Reply to thread

Message: <blockquote data-quote="Celebrim" data-source="post: 8993218" data-attributes="member: 4937">He's definitely hit and miss, and there is a point in most of his story arcs where you should stop reading and go no further.  There is equally a problem that most of his early works tend to be rather bad and his technique in them unpolished compared to his later works.Best Story Arc: Anhk Morpork City Guards:  The opening act "Guards! Guards Guards!" is predictably pretty bad, but almost everything after that is pretty good.  Stop with 'Night Watch', perhaps his best work, but 'Thud!' is not terrible and it might be worth reading 'Thud!' before reading 'Night Watch' so that you end on a high note and with the logical end point of the characters.  Note that I would consider 'Moving Pictures' to be part of this sequence even though its main protagonist is not part of the 'Watch', as the real central character of the guards plot is the city of Anhk-Morpork itself.Second Best Story Arc: Death: Death's own novels are bad to disappointing, but the story comes into its own when it picks up Susan as its main character in 'Hogfather'.  Stop with 'The Thief of Time', perhaps his second-best work.  It might be possible to read just Susan's two books, but having her backstory does add something.Third Best Story Arc: The Witches:  Notable because there isn't a terrible book in the sequence and several decent ones, like 'Wyrd Sisters' and 'Lords and Ladies'. Granny Weatherwax is a tremendous character. You could stop with 'Lords and Ladies' as a natural stopping point, but going on isn't disastrous. Fourth Best Story Arc: Tiffany Aching:  Reading 'The Witches' first, and particular up to 'Lords and Ladies' is worthwhile, as the first book is a sequel to it.  The first book is the best, and it's pretty much all downhill from there.  Stop with 'The Winter Smith'. Fifth Best Story Arc: Moist Von Lipwick: Stop with 'Making Money'.  The first book is the best, and it's all pretty much downhill from there.Sixth Best Story Arc: Rincewind and the Wizards: There is literally nothing in this series worth reading aside from 'Interesting Times' and maybe 'Unseen Academicals'. For 'Interesting Times' you only have to have read 'The Color of Magic'.Outside the main arc you have Pratchett grappling with his take on religion in 'Pyramid' and 'Small Gods'.  Both are above average but neither is essential reading.</blockquote>

Verification