Visiting Discworld, a Series of Books By Terry Pratchett

An Introduction to One of Literature's Funniest Worlds

Genesis: Back in ‘95, I came upon a little known book called Good Omens written by Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett. Now I knew about Gaiman from his Sandman series (call it a backlash of having a geeky comic aficionado for a boyfriend). Pratchett, on the other hand, was a stranger to me. I bought the book, read it, and instantly fell in love with it. Since I was already following Gaiman in the aforementioned seminal series courtesy of my boyfriend’s collection, I thought I should give his writing partner a try. I immediately bought the first Pratchett book I could find, which was Soul Music of the Discworld series. 

Now… thirty books later, I simply cannot get enough of Terry Pratchett. His books have become an intricate part of my literary sustenance. Nothing is sweeter than a new Discworld book. Every time a new book is announced, I must admit I get all groupie-like and scream my head off. 

And why not? Discworld is a remarkably smart and hysterically funny series in which comedy comes primarily from the characters and never from the plot. It’s very hard to define what it is exactly. It’s part fantasy, part social commentary, and part parody (although Pratchett himself doesn’t like calling any of the Discworld books as parody but rather “resonances”). 

At its very foundation, the series is about a world that sort of resembles Tolkien’s Middle Earth, but not really. And, yes, it is disc-shaped. Like a giant geographical pizza, the world rests on the backs of four gigantic elephants that stand on the back of an even more gargantuan turtle. But, while this is a very fascinating fact to know, it seldom has anything to do with the plots. Discworld is really about the people, dwarves, witches, wizards, werewolves, vampires, trolls, gods, and any other beings with brains slightly bigger than your average oyster, that calls Discworld home.