Questions for Terry Pratchett fans

[Pixelated]

I thought I'd already posted this, but apparently not ... at least, I can't find it.

I have a 10-year-old nephew who asked what my favourite book series was, and I said the Discworld series. I described a bit about them but I would be interested in getting him started on them.

He's precocious and intelligent. Which Discworld books would you recommend for a 10-year-old? Should I start him off at the beginning, with Colour of Magic?

[Kittish]

Guards, Guards! might be a good one. Or Eric. The Rincewind books... eh, not my favorites in the series. I'm partial to Susan Sto Helit and the witches of the Ramtops.

[dalesys]

You could pucker around the L-Space wiki...

[XCashier]

Guards, Guards! might be a good one...I'm partial to Susan Sto Helit and the witches of the Ramtops.

I'm partial to the Witches myself. Wyrd Sisters is still my favorite Discworld book, although I agree that the nephew might like Guards! Guards! to start with.

[Mental_Mouse]

The Tiffany Aching books are a little more directed toward the YA crowd, and IMHO are among his best work.

The thing about starting at the beginning with TCOM is that while those are certainly funny, they don't have the power and depth that Pratchett developed over time.

[dalesys]

I started with "Strata" ...

[Pixelated]

Thanks, all. I will give some thought to your answers before I start buying him some more books for Christmas.

As I might have mentioned, I am trying to cull my book collection as I will be moving into very small quarters. I said as much to nephew. His response: "You can never have too many books!"

NOT what I need to hear ...

[Blue Ginger]

Maybe start him with The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents. It is set in Discworld, but because it doesn't have the regular people, it can be read on it's own.

And a dancing rat with a little straw hat and cane. How can you not giggle at that image?

Or Truckers, Diggers and Wings are a good introduction to Terry Pratchett for younger readers. They are set in our world rather than Discworld, but have all of his usual writing extras and tidbits.

[Pixelated]

Interesting ... the non-Discworld books are the only ones I haven't yet read. I need to get on that immediately, LOL.

Thanks for the recommendation; he might indeed prefer those to the Discworld novels right now.

[Blue Ginger]

The only Terry Pratchett books I don't have are the Johnny books and a few of the extra Discworld ones like the maps and plays.

Carpet People is another good one and it's a stand alone not set in Discworld. It's set here but the people live in the carpet. It's a little silly and funny and odd, but good.

Keep an eye out because Rob (Terry's right hand man/assistant/keeper) is putting short story collections together as well. So far there is Dragons at Crumbling Castle, The Witch's Vacuum Cleaner and The Abominable Snowman. These are mainly Terry's earlier stories and some pre-date Discworld by a long way.

Go to www.terrypratchett.co.uk because they have broken the books down into categories, including for younger readers.

[Pixelated]

Thank you for that heads-up! I will definitely keep an eye out for those.

[Blue Ginger]

I just love seeing new converts to the world of Terry Pratchett.

And if you are feeling really naughty, you can go to https://www.discworldemporium.com These lovely people worked closely with Terry to create the products. They are very evil because you will want to buy everything in the shop. Trust me. I visited the shop last year after the UK Discworld con. I spent way too much with them at the con and then spent even more at the shop. I think I took home about 6kgs worth of goodies from them.

[AccountingDrone]

The Tiffany Aching books are a little more directed toward the YA crowd, and IMHO are among his best work.

The thing about starting at the beginning with TCOM is that while those are certainly funny, they don't have the power and depth that Pratchett developed over time.

More or less. You have to take into account the relative maturity and tastes of the kid in question.

I would start with Guards, Guards - the Guardsmen series is my favorite one. The problem with The Colour of Magic and the original books is that he was poking fun at the classic pulp fantasy books [Grey Mouser and Fafhrd and Conan fairly specifically] and while I enjoy them now, I was not overly impressed by them when I first read them. Once he got his writing feet under him, he got much better.

[I have modified all the metadata on my ebook collections to reflect which series and position the books are in, like Guards 01 - Guards, Guards or Death 01 - Mort or Tiff 01 - Wee Free Men. I like my 'comfort reads' to be easily followed, I have a fair number of series that I have done this with, Lindsay Davis' Falco series, Drake's Belisarius series and so forth. Beats trying to keep in mind which books to read in which order =) ]

[EricKei]

AD - Could be worse. You could be trying to do that with the Pern books. The first six, which are typically broken into two trilogies, occur more or less simultaneously, from differing perspectives. I.e., Trilogy A ("Original" -- Dragonfall/Dragonquest/The White Dragon) takes place at the same time as trilogy B (Harper Hall -- Dragonsong/Dragonsinger/Dragondrums). Ditto for Moreta's Ride/Nerilka's Story...And, I'm sure, some of the many that have come out since then, either by Anne McC, and/or by her son, Todd, or by other authors such as Jody Lynn Nye, IIRC.

[greek_jester]

I will second starting with Guards, Guards! if you want to start him on a series, or Maurice if you want to start on a one-off.

Actually, any of the Death-centric books might also do well if you think he can handle them, plus it would make some of the scenes from the other series' more understandable (for instance the parts of the Fifth Elephant where Death chats to Vimes about not being sure whether Vimes will die due to Quantum(TM)). Has he ever watched the Nightmare Before Christmas? If he liked it then he would probably enjoy the Hogfather.

While the Tiffany Aching books were aimed at young readers, I always felt they (and to some extent the Witches books) would resonate better with female-identifying readers rather than male, since some of the topics covered (either directly or peripherally) might be a struggle for a young male to relate to.

By the way, I like his attitude; you can never have too many books! Words I've lived my life by...