Discworld

You’re putting too much pressure on it.

I had the same issue, until I realised it was just a series of novels, with sarcastically minded, modern characters, that happened to be in a fantasy setting.

So they’re able and willing to point out the obvious absurdity of the world and its rules. To the extent that the world is flat, and floating on the back of a turtle. And everyone on the planet knows and accepts this as fact, because it’s literally true.

And he was one of the first to do this. Douglas Adam’s did a similar thing with space in A Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy around the same time.

Now, with all of that in mind, if you don’t like the guys writing style, no amount of love from other people can ever force you to enjoy it.

I'd love to know where to start (Discworld) as a old school hard scifi reader.

For the science fiction side of Discworld, check out the "History monks" path:

• Small Gods, Thief of Time, Night Watch

I personally include "Pyriamids" in that series, even though it technically doesn't have any history monks in it.

At that point, if you enjoyed the cop stories in Night Watch, you're in luck, beacuse:

As a science fiction fan, keep in mind that, while Discworld has consistent "science" rules, they're still intentionally silly. It is called "Discworld", after all.

But if you accept that Discworld is a shared delusion, with no explained origin, after that it's effectively hard science fiction. In my head canon, Discworld is "The Matrix" after a few centuries of missed maintenance patches.

Edit: After those, if the style appeals, the next to check out (for a science fiction fan) is probably the "Industrial Revolution" sequence.

I personally save "Moving Pictures" for last when I read theough it, because I'm impatient to get to the Moist Von Lipwig stories.

Also, the earlier "Death" stories have a sci-fi horror vibe.

If you love hard sci fi it’s not a given you’ll love it. If you love Douglas Adams and enjoy fantasy you should like it. It’s philosophical and deep and deeply silly.

So if you want to give it a fair shake and didn’t like it before, try Thud or Lords and Ladies. They’re in the middle of a series so I don’t recommend most people starting there and there’s context you’re going to be missing but are funny, smart, and powerful. I don’t know anybody who ranks either as one of their least favorite discworld books. And if you don’t like it, consider maybe it’s just not to your tastes as a series. It’s a powerful series filled with angst and hope and love of humanity, but it’s also silly stories about a flat world where fantasy tropes are turned on their heads. That’s what we love it for, but if you don’t like that then you don’t like it.

And for an example, Night Watch is Les Mis where the cop is the good guy who’s standing up for the people. Wyrd Sisters is Hamlet where the witches are heroic and the fool is painfully prudent. There’s Phantom of the Opera with a fat witch trying to be edgy, theres a story about a known con man being forced to run a post office and another where he has to run the treasury. There’s an “oops all Mulan” book too. These premises are played as silly as they are but also as deep as they can be.

For me the fantasy takes a backseat to the social commentary. Pratchett is great when he is angry and trying to shake the stupid and mean out of people.

What did you read last time?