• Neato@ttrpg.network
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    9 months ago

    I was the weird one and started with The Color of Magic and didn’t regret it. Weird Pratchett advised to skip 2 of his own books.

    • alex [they, il]@jlai.lu
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      9 months ago

      I think starting with Color of Magic is just fine, IF you know and enjoy classic heroic fantasy. Otherwise it’s very hard to enjoy without understanding what tropes it’s mocking.

    • captainlezbian@lemmy.world
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      9 months ago

      They’re very different from the rest so it makes sense. IMO you’ve really got 4 eras: The first two, the era where he’s got an idea of what he wants but it’s still forming and being explored (pre industrial, lots of new stuff, characters change a lot as he explores them), his stride (longer series, less satirical, beginning to display his feelings on people as a whole), and then the embuggerance books (frustrated and powerful stories that leave very little of himself held back). They definitely bleed into each other, but there’s a reason Snuff feels a lot more like I Shall Wear Midnight in tone than it does to Guards Guards.

      I think what he’s really saying is “don’t start with the books that came with an assumption that this was a one off parody, start where it’s being written as a series meant to evolve, then when you have a feel for it go read them”

    • Alien Nathan Edward@lemm.ee
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      9 months ago

      I also read them in Roundworld chronological order and was thrilled with them, but looking back as an adult I can see where the guy who wrote Thud! and Dodger might not be entirely proud of the first couple.