Least favourite Discworld book

[Jan Van Quirm]

Strata's pre Discworld (and I've never read it so I can't comment either way) and CoM and LF are 'practice books' essentially and like WWD I still read those two and enjoy them from the PoV of it being interesting to see some of the later 'stock' characters whilst they're growing up. LF in fact has some brilliant touches - the bits with Cohen in them are inspired and he doesn't change at all hardly. But they're not as good as the rest 'cos Terry was still working things out and hadn't got into his stride yet - I think for me that was achieved in Mort and he didn't look back after that.

Wyrd Sisters, Pyramids and Moving Pictures were all excellent and (aside from being biased and nuts about Gaspode) I still think the latter is wonderful because that's the point where Terry's really starting to show his true mastery of satire in making his most astute and pointed pokes at social idiocy

I don't really dislike any of the books he's written that I've read, although Going Postal didn't impress me that much and so I'm not too interested in looking at Making Money (Moist didn't appeal much TBH) and the Feegles leave me cold more or less and almost put me off Carpe Jugulum. Certainly I'm also not fussed about reading the Tiffany books either for that reason mostly - but also because I'm the sort of person that goes the other way when told 'You MUST' do something... but I'll probably give in to the glowing recommendations some of you have given for those 3 books... eventually! :twisted:

 

[Tonyblack]

To be fair, the Feegles are much better developed and easier to understand in the Tiffany books than they are in Carpe Jugulum.

 

[poohbcarrot]

but also because I'm the sort of person that goes the other way when told 'You MUST' do something...

Jan you MUST never read the Tiffany books!

Also, you MUST never send me a bagful of used tenners.

 

[Who's Wee Dug]

I did like Dark side of the Sun and Strata you could definitely see the influences in the later Discworld books.

 

[Jan Van Quirm]

pooh - sorry no go! I'm also incredibly fickle, which may account for my other nasty habit of contradicting myself in posts... :twisted:

 

[Jakindra]

I've worked my way through Discworld over quite a long span of time (which means that it's a couple of years since some of the books and I was quite young at the time, so can't really recall all at the time of writing.), so on the top of my head the first book that comes to me is Colour of Magic. I'm not even sure I actually finished it. I've never liked Rincewind (he's an useless coward most of the time/boring), and twoflowers didn't do much for me either. I'm watching the film right now tho (had to see it ofc). But I do love all the books that features Granny and Nanny, Susan/Death and the Feegles. Although I found the Tiffany books better in Norwegian than English actually, but I suspect this has more to do with me not being very familiar with English dialects when I was 12.

 

[Omnia]

Out of the Discworld books the ones I like least would have to be Small Gods and Making Money. I just don't re-read 'em very often. I didn't like Thud too much at first, but it has grown on me

 

[superfurryandy]

Is Rincewind the least popular 'focal' character in the DW oeuvre, then? Must say I agree with most of the comments here about him. The first two stand alone for me, more setting the scene than anything else - other than that, The Last Continent would be the least good DW book for me.

 

[poohbcarrot]

I like Rincewind!

 

[superfurryandy]

There's always one

 

[Tonyblack]

There's always one

And it's usually Pooh!

Seriously though - Rinsewind is a useful character of Terry's because he can been thrown from one side of the Disc to another without any apparent harm. He seems to be indestructable and that's also useful when it comes to comedy. But his abilities allow Terry to explore the Disc without having to spend half a book getting there as most of the other characters would have to.

But that sort of almost slapstick type comedy gets a bit thin once you've read the books a few times in my opinion.

 

[poohbcarrot]

How can you not like Rincewind? Without Rincewind there would have been no Discworld. All I can say is you're all going to hate Unseen Academicals then, coz Rincewind's in it. :twisted:

You lot have got not one ounce of romance in your body. I bet none of you even remember the first girl/boy you kissed!

If Rincewind's in a book, you are guarenteed laughs. He isn't a serious character. The Last Continent or Interesting Times were miles funnier than Nightwatch or Small Gods.

And Pyramids was hilarious!

And Tony, you can't even spell his name properly!

 

[Tonyblack]

And Tony, you can't even spell his name properly!

I spelled it the American way.

 

[poohbcarrot]

And Tony, you can't even spell his name properly!

I spelled it the American way.

I assume you were joking Tony, but I wouldn't be surprised if TP's US publishers made him spell it differently, just like the chapters!

 

[Tonyblack]

And Tony, you can't even spell his name properly!

I spelled it the American way.

I assume you were joking Tony, but I wouldn't be surprised if TP's US publishers made him spell it differently, just like the chapters!

Yes just joking in an effort to hide my inability to spell.

 

[Sjoerd3000]

My least favourite DW novel is Maskerade. I only read the Dutch translation which is very poor(not translated by the usual translator) So I'm still planning to read it in English. After that Sourcery is my least favourite. Despite this Rincewind is one of my favourite characters.

 

[poohbcarrot]

Don't forget to vote!

 

[Sjoerd3000]

Vote? where? how?

 

[poohbcarrot]

Broken Drum.
Rincewind poll.

 

[Tonyblack]

Vote? where? how?

I think he means HERE.