#* ⌜☆⌟ * what can the harvest hope for if not the care of the reaper ⟶ verse: sq gm. 2 [winner]

[pratchettquotes]

LORD, WE KNOW THERE IS NO GOOD ORDER EXCEPT THAT WHICH WE CREATE...

Azrael's expression did not change.

THERE IS NO HOPE BUT US. THERE IS NO MERCY BUT US. THERE IS NO JUSTICE. THERE IS JUST US.

The dark, sad face filled the sky.

ALL THINGS THAT ARE, ARE OURS. BUT WE MUST CARE. FOR IF WE DO NOT CARE, WE DO NOT EXIST. IF WE DO NOT EXIST, THEN THERE IS NOTHING BUT BLIND OBLIVION.

AND EVEN OBLIVION MUST END SOME DAY. LORD, WILL YOU GRANT ME JUST A LITTLE TIME? FOR THE PROPER BALANCE OF THINGS. TO RETURN WHAT WAS GIVEN. FOR THE SAKE OF PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF THE BIRDS.

Death took a step backward.

It was impossible to read expression in Azrael's features.

Death glanced sideways at the servants.

LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?

Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

[syl-stormblessed]

HGNGBDBFHRHBRRHRVSGDH I'M ALMOST DONE READING REAPER MAN AND?!?!!?!? HELLO?!?!?!?!

I'M LOSING MY MBFUCKIGN MIND WHAT AM I SUPPOSED TO DO WITH THE REST OF MY LIFE

[troubled-bog-witch]

The VIOLENCE of the contrast between the A plot and the B plot in Reaper Man is killing me. Teehee look at this undead wizard! And his silly undead friends! They are fighting compost heaps that's wild! Meanwhile in an insignificant village in the mountains Mr. Bill Door has just invented six new emotions and I'm feeling them all at once

[lamuradex]

It's been rattling around my head recently that Discworld is almost anti-whimsy, and I mean that in a good way.

Whimsy, as I define it, is when something magical is put in just to wow the reader. A magic thing that doesn't really effect the story, but its fantastical. Pots cleaning themselves? Moving paintings? A fantastical creature used as set dressing? A spell that does something cool but we'll never hear about it again? What do they mean? Why are they there? Doesn't matter, we're moving on.

But Discworld always applies Logic to these things.

e.g. The old idea of all dwarfs having beards? Ha ha, even the women have beards. How silly.

But that means all dwarfs are men. But there are female dwarfs, right? Are they happy being men? What if you gave one the chance not to be a man? Oh, sure, they'd still have the beard, the helmet, the axe, those are cultural, but what if a dwarf wanted to be a woman? How would other dwarfs react? Would there be biting insults? Snide remarks? Jealousy from other female dwarfs trapped in their society? What if the Low King were a woman? What then?

Pratchett always had this tenacity to follow a whimsical idea until it was ground down in its own grim reality. It's like those old conversations about what would really happen if Superman caught you falling from a high building. You'd smash on his arms because you're still hitting something indestructible at terminal velocity. But the comics would never show that.

Pratchett shows that.

Introduces a werewolf? She has a constant identity crisis and feels like a dog sometimes, between human and wolf, and she's discriminated against in places for being undead. A conman running a bank? Forces everyone to realise how useless gold really is in a scathing indictment of economics. Death becomes Santa? But WHY DOES THE LITTLE MATCH GIRL NEED TO DIE? WHY THE UNFAIRNESS IN THE WORLD? WHY?

What can the harvest hope for, if not the care of the Reaper Man?

It's what sets these stories apart from so many others. Magic is never the solution, reality is usually the solution. And little is introduced without Pratchett delving the idea to its depths, sooner or later.

[softboiledwonderland]

Every once in a while I randomly remember

LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?

and

LORD, WILL YOU GRANT ME JUST A LITTLE TIME? FOR THE PROPER BALANCE OF THINGS. TO RETURN WHAT WAS GIVEN. FOR THE SAKE OF PRISONERS AND THE FLIGHT OF BIRDS.

and for a few moments I just stop and contemplate my life or think about Sir Terry or cry or need to share them, hence this post. Truly some of the greatest lines I've read in modern literature ever

[ankh-morporkianpostalworker]

This is a bit of a ramble, but:

I truly believe that Sir Terence David John Pratchett is the greatest fantasy author of the post-Tolkien era. No one has done it as well as he did - prose, characters, tone, plot, themes, humor - he was the master of all of them.

His words danced off the page, from single lines like Death's

"LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?"

To the Vimes Boots Theory or Humans Need Fantasy monologues.

His characters are some of the most richly textured I've ever encountered - Death and Sam Vimes and Moist von Lipwig and Granny Weatherwax, each of them feels like they were given thought and care and used to tell stories that they were uniquely suited to tell.

He controlled tone like a master, from slapstick comedy to serious satire to tense moments where you feel that, just for a second, things might not be okay.

His plots were always believable in the context of the worlds he was telling, and were always engrossing - that the metaphysical adventures of Death and co. felt as natural a fit for Discworld as the starting of the setting's first newspaper, the solving of street crime and unraveling conspiracies and the grand re-opening of a post office is proof enough of that.

He used these plots to explore themes of responsibility, social inequality and duty to a person's community with razor-sharp wit and a deep anger for the injustice of the world around him. He fought the evils of the world with a pen and paper, even as he died. No one will ever do it like he did, but that he did it himself might just be good enough.

He brought comfort and joy and happiness and thought and introspection to millions.

GNU, Terry Pratchett. Mind how you go.

[cloudbattrolls]

Maiden is the epitome of me making fun of traditional story heroes not only because he’s a big nerd and he usually only does badass cool things with gritted teeth wishing he was anywhere else, but because I find so many conventional heroes not compelling because there’s nothing more to them than being cool.

Who are they when they’re at home, when things are peaceful? Are they good or do they just like to fight? And there’s nothing wrong with characters who just like to fight, but who are they aside from that?

Maidel’s first motivation was simply saving himself from his ancestors’ mistakes, but he chose the new timeline at the end of his first plot because he was the troll who would pick the most peaceful one. He wanted a world where he could actually be himself and have a supportive community, friends to play games with and to spend his nights in libraries and with animals.

And that’s what he does, gladly and wholeheartedly.

[dragoncharming]

Karna “ What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man?” the Carolina Reaper and the intimacy of her kills vs. Raphaniel “Why does no one think I’m ready? Why does no one want me?” bard of the Disposal, singing a lament of rejection.

The Hungry One is death that wants you. The Disposal doesn’t care.

[transangelic-lizards]

Reaper Man

Terry Pratchett's writing is the kind that I come back to every now and then. He was, with no exaggeration, the literature of my teenage years. I have read all of the books of discworld over and over. More times than I can count, the early ones most often because my Dad would read them to me and my brother in the evening and I wasn't allowed to skip ahead. I cried when I finally got to the last one, knowing that that was it. That there wouldn't be any more discworld to read.

There is a quote that my brain goes back to every now and then. It's nestled in the novel Reaper Man. A book that is so incredibly excellent, with the most heartfelt stories nestled within a scathing critique of market consumerism and rationalisation.

"LORD WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR IF NOT THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?"

Death implores AZRAEL, the Death of the Universe, for a little extra time. To tie up loose ends. We have seen a marked shift in Death's behaviour throughout the series, as His humanity flourishes within him. There is a predisposition, I think, to think of the world as uncaring. It's very easy to see all of the pain and terror and plain wrongdoing that happens and fall into nihilism. We seek to rationalise the world and explain away our connections to things as they are in themselves. This isn't always wrong to do, it can be important to understand and observe, but sometimes we have to think right? Because in the end what we'll want is just a little more time and what we'll want is to be cared for.

GNU Terry Pratchett

[plantdad-dante]

Book #132 - Hogfather by Terry Pratchett

(I hope 14 year old me is aware that doing that book presentation was not a mistake, you just wanted to tell your peers about the weird christmas book that you love and it's okay if it didn't go well, you still stood up for the thing you enjoyed and that's really heartwarming and nice, actually, and you were right, okay, you were right in loving it!!!)

I'm back. I'm crying. I'm feeling shrimp emotions. Hi.

Banjo lives. He gets to live without being used or abused or manipulated. The match girl lives. She gets to have a future (an immediate future of "grub at the Watch house", but a future nonetheless). That little girl from The Maul gets a sickass sword and is presumably very happy with it. The Beggars get some fancy food that may have actual nutritional value. Hex gets a teddybear. Gawain gets to play marbles with the glass eye of a serial killer. A happy Hogswatch night for everyone.

... except for the other criminals who got murdered by the Tooth Fairy's nightmare tower. Yeah, okay. (which, their story is mostly "horrible criminals are reverting back to children in the face of horror, haha", but jesus, their childhoods are dark. everytime the Lilywhite brothers bring up their mum's funeral, they're like "we saw her be burried" and someone will think "I bet you watched it closely", and like. hng. they needed to make sure that their mother, their teacher, their abuser, was definitely 100% dead and gone and well deep beneath the earth. I'm Normal about this.)

Also, listen, I, too, love "Humans need fantasy to be human", but I feel we need to put it back into its full context more often. The context of "Old gods do new jobs" (in general, just... the Hogfather being an old Solstice god); "The sun would not have risen [...] a mere ball of flaming gas would have illuminated the world"; "and yet you think that a bed is a normal thing"; "you need to believe in things that aren't true. how else can they become". Also, Susan, early on, yells at Death that Hogswatch is a time for "humans to be human", and I love echos like this.

Gods, I could quote this book for ages.

E.g.: When Susan visits Violet's flat, the narration describes how horrendous the thing is, just from a renting perspective alone, and notes "It was amazing how many people spent their whole lives in places where they never intended to stay". Which.... definitely hasn't gotten more relatable since the 90s. Definitely. Not....

Anyway, to wind this up - the most important thing about this book, the thing that made me cry like a helpless child, is the following realization I had: Very close to the end, Susan asks Death why he did it (save Hogswatch), and he pauses, then answers "I think it's something to do with harvests" ... which is a nonsensical thing to say in the context of this book alone, BUT. But. What is the quote from Reaper Man that has rearranged my brain matter for all future time?

"What can the harvest hope for, if not the care of the reaper man?"

Like, he took that to heart. All the way. And I recall all those little moments in the book where he is happy, positively giddy, that he can give people joy. People are happy to see him! They say Thank You! And they leave again, alive! He practically jumps at the chance to save the match girl. He did it all because he cares, because he has to care, because he is Death, and if Death doesn't care, then there might as well be nothing there at all, and what then? There need to be humans to need to care about, who need fantasy to be human, and so he is going to save fantasy, he is going to save the Hogfather.

Listen. I'm a jaded-ass motherfucker who could not give less of a shit about Christmas, but this book. This book gets it? And I... I just... Yeah. Happy Hogswatch.

[facetsofthecloset]

What order would you suggest reading Discworld in? :0

Oh my friend you have opened an entire Amazon warehouse of a can of worms, which is going under a cut because I'm so sorry, you've activated my trap card

1: Preamble

First, a caveat: I have not read ALL of the Discworld books yet. There's a bunch of the short stories and sort of "bonus content"-y stuff that I haven't got round to, and the last two books he wrote before he passed, (I Shall Wear Midnight and Shepherd's Crown) but I have read everything else!

So!

Ok, there are lots of “recommended reading order” lists out there for Discworld, and what they generally do is group books into subcategories based on the protagonists.

These are fine as a base structural framework to work from, but if you're asking me I'm guessing you want a more personalized recommendation, SO

It really depends on your interests! When I started Discworld I'd already been pilled on tumblr, seeing posts cross my dash every now and then (probably due to the Glorious 25th of May actually, which I'm spamming right now) about how great it was and how many books there were.

So I picked up the first book (The Color of Magic) even though everyone said don't start there, and I stuck to it because I'd kind of already decided to like the series, or at least be incredibly open-minded about it.

Listen. The Color of Magic was published in 1983, it was one of his earliest novels, and it's definitely a bit rough. But! Full of personality and chaos, from which stars will be born later on.

You can think of it as the primordial ooze, full of nutrients and ideas and things that could evolve, but kind of formless and a bit confused at the moment

2: The List

So if you're not a bit naive and desperate for a new fantasy series to be obsessed with as an adult and trusting wholeheartedly a lot of strangers online that things get really really good, and you want some proof upfront, this is my list of potential starters:

Reaper Man (Death subseries #2)

Witches Abroad (Witches subseries #3)

Feet of Clay (City Watch subseries #3)

The Truth (Industrial Revolution subseries #2)

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (YA standalone that takes place in the Discworld)

Going Postal (Industrial Revolution #4 or Moist von Lipwig subseries #1)

You'll notice that I've picked almost none of the "first book" in a subseries and I have good reasons for that! I'll talk about each book individually, but my main reason for starting you off a little ways into each subseries is that the Vibes(tm) of the very first book in a subseries are very different to the actual overall Vibes(tm) of the subseries generally, once it's had time to fill out and ripen a bit.

The books I've picked are the "early but recognizable" stages of most of the series', because I think you can go back to read the first ones as a sort of prequel treat for yourself later once you've started to run out of books in the series, which happens faster than you think given there's 41 of them.

But I'll go into more detail about that with the individual books! Again, I am so sorry this is so bloody long. I'm having coffee as we speak

3: List Breakdown

Reaper Man (Death subseries #2):

“What can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man?”

Protagonist: Death (the anthropomorphic personification)

Summary: Death is fired from his job for caring too much, and has to go live as a farmhand. In his absence, things start to get weird, leading to zombie wizards and sentient shopping carts.

Why start here: Death as a character shows up all over the place in Discworld, and he's wonderful. This is the 11th book in publishing order, and one of the first that had me almost crying at the end. A lot of the earlier books had me kinda going "ok that was fun but I feel like I'm missing something, why is it people keep going on about this series?" and while this book doesn't quite yet answer that question, it gave me a hell of a lot of motivation to keep going.

The Death subseries book before this, Mort, is also good! If you want to start there, that's fine. But to me, it's a prologue, and doesn't give you an accurate picture of what the Overall Vibes of the series are. Reaper Man is still also kind of a prologue in that sense, seeing as Death is not even the protagonist for all of the Death books, but I still say it's a good place to start. It sets the groundwork for future books but also...

...man that quote about the harvest, and yes the summary sounds absurd and it is because it's not just fantasy, it's parody and comedy, but in the same book you'll have moments where you just have to stare at the wall for a bit unsure if you're going to reach enlightenment or burst into tears.

Reaper Man is a very wholesome, funny, and casually profound place to start your Discworld journey. It's early in the timeline of the Disc, you get a taste of the Wizards subseries as well, and you can see how important settings like Ankh-Morpork, the main city, start out. One thing I love about Discworld is how it grows, so starting out earlier in the in-universe timeline can be nice to get the full effect of seeing that.

A later Death book, Hogfather, is one I would recommend someone read if they were under some kind of curse where they could only ever read 3 Discworld books ever, and of course you could jump right to that one.

But if you want a bit of build up and additional context, you can start with Reaper Man.

Witches Abroad (Witches subseries #3):

Lily: You'd have done the same. Granny: No. I'd have thought the same, but I wouldn't have done it. Lily: What difference does that make, deep down? Nanny Ogg: You mean you don't know?

Protagonist: The Witches/Granny Weatherwax

Summary: Magrat Garlick, youngest of Lancre's witch coven trio, inherits a fairy godmother's wand, and thus also a fairy goddaughter, named Emberella. Unfortunately, Emberella lives very far away in Genua, and none of the witches really know how to make the wand work, and hardly any of them have left Lancre much at all before, let alone gone all the way to fantasy New Orleans. And Magrat's the one who got the wand, so she really should be the one taking point on this, but Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax can hardly let the youngest, soppiest, and wettest-behind-the-ears witch of their coven go off and make fairy tales on her own, can they? They've got a happy ending to make, and a bad witch to find...

Why start here: More into witches and fairy tales? Like a good Cinderella parody? Want to know how to stop spelling bananananana daquiri? Well, Nanny Ogg actually can't help you there, but you can get the other stuff.

Granny Weatherwax, along with Samuel Vimes of the City Watch subseries, is the beating heart and deeply, calmly furious soul of Discworld.

She is THE Witch. Witches don't have leaders, but Granny is the First among equals.

You can meet her earlier in the series, in Equal Rites or Wyrd Sisters, but Witches Abroad are when things start to come together in terms of tone and style for the Witches subseries, at least for me. Like Reaper Man, Witches Abroad is fairly early in the in-universe timeline as well as #12 in the publishing order, right after Reaper Man. Between the two, you can get a decent idea of the early form of the Disc, though I'd add in Guards! Guards! to complete that picture.

On its own, it's a fun romp full of recognizable parodies and interesting twists, a good old fashioned road trip. And it punches you in the face later about the nature of morality and how people think, about identity and choosing who you're going to be.

It won't make sense unless you've read it, but I think about a scene towards the end and the line "This one," all the time. Start here, read the other Witches books, have a Granny Weatherwax permanently etched into the back of your mind, reminding you about the difference between thinking and doing.

Feet of Clay (City Watch subseries #3):

“You couldn't say 'I had orders.' You couldn't say 'It's not fair.' No one was listening. There were no Words. You owned yourself. [...] Not 'Thou Shalt Not'. Say 'I Will Not'.”

Protagonist: Samuel Vimes

Summary: Commander of the City Watch, Samuel Vimes, now officially a Sir and married into the ranks of Ankh-Morporks elite, must have a coat of arms made. Thank gods there's been a murder for him to focus on instead. Someone's poisoning the Patrician--Lord Vetinari--too, and something strange is happening with the city's golems...

Why start here: This is it. For me, this was the book that made me go "Oh. That's why everyone loves this series." Every book up to this point had been interesting, funny, engaging, but as yet a little underbaked compared to the hype--until here.

Feet of Clay was the point of no return for me as a Discworld fan. This is the start of Sam Vimes, the man who IS Ankh-Morpork in many ways, the character you think of first when someone says "Discworld" (or boots. The "Sam Vimes Boots Theory of Economics" seems to travel outside of Discworld circles sometimes, from what I've heard.)

The City Watch books prior to this are all important to the formation of Sam Vimes as we know him mainly, which is why most people tend to start you off with Guards! Guards!. Totally legitimate place to start, but if you're going into it after being stuffed full of hype on tumblr and elsewhere, you're going to go "Hm. Is that it?"

Feet of Clay is #19 in publishing order, around midway through the series and part of what I've seen referred to as the "golden age" of Discworld books. As far as in-universe time goes, it's a bit farther along than Reaper Man or Witches Abroad, but not hugely. Things are established and the swing has been grasped, and Sam Vimes in freshly fully baked. (I keep using the word because it's relevant to the story lol) He'll go on from here to even greater heights, but this is a damn good start into Vimes being Vimes.

Now I will caveat this with a warning that if you are so ACAB that even seeing the word "cop" makes you break out in hives, then you probably shouldn't read City Watch books.

But I will say, policing as Sam Vimes does it is different from the modern American police. Obviously. This is fiction, it's based more on older English policing, it's a fantasy world, and Sam Vimes would be the first person to tell you that a cop who isn't a bastard is a liar, which is just another type of bastard.

It isn't pure uncritical copaganda, it's closer to Brooklyn 99, not CSI Miami, but if your stance is that making the protagonist a police officer we are meant to relate to at all is irredeemable, then yeah, this isn't going to work for you.

But so much of the Watch series--arguably all of it-- is about asking the question How do you be a good copper? What is a good copper? What is good? How do you be 'good' when you know that inside your head you're a messy, problematic bastard who thinks he knows better than everyone and has authority to abuse?

Who watches the watchmen? Sam Vimes. He watches himself, all the time. Maybe you won't agree with his conclusions, and I've heard people say the later Watch books where Terry's Alzheimers was progressing were too White Savior, but that's something you'd have to decide for yourself if you decide to keep reading.

For me, the City Watch books are the heart of Discworld, and they are absolutely worth engaging with.

Feet of Clay is a pretty classic and fun murder mystery, coupled with serious discussions of personhood and slavery, and has a plotline dealing with a lot of gender stuff that is expanded on in later books. It's far enough along in the series that the basics are established, and early enough that there is a lot of interesting development to look forward to.

I haven't reread it in a while, but it will always hold a special place in my heart for being the book where Discworld clicked home and became a permanent part of my psyche.

The Truth (Industrial Revolution subseries #2):

“The truth has got its boots on,” he said. “It’s going to start kicking.”

Protagonist: William de Worde, standalone

Summary: Printing presses were not allowed in Ankh-Morpork. Alas, times were moving on, and brought with them The Times, Ankh-Morpork's very first newspaper. William de Worde finds himself falling into the role of the Disc's first journalist. It starts with innocent stories of humorous vegetables and debates over when the coldest winter was, and ends with an attempted assassination (several, in fact), a shadowy conspiracy, a dog's testimony, and daddy issues (doesn't it always).

They say a lie can run around the world before the truth has got its boots on, but William's got a shoehorn and is prepared to tie some laces.

Why start here: Drop into an almost fully-established and stabilized Ankh-Morpork, watch a new technology drop into it and see the ripples. The Truth is categorized as an Industrial Revolution book, but it's also a standalone. You can know nothing about the Discworld and still have a damn good time.

It's honestly one of my favorites, possibly the favorite, owing to the presence of Otto Chriek, vampire photographer (called iconographers on the Disc) to The Times and also my favorite Discworld character ever number 1 no contest hands down don't talk to me. (Are there "better" and "more important" Discworld characters? Of course. Doesn't mean jack when it comes to personal favorites though, does it. Otto Chriek my beloved my darling my heart and soul this is his first appearance and after this he only gets mentioned in passing in the background of other books although he occasionally does get a whole scene and some dialogue I'm Normal About Him)

Ahem. Anyway.

If you want a good taste of what Terry Pratchett's writing is like overall, just one good sampler, this is a pretty decent choice. It's neat and contained but also has a lot of ties to the rest of the series that you could easily pull on if you wanted to. It's sometime after Feet of Clay, timeline-wise, but is really the start of the Industrial Revolution of Discworld proper, and you can make an argument for it starting off a second stage (maybe a silver era?) of Discworld books, in terms of publication order. There's Ankh-Morpork pre-newspaper, then there's Ankh-Morpork post-newspaper, and this is obviously the dividing line.

Because of that, it's possible that it would be slightly disorienting to read this first and then go back to an older pre-newspaper Discworld, because the dynamics are different. But that's one aspect of the series that I love, how it has its own historical eras. "Ah, this story is still in the Century of the Fruitbat, before the introduction of printing presses in Ankh-Morpork" or "Oh, this is from the post-clacks society," stuff like that.

It's a huge part of what makes Discworld feel like a real, entire universe, and how different books in the series feel like snapshots of their history. And history can be funny, profound, horrific, ironic, fascinating, and above all, human.

Even if "human" in the Disc doesn't cover nearly everyone. Barley anyone, you could argue. They have a lot of different species.

The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (YA standalone):

“People were people, even if they had four legs and had called themselves names like Dangerous Beans, which is the kind of name you gave yourself if you learned to read before you understood what all the words actually meant.”

Protagonist: debatable but I'll say Maurice (a cat. standalone)

Summary: The trouble with magic is that you never know what it'll do. Sometimes, it turns a bunch of rats (and one cat) from dumb animals into The Clan and Maurice, who work together with a human boy named Keith to run a Pied Piper scam.

Keith is human, and talks to other humans, offering to rid them of their town's rats, and The Clan pretend to be charmed by his flute and make a show of leaving town. Maurice--well, he's the brains of the outfit and makes sure no one grows too much of a conscience over the grift, and that he they get paid properly. And everyone likes cats.

One of the towns they come across, though...something is wrong here. There are no rats, or...are there? What is a rat, anyway? What's the difference between a rat and a Clan rat? What's the difference between a Clan rat and a human? Or a Maurice?

That was the problem with thinking. Once you started, you went on doing it.

Why start here: Similar to The Truth, a good way to get a decent, well-rounded sampling of Prachettian writing. You've got the parodic element in the Pied Pier story, some genuine horror in the antagonist of the story, existential questions on the nature of sentience and personhood, puns that you won't even realize are puns until you come across an explanatory post on tumblr, as well as the puns that hit you in the face and kick you in the fork and make you go "Fucking hell. More please!" Just because it's YA doesn't mean it's any lesser, it's just a slightly different tone of voice.

I don't remember exactly what era of Discworld it takes place in, but it's later in the publication order and I think timeline-wise, definitely after The Truth? I'm pretty sure newspapers exist at this point. It doesn't matter as much, since most of the story takes place outside of Ankh-Morpork. Either way, it's very accessible, a decent one-and-done. There's a rat named Dangerous Beans, who was voiced by David Tenant in the recent animated film. (Not a good adaptation but you could watch it. It's. Well not the worst, as Discworld adaptations go, but it's like. Fine. Kinda weird. Kinda boring. Read the book.)

Going Postal (Industrial Revolution #4, or Moist von Lipwig #1):

“Raise the stakes! Always push your luck because no one else would push it for you.”

Protagonist: Moist von Lipwig

Summary: Professional conman Albert Spangler is hanged for his crimes, and reborn as Moist von Lipwig--his actual birth name. His new lease on life comes with the caveat of resurrecting the long-defunct Ankh-Morpork Post Office as Postmaster General. As a consummate liar and career criminal, he's a perfect fit for government service.

And he's just in time--The Grand Trunk clacks company, under its newest management, has been plagued by enshittification. Once able to relay messages across the continent "at the speed of light," now it's expensive, breaks down constantly, and runs on the blood of its workers. But messages still have to get through, and you can't send a package by semaphore. The world needs the Post, and the Post needs Moist von Lipwig.

Him? He needs a new name. And a way to get rid of his golem parole officer...

Why start here: Moist von Lipwig is a late addition to the canon and only stars in 3 books (one of which is distinctly different in style, owing to the advancement of Pratchett's Alzheimer's at time of writing), but he is just about as crucial to Discworld as Granny Weatherwax, Sam Vimes, and Lord Vetinari. He's a grifter who's all about style, and holy shit is he good at it.

To me, Going Postal is a perfect book, and the sequel Making Money is somehow even better. I got my friend hooked on Discworld by reading a passage out of the sequel to her and subsequently read her the entire book and Going Postal after. Get past his name, and Moist von Lipwig is all you've ever dreamed of in terms of entertainment.

The Moist books (lol) are formatted a little bit differently to the others, as it's one of the only Discworld books to have formal chapters and sort of chapter summaries? I'm not sure why this is but I think it has to do with Moist being, well, Moist. Everything in his life is a show and so his books also have a bit of extra set dressing.

I think if you read Going Postal and Making Money and those were the only Discworld books you ever knew about you'd still be obsessed madly in love and fanatic about the whole series. Moist comes into things when Ankh-Morpork is already pretty much fully-fledged, and he could have been the beginning to a new era. As his presence inclusion in the Industrial Revolution series implies, he brings about a lot of huge structural/technological changes to the Disc and it's amazing to watch it unfold.

Going Postal also has the distinction of having one of the only decent Discworld screen adaptations (look I haven't watched all of them and I'm really sorry if there's a BBC version or something that you really love, but the ones that I've seen so far are mostly...either really low-budget and weird or just boring). I'd say if you watched the movie version and liked it, you'd like the book even more but not in spite of the movie, you know? Charles Dance is in it as Lord Vetinari and aside from his hair not being black he's fucking perfect. You cannot go wrong here.

4: Conclusions

I'm sorry this got so LONG AHH

But! What you choose to read as your first Discworld book imo depends hugely on what your interests are and why you're interested in the series to begin with.

If you just want a quick way to see what all the fuss is about, I'd say any of the standalones or Moist books.

If you want a sample of how it unfolds and grows and are willing to put some time into it, start with Reaper Man and maybe read down the list I made, then go back and read the other books in their respective subseries. Or pick one that you liked a lot and follow that subseries first!

If you're really willing to put in the time and want to understand the series as a whole, do what I did and start with The Color of Magic and go by publication order. You're going to need a bit of patience and be generous at first, wait for things to develop, but for me it's been worth it. Again, if you have the time though. I mean, it is 41 books.

Or, if you're into a bit more chaos than that...use a random number generator and read whatever it tells you. Honestly, even books in longer subseries's are self-contained and pretty readable on their own, you just get more context if you read it "in order." The roulette approach is perfectly viable.

I mean, I do have Discworld books that I'm not as fond of, but none where I'd say you should never read it.

Even my least favorite (Interesting Times, part of the Wizards series) has a lot of redeeming qualities and I reread it a couple times before I decided maybe I didn't like it as much. (It's mostly because they go to fantasy East Asia and it's a bit Asian Monolith-y. Look I love Pratchett but he was a white British man who started writing in the late 70s/early 80s y'know? He's good but not perfect. The Wizards series has a lot of traveling around the Disc and a lot of like, racial stereotypes involved. Which is a shame because I do love the main protagonist of the series (Rincewind), it just personally makes me a little uncomfortable.)

That said, I don't hate it.

There are no Discworld books I regret reading. There's just ones I enjoyed even more than the others, and ones that have been permanently absorbed into my soul. You really can't go wrong.

This concludes my Starter Discworld dissertation I'm so sorry but you did ask 💦

[dimity-lawn]

“LORD, WHAT CAN THE HARVEST HOPE FOR, IF NOT FOR THE CARE OF THE REAPER MAN?”

—Terry Pratchett, Reaper Man

[velvet-apricots]

When a lot of people get into discussions about 'which ending is best' the bring up a bunch of 'what about isms" and put on little tinfoil hats when what we see is what we get.

Control Ending - Shepard controls the reapers. You use the Reapers to keep the peace, with Shepard either being a peaceful diplomat or a possible tyrant depending on their alignment.

Destroy Ending - Shepard destroys the Reapers and thus the races that make up each Reaper, the Geth, EDI, and any other AI that may exist. The threat is over and the future is hopeful, but there is a chance it may happen again far off in the future.

Synthesis - You blur the line between Organic and synthetic. Understanding is gained. The Reapers stop the harvest and become allies, each reaper containing thousands of minds willing to share all they know. The future is unknown, but hopeful, with many possibilities.

Refusal - Everyone dies. The next cycle ultimately stops the Reapers. How they do it is completely unknown.

There are no conspiracies. There are no "but what ifs". No. These are the endings.

Control!Shepard is either a paragon or a tyrant. There is nothing more to it then that. They are not secretly being controlled and unless they were a pure off the walls Renegade when human, I doubt life will be terrible under them.

Destroy might have gotten rid of the reaper threat, but there is no solution to the problem. People die, people forget. In time the very same issue may arise. But they also might not. The very distant future of Destroy is uncertain, but the next few thousand years is at least known for sure as the Asari and Krogan can live long enough to at least ensure that for that amount of time, things will work out.

No. People are not turned into husks, loose individuality, or are indoctrinated in Synthesis. They very clearly are none of those things in slides. The reapers are 100% no longer a threat. That is that. The end.

No one has conspiracy theories about the Refusal ending. So I won't say anything here.

Now when it comes to morals, none of the endings are morally perfect and all invoke an incredibly sensitive decision upon the whole galaxy. Control? An Shepard!AI with an army of Reapers now ultimately controls everything. Destroy? All synthetic lifeforms must die. Synthesis? All forms of life must be altered. Refusal? Everyone ultimately dies.

And when you think about it... Shepard does kinda have the galaxy's consent to make these choices. It turned to them and said "please save us you are the only one who can!". I don't think anyone will care long term as long as they are alive and healthy.

As for the Catalyst... It can't be lying. We know it's not lying because when you DO pick one of the three main endings they happen EXACTLY as it says it will. It's telling the truth.

You can have your aus, your headcanons, but these ARE the endings, and there is, at this time, no grand conspiracy.

So yeah. The end.

[volchonika]

all things that are, are ours. but we must care. for if we do not care, we do not exist. if we do not exist, then there is nothing but blind oblivion. and even oblivion must end someday. grant me just a little time for the proper balance of things. to return what was given. for the sake of prisoners, and the flight of birds. what can the harvest hope for, if not for the care of the reaper?

Rowan's unusual build requires a ton of d8s, so I made these to go with her standard set. I chose the quote--spoken by Death in Terry Pratchett's REAPER MAN--because of this party's unusual relationship to death in their own world. And I rendered it in all lowercase, rather than all capital letters, because Rowan feels so small in comparison to Death. Talking about these makes me tear up a little! Hope you like them.

[cynthiaandsamus]

"All things that are, are ours. But we must care, for if we do not care, we do not exist. If we do not exist, then there is nothing but blind oblivion. And even oblivion must end someday, Lord, will you grant me just a little time? For the proper balance of things. To return what was given. For the sake of the prisoners and the flight of birds."

"Lord, what can the Harvest hope for, if not for the care of the Reaper Man?"

[crystalaris]

Mini story: Depressed Reader Gets Killed By Dust

Warning: Death, hints of abuse

AN: it’s not really sad, just more how you look at it. Currently oneshot, may become more.

———

Dust didn't know if he regretted killing you.

Really, you were an enigma when he first laid his eyelights on you.

It was just another AU, just another place to destroy and gain LV, another mission, simple as that.

These types of AUs, the ones where the monsters were still locked underground, the fear the humans gave off always left Nightmare satisfied.

Stars, he was too.

The humans screaming. Completely at the whims of the monsters they oh so fucking 'feared'. (Hated more like)

It Satisfied an itch with a scratch, just a hint of vengeance for producing such arrogant asshole humans.

Extremely Satisfying for the humans to be at the 'monsters' mercy. (Really they should look in a mirror)

Stars knows they were at the mercy of the humans for so long. It has twisted him, twisted them in the worst possible ways, but it was their (his) 'fault' for the actions that led up to the twist. Not.

He killed his brother, Paps was his first kill.

His first mercy.

He spared Paps the continual pain of false friendship. The loss of fellow monsters to that demon.

As a judge, he granted the underground mercy.

As a monster filled with love (not LoVe) he granted them mercy.

It was fast, it was painless, it was mercy.

Unlike the demon, who derived pleasure from its slow kills, loved watching the despair and the loss of hope as they died

Every

Single

Fucking

Time (reset)

So he enjoys granting mercy to (certain) monsters and death to (all) humans.

Sure he has Paps here, constantly encouraging him to kill kill kill kill-kill-kill-kill. The need, want for more exp and LV.

But he still has his brother.

He loves his brother. He will always love his brother.

It hurts, but that's his punishment.

His atonement.

He lives, he keeps his brother alive and by his side. Is it selfish?

Maybe

Maybe not, He tries not to think about it.

So the rush of killing humans, the pests is satisfying. The sight of them running and screaming in terror? Justice at its finest.

The fact that this AU was dying anyway?

Delectable.

Killing humans is a mercy, though theirs are just a little 'bit' drawn out, some more than others.

So when he notices a human girl watching instead of running? Curious.

Her eyes hopeful instead of fearful? Confusing enough to let her approach.

He's not stupid, his guard is still up, besides Paps wants this exp, even if this measly human is a LV 1 it'll never remain like that for long. The hypocrites.

What surprises him however is where she stops, she's just an arm reach away, like she's standing by someone familiar but not too close, even though the road is now a ghost town.

"what?" Is all he can think to say, even with Paps berating him.

"Are you a grim reaper?"

He'd expected an insult or at the very least had something asked in fear not Hope.  There's a upturn lilt of her lips, her eyes shining every so slightly.

It threw both him and Paps for a loop. So he observes just a bit more.

Her left eye has yellow around it, scratches small, thin, horizontal scratches. Some visible skin poking out from her collar is a faded shade of blue. Multiple Crescent scares along the sides of her throat.

"Will you let it be quick?" His eyes flicker to hers. "Will you make it stop hurting?"

His frown is answer enough.

"Oh," he doesn't care about the disappointment in her voice "I guess harvesting souls is painful then." It's her turn to frown. Still, she steps forwards arms wide open.

For once Paps is silent, watching her. The two glance at each other, a subtle nod, a raise of his knife and they are on their way.

For the first time in what seems like forever Paps silent.

... and thoughtful.

He's normally berating his brother... oh well he'll take what he can get. Something about gifted ketchup and what not.

The blood on Dust's knife dripping from the final strike. Unlike the other times, he doesn't flick off the blood.

Too lazy to really care, or that's what he'll tell paps later.

He wasn't stunned by the small smile on her lips or the thankful look in her eyes.

Like that would ever shock him.

Even now he looks back, thinks back, those eyes keep haunting him.

And he doesn't know if he regrets killing you.