That little xtra thrill of having to carry the magazine or video from to the front counter and give your money or cc to some scuzzy middle aged guy in a filthy tshirt while he insists on making eye-contact.
The Ultimate Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy
- Thread starter JeffinOakland
- Start date
Bummer
That's like saying the Discworld novels aren't fantasy...
I've never read any of them. Are they worth it? Is there one I should start with?
I believe the books are clearly numbered, and there was maybe 40 of them last I looked.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_world#Novels
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disc_world#Novels
Its easy enough to read them in order but the earliest of a series aren't always the best or most representative. Are there any that are the best to start with?
Oh you're one of them.
I had one of you over at my place yesterday.
I was scanning through my hard drives, trying to impress a girl, fastforwarding through the Beatles episodes of Glee, which she liked... I offered to go into deep storage to find season one that I'd burned to disk 6 years back.
"No, no, you don't have to do that, we can just start here, I'll figure it out."
"Sigh"
I had one of you over at my place yesterday.
I was scanning through my hard drives, trying to impress a girl, fastforwarding through the Beatles episodes of Glee, which she liked... I offered to go into deep storage to find season one that I'd burned to disk 6 years back.
"No, no, you don't have to do that, we can just start here, I'll figure it out."
"Sigh"
We're everywhere. Is there a continuous story that he keeps up for 40 books that makes it necessary to read them in order?
Was she impressed? Did she figure it out?
Was she impressed? Did she figure it out?
She liked the Love triangles between the teachers in the pilot.
Which I expected.
If she had started with season 5, I would have then had to have explained Corey Montieth's real life suicide, which would have been a bummer. Now instead, in three months, she is going to ask me if I know that he's dead, after it's already too late to back out.
I've read three of the Disc World books in no particular order, years ago. I have very little advice to offer on the subject, but I have seen several bookshelves with complete sets and it's always quite pretty.
Which I expected.
If she had started with season 5, I would have then had to have explained Corey Montieth's real life suicide, which would have been a bummer. Now instead, in three months, she is going to ask me if I know that he's dead, after it's already too late to back out.
I've read three of the Disc World books in no particular order, years ago. I have very little advice to offer on the subject, but I have seen several bookshelves with complete sets and it's always quite pretty.
Forget the books. Go and isten to the two radio series. Trust me on this.
Discworld. Fantastically funny, and I rate them higher than HHGG. Yes, the first couple aren't so funny, but watching the escalating skill is a joy. But if you insist on starrtting where it gets good... there are series within the series, the best oens to start with are:
The Death series: Mort
The Watch series: Guards! Guards!
The Witches series: Wyrd Sisters
Death and the Witches both have a great trilogy in their first 3 books. The Watch series improves up until Night Watch, which IMO is the best in the series. It has time travel, revolution and great character moments.
By skipping the first couple you miss out on a character who features throughout and who has a great story when the books get good (Interesting Times).
In short, the whole series is great, and only gets better as it goes along. There are reading guides, Google is your friend.
USS Triumphant said:
Discworld. Fantastically funny, and I rate them higher than HHGG. Yes, the first couple aren't so funny, but watching the escalating skill is a joy. But if you insist on starrtting where it gets good... there are series within the series, the best oens to start with are:
The Death series: Mort
The Watch series: Guards! Guards!
The Witches series: Wyrd Sisters
Death and the Witches both have a great trilogy in their first 3 books. The Watch series improves up until Night Watch, which IMO is the best in the series. It has time travel, revolution and great character moments.
By skipping the first couple you miss out on a character who features throughout and who has a great story when the books get good (Interesting Times).
In short, the whole series is great, and only gets better as it goes along. There are reading guides, Google is your friend.
USS Triumphant said:
I wouldn't mind hearing that story some time, if you'd like to share.
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No, there's no main storyline that runs through all the Discworld novels so in theory you can start just about anywhere a each book is mostly written with the assumption that not everyone has read the previous 20-30 instalments.
That said there are "threads" of books (for want of a better term) that act as direct or thematic sequels to each other or focus many of the same characters. I say focus because the nature of the shared continuity is that just about every book has at least a cameo appearance by a few characters from other books.
The groupings are actually listed in that wiki article, so just pick the first in a series and go from there.
My advice: if you want to get into Discworld then you'll need to familiarise yourself with Ankh-Morpork; the largest (and smelliest) city on the Disc and the setting of the majority of these stories. The best way to do that IMO is to get a street level view and start with the City Watch books ('Guards! Guards!', 'Men At Arms' etc. etc.) Probably one of the most popular series of books and crosses paths with just about everything else, it should give you a very solid place to start.
On the other hand if you want an introduction that features some of the larger (and weirder) ideas and concepts, then I'd start off with the Death/Susan books ('Mort', 'Soul Music', 'Hogfather' etc.)
It's actually really difficult to point at a singe book at say that is the "best" place to start, since everyone is going to have their favourite set of novels and truth be told, while some are arguably weaker than others there really isn't a single dud among them.
As far as Hitch-hiker's goes, the books have got nothing on the original radio series IMO. Neither do the TV show or the movie.
To be honest, I always thought Douglas Adams was a weak author. He's okay with scripts (some of the work he did on the original Doctor Who was fantastic), but he can't write decent novels for toffee. The first few books are okay because he was basically just novelising the radio serial with a few nips and tucks here and there. But when the later books deviated into brand new material, it showed up many of his flaws. They just weren't as engaging, mainly (I suspect) because he was over-reaching his abilities. He was never much of a 'character writer', but the later novels tried too hard to be character pieces. He had a gift with dialogue, but too many of the later Hitch-hiker's novels feel like nothing more than purple prose.
Science fiction comedy is a notoriously hard genre to nail down.
To be honest, I always thought Douglas Adams was a weak author. He's okay with scripts (some of the work he did on the original Doctor Who was fantastic), but he can't write decent novels for toffee. The first few books are okay because he was basically just novelising the radio serial with a few nips and tucks here and there. But when the later books deviated into brand new material, it showed up many of his flaws. They just weren't as engaging, mainly (I suspect) because he was over-reaching his abilities. He was never much of a 'character writer', but the later novels tried too hard to be character pieces. He had a gift with dialogue, but too many of the later Hitch-hiker's novels feel like nothing more than purple prose.
Science fiction comedy is a notoriously hard genre to nail down.
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As far as Hitch-hiker's goes, the books have got nothing on the original radio series IMO. Neither do the TV show or the movie.
To be honest, I always thought Douglas Adams was a weak author. He's okay with scripts (some of the work he did on the original Doctor Who was fantastic), but he can't write decent novels for toffee. The first few books are okay because he was basically just novelising the radio serial with a few nips and tucks here and there. But when the later books deviated into brand new material, it showed up many of his flaws. They just weren't as engaging, mainly (I suspect) because he was over-reaching his abilities. He was never much of a 'character writer', but the later novels tried too hard to be character pieces. He had a gift with dialogue, but too many of the later Hitch-hiker's novels feel like nothing more than purple prose.
Science fiction comedy is a notoriously hard genre to nail down.
What did you think of the radioshows of the later inferior books?
Did radio up their game?
^ I wasn't a fan TBH. They felt too much like fan productions rather than the real deal, despite migrating almost the entire original radio cast over to them. I suspect the distance in production (something like 20 years) is what made the difference, the later radio plays were playing to the Adams 'cult' rather than simply being any good in themselves.
The original two radio seasons from the 1970s are untouchable though, IMO. Even the 1980s TV version loses something in translation...
The original two radio seasons from the 1970s are untouchable though, IMO. Even the 1980s TV version loses something in translation...
Now I'm thinking I should listen to the radio broadcasts of the 1st 2 series.
Thanks for the ideas about the Discworld books, Australis & Reverend.
They're not a million miles from the TV presentation, but they've got a few different actors, a variety of different scenes, and on the whole they are much much more 'British' in their style (for want of a better word).
Most of the later adaptations pandered a little more to the international (re: 'American') market.
It's probably down to a personal taste thing. But for me, they're just more fresh and authentic than anything that came later.
You're just being silly.
The final three are fine.
The final three are fine.
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