Pineapple Express: Someone Is Wrong on the Internet?

[prabe]

Release order is always the best way to consume media <glares at Star Wars fans>

The objectively best way to consume Star Wars is to start with the first movie released and to watch them in order of release until something breaks in your soul and you quit.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

This is definitely a concern. On the other hand, I've picked up The Colour of Magic at least 3-4 times and just bounced hard. If you had to do it in order, I would never have gotten into Discworld. Is there a cost to doing otherwise? Of course, but sometimes an earlier book (or film) is just not going to work. I've heard similar comments about Sundiver and David Brin's Uplift Universe, or the first Mad Max film.

Equal Rites, I believe, is the first non-Rinceworld book and is only #3 in the saga. You get more Unseen University, you get an early mix of the Lancre Witches (including Weatherwax and Ogg, who are among the most important characters in the whole series).

That might be a better jump-on point if you wanted to try again but don't care about Rincewind (who is, admittedly, a pretty one-note character).

I am definitely biased by the fact that the university and the witches are my two favorite subgroups in the franchise, though.

 

[prabe]

I am definitely biased by the fact that the university and the witches are my two favorite subgroups in the franchise, though.

Again, not really trying to argue, here, just pointing at a different experience and POV: My wife is one of the people who got me in to Pratchett, and she absolutely adores the Witches, and she started me with Guards! Guards!.

 

[overgeeked]

This is definitely a concern. On the other hand, I've picked up The Colour of Magic at least 3-4 times and just bounced hard.

That's exactly what happened to me. I tried Colour several times and bounced off. I looked at all the guides on just starting with later books, like the Guard series. I bounced even harder off the first one. I think I got maybe 20 pages in before dropping it. Gave it a few years and went back to Colour and am reading straight through in publication order. As the Discworld becomes more its own thing and less a parody of D&D and fantasy fiction, the less interested I become.

 

[Mannahnin]

I started with Wyrd Sisters, so it wasn't too deep in, with that much lore in the past. I did go back to catch up from the beginning but The Colour of Magic felt like a REAL dip in quality and a slog by comparison.

 

[Staffan]

Release order is always the best way to consume media <glares at Star Wars fans>

Hmm. You are probably right when it comes to the first time around, but for some properties it can be nice to read/watch in chronological order on repeated attempts.

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

As the Discworld becomes more its own thing and less a parody of D&D and fantasy fiction, the less interested I become.

Conversely, I've found the later books make me want to run a (slightly more serious) game set in a similarly evolving fantasy world. I long ago added a working semaphore "clacks" system to my Ptolus campaign, for instance. (My system breaks down whenever it's narratively helpful, of course.)

 

[Whizbang Dustyboots]

I started with Wyrd Sisters, so it wasn't too deep in, with that much lore in the past. I did go back to catch up from the beginning but The Colour of Magic felt like a REAL dip in quality and a slog by comparison.

The series definitely hockey sticks up in quality around Wyrd Sisters.

 

[Thomas Shey]

Largely because of the ethical limits placed on such things. Get someone like Dr. Arik Soong, who's willing to do trial and error gene editing on thousands of embryos "just because" and you might have that sort of result in years, rather than decades.

Ironically, the Federation had such bad luck early on with augments that they never really got it right; Khan and his kin other than their tendency toward antisocial personality disorder, were more consistent and less flawed than the much later group of human augments that showed up on DS9. Getting a good result out of doing that with humans (as compared to, say, the Illyrians) shows all signs that its hit or miss for a very long time.

 

[overgeeked]

The series definitely hockey sticks up in quality around Wyrd Sisters.

Weirdly, that's the one I'm stuck on currently. I'm about 25% of the way through Wyrd Sisters and just checked out. Haven't gone back to it in months. Checking my posts...yep. July 2025 I was just starting Wyrd Sisters. Marched on to about 25% and stopped dead. Haven't looked back since.