Terry Pratchet Starting Point

[Philomath she/her]

Okay, so I waited until now to get into secret project 1 stuff and so I’m just now hearing Brandon say he was inspired in some ways by Terry Pratchett and that he is a favorite author of Brandon’s. I am mildly ashamed to admit I have never read any Terry Pratchett, but have heard recommendations before. But I am highly interested in reading him now. So, do any of you have a good starting place for getting into reading his works?

[Robin Sedai she/her]

9 hours ago, Philomath said:

Okay, so I waited until now to get into secret project 1 stuff and so I’m just now hearing Brandon say he was inspired in some ways by Terry Pratchett and that he is a favorite author of Brandon’s. I am mildly ashamed to admit I have never read any Terry Pratchett, but have heard recommendations before. But I am highly interested in reading him now. So, do any of you have a good starting place for getting into reading his works?

Guards! Guards! is often mentioned as a good place to start. Earlier books are still good, but more unpolished. The first two books suffer most from this imo,  they don't give you a great sense of Pratchett's style and they're more direct parody than later ones.

Brandon himself recommends starting with The Truth, Going Postal, or Guards! Guards! (https://www.brandonsanderson.com/goodbye-sir-terry/) I actually started with the first one (The Colour of Magic.) I read it age nine or ten and I've been hooked ever since.

Brandon also wrote an article about Terry's work, you might already have read it but I'll post it just in case. It's a great article and I recommend it to everybody, whether they've read his books or not.

Terry Pratchett’s Discworld Might Be The Highest Form of Literature on the Planet | Tor.com

Edited January 2, 2023 by Robin Sedai

[The Unknown Medallion he/him]

I will second Guards! Guards! As that's what I did (at Brandon's recommendation), Going Postal (probabally Brandon's favorite) is also a good starting point. Another beloved book is the Hogfather, which I have not read, that may be another choice or a good second book.

[NerdyAarakocra They/Them]

I actually started with The Color of Magic. I found it very fun. It's a light read that I found similar to The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, if you've ever read that. It's not super serious, and the plot jumps around a lot. It is quite funny, though. I enjoy his early works, like The Carpet People, although that might not be the best starting point. It's good subtle political commentary very brash political commentary, but his later works have more polish.

Edited January 2, 2023 by NerdyAarakocra
Adding more detail.

[Trutharchivist he/him]

Might I recommend the Death series from Discworld? In it, it's best to start at Reaper Man, I think - do read it before Hogfather, people tend to say that there's no order to the Discworld series but the events of Reaper Man predate Hogfather and contain some characters that appear in it.

I personally didn't like Guards! Guards! all that much, but I guess it's an important one. There's also the Witches series - starting with Equal Rites - which later contain parodies fairy tales and Shakespeare's plays.

Hope I'm not going too over the top here... Anyway, Pratchett's Discworld - his main work, you could say, somewhat like Brandon's is the Cosmere - includes a few sub-series. Two of which I just mentioned by name. Another is the Night Guard series, of which "Guards! Guards!" is the first. Other series include Rincewind - this one includes the first two books to be published in the entire series, the Color of Magic and the Light Fantastic, and Moist Von Lipwig - of which Going Postal is the first.

My older brother who also convinced me to read Sanderson is the Pratchett expert in our family, but he doesn't have a Shard account.

[Philomath she/her]

Thanks everyone! Sounds like I will have plenty to read eventually! 

[Trutharchivist he/him]

I seem to have made a small mistake - the first of the Death novels is Mort, not Reaper Man. My brother recommended starting from either the beginning - the Color of Magic - or from it.