Discworld by Terry Prachett

Written by: Wind

Now, there's this huge turtle whose name is Great A'Tuin, and on his (her?) back there are four elephants, and on top of the elephants, there's the world. A flat world. Discworld.

Don't worry, it's not serious.

Discworld is fantasy, but it's nowhere near being the epic fantasy of the Lord of the Rings. It's rather absurd and impossible, actually. So impossible that it had to exist somewhere, a world where Gods go around tormenting Atheists and the speech of the Captain before the battle is usually, "Ok boys, we're more than them and they're still sleepin', so go there and kill 'em quickly."

So. Let's have a closer look at the geography of this giant galactic pizza. The coldest point is the center: the ice mountain of Cori Celesti, home of the Gods. They don't meddle too often with human destiny, apart from a friendly game every now and then (they've got a passion for RPGs with human souls as prizes... but then, everyone needs a hobby!). The climate becomes warmer and warmer as the circumference of the Disc becomes closer. However, if it's too close you'll probably fall off the edge, so be careful.

Here, no madman can go around trying to demonstrate that the world is a sphere (at least, not for long). Water runs along the edge, so the Disc has got a nice waterfall all round dripping water, fish, relics and sometimes people. Logic would say that the ocean should have dried up ages ago, but luckily, there’s no logic around anymore- it probably gave up and went home after seeing the Disc.

On this world, there are (apart from some Egyptian and Mayan kingdoms which are called "lost" even if the inhabitants know where they are) some typical medieval cities, a must in every fantasy book. The most famous of them all is certainly Ankh Morpork, with it's bars with bar brawls, trolls, assassins, muggers, monsters and sometimes dragons. It's located in the Sto Plains, on the river Ankh, the most polluted river of the Disc (it's said that you can't drown in the Ankh because there isn't enough water).

The head of the city is the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, who created the form of government known as "One man, one vote": he's the man, and he gets the vote. In this lightened democracy, the criminality levels lowered since the creation of the guild of the thieves and the guild of the assassins. In exchange for a certain amount of thefts and kills every year, they make sure that there's no illegal criminal around (pardon the pun) and when they find one, they throw him in the river with weights tied on his feet (you can't drown – but you can suffocate!). Most of the citizens think it's a good solution – the others are the ones currently robbed or killed, of course.

Apart from this guilds, Ankh Morpork is also the city of the Unseen University, the premiere college of magic, where wizards spend their lives eating, trying to kill each other in order to become Archchancellor (each Archchancellor lasts around two months) and, occasionally, doing research. The Library of the University is the Disc's greatest collection of magic books, and so this concentration of magic can sometimes cause collateral effects, such as the Librarian being turned into an orangutan overnight (although since then he resisted every attempt to turn him back to human – he must like being an ape).

And in the end there's Death, a black-clad skeleton riding Binky the horse (a true horse, it seems that skeletal ones don't last much). Death isn't evil, he's just terribly good at doing his work and can't stand unpunctuality. It could have gone worse (although not by much).

So, the true protagonist of the saga isn't a person (or an ape) but the world on which various people move. Sometimes they're protagonists, sometimes just passers-by. Sometimes they're witches, sometimes assassins. Sometimes they come back, sometimes no (especially if Death has got an appointment with them). The Discworld is the only thing that through time always stays the same. But not in the same place, because A'Tuin is carrying it on his back, and is heading... where?

What a world!

So, where should you begin reading? Though following the chronological order is not important, there are some characters whose story is developed over more than one book. This site has got some suggestions on the reading order, plus a great deal of interesting facts on the books and the author. Personally, I love the witch series, which starts with Wyrd Sisters.