Reading suggestions

From Discworld & Pratchett Wiki

A question that regularly pops up is: I'm enjoying Pratchett, what other books are there I could possibly enjoy?. This page is here to help you. If you like Pratchett, these books are recommended by the fans.

Neil Gaiman

Co-author of Good Omens, so an easy choice. Pratchett fans seem to prefer Neverwhere and American Gods. One of the latest novels is Anansi Boys. Gaiman is known for his ability to create fascinating pantheons - if you're at all interested in comics, the Sandman series (which rightfully catapulted Gaiman to the fame he enjoys today) is one of the best ever written. His perky-goth Death is the best anyone's ever done with the character after Pratchett.

Recommended by Sanity.

Tom Holt

Author of various parodies and stories based on mythology or other tales (sound familiar). First novel based on Wagner's Der Ring des Nibelungen is called Expecting Someone Taller. Although most books are standalone, there is a series of sorts starting with The Portable Door, which can arguably be termed a more adult and crankier Harry Potter in a cubicle farm.

Jasper Fforde

Author of the Thursday Next books which started with The Eyre Affair.

Perhaps the closest thing to the Pratchett theme of story-driven reality, but start with The Eyre Affair; we were pretty disappointed with Something Rotten at our house.--Old Dickens

I'll go with that - Something Rotten was pretty rotten, but the four Thursday Next books are excellent. --Knmatt 18:57, 25 July 2007 (CEST)

James Bibby

The author of Ronan the Barbarian and its two sequels, all of which fit perfectly in the genre of comic fantasy. Much like Pratchett's earlier novels (although admittedly, much more adult-oriented), the novel plays on the clichéd fantasy genre, but also includes genuinely interesting and likeable characters. The book may be hard to find -- as it was only published in 1995, and once more in 1996 -- but definitely worth the trouble, being close-to the funniest author I've had the pleasure of reading. - Quoth

Naomi Novik

A fantasy dragon-story, set in the original 17th century Roundworld! The story isn't as funny als a Discworld novel, but Temeraire's dialogue (the dragon in question) can be very tongue-in-cheek! Could be a bit girlish book, but then again, you can very well be one! .--Charlie007

Fritz Leiber

Classic sword & sorcery, but very often kind of tongue-in-cheek. TP has admitted that his early Discworld books, which can be seen as a parody of the S&S genre, were heavily inspired by Leiber's series about Fafhrd and the Gray Mouser. --Havelock 02:20, 1 April 2007 (CEST)

Diana Wynne Jones

The books are intended for a younger audience but I (and other Pratchett fans with the Tiffany Aching series) have often found so-called children's books to be extremely well written, often more so than their adult counterparts. One of the major themes in her books is the "multiverse" theory--explored in Pratchett as Quantum and The Trousers of Time. She has a fairly extensive bibliography; I would recommend starting with "Deep Secret" (written in a psuedo-epistolary style) or "Charmed Life" (in The Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Vol 1). "Charmed Life" has a more Tiffany Aching-esque feel to it. --Anatwork 05:27, 2 April 2007 (CEST)

Barry Hughart

Bridge of Birds - "A Novel of an Ancient China That Never Was."

Li Kao is a great scholar with a slight flaw in his character. His patron and servant, by turns, is Number Ten Ox, a peasant lad of unusual size and strength and more wit than anyone expects. The two engage in fantastic adventures in a version of Seventh-Century China unknown to historians. Annotators might find more amusement than even Pratchett provides (if they are serious students of Chinese history) trying to separate the research from the imagination.

The similarity between Li Kao and another wrinkly little old man with unusual powers will strike most Pratchett readers. Don't tell the British press; they'll be off to Arizona to pester Mr. Hughart for his reaction to the outrageous plagiarism (again.)

The series continues with Eight Skilled Gentlemen and The Story of the Stone, but these are rare and expensive.

Dan McGirt

Jason Comso series, a tongue-in-cheek approach to swords and sorcery.

Piers Anthony

Xanth series. Xanth is a very punny fantasy world. Piers Anthony also writes the "Terry Pratchett is fast, funny, and going places. Try him!" blurb found on many of Terry's books.

I personally have found Anthony more corny than funny, with a very robotic, formulaic, writing style and a very dirty mind, even for purported "kids'" books. The humor is far sillier and more lowbrow. -Cidolfas

Piers Anthony's other series (eg, Incarnations of Immortaility and Apprentice Adept) are not humorous, and are not similar to Terry's works. At best, the Incarnations series revolves around the idea that anthropomorphic personalities may "retire" from their jobs and return to the real world as they choose, and may select and train a successor. Anthony's Fate, for instance, takes it a step further and plays with the idea that this anthropomorphic personality might well run down a family dynasty, the female members of which each adopt one of the three faces of the classic Greek Fate. Death, in Anthony's world, is not so much a person as a job description. But this is only superficially similar to Death and Time each being a family business on the Discworld.

"I tried reading A Spell for Chameleon back in 1986 and threw it across the room after three chapters. I tried again in 2007 and lasted for five chapters. Just can't do it". This illustrates the idea that Xanth, while a tour-de-farce of the imagination, can in some readers evoke a reaction similar to that of Susan Sto Helit when she contemplates dancing across the rooftops with a cheeky cheery chimney sweep. Susan would see nothing wrong in a spoonful of sugar, but gallons of cloying syrup might well provoke a vomiting reflex. Xanth, with its heavy archness, is best approached when in a mood of whimsy and minimal critical function. In this frame of mind, it is not unpleasant, but too much syrup can kill tastebuds. The concept of the Adult Secret, after initiation into which one's childhood is over and one may no longer return to Xanth, is straight out of Narnia (Susan Pevensie's personal damnation).

Craig Shaw Gardner

Ebenezum and Wuntvor series are quite humorous, though the latter tends to drag a bit.

John Moore

Small but sweet novels set in a sort of alternate, anachronistic fairy-tale past. Humorous fantasy but with a definite American touch (a la Shrek). Whimsical, but with serious undertones.

Tanya Huff

The Keeper's Chronicles are a set of three (so far) books taking place in Canada, a sort of urban fantasy-comedy. More overt than Discworld but a lot of fun.

Robert Rankin

Much kookier than Pratchett, Rankin has a love affair with running gags and breaking down the fourth wall, has a style that seesaws between grandiose and I'll-break-yer-teeth, and his books generally involve small British towns and aliens, Hell, Elvis, time travel, or all of them at once. Described as "stark raving genius".

Michael Moorcock

Another author spoofed by Terry Pratchett (The Colour of Magic, Eric) and worth reading in his own right.

Known in his early writing years for prolific production of potboilers - the Elric series are well worth reading as "straight", if high-camp, fantasy fiction and provide a lot of background detail, as to where some of the jokes in the earliest Discworld novels originate.

Moorcock has tried his hand at farce and comic writing in the Pratchett mould: a novel called The Chinese Agent, about a chaotic collision and an escalating series of misunderstandings between the world's secret services operating in London, is laugh-out-loud funny reading, with echoes of Good Omens.

Similarly, there is a short story called The Stone Thing (A Tale of Strange Parts) in the anthology The Flying Sorcerers (Souvenir Press, 1997) where Moorcock attempts to take the mickey out of his own portenteous high-camp style of writing, before anyone else does.--AgProv 17:02, 9 May 2007 (CEST). This anthology also features a Terry Pratchett short story called Turntables of the Night.

Eoin Colfer

Eoin (pronounced "Owen") Colfer has come up with another wolrd not too dissimilar to ours, but this time it's our world as we know it interfacing with the world of the Lower Elements: fairies, trolls (even thicker than TP's!), goblins, dwarves and the like. It even has a reason why the word Leprechaun exists: it comes from LEP Recon - the reconaissance and recovery side of the Lower Elements Police. They are nominally children's books, but none the worse for that. So, essentially, is The Hobbit (see also comments for Diana Wynne Jones). The books centre around one Artemis Fowl - a twelve-year-old criminal mastermind. Swallow that, and the books are delightful. There is a large dollop of TP-esque humour: witness why dwarves are such good diggers!!!! --Knmatt 18:57, 25 July 2007 (CEST)

Breaking News: Eoin Colfer has been selected to complete a largely unstarted sixth volume of Douglas Adams' h2g2 series:- [1]

The resultant book is likely to be released in late 2009.--AgProv 13:40, 17 September 2008 (UTC)

Douglas Adams

English comic author sometimes compared to Terry Pratchett.

Developed a Pratchett-like idea in his novel The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul, where idiosyncratic private investigator Dirk Gently has to investigate a case involving the survival of the old Norse gods into the present day, and the nature of the dark pact they have to enter into to ensure their continued existence.

This book echoes the Pratchett theme that a God may only survive so long as belief persists, and that there is no thing sadder than a God still doggedly hanging on after the need for him (or her) has ended.

The book also develops the concept of Thor, (who is also encountered in Life, the Universe, and Everything as an otherwise un-named Thunder God trying to pull Trillian at a party, and being outwitted by Arthur Dent), as an overmuscled and somewhat thick god with exaggerated body language.

Some concepts are shared by Pratchett and Adams in their respective science-fiction work, most notably a debunking of the utopian Star Trek ideal that greater technological sophistication confers greater wisdom and a pacifistic world-view.

It can justly be said that Arthur Dent and Twoflower share a common characteristic: both are ignorant wanderers in a strange and foreign world, but the difference is that Arthur Dent is painfully and continually aware of how dangerous it all is, and of how much the settled inhabitants view him with condescending derision. (Hey, monkeyman!) Twoflower is blissfully unaware of the dangers and ambles unconcernedly through life. While it is true Arthur Dent does not have the Luggage to defend him, he is equipped with the Babel Fish (the equivalent is Rincewind's ear for language) together with the resources embodied in Ford Prefect. Is Rincewind a parellel of Ford Prefect? Well, both have a vested interest in cheating death and running away from potential trouble by any means available. Just as Rincewind is constrained by the Patrician's expressed wish to keep Twoflower alive and well, Ford must keep Arthur alive, as the last living being from planet Earth who may know the Question to the Answer. In both cases, a genuine friendship (of sorts) exists.

--AgProv 17:02, 9 May 2007 (CEST)

Pat O'Shea

Although her book The Hounds of the Morrigan[2] is aimed at children, like the best childrens' writers she creates a world which may also be inhabited by adults without their losing face. Set in West Galway, two children come to realise that despite St Patrick's best efforts, the old Irish gods and goddesses never went away. They just went over there a wee bit.

The return of the Old Gods to modern (1970's?) Ireland has its threat: the Goddess who has awoken is the old and evil Morrigan, the triple-goddess of death and chaos and nightmare. She must be stopped...

O'Shea blends the ancient tales into a modern Irish landscape with deftness and humour. The children enter the other Ireland of myth and fable, and while at its worst the humour takes on a Disney-Oirish cuteness, the colour and texture of the book slowly darken into a mythological landscape Neil Gaiman would be proud of (not without humour). Reccomended. --AgProv 23:15, 25 July 2007 (CEST)

Simon R. Green

For something a little darker, try the Nightside series by Simon R. Green. Imagine Neil Gaiman's Neverwhere tossed in a blender with the noir detective template and every bit of myth, fantasy and sci-fi you 've ever seen or read and you'll get the delicious smoothie that is Nightside. Set in a secret city-within-a-city at the heart of London, follow John Taylor, a hard-nose private-eye as he sorts out cases both horrifying and fantastic.

Green's definitely a name-dropper, and references tons of stories and myths, but his own characters and plots are original and facinating, and utterly steeped in darkness. (Seriously... This guy's darker than Neil gets sometimes...) But it's all tied togeter with subtle English wit in the (almost obligatory to the noir genre) first-person narrative. (I've even heard a review with a favorable comparison to Terry, so there! Proof!) It's at least an M rating, but a heartily recommended read.

Margaret Weis and Tracy Hickman

The Dragonlance series of books are quite possibly the best all-out quintessential fantasy books since JRR Tolkein. A normal premise (a relatively unassuming band of friends [who happen to be a warrior, a wizard, a knight, a half-elf, an elven princess, a hobbit-like creature, a dwarf and so on]) become involved in a quest, and end up saving the world. Kitsch as that sounds, the story is genuinely enthralling and the first series spawned a massive TLR push, and there are now in excess of 50 books, Dungeons & Dragons-style RPGs &c all based on them. Go read - the first three (Dragons of Autumn Twilight, Dragons of WInter Night and Dragons of Spring Dawning) are wonderful. --Knmatt 20:21, 15 August 2007 (CEST)

Philip Pullman

An obvious choice, perhaps, but if you're looking for the fantastic and not just the hilarious, His Dark Materials is a fabulous trilogy. It's probably the best fantasy since Tolkien. Terry Brooks, Weis and Hickman, Susan Cooper have all been and gone; JK Rowling's had a good go, but this is by far the best written of all of them. I know it's just become a film, but read the books first. The metaphysics is cool too. The idea of multiple worlds and realities (parallel universes?) cold have come from Ponder Stibbons himself... --Knmatt 14:05, 23 December 2007 (CET)

Patricia C. Wrede

Humorous fantasy in a Candide-like style (very short chapters with very long titles). Her Enchanted Forest Chronicles explore what happens to a beautiful 16-year-old princess who does not WANT to get married to a handsome prince. Ostensibly written for children, it has a "Harry Potter"-like style that can be enjoyed by adults (and was written WAY before Harry Potter, btw!). Kellyterryjones 00:47, 24 December 2007 (CET)

Christopher Moore

Hilariously funny novels, which while not exactly fantasy or science fiction have elements of both. Vampires, demons, cargo cults. Death turns up as well, although it's more of a Tooth Fairy-esque franchise than a single anthropomorphic personification. It's probably best to read them in publication order, as recurring characters develop over the novels. Start with Practical Demonkeeping, for a introduction to the barely sane inhabitants of Pine Cove.

Robert Asprin

Author of the hilarious Mythadventures series of novels, featuring an inept magician, a tough-but-lovable demon, and a sexy assassin.

P.G. Wodehouse

Wodehouse's stories feature light humor, similar to Pterry's earlier works. Flashes of Wodehouse whimsy appear regularly and young Pratchett heroes like Moist von Lipwig resemble PGW's Psmith. Willikins the butler, of course, comes in a straight line from the famous Jeeves.

Josef Assad

Released his first novel The Banjo Players Must Die under a free Creative Commons license. Reading like a misanthropic Terry Pratchett, it is a dystopian and self-referential history of how Judgment Day came about, for very small values of 'came about'.

Jonathan Stroud

Author of the Bartimaeus Trilogy. These books are very witty with a superb use of footnotes. Told from the point of view of a wisecracking demon summoned by British magicians.

Harry Harrison

Prodigious author of science-fiction, ranging from potboilers through more "serious" exploratory sci-fi works and counterfactual histories, to out-and-out science-fiction humour. Anyone who perceived the slightly tongue-in-cheek aspect of Strata and Dark Side of the Sun will appreciate the parodic quality of Harrison's Bill, the Galactic Hero series of comic sci-fi novels. These send up every aspect of the classic gung-ho shoot 'em up space operas, in which, generally, American domestic paranoia about those goddamn Commies was projected out into space and time, and gave all-American heroes the chance to stand and fight for those good ol' fashioned values and Mom's apple pie. (Is it a matter of time before the space enemy starts to manifest recognisable aspects of Middle Eastern culture?)

Harrison's funniest sci-fi comedies by far, though, are the nine or ten books of the Stainless Steel Rat series. In a future that has largely eliminated crime, Jim diGriz is one of the last crooks left in the galaxy. While he is not averse to the occasional bank robbery, he prefers other, largely non-confrontational and consensual, methods of separating people from their money. he is principled and ethical enough to absolutely refuse to kill in the line of business, and has a ball as he travels the galaxy, bilking, bunco-ing, cheating and generally con-man-ning in a thousand inventive ways. But one day he comes a cropper and is offered the choice of (i) having his mind re-programmed to remove all criminal tendencies; or (ii) working on the side of the angels, as a member of the Galactic "Special Corps", an elite unit of part-detectives, part-policemen, part special agents. Choosing to accept his Angel, in the form of the Macchiavellian Special corps Director Inskipp, diGriz bites the bullet and reluctantly becomes poacher-turned-gamekeeper. His first assignment is to track down and arrest the beautiful and deadly Angelina, a woman with serious anger management issues and strong criminal tendencies. He does this so well they end up married, and adopt the nicknames of "Slippery Jim" and "Spike" for each other. (Do the descriptions remind you of anyone in the Pratchett character list?) Later books chart a marriage made in larcenous heaven, and the birth of twin sons who take after Mum and Dad...

George MacDonald Fraser

Fraser was cited by Terry Pratchett as one of five authors whose books he would buy immediately on publication. His best-known works are the Flashman series (the cowardly but lucky Harry Flashman has many points of similarity with Rincewind) and the McAuslan series (whose Gordon Highlanders are Roundworld Nac Mac Feegle.) Fraser's books are usually scrupulously accurate history with a few fictitious characters inserted, and include copious footnotes and endnotes.