Discworld

6 series 41 books

The Discworld is the fictional world where English writer Sir Terry Pratchett's Discworld fantasy novels take place. It consists of an interstellar planet-sized disc, which sits on the backs of four huge elephants, themselves standing on the back of a world turtle, named Great A'Tuin, as it slowly swims through space. The Disc is the setting for all forty-one Discworld novels; it was influenced by world religions which feature human worlds resting on turtles, as a setting to reflect situations on Earth, in a humorous way. The Discworld is peopled mostly by three main races: men, dwarfs, and trolls. As the novels progress, other lesser known races are included, such as dragons, elves, goblins, and pixies. Pratchett first explored the idea of a disc-shaped world in the novel Strata (1981).

Reading Order

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Series (6)

Books (6)

Discworld's witches, based around the rural and mostly vertical kingdom of Lancre, deliver babies, treat warts, and keep an eye on troublesome kings, vampires, and incursions from other worlds. They don't have leaders, but Granny Weatherwax is the most highly regarded and steely of the leaders they don't have, assisted by Nanny Ogg - mother of fifteen and brewer of lethally strong cider. Equal Rites introduces witchcraft on the Disc, but the core trio forms in Wyrd Sisters, which sets the template for the series: sharp parodies of well-known stories (Shakespeare, fairy tales, opera) filtered through Pratchett's rural comedy. Across six books, the cast expands to include Magrat Garlick and later Agnes Nitt, and the stories move from Lancre to Genua and back again.

Death

5 books

Death is, as you'd expect, a tall hooded skeleton with a scythe who SPEAKS IN A VOICE LIKE THE SLAMMING OF COFFIN LIDS. However, he also likes a good curry, kittens, and finds the lives of mortals endlessly fascinating. Beginning with Mort, in which Death takes on an apprentice, the series explores what happens when an immortal anthropomorphic personification develops an unhealthy interest in humanity. His granddaughter Susan Sto Helit becomes the central character from Soul Music onwards, reluctantly stepping in whenever Death goes missing or takes on new responsibilities. The five books range from workplace comedy to meditations on belief, memory, and time - Hogfather tackles the power of myth, while Thief of Time deals with the nature of time itself.

The City Watch

8 books

The City Watch series is one of the major story lines that make up 8 of the Discworld books. It focuses on the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, formerly the Ankh-Morpork Night Watch, in particular the captain, and later commander of the Watch, Samuel Vimes, usually when he is being manipulated by Lord Vetinari. The books tend to be whodunit in nature and often feature conspiracies aimed at toppling regimes.

Moist von Lipwig / The Industrial Revolution

3 books

Moist von Lipwig is a cheat, a swindler, and a conman - so he's the natural choice whenever an ailing institution needs new management. With a taste for flashy suits and even flashier publicity stunts, he takes on some of the worst jobs on the Disc and battles even bigger crooks than himself. Going Postal puts him in charge of the defunct Ankh-Morpork Post Office, Making Money hands him the Royal Bank, and Raising Steam sees him overseeing the development of the railway. The three books chart the Disc's industrial modernisation, with Moist as the reluctant engine of progress, always one step ahead of exposure. Lord Vetinari looms large as the puppet master behind each appointment.

Tiffany Aching

5 books

Tiffany Aching is a young witch, social worker, and cheese maker extraordinaire. She hails from a long line of shepherds and has a powerful connection with the Chalk where she lives. Wherever Tiffany goes, it's almost certain that a horde of tiny fighting, drinking blue men in kilts - the Nac Mac Feegle - won't be far away. The five books follow Tiffany from age nine through to young adulthood, each dealing with a different stage of growing up and learning what it means to be a witch. The series connects back to the Witches sub-series, with Granny Weatherwax serving as Tiffany's mentor. The Shepherd's Crown, the final Discworld novel, serves as a conclusion to both Tiffany's story and the series as a whole.

The Truth

1995

William de Worde accidentally invents the newspaper. When a moveable-type printing press falls off the back of a cart, William starts writing things down and selling them, and Ankh-Morpork discovers journalism. A plot to overthrow the Patrician brings William face to face with the powerful interests who preferred the city without a free press. A novel about truth, lies, and the sentence "A dog bites a man - that's not news. A man bites a dog - that's news."

The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

2001

A talking cat, a gang of talking rats, and a stupid-looking kid have a nice racket going - the rats infest a town, the kid plays his pipe, the rats leave, and everyone gets paid. It's the Pied Piper con. Then they arrive in the town of Bad Blintz, where something has already eaten all the real rats, and the game turns dangerous. A Discworld novel for younger readers, darker than it first appears, about stories, sentience, and the moment when being clever stops being enough.

Moving Pictures

2002

The Discworld discovers cinema. Holy Wood - a patch of land with strange creative properties - draws people to it, and soon the Disc has its own dream factory, complete with stars, studios, and a thousand-foot woman climbing a tower. Something ancient is using the power of moving pictures to break through from another dimension, and only a wizard dropout and a would-be leading lady stand in its way. Pratchett's Hollywood novel.

Monstrous Regiment

2003

Polly Perks disguises herself as a boy to join the army of Borogravia - a small, mad country at war with everyone, ruled by a duchess who may or may not be dead, and governed by an ever-growing list of Abominations Unto Nuggan (clove, the colour blue, babies, rocks). Polly's regiment turns out to have more secrets than she expected. A war novel about gender, patriotism, and the absurdity of the things nations ask their people to die for.

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Discworld

Reading Order

Series (6)

Rincewind / The Wizards

The Witches

Books (6)

Pyramids