One of the highlights of my youth (well, I was in my twenties) was the thrill of meeting the author Terry Pratchett. He came to town and did a talk, answered questions, and signed autographs. I had him sign my leg cast (I had broken it playing soccer), and he made a small joke about it. It was, honestly, a wonderful experience. I dream of doing book signings someday and having the same impact on others.
Not that he inspired me to write fantasy, but that he was such a nice person to listen to. I think of all the famous people you hear about, he is one of the few who nobody ever had a bad word about. He was a genuinely nice person, and like millions of others I was very sad when he died a few years ago.
What he left behind was a whole lot of books in several different series, the most famous of which is the Discworld. Very well known in the fantasy world, it isn’t quite as popular in the United States as elsewhere. I would say it’s because the humor is in many ways quite British, which doesn’t seem to translate to the US. It needs a lot of work to get it to do so (see The Office for example).
I’ll also admit I like the earlier books much better than the later ones. It’s not that they’re bad, the early ones are just so good. Honestly when he got into the period when he would base a book around a service (the postal service, trains, the telegraph), I think they were a little more forced, more edited perhaps, than the early books which were wilder and more interesting.
What are the books about?
The Discworld is a flat disc planet which rides on the backs of four elephants, which in turn ride on the back of a giant turtle floating through space. If you understand any of this, you’ll love the stories. All kinds of fantasy happens, with witches and wizards and policemen and Death and more.
Then you start to get into the subsets of the stories, such as the Rincewind books and the Night Watch books. There are reading order lists online which will tell you where to read first, and which book is where. Honestly I just started with the first book and kept going, and you can do that just as easily as me.
The series is much more humorous than most fantasy, but as I said it is British humor (humour), so if you are American there are frankly things you might not get. A reference to a British actor or place is likely to pass you by, although it probably won’t stop you enjoying the books. I might say if you’ve ever enjoyed many of the British shows which have made it to the US (Python, Dr Who, basically anything on PBS) you’ll like the Discworld books.
I’ll also say these books are much better than any show based on them. Over the years there’s been maybe ten television shows made from the books, and honestly I don’t think any of the shows have been as good as the books. This is a case of reading being much better than watching.
Themes of the Discworld
Social Commentary
A lot of the series is social commentary. I mean A LOT. Pratchett covers many of the annoyances of modern life, everything from politicians to religion to bureaucracy, in a satirical way, and we see exactly what we’re all thinking about these things.
The Power of the Story
Not only do we have the overall stories in each book, but there are plenty of subplots going on. Each serve to show the power of the narrative, and how it can be bent for both good and bad.
Ethics
It’s hard to think of the Discworld as a basis of ethics, but it really is. Everyone lives in a morally gray area, so how are they going to react? Do they become as straight as Captain Carrot, or do they bend the rules like Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler? Think about that next time you’re eating a hotdog, right?
A Character of Great Interest
Rincewind was the main character of half a dozen of the early books in the Discworld series. He was a wizard known for being the worst wizard on the entire disc. He was a coward who ran from any danger, but this trait often put him into even more danger. Despite this he had a knack for getting out of anything, mostly due to his instincts for self-preservation.
To be clear, Rincewind is a very funny and endearing character, and you cannot help rooting for him. You would probably think of him as a reluctant hero, who never seeks out adventure but finds himself pushed into it. It’s all circumstantial, but he is usually dragged kicking and screaming into the middle of the story. In a lot of ways he’s used as the Everyman to show us different aspects of the Discworld.
I like to compare him to my character Haprel. A very brief intro tells you that Haprel is the leader of the kingdom of Mubanem. His story is about how he treats people and about how they react. He does not seek the events of the book he stars in, but he certainly has to respond to them.
Take away the comedy, take away the wizardry, and Haprel is just like Rincewind. I’d call him a coward. I’d say his instincts are toward self-preservation. I’d say he is here to show us one of the Nine Kingdoms in some detail.
But I’d never say you should root for him. I don’t hate him at the end of his tale, but I can certainly see why you might. Just the opposite of Rincewind.
What to read next?
The Discworld is a fairly unique series, given that it is mostly a comedy and satirical series of fantasy, rather than the other way round. You really need to look at Pratchett’s other famous book for something similar.
Good Omens by Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaiman. The obvious followup to the Discworld series, it’s got a lot of the same humor but is set in our world with angels and demons and the apocalypse.
The Name of the Wind by Patrick Rothfuss. I’m not entirely sure why I recommend this. As I think about it, it seems eerily similar in some ways. Perhaps it’s the way Kvothe navigates a world which is different but very similar to our own.
Neverwhere by Neil Gaiman. Another Gaiman to recommend, this is probably somewhere between the Discworld and the Good Omans world. Also very enjoyable.
In Conclusion
If you like satire, British humor, and fantasy, it’s all wrapped up in one neat series here. Definitely my favorite comical fantasy series, and right up there with much of the regular fantasy I like. I would recommend you putting it on your reading list, if only to enjoy such a fun time of dropping into a world which is so different yet so familiar to us.
