Discussing/recommending Sci/Fi or Horror Books

[dreadgeek]

Originally Posted by Medusa

Someone please talk to me about Terry Pratchett! I have never read anything by Terry and am hoping for good recomendations! (all of them?)

Okay, others may disagree. This can get kind of theological. If I were new to Pratchett I would do them in this order (I'm partial to the City Watch books)

Guards! Guards!
Men at Arms
Feet of Clay
Jingo
The Fifth Elephant
Night Watch
Thud!
Snuff

Then I would do the Moist von Lipwig cycle:
Going Postal
Making Money

Then I would do the sort of 'random' books:

Small Gods
Pyramids (the scene when the king is at court is worth the price of admission)
Moving Pictures
The Truth
Monstrous Regiment

After that, any combination of the witches (Wyrd Sisters is the first in the cycle) and the Rincewind series (Colour of Magic is the first in the cycle)

Then the Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men is the first in that cycle)

Pratchett is hands down my favorite author currently working. At least four or five times per book I will stop and pray to all the writing gods that one day I will be able to write *half* that well. I have applauded (literally) when I completed most of the books on that list. He is funny as hell, is deeply, deeply cynical about human beings but at the same time he expresses a very tender love for us in all our foibles. He is poignant and deep while amusing you. My lovely wife told me last night as she is going through Snuff a second time since it came out last Tuesday, that "if there were really Sam Vimes cops out there, I wouldn't have stopped pursuing a career in law enforcement". Sam Vimes really is the distilled essence of the good cop. Then there's the Patrician, Havelock Vetinari. If Vimes is the very essence from which all cops are cut, Vetinari is the very embodiment of Machiavellian brilliance.


Cheers
Aj