13th August 2005, 11:08 AM
It is, in my own humble opinion, one of the best fantasy series of all time. To be more precise you might say that Discworld is a comedy/fantasy, but not because it has a lot of jokes in it or because it TRIES to be funny, but rather because Discworld is simply a funny place full of people who are, by their actions, very funny. It would not be accurate to say that Discworld is a parody of legitimate fantasy, rather Discworld IS legitimate fantasy that just happens to satirize a great number of things, other legitimate fantasy books/series included.
In the Discworld series there are several story arcs or groups of people who regularly have books about them. There's Rincewind [the innept magician who simply wants to be left alone, the Night Watch [a group of policemen], and the head wizards of the Unseen University [who generally don't do anything worthwhile]. There's also a large cast of characters who appear from time to time.
There are roughly 20 books in the series released from 1983 to present. All of them are consistantly good, though some ARE better than others. One thing that I find to be very unique about Terry Pratchett's book are that, although they are humorous and satirical, the characters and story do not suffer because of it. All the major characters and many of the minor characters are well fleshed out and get ample space in the book, despite the cast being quite large at times. And the stories are never boring and in many cases rival the stories of regular fantasy books, both in terms of how good they are and in how unique they are.
In short, if you haven't read any of the Discworld books yet, you probably should really soon.
Discworld doesn't TRY to funny, it just IS.
In the Discworld series there are several story arcs or groups of people who regularly have books about them. There's Rincewind [the innept magician who simply wants to be left alone, the Night Watch [a group of policemen], and the head wizards of the Unseen University [who generally don't do anything worthwhile]. There's also a large cast of characters who appear from time to time.
There are roughly 20 books in the series released from 1983 to present. All of them are consistantly good, though some ARE better than others. One thing that I find to be very unique about Terry Pratchett's book are that, although they are humorous and satirical, the characters and story do not suffer because of it. All the major characters and many of the minor characters are well fleshed out and get ample space in the book, despite the cast being quite large at times. And the stories are never boring and in many cases rival the stories of regular fantasy books, both in terms of how good they are and in how unique they are.
In short, if you haven't read any of the Discworld books yet, you probably should really soon.
Discworld doesn't TRY to funny, it just IS.