The Color of Magic: A Novel of Discworld (eBook)

The first true book of the Discworld series and one of my favorites. Its really interesting to see how he went from scifi to fantasy and this book is where he was finalizing that change.

Stealing from my own earlier post on another Pratchett book a few days ago for those wondering what to do with this potential new author.

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The best part about Discworld is there are essentially multiple entry points.

Besides multiple characters who have one off novels that touch the main series to a greater or lesser amount (Thief of Time, Moving Pictures, Small Gods (one of my favorites), Pyramids, Amazing Maurice, The Truth, probably another I'm forgetting), there are "themes" or ones that follow specific characters.

There are the Witches series, which follows a coven of witches from the deep country and very occasionally touches the main city. Generally the more intricate of the books.

There's the Death series, which while not a consecutive stories is a set of stories around Death, including the seasonally appropriate Hogfather. Generally more heady concepts.

There's the "teen series" Tiffany Aching books, which became "teen" books on the second to get the market share but isn't written down in any way. This also has the very last book Pratchett wrote. They have an overall arcing message about understanding and accepting responsibility.

The wizards series which follows Rincewind and/or the various wizards. Generally the more slapstick and silly of the books.

And of course the guards series, which starts with this book. The writing on the guard series really shows Pratchett learning how to involve an ensemble cast and not just a single person. Carrot, for example, is mentioned as an important character but takes several books to become more than a background joke.

He also wrote books before coming up with Discworld that are worth a read. The Carpet People, The Nome/Bromeliad Trilogy, and Strata, to name a few. Strata and Carpet people have tons of proto-Discworld characters in them. The Nome books just have to be read to explain...and they are loooooooong, but good.

Hope this helps you and others considering reading Terry Pratchett's works. Really a great author and also had a very interesting life I recommend looking into as well. Among other things, he made his own sword from a meteor when he was knighted (and making a sword is apparently illegal!).

Edit - the official website has a little "where should I start" interactive guide you can try here: https://www.discworldemporium.com/reading-order/