lord-of-morning:

So, I just typed this out in a group chat because I got carried away and I thought I would make it into a post since some people might be interested in Terry Pratchett’s amazing comedy fantasy series, Discworld. So here are some great starting points.

1) Guards! Guards!
Cop noir about a drunk city watch captain and the beginning of his arc towards becoming an amazing city watchman. The series as a whole focuses a lot on racial and class prejudices as well as, of course, crime.

2) Mort
About a young boy becoming apprentice to Death. Death is one of the most beloved characters in all of Discwold and his novels focus a lot on humanity, what it means to be human and the nature of the universe.

3) Wyrd Sisters
My personal favourite series, but this isn’t the first book featuring The Witches, but a better starting point than the first one (Equal Rights, if you really want to start there, but it’s rough). This novel is largely a play on Macbeth, but the series expands to play on fairy tails, fey and other storytelling tropes and what it means to be a witch who cares for a community.

4) Wee Free Men
A soft reboot of The Witches focusing on a young woman learning to become a witch and is possibly one of the best YA leads of all time. The series really is about growing up and responsibility. (There is a metric tonne of stuff I can say and unpack about Tiffany and her books, but this is a short post). Probably the best starting book as it stands alone very well, is largely disconnected from Discworld as a whole to begin with and is Pratchett at his best.

5) Going Postal
A beautiful disaster of a human being who is a conman becomes a the head of the postal service and a captain of industry. Hijinks ensue and the novel becomes a defamation of capitalism as a whole.

6) Monstrous Regiment
A fantastic stand alone about a girl joining an all male army to find her brother who went off to war and didn’t come back. Talks a lot about gender roles and has a few trans characters. 

Disclaimer!
Terry Pratchett tackles a lot of social, moral and occasionally religious issues in his Discworld series and as much as I love his writing, there is a significant lack of racial and sexual diversity in his writing. 
Also, please do not read the first 3 books of the series to start your Discworld experience, doing that is like eating raw flour and eggs to see if you like cake.