It’s bloody great. I love the absurd humour and wordplay, the weird non linear plot, the black humour and satire of bureaucracy. Then you get hit in the guy with some really dark depressive shit. It really isn’t for everyone, though. There ain’t nothing like it. Well Kurt Vonnegut kinda has the same vibe in some of his books, but I love his books for other reasons.
I’d probably put a Vonnegut book in my favourites list as well but I couldn’t decide which one!
I read Catch-22 in high school and found it really funny. Then I read it about 30 years later and it was just so damn angry. I think I had lived enough to really understand the anger by that point. Great both times, if different.
What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused, or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, and rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to bodyguards, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere.
I’ve had my eye on the night watch before, it’s part of the discworld series right, every time I come across that it looks a little daunting, is it one big series or just drop in wherever
Well it’s kinda complicated lol. It’s not really one giant series that has to be read in order, it’s a bit of a shared world type thing with various sub-series focusing on various characters or places and some stand alone stuff. Some characters will kinda float in and out of the various sub series as well, and a lot of the books are centred around the city of Ankh-Morpork. The later books kinda got more connected with various plots about technological and social progress across the world.
Night Watch is the 5th or 6th (I forget which) Watch sub-series of books which focus on Ankh Morpork’s city watch, ie coppers. It focuses mostly on their Commander Sam Vimes. I’d rate the watch books as some of the more inter connected ones, so reading the previous 4 or 5 watch books at the very least before Night Watch would most certainly enhance it a lot.
It’ll probably still be quite a good read without knowing the background of the characters and city though, Pratchett’s satire and social commentary would still shine through, but you’ll probably miss out on a bunch of subtext.
The Discworld books are some of my favourites, started reading them in the late 90s as a teen and they’ve been with me through some tough times. I recently had a big re-read of almost the entire series over the past few years and I’m still finding new things, new jokes and puns and new meanings after all these years. I still haven’t read the final 2 or 3 though. Kinda makes me sad thinking they there will be no more to read after those so I’ll hold off for a few more years. First couple of books are a bit meh though.
Thanks for the deep dive into the series there, much appreciated and really helpful, I’ll 100% be adding them to my list, probably pick the few you mentioned before the 5th instalment Night Watch.
I do love a series that’s complicated and has a whole world built with characters that crossover, good shit right there. ^^
Btw there is a nice guide for the reading order and connections of the main Discworld books. While I haven’t read Night Watch, Guards! Guards! is also very good and it sets up the watch story nicely so you could start from there and maybe skip a few books before the Night Watch.
Don’t really do favourite lists but if I did Catch-22 by Joseph Heller and Night Watch by Terry Pratchett would probably be very near the top.
Added catch 22 to my list, I’m quite intrigued by the synopsis ^^
It’s bloody great. I love the absurd humour and wordplay, the weird non linear plot, the black humour and satire of bureaucracy. Then you get hit in the guy with some really dark depressive shit. It really isn’t for everyone, though. There ain’t nothing like it. Well Kurt Vonnegut kinda has the same vibe in some of his books, but I love his books for other reasons.
I’d probably put a Vonnegut book in my favourites list as well but I couldn’t decide which one!
thats my bad there, replied to wrong comment, it does sound like a ton of fun to read
I read Catch-22 in high school and found it really funny. Then I read it about 30 years later and it was just so damn angry. I think I had lived enough to really understand the anger by that point. Great both times, if different.
What a lousy earth! He wondered how many people were destitute that same night even in his own prosperous country, how many homes were shanties, how many husbands were drunk and wives socked, and how many children were bullied, abused, or abandoned. How many families hungered for food they could not afford to buy? How many hearts were broken? How many suicides would take place that same night, how many people would go insane? How many cockroaches and landlords would triumph? How many winners were losers, successes failures, and rich men poor men? How many wise guys were stupid? How many happy endings were unhappy endings? How many honest men were liars, brave men cowards, loyal men traitors, how many sainted men were corrupt, how many people in positions of trust had sold their souls to bodyguards, how many had never had souls? How many straight-and-narrow paths were crooked paths? How many best families were worst families and how many good people were bad people? When you added them all up and then subtracted, you might be left with only the children, and perhaps with Albert Einstein and an old violinist or sculptor somewhere.
Would it be benefitial to start 4 books prior to Night Watch, being The Truth or somewhere else?
Edit* I’ve just seen in readarr that the Ankh-Morpork City Watch is sectioned off so I’ve just started there ^^
I’ve had my eye on the night watch before, it’s part of the discworld series right, every time I come across that it looks a little daunting, is it one big series or just drop in wherever
Well it’s kinda complicated lol. It’s not really one giant series that has to be read in order, it’s a bit of a shared world type thing with various sub-series focusing on various characters or places and some stand alone stuff. Some characters will kinda float in and out of the various sub series as well, and a lot of the books are centred around the city of Ankh-Morpork. The later books kinda got more connected with various plots about technological and social progress across the world.
Night Watch is the 5th or 6th (I forget which) Watch sub-series of books which focus on Ankh Morpork’s city watch, ie coppers. It focuses mostly on their Commander Sam Vimes. I’d rate the watch books as some of the more inter connected ones, so reading the previous 4 or 5 watch books at the very least before Night Watch would most certainly enhance it a lot.
It’ll probably still be quite a good read without knowing the background of the characters and city though, Pratchett’s satire and social commentary would still shine through, but you’ll probably miss out on a bunch of subtext.
The Discworld books are some of my favourites, started reading them in the late 90s as a teen and they’ve been with me through some tough times. I recently had a big re-read of almost the entire series over the past few years and I’m still finding new things, new jokes and puns and new meanings after all these years. I still haven’t read the final 2 or 3 though. Kinda makes me sad thinking they there will be no more to read after those so I’ll hold off for a few more years. First couple of books are a bit meh though.
GNU Terry.
Thanks for the deep dive into the series there, much appreciated and really helpful, I’ll 100% be adding them to my list, probably pick the few you mentioned before the 5th instalment Night Watch.
I do love a series that’s complicated and has a whole world built with characters that crossover, good shit right there. ^^
Btw there is a nice guide for the reading order and connections of the main Discworld books. While I haven’t read Night Watch, Guards! Guards! is also very good and it sets up the watch story nicely so you could start from there and maybe skip a few books before the Night Watch.