. The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork – a huge, rambling
building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by
a strangely-familiar evil mastermind in a hideously-deformed evening
dress. At least he hopes so. But Granny Weatherwax, Discworld’s most
famous witch, is in the audience. And she doesn’t hold with that
sort of thing. So there’s going to be trouble (but nevertheless a
good evening’s entertainment with murders you can really hum) . . .
Further Reading:
The Witches - #23
- Feet of Clay (1996)
Themes: Murder Mystery
Summary: There’s a werewolf with pre-lunar tension in Ankh-Morpork,
and a dwarf with attitude, and a golem who’s begun to think for
itself. But for commander Vimes, Head of Ankh-Morpork City Watch, that’s
only the start : there’s treason in the air. A crime has happened.
He’s not only got to find out whodunit, but howdunit too. He’s not
even sure what they dun. But as soon as he knows what the questions
are, he’s going to want some answers.
Further Reading:
The Night Watch - #20, #21, #24
- Hogfather (1996)
Themes: Christmas – a festive feast of darkness and DEATH (but with
jolly robins and tinsel too)
Summary: It’s the night before Hogswatch and it’s too quiet. Where
is the big jolly fat man? Why is DEATH creeping down chimneys and
trying to say Ho Ho Ho? The darkest night of the year is getting a lot
darker. Susan the gothic governess has got to sort it out by morning,
otherwise there won’t be a morning ever again.
Further Reading:
The Night Watch - #21, #24
- Jingo
Themes: War
Summary: Discworld goes to war, with armies of sardines, warriors,
fishermen, squid and at least one very camp follower. As two armies
march, Commander Vimes of Ankh Morpork City Watch faces unpleasant
foes who are out to get him . . . and that’s just one his side. The
enemy might be even worse.
Further Reading:
The Night Watch - #24
- The Last Continent
Themes: Not about Australia, it’s just vaguely australian.
Summary: This is the Discworld’s last continent of Fourecks, a
completely separate creation. It’s hot. It’s dry . . . very dry.
There was once this thing called The Wet, which no one now believes
in. Practically everything that’s not poisonous is venemous. And it’ll
die in a few days, except . . . who is this hero striding across the
red desert? Champion sheep shearer, horse rider, road warrior, beer
drinker, bush ranger and someone who’ll even eat a Meat pie Floater
when he’s sober? A man in a hat, whose Luggage follows him on little
legs, who’s about to change history by preventing a swagman stealing
a jumbuck by a billabong? Yes . . . all this place has between itself
and wind-blown doom is Rincewind, the inept wizard who can’t even
spell wizard. He’s the only hero left. Still . . . no worries, eh?
- Carpe Jugulum
Themes: Vampires
Summary: Mightily Oats has not picked a good time to be a priest. He
thought he’d come to the mountain kingdom of Lancre for a simple
ceremony. Now he’s caught up in a war between Vampires and Witches,
and he is not sure if there is a right side. There’s Young Agnes,
who really is in two minds about everything. Magrat, who is trying to
combine witchcraft and nappies, Nanny Ogg . . . and granny Weatherwax,
who is big trouble. And the vampires are intelligent. They’ve got
style and fancy waistcoats. They’re out of the casket, and want a
bite of the future. Mightily Oats knows he has a prayer, but he wishes
he had an axe.
- The Fifth Elephant
Themes: The Watch, Crime mystery
Summary: Samuel Vimes is sent as an ambassador to the northern
principality of Uberwald where dwarves mine gold and fat, and which is
the home of Vampires and Werewolves – including Angua’s family.
Here he is involved in solving a serious crime – the theft of the
Scone of Stone which is an important piece of dwarf bread.
- The Truth
Themes: Ankh Morpork, Newspapers, Journalism
Summary: The Discworld’s first newspaper editor just wants to get at
the truth but unfortunately, like other editors before and after him,
many people want him dead for a variety of reasons.
Further Reading: Go on, now start again at #1
Discworld Related Books :
There are a lot of Discworld related books written by fans in
conjunction with TP :
Screen Plays – Mort / Wyrd Sisters / Guards! Guards! / Men at Arms
adapted by Stephen Briggs
Maps – The Discworld Mapp / The Streets of Ankh Morpork / Tourist
Guide to Lancre / DEATH's Domain with Stephen Briggs
Discworld Companion - Who's Who & What's What with Stephen Briggs
Unseen University Challenge – quiz book compiled by David Langford
Nanny Ogg’s Cook Book - TP, Stephen Briggs, Tina Hannan, Paul Kidby
(illustrator)
B The Gnomes Trilogy
- Truckers (1989)
To the thousands of tiny nomes who live under the floorboards of a large
department store, there is no Outside. Things like Day and Night, Sun
and Rain are just daft old legends. Then a devastating piece of news
shatters their existence : the Store – their whole world – is to be
demolished. And it’s up to Masklin, one of the last nomes to come into
the Store, to mastermind an unbelievable escape plan that will take all
of the nomes into the dangers of the great Outside . . .
- Diggers (1990)
A bright new dawn is just around the corner for thousands of tiny nomes
when they move into the abandoned quarry. Or is it? Soon strange things
start to happen. Like the tops of puddles growing hard and cold, and the
water coming down from the sky in frozen bits. Then humans appear and
they really mess everything up. The quarry is to be re-opened, and the
nomes must fight to defend their new home. But how long will they be
able to keep the humans at bay – even with the help of the monster
Jekub?
- Wings (1990)
Somewhere in a place so far up there is no down, a ship is waiting to
take the nomes home – back to wherever they came from. And one nome,
Masklin, knows that they’ve got to try and contact this ship. It means
going to Florida (wherever that is), then getting to the launch of a
communication satellite (whatever that is). A ridiculous plan.
Impossible. But Masklin doesn’t know this so he tries to do it anyway.
And the first step is to try and hitch a ride on a new kind of truck, a
truck with wings – Concorde . . .
C The Johnny Trilogy
1 Only you can Save Mankind
The mighty alien fleet from the very latest computer game thunders across
the computer screen. . . Hands poised on the joystick, Johnny prepares to
blow them into the usual million pieces . . . and they send him a message
: We Surrender. They’re not supposed to do that! Where does it say in
the manual that they’re supposed to do that? But they’ve done it. This
time they don’t want to die. They just want to go home. Johnny is the
only human who knows. So he has to learn how to wage all-out Peace, and
they don’t make joysticks with a ‘Don’t Fire’ button. . .
Also :
2 Johnny and the Dead
3 Johnny and the Bomb
D Terry Pratchett with Neil Gaiman – Good Omens
This excellent book satirises The Omen films. It is a ‘must read’
for anyone who enjoys Horror stories / films. It is very funny.
According to the Nice and Accurate Prophecies of Agnes Nutter – the
world’s only totally reliable guide to the future – the world will
end on a Saturday. Next Saturday, in fact. Just after tea . . .
E Early Pratchett
The Carpet People
Strata
Dark Side of the Sun
F Short Stories
Terry has written a number of short stories – some of them
Discworld related. They have been published here and there in edited
story collections and magazines. Look out for them, a number of them are
collectors items.
And the desert island? If I could only take three Pratchetts? It would
have to be Men at Arms, The Colour of Magic and Good Omens.
Enjoy, Rod |