The true number one, Night Watch is a masterpiece that people without prior discworld knowledge won't understand. You Do The Job That Is In Front Of You
Night Watch isn't just my favourite Discworld book but one of my favourite books of all time in any genre. pterry really was firing on all cylinders for this one
I always thought of The Truth as not a standalone but instead the first of a series about modernization and creating institutions along with the Lipwig books.
I always recommend Guards! Guards! As the starting point, then to to back later and read the earlier books when the world is more established in your mind
Just a personal note: I love Eric. Probably mostly because it was the first novel I read in English. I chose it deliberately because I knew I wanted to catch all the puns and references and wouldn't gloss over anything. So I made heavy use of my dictionary page after page, plowed through it and ended up with a notebook of (to me) rather unusual vocabulary. After that I knew it by heart and some of the quotes made it into my everyday's figures of speech. "Life might have turned out a whole lot different [...] With a little extra cream in it." Have a great day!
1. Pyramids 2. Small Gods 3. Thief of Time 4. Night Watch 5. Carpe Jugulum 6. The Truth 7. Going Postal 8. Guards! Guards! 9. The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents 10. Soul Music 11. Moving Pictures 12. Lords and Ladies 13. Eric 14. Reaper Man 15. Jingo 16. Men at Arms 17. Interesting times 18. The Last Continent 19. Making Money 20. Monstrous Regiment 21. Unseen Academicals 22. The Fifth Elephant 23. Maskerade 24. Witches Abroad 25. Hogfather 26. Thud! 27. Feet of Clay 28. Wyrd Sisters 29. Mort 30. The Colour of Magic 31. The Light Fantastic 32. Sourcery 33. Equal Rites 34. Snuff 35. Raising Steam
Im glad to hear you are fond of the later discworld books, as some people feel they suffered after his Alzheimers started to affect his writing process. I personally feel like discworld got a new lease of life near the end with the introduction of Tiffany and Moist aswell as the goblins and steam trains!
1. NIGHT WATCH=Carcer and Dr Lawn, lilac 2. THIEF OF TIME=Read the last third and want chocolates 3. MONSTROUS REGIMENT=based on reality more than people realise. Margaret Ann Bulkley served as a Victorian army surgeon called Brigadier James Barry. Thanks again for the awesome Discworld reviews.
As I've come of age, I found myself shifting more to the Witches than the Watch. Both Masquerade and Carpe Jugulum work very good as character comedy, where the Watch-books (due to Vimes and Angua taking over) got consistently more grim and aggressive. I still love Guards and Feet of Clay, but the later books lost me somewhere down the line with all the hot white fury that everyone seems to love now...
I am very new to Discworld, having only read three books so far, those being Mort, Going Postal and Small Gods, and am currently in the middle of Reaper Man. Thanks for the quick fire informative introduction to the whole plethora! I'm gonna use this is a guidance to pick which books to go for next.
I thought that Snuff was a strong statement against slavery and racism, a reflection on our ways of treating 'primitive' civilisation. It was quite different from the other Vimes stories as it takes place away from Ank Morpok. I felt it was darker and not as light-hearted as the other books. I liked it a lot, but my favourite is still Nightwatch.
It's funny you say Thief of Time is best for someone already invested in Discworld, because it was the first one I read and the one that hooked me! Also Night Watch is my #1 as well.
I can't help wondering if the term "worst villain" as applied to Vorbis refers to his being the worst in terms of most evil or worst in terms of lowest quality.
I genuinely think vorbis is one of the most evil and well written villains in discworld. mostly because his power comes entirely from his position rather than his own skill/knowledge and the gradual revelation that hes acting outside the orders of the church.
Night Watch is not only my favorite Discworld book, but is my favorite book of any author. It's the one I was waiting to hear about, and as it got later and later in the video without mention of it, I got more and more excited. Sam Vimes, and Granny Weatherwax are my favorite Discworld characters. To me they are like the mother and father archetypes of the series. I have read all of the books except Shepherds's Crown (I want one last surprise), and I have just discovered The Last Hero (a Cohen, Rincewind book). I found it on RU-vid as an audiobook, and have been parcing it out little by little. A lot of people didn't like the last few Discworld books because they aren't as silly and fun as the earlier ones, but I feel the whole series just gets better, and I like and appreciate the darkness. I think it was his stage in life, and illness reflected in his work. Top 5: Night Watch Unseen Academicals (a scathing, accurate, and very funny assessment of academia with class undertones) Thud Snuff Witches Abroad (love the politics, and the squabbling) Bottom 5: Moving Pictures (follows the film industry without any real twists) Soul Music (the bad pun with the Imp y Selyn's name spoiled it for me) Interesting Times (he hasn't really caught his stride yet) The Last Continent (same) Sourcery (not so fond of the first few books) Most meaningful: Thud ("Who watches the watchman?" "Call me the guarding dark.") Funniest moment: Men at Arms (They looked at the drinks. They drank the drinks). Most Inspiring: Going Postal (overcoming intertia) Biggest regret: Granny never meets Vimes Most satisfying moment: Thief of Time, when Lu-Tze defeats the dojo bully Character most identified with personally: Glenda (I look like I imagine her looking; also, when I was reading it I was working in food prep). There is no book in this series that's bad, but some are stellar.
Sam Vimes and Granny Weatherwax are my favourite characters too, I think. With Vetinari as well. I want to think of my favourites in your other categories now, too (most meaningful, funniest moment, etc.)! I'm very happy you enjoyed the video; thank you for watching and commenting!
I'd be tempted to say Thud. The Fifth Elephant and Monstrous Regiment, but i already edited this post for the 3rd spot so I'll not think about it too much
My list of favorites changed when I realized I've read The Truth more times than the rest. The next three would be books with Lu Tze, that character shows up when Pratchett is really saying something. I was glad to see you gave Monstrous Regiment a good review. I'm an old male and I worry Terry might've been a bit naïve or simplistic when writing a female perspective but I have no way tp know. Good list.
The funny thing is, Night Watch was my first Watch book, and actually one of my earlier Discworld books. It grabbed me with both hands and didn't let go.
Hi Quiet, really enjoyed your review, it’s got me thinking about my order but I feel a new reread is in order before I can compare. Its good to see you doing a full run through of his books including the Tiffany books and the first two books.
Really enjoyed this. I like you reviews of the individual books and it's nice to see that all in one place. Also enjoy the way you kept stressing that this is your opinion now and it'll shift with time, always nice to see that emphasised. Also I love that you put Maurice so high up, I think people sleep on that book a lot and it's fantastic. Monstrous Regiment would be top for me and I'm far less fond of Thud but otherwise I found myself mostly nodding and agreeing.
Thank you! Yes, my opinion has changed so much this reread that I can only expect it to change again in the future! And true, I don't see Maurice mentioned that much. I don't see Monstrous Regiment mentioned that much either, so I'm really happy it's your favourite!
No 1 Raising steam :It brought so many elements together No 2 Night watch : it’s darkness No 3 Jingo : The bits surrounding the submarine crack me up. No 4 making money: moist at his coolest No 5: educated rodents a fun book
I joined a book club with a free offer. The offer was 4 discworld omnibus volumes and a copy of nightwatch. The books arrived on Saturday morning. I opened nightwatch after lunch and I went to bed at one in the morning having read the entire book. I was enthralled, hooked and deeply satisfied. The reason for this comment is that watching book reviews on RU-vid is a favourite pastime of mine, and yours aligns with my opinion almost exactly. Not bad for a young lady just entering the summer of her life and an old man firmly in the winter of his. I wish you every success and happiness as you negotiate the seasons. And thank you so very much. PS I am 70 years old
What a lovely comment, thank you so much! I'm so happy you enjoyed Night Watch, and I hope you have a great time with the rest of your book club reads!
I am planning on reading the Discworld series so your video was really helpful thank you. I will probably read them in order of publication, because I will understand the characters and story better that way. Looking forward to the journey ahead of me..
Naturally I disagreed with most of your rankings,but that's the great thing about Pratchett he means different things to different people,even at his worst he is still very readable.
I 'reread' the Discworld books most often as audiobooks, and my top books are fabulous as audiobooks- Night Watch, Jingo, The Wee Free Men, Monstrous Regiment, Men at Arms, The Last Continent, Thud!, and Unseen Academicals. I also do love the first 2, The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, as audiobooks. My favorite characters are Carrot, the Luggage, Nanny Ogg, Greebo, Dafty Wullie, and DEATH.
For me, its as follows 1) Maskerade - purely as you may not appreciate the true comedic value of mixing Phantom of the Opera with Some Mother's will have them's Frank Spencer, this is because Michael Crawford who starred as Frank (trenchcoat and beret) would go on to play the first Phantom for the musical by Andrew Lloyd Webber, adding additional jokes that you may have missed 2) Men at Arms - book 2 of the city watch (feet of clay is afterwards), because of the mix of adding Angua and more fully creating the character of Detritus with the running joke of Don't Salute 3) Wyrd Sisters - introduces Nanny Ogg and Magrat as well as being a parody of Macbeth, i can't help but chuckle at the beginning scene and the response to "When shall we three meet again?" "well, I can do next Tuesday."
Generally happy with list but felt the Tiffany Aiken books and Monstrous Regiment could have been placed higher. I’d have to put shepherds crown and Monstrous Regiment in my top ten. Generally agree about the night watch. My favourite characters are Tiffany, Sam Vîmes and Esme Weatherwax.
Raising Steam is great, but I do suspect that it was sneakily co-written by someone else alongside Sir T. Some characters and elements feel... off at times.
City Watch first, then Moist and Death fighting for second. Witches at forth, everybody else fifth I guess. The thing about rereading City Watch is once I pick up Guards! Guards! I likely go through the entire Watch series as well.
My copy of the Night Watch has been so re read so often it is unlikely to survive. I also love Carpe Jugulum. A Hat Full of Sky. And I'd be remiss, as an Australian to not include The Last Continent.
I disagree quite strongly about the No 1 these days. I used to have Night Watch in top spot, but it's been replaced in my mind by Small Gods. And it's as much because of the villain as it is about the plot, other characters and the profound critiques of both philosophy and religion. Vorbis has been criticised elsewhere as a somewhat two dimensional Villain, though to some extent this is the fate of all villains, in Discworld or elsewhere. However in the context of the plot this is perfect: the wannabe 8th prophet is embraced by Omnianism on the basis of his word and systemic authority alone. And it's Vorbis's irredeemable nature that then gives the compassion (Post Mortem) of the true 8th prophet Brutha it's bite.
I really liked pyramids, but it’s always felt very fever dream, perhaps because I have tended to start it, then not stop until I’ve finished at 3 in the morning or something. I really like them all though so I can’t fault the rating because if that.
This made me realize all the books I have currently from the Discworld series actual are some of the worst in the series, with Hogfather and Wyrd Sisters being among the best I’ve read. I thought that they would have been some of the best ones, but they are mid in comparison to Night Watch and Postal. That really goes to show that even the weakest of the books are pretty good.
How do you feel about reading order? After reading in publication order, I feel like I would have enjoyed it all the more if I read in sub series order.
I'd agree that publication order isn't the most enjoyable way to read the series, and also that by subseries is a very good way! After I finished all the books for the first time, I read all the City Watch books together and really enjoyed it. But there's so many books, and I think people should just read them in the most convenient way for them, which in my case was the order in which I got them!
That's how I read the series the first time Second time onwards I read by character which I enjoyed more I can't decide which of the characters is my favorite though but I have a soft spot for DEATH as I can relate to him trying t be more human
I've only read 7 of the books so far so this is a limited ranking but Hogfather is definitely my favorite of those but I also really enjoyed Mort and Wyrd Sisters. I'm a bit worried because several of the books you gave lower ratings are the ones I have coming up in my read through ☹️. I think the reason why I've been stuck so long is I've found it very hard to get into Pyramids but I don't want to skip it so I need to try again, third time's the charm hopefully 😂. Wonderful video as always Mouse! 😀
Yay thank you! I wouldn't worry too much about the lower rated books coming up in your readthrough; even the ones near the bottom of my favourites list were still pretty good and had lots to recommend them! Fingers crossed you get on with Pyramids this time; I really love Pteppic has a character, and I think the villain is pretty good, so hopefully if you also find something like that that you can latch onto it'll help... :)
@@quietasmouse thanks for the reassurance Mouse! I think I just need to push through the beginning of Pyramids because it keeps feeling like a slow start so hopefully I get through it and start to enjoy it more 😀.
I really liked Snuff i enjoyed the more relaxed feeling it had as well as going deeper into sam vimes relationship with his family and social class it also made me want to rewatch hot fuzz 😂
Mort was the first discworld read for me and it was the first time a book had me laughing out loud, that scene with Death asking Mort why he had him clean out the stable hooked me into the series so will always be my favourite
@@quietasmouse it was a great introduction and the addiction only got worse over the years, when it comes to the audiobook versions I don't think you can beat Stephen Briggs
I deeply love all Witch books (the old ones, the Aching-books are not my favs) and as a single book Night watch, but at this moment are the two Cohen-Books my favourit ones: Interesting times and Last hero. From time to time the ranking changes, so maybe a few years later..... who knows.
I am surprised that you didn't like The Last Continent so much if you love parody. My all time favourite image is Death asking his Library for a book on the dangerous flora and fauna of XXXX...and then for the benign ones.
YES! Nightwatch is the best. I'm going to subscribe just for you saying that. Moving Pictures is the worst. I'm not even sure he wrote that, he's better than that pile of..
Have you seen what the BBC have done with the Night Watch - terrible! No Sgt Colon, no Nobby Nobbs a hotpotch of awfulness! They've cobbled together bits of several novels in no particular order and have created a mess. Pratchett must be turning in his grave at this travesty.
I love the fact that well over two thirds of your ratings I would disagree with but it doesn’t matter as you just love wandering around the disc like I do x.
Thank you for the video. Unseen Academicals was the last Discworld novel that didn't show Sir Pratchett's Alzheimer's. Everything after that felt much preachier and increasingly like fan fiction. My relationship with Pratchett work feels like a long, great marriage that had a couple of bad years at the end.
My top five: Night Watch Small Gods The Truth Thief of Time Feet of Clay I really like Vimes and the City Watch. The History Monks are pretty amazing too! The witches and wizzards are not to be denied either.
Wow, I'm only roughly halfway through the series but my ranking already looks completely different. So far my top 3 are: 1. Reaper Man 2. Small Gods 3. Guards! Guards!. I'm excited to get to Night Watch
the last hero always felt like a short-story to me. An awesome idea that had a lot of potential but was far too brief. Or another way of looking at it would be a pterry book edited by J.J. Abrams, jumping from one viewpoint to another far too quickly to keep the reader settled (at least compared to other discworld books), seemingly flashing between the grey hoard and the "city" far too often... I also wouldnt really consider it a rincewind book, hes in it, but its not his story.
the opening scene of unseen academicals is my favourite singular piece of discworld writing, the amazing description of the dark and silent corridors of UU, with Nutt helping smeems with the emperor in the dead of night, in the silent creaking of the unseen university, and eventually the call of "ho, the megapode" echoing through the halls before all hell breaks loose.
Interesting Times your LEAST favorite? Harrumph, I say. :P In all seriousness though, I think it's funny how a major factor in what constitutes both our least favorite Discworld novels is aging poorly. XD
I don't share your ratings for many, but I think I would certainly agree with your placing Nightwatch at the top. I guess monstrous regiment would be a close second for me, and the fifth element would be up there too.....oh damn this..there are just too many I would want to place near the top! For anyone that has never read a discworld book, please have a go. The best of the books are mirrors of real life issues, social conventions and inequalities. The books are more than just amusing fantasy books.
I was an early fan of Discworld and have several signed copies. My proudest item is a signed Soul Music T-shirt.. I always reading the footnotes. His use. Of English is a joy.
I've only read a handful of Discworld books, but my favorite thus far has also been Night Watch. I enjoyed this video a lot - after watching it I'm excited to delve deeper into the Discworld.
Excellent video. I don't think I'd be able to rank them all so successfully. I'm currently in the midst of my own re-read, next up Witches Abroad. You asked for Top 5, but I'll do you one better, Top5+bottom1. Which will absolutely change as I get through the re-read. 41. Sourcery. 5. Monstrous Regiment. 4. Mort. 3. Guards! Guards! 2. Going Postal. 1. Moving Pictures.
Mouse the Discworld Discographer. Go Mouse! However, since u r Mouse and mice r rodents, I'd thought u'd give 1st place to The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. :-D
I'm new to Discworld. I have been reading The Wheel Of Time and as I've entered the dreaded slog I was having a hard time in Crossroads of Twilight, so I bought some Discworld titles to lighten things up. I wasn't impressed with the first 10 pages of Guards! Guards!, but by the time I got to page 60 I was enjoying it. I purchased Mort and a combo of Colour of Magic/Light Fantastic at the same time that I'm planning to pepper in, taking Discworld to work for breaks and saving the 700 page WOT books for evening reading.
Oooh interesting! I'm glad you stuck with Guards! Guards! and I hope you enjoy your Discworld read (and also get back into Wheel of Time). I used to do a similar thing with reading, having a smaller book for my work commute and a larger book for evening reading. It was a good system, I liked it a lot!
@@quietasmouse I first got into fantasy as a teen with Piers Anthony's pun based Xanth series and I enjoyed Aspirin's Myth books which were my only experiences with the absurdist subgenre. I do love long series. Before WOT I'd just read 30+ books of Shannara and years back, McCaffrey's Dragonriders of Pern which is over a dozen. My post WOT plan was rereading Mistborn and go into all the Cosmere so I could continue with the Discworld by day and deeper stuff my night.
