The news of Terry Pratchett’s passing may be the first sad thing associated with his name. His life was spent spinning yarns as fantastical as they were funny. The Discworld books manage to satirize nearly every topic under the sun while also presenting a fully formed and innovative fantasy world a la Middle Earth or Westeros. There were always jokes, but Pratchett was an even better storyteller than he was a satirist. Here are 10 of his books you should check out.
10. The Color of Magic
The first Discworld book may not be a shining example of everything great about the series but getting to see all the elements of genius starting to shimmer here is pretty, you guessed it, magical. It’s a bit more characteristic of straight genre fiction than a lot of the other books but the untempered zaniness contained herein is something still worth laughing out loud about decades later.
9. Soul Music
It may not be one of his most renowned novels, but can you really pass up Pratchett sending up the music industry? Plus, you get a novel centered around Death, the only character in every Discworld book. He’s the reaper, certainly, but grimness isn’t really his bag. He may be the most reliable character for laughs in the entire canon, so don’t fear the reaper.
8. Lords and Ladies
Given Discworld is a vaguely medieval/Renaissance-era fantasy world, it’d be a crime for there not to be a parody of the actual literature of those periods. If you’re a fan of Shakespeare, Chaucer, the theater and A Midsummer Night’s Dream, in particular, then this is the book for you. Pratchett’s hilariously mismatched coven of witches is featured.
7. Thief of Time
In Discworld, time is something manufactured by the Monks of History. They allocate it as they see fit until some upstart gets it into his mind that time she just be stopped dead in its tracks. There’s even more room for philosophical inquiry here than elsewhere within the series.
6. Men at Arms
?You can’t really say you’ve gotten into this series without checking out the City Watch novels. It’s in those where Pratchett really shows how he could create characters with as much humor as depth. The ensemble may shift a bit in each novel but this is as good a place as any to pick up with these characters and run with them. Think your favorite cop show meets The Hobbit written by the crew behind Parks & Recreation and you’ll start to have an idea of how this book feels.
