Does anyone else read Discworld? I have to say I'm completely addicted I've read all of the regular novels except Moving Pictures (I'm a couple pages in) and Wyrd Sisters. "The world rides through space on the back of a turtle. This is one of the great ancient world myths, found wherever men and turtles are gathered together; the four elephants were an indo-European sophistication. The idea has been lying in the lumber room of legend for centuries. All I had to do was grab it and run away before the alarms went off." - Terry Pratchett The Discworld series started with The Color Of Magic back in the 80s, a satire of the popular fantasy novels of the time. Since then it's progressed to satire just about everything, from war, patriotism, opera, tourism, religion, the music business, Austraila, Egypt, China, London, journalism, racism (or rather, speciesism) and a hell of a lot more. While most of the books can be read independantly, there are little "mini-series" with lovably flawed characters that eventually seem a whole lot more real then that person sitting next to you. The early books were somewhat slapstick, but have since progressed to a slightly darker, more ironic brand of humor. Terry Pratchett has a good understanding of human nature, and a writing style that reminds me a bit of Kurt Vonnegut, only more modern and much easier to read through (I can't read more then two Vonnegut books in a row before my brain starts hurting, but I basically inhaled Pratchett's books.) The best books in the series (IMO) are Night Watch and Mosterous Regiment, and like I said before you really can start with any book and still enjoy it, but I'd reccommend The Color of Magic, Reaper Man, Witches Abroad, Soul Music or Jingo as a first book. Or of course you could just go to the book store and pick out the one that has the best sounding plot (but not Equal Rites because it's the only sucky one). So. Now that I've bored you to death, let me assure you Mr. Pratchett writes better then me and his books are much better then this oversized post is. Oh, and some sample chapters can be found here.
I've seen a few books in this series, looks pretty interesting. I was tempted to buy Pyramids (or was it? All I remember is a pic of a pyramid on the cover) after reading the first few pages. I love how Terry Pratchett claims that he 'doesn't want to get a life, because he's trying to lead three already'.
Pyramids is good. Like I said before though, the only one I've read that I didn't like was Equal Rites. That's the best quote