Brandon Sanderson, another well-known fantasy writer, once compared Terry Pratchett to Shakespeare. His main argument was that, unlike many other humorists, Pratchett can weave together a brilliant and captivating story that holds your attention. This makes sense to me: I love Bill Bryson, for instance, and have many laugh-out-loud moments with his books but they central storyline don't grip me and it often takes me months to finish one of his. Pratchett's use of literary allusion and memorable characters add to the general brilliance of his books. (For Sanderson's full article, click here)
I think the fact that he had this whole world laid out to explore and see through the eyes of many different characters is what kept me coming back. For the most part, the books don't need to be read in order (unless you want to follow a certain characters trajectory) and they cover everybody from Death to the Patrician (leader of the foulest cities of them all!), to guttersnipes and con-men and grandmother-witches, and trolls and dwarfs. There's lots of variety and when characters wander into other characters books it's like running into old friends. I'm not a fan of giant, epic series where you have to read 11 books to "know what happens". Discworld isn't like that, you can dip into it wherever you like and stay as long as you like!
RIP Sir Terry
My top 3 Discworld books:
1. Colour of Magic - best place to start in your Discworld journeys.
2. Going Postal - a conman forced to make the world a better place
3. Guards! Guards! and all 8 books about the Ankk-Morpork City Watch (The police force).
