Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy is fuckin amazing.
Douglas Adams and Terry Pratchett are responsible for 80% of my sense of humor.
Never found Douglas Adams books funny but loved how entertaining they are. And discword is one of my favourite series, Pratchett’s writing style makes the books effortless to read.
I really love Douglas Adams books and just going through the middle of the colour of magic… Not feeling like the best book ever, but enjoying It so far. Any recommendations for the next one from Terry Pratchett’s discworld saga? Too many to choose from… 😔
There’s a reading order guide. Take your pick! I agree that The Color of Magic is one of the worse starting points. I liked the Watch novels (starting with Guards! Guards!).
You people are insane, I tried the ebook for the first one from my library: 7 copies, 37 people waiting
It’s a great book. It’s just got some fantastic competition.
So which series do you start on? Rincewind, Witches, Death, or Watch? Does it matter?
Pick whichever of the orange “starter novels” you want (maybe read series synopsis and pick whichever appeals to you most) and proceed down the flowchart. Once you finish one line, go to another.
Whichever you want. It doesn’t really matter.
Lol I tried starting with colour of magic and hated it.
I would recommend going through at least the first few in order because of world building. My favorite book is Night Watch though.
Colour of magic and light fantastic are 2 of the worst books in the discworld series. They’re not bad books, but nothing compared to what comes later. I read the series in chronological order and don’t regret it, so don’t give up on it. You can also follow the story arcs, if one particularly appeals to you.
Witches is a significant step up, and it only gets better from there, as Pratchett hits his stride.
I disagree, they set the scene for what’s to come.
We see ankh morpork and the wider discworld through the eyes of rincewind (lives it, knows it, mostly hates and/or scared of it) and twoflower (all new, loves it all, naive).
So it sets the stage for all the other characters to enter and exit from there onwards.
Don’t get me wrong, they are important books, and quite good. They just lack something compared to the later books. It’s like the shutter start effect on some films. Initially it’s a bunch of stills. At a critical point it becomes a stuttering moving image. It finally becomes a living breathing film.
You can go with the chronological order of publication or by series. So far I like the Death and the Guards series the best.
Read all the night’s watch books. They are hilarious. Mort is good as a stand alone and the witches books are brilliant too.
I just wanted to recommend Dimension of Miracles by Robert Sheckley Its a very similar style of humor and was actually written before Hitch Hikers. The audiobook is particularly exceptional.
Probably the best opening to any non Pratchett book.
I personally really like Mark Lawrence’s red sister opening slightly more for its world building and absurdity until you find out why nuns and the MC particularly are so dangerous in that world
Seveneves starts with the moon shattering.
My replacement copy of the increasingly inaccurate trilogy, Ultimate,6 story copy just made it this weekend!
I just finished a book called “The prophet and the idiot” that gave me similar vibes as Douglas Adams. Not the same but very entertaining