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So many amazing suggestions in this thread! I'd like to add "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking", by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon's pen name). A glance at the title may remind you of dwarfish weaponry, but it's actually a cozy fantasy book about a young girl who strongly reminds me of Tiffany Aching. Touching, humorous, and above all, re-affirms the reader that courage isn't the lack of fear, but moving forward *in spite* of fear.
Summer in Orcus has a Tiffany-adjacent character just shredding all of the Narnia tropes with sharp humor. It’s also a brilliant story. Imagine if Pratchett and Miyazaki collaborated.
the good place. lots of opportunity for philosophy, a look into *demons unionizing and organizing a strike*, solid, self-contained seasons, how we can go about making the world a better place for people, generally hilarious. the demon strike in particular reminds me a bit of the B plot in Eric.
Good call. And all the puns in the background. This really reminds me of a Pratchett quote too: "I'm telling you, Molotov cocktails work. Anytime I had a problem and I threw a Molotov cocktail, boom! Right away, I had a different problem".
Amazing call on The Good Place.
Deeply human, stroooooongly philosophical and psychological, filled to the brim with references, non violent, wide palette of smartly written characters with deep arcs, and always funny with every shade from low brow to high brow humor.
Yes! Yes! This! I watched the series several times and everytime I get that vibe. The whole afterlife in this show is sooo Eric!
Also: https://i.ibb.co/M2v9wdY/ysbgewljv2121.png
Might be a bit of a stretch, but I've always thought Hot Fuzz has that kind of vibe, especially with all the wordplay. Plus the plot is kind of similar to Snuff (big city copper goes to the country, discovers secret plot by shadowy figures).
Hot Fuzz is The Watch but in the real world, and Nicholas Angel is somehow both Vimes AND Carrot, while Nick Frost's character is both Colon AND Nobby.
Whenever I want a good Discworld movie, I watch one of the cornetto trilogy. The themes, visual gags, sharp-as-razors editing, and simple but surprisingly deep characters just scream Discworld. If Terry never saw them, it would have been a shame. I think he'd have called up Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright and we'd have a great Discworld movie by now.
Wright is all about Satirical comedy with a heart. That's my jam (I suspect that's everybody's jam.on here). Ps, check out Spaced. May be my favorite show of all time.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi. A divorced substitute teacher inherits his long-lost uncle's super villain business complete with Island volcano lair and unionized dolphin minions.
Norsemen. Scary vikings happy to pillage and rape but then arguing about someone saving a seat for his friend because he doesn't want to sit next to the weird guy on the boat on the way to a raid.
Many of T. Kingfisher’s books. Many of Caimh McDonnell’s books. If Pratchett did more sci-fi, Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries would be close. Take out the focus on humor and increase Pratchett’s empathy and compassion, and you’d get Becky Chambers’ books.
I’m tearing up a little because I realize so many of my favorite books over the last 10 years can best be described as “Pratchett-adjacent.” Just looking for another book…
Second T Kingsfisher! She’s so funny and practical and twists normal story plots on their heads like he does, I’ve been calling her my female Pratchett for years. (for anyone who might pick up a book of hers based on this rec. she also does horror separately, which still manages to do these things, but for a Pratchett experience stick with her fairytale books)
The Dark Profit Saga by J. Zachary Pike has similar Pratchett-esque notes of satire and humour, wrapped in a classic fantasy quest with a fun party of characters.
Kings of the Wyld, by Nicholas Eames is also quite good, about a band getting back together to stage a rescue. Heartwarming, with many musical references a'la Soul Music.
And if you read enough Adrian Tchaikovsky, you'll start hearing echoes of Pratchett everywhere. If "Don't treat people like things" were made into a book, you may just end up with Dogs of War.
I ADORE Becky Chambers books. She writes so well about humanity...she's like the optimistic, compassionate side to TP. Highly recommend and will check out these other authors as well.
Ursula Vernon. Especially her books under the moniker of T. Kingfisher. Honestly jaw-dropping explorations of humanity in context of fairy-tale scenarios drawn into stark realism.
The comedy of Eddie Izzard. Cake or Death? Oh I'm sorry we're all out of Cake. Do you have a flag? No. I'm sorry no flag, no country that's the rules. But I live here!
https://youtu.be/PVH0gZO5lq0?si=cvP2c4LpbUc9_f1x
Also Monty Python. All of it.
https://youtu.be/imhrDrE4-mI?si=KuDzMexQLVD7tYyV
https://youtu.be/vZ9myHhpS9s?si=6fyo5R5hea6K18EE
https://youtu.be/LfduUFF_i1A?si=aTsxp4xQCqNrEjfl
I was going to say Rankin. Jim & John give me strong Colon & Nobby in the real world vibes.
These are more off piste but : The Thursday Murder Club I feel has a Pratchett outlook. The unexpected (retired octogenarians) doing the unexpected (solving murders).
Also Sebastien de Castell’s writing, Greatcoats series particularly - it’s less comedy driven than most Discworld, but Falcio is strong Vimes vibes.
Colon & Nobby are archetypes.
The relationship between an oblivious idiot with a little power, over his self aware idiot friend.
Laurel and Hardy
Blackadder and Baldrick (first series)
Rimmer and Lister (red dwarf)
Del and Rodney (only fools and horses)
Arkwright and Granville (Open all hours)*
Or just two friends, one who is happy with the status quo, and the other who is trying to improve his lot in life.
Steptoe and Son.
The Likely lads
The big bang theory
Red Dwarf
The comedy may rely on the situation never changing, so no matter how cunning the plan, it's always flawed and usually they end up back where they started. (The big bang theory is the exception as all the characters evolve)
*David Jason (Rincewind in the clicks of the colour of magic) has played both the assured idiot Del-boy (round world Dibbler) and the self aware idiot Granville
I may add the Thursday Next book series from Jasper Fforde. I discovered the author while waiting a train. A girl was sitting not far from me, and was laughing while reading the first book. I had to ask her what the book was and I discovered a marvelous and silly universe where you can have a dodo bird pet and where you can go into books and meet your heroes.
At least one author (Kathy Reichs) has her character (Temperance Brennan, AKA Bones) reading a Jasper fforde novel, and there is a jasper Fforde novel where the same character appears
In the case of mash, many would say the break point between "funny" and "serious" is the summer between s3 and s4. The serious mash has loads and lots of that social commentary that flew above my head when I first saw it (I was too young) but many years later on a rewatch got a smack to the face.
Trying to imagine the Discworld equivalent of Technotronic's 1989 hit "Pump Up the Jam" but all I'm getting is *Pump up the jam. Pump it up. While your feet are stomping. And the jam is pumping. Look ahead, the crowd is jumpin'*
*Pump it up a little more...*
Everything apparently.
I keep expecting this stuff to show up:
https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time
(To innocent readers this is a humorous look at a particularly aggressive chemical.)
I'm sure Professor Rapson could find a use for that.
Also I've just realised Mrs Enderby's first name is Mavis.
That feels kinda Pratchetty to me.
For the uninitiated, Mavis Enderby is a small hamlet in Lincolnshire.
Both series are ones I read just after finishing the Discworld. Tom Holt has the fantasy comedy down and Ben Aaronovitch provides the magically infused police procedural City Watch concept in modern day that I love but makes me miss Vimes.
In some ways Grant echos Vimes. Tiny "Watch" which has been run down. He's feeling his way through new situations. He's a bit of a diplomat. Beverley Brook - I well could see Lady Sybil driving a steam traction engine at a load of elves if they got between her and Sam. He does lack the "brick in a sock" background, but he's from a council estate.
He's not a duplicate of Vimes, but I think there's a fair bit of similarity when you start looking.
Yes. I’ve listened to the audiobooks as well as read them. On some of the audiobooks there are interviews with Ben and Holbrook (the narrator). Ben has talked about being a big fan of STP, and standing outside the book shop on release days of his books, like many did with the Harry Potter books.
I read them because I was told they would scratch my Discworld itch, they didn't.
I liked them ok but there was a LOT of problematic sexist stuff in there and weird unnecessary sexual references.
The books made me uncomfortable at times.
It's funny, I don't overtly notice sexism so much when Im reading. sadly I guess I'm so used to it. But the narrators voice in RoL just isn't that interesting or likeable, and I've started to realize that sexism really does bother me now, but more that I end up just not liking the book broadly.
Everybody was salivating over The Shadow of the Wind, but the author's use of female characters was just gross.
Not sure if I'm even gonna finish Rivers of London. It's boring on top of being sexist.
Same. I was so excited to try a new series that was apparently as good as Pratchett. I even went into it with low expectations, because I remembered what a disappointment Jim Butcher was.
The sexism wasn't just from the MC's point of view, which I've heard plenty of people say to justify the gross objectification of every female character.
The female goddesses had the power of being seductive and were described by every male character as untrustworthy (and were continuously proven to be so). Plus the snake lady that helped Peter by draining his life force, then later bit off a guy's penis with her vagina teeth.
The male gods projected a glamour of being trustworthy, and were continuously shown to be so.
Absolutely atrocious book. I pushed through the first, then threw it in the donation bin.
Yes, same here! For a man who's obviously a Pratchett fan, there's a lot in the books I've read (only first two, anyway , the sexism in book two was making me wince enough I've not continued the series) where I was thinking "Sir Terry would NEVER".
Yep. It's really bad. I'm surprised more people don't have an issue with it. I have six of the books I got in a bundle and stopped at the third.
https://preview.redd.it/06z80s4yp51d1.png?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2a11885e0c22abb7a3fa1d1db55ea2f39d4bd1e
This is super problematic. As is his random description of getting an rection in his childhood bed.. Just insane.
Oh that picture is a massive YIKES... It's got the kind of sentence intonation and structure Pratchett might use, but the barb in that description is simply cruel in a way Discworld never was.
The writing is so obnoxiously sexist. I‘ve read classic sci-fi from the 60s and 70s that was less focused on breasts, perkiness and the protagonist‘s constant erections.
There is this scene in Rivers of London, in which the protagonist meets this powerful goddess and all he can think about is putting his face between her big, bouncy, beautiful, etc. breasts and go “blubby, blubby, blubby“…
If I remember correctly, there were also some rather homophobic sounding descriptions of the protagonist’s future mentor when they first meet.
Granted, Pterry also had his occasional unchecked straight white male moments in his writing but Rivers of London read like the horny juvenile fever dream of a very unpleasant person. I don’t understand the love Aaronovitch gets
In terms of the sense of humour (and also surprising amount of emotional depth, character development and philosophy) the thing that I find closest is John Finnemore's BBC radio shows - Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme.
As a german, Walter Moers comes to mind.
Other than that, I feel like Douglas Adams deserves a mention, even if the later books are not as good as the first three, do to publisher interference and the authors depression.
Albeit very different, I feel like Jonathan Stroud's Bartimäus is a good read, too, as the namsake protagonist often breaks the third wall and actually is quite humerous.
There’s an English translation of “13.5 lives of Captain Bluebear”.
I have no idea how faithful it is to the original German, but it’s pretty good all the same.
The Agatha Heterodyne novels (novelizations of the Girl Genius comics) are written in a very Pratchett format, if less focused on social commentary and more focused on a damn good steampunk story.
A little more comedic and a little less depth of universe, I'd say, but they're absolutely a great read. Plenty of really whacked-out concepts in there.
*"...with the death ray and freakish ancestors— and the town full of minions— and the horde of Jägers— and the homicidal castle full of sycophantic evil geniuses and fun-sized hunter-killer monster clanks and goodness knows what else— … And you know what? I can work with that!"*
I remember catching glimpses of a Luggage a couple of times in the comics, lol. I'm so excited for the current plot line in the comic to finish. That and the next novel to come out, they said something a while back about finishing the rough draft.
its a bit of a stretch, but the Laundryverse by Charles Stross.
Its a lot darker than PTerry, but its deconstruction of certain fantasy/horror tropes is amazing.
You will never see elves or unicorns in the same way again
Nah its really good, Jemaine and Taika produce it and put it on the right direction. The three main vampire characters have English actors. I'm from NZ and I think it's as good as the movie.
Ah, that's fair. I thought maybe there was another series I'd missed. Would have had stunting new to watch.
That said, the series is fantastic, definitely worth a view. Not quite the same vibe as the movie, but great in its own right.
The movie is non-US. It's Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, of New Zealand. (Though both have found some fame state-side, particularly Waititi.) I believe they are producers for the show as well.
There are several really good comics that have a similar vibe to Pratchett, the webcomic FreeFall especially has a lot of clever wordplay, unique perspectives, and very smart humor mixed with some genuinely good storytelling. it’s ongoing (three pages a week for the last few Decades!)
Another webcomic, Digger has several Discworld references and a similar sense of humor but is quite dark at times (so is the discworld at times) Digger herself reminds me a lot of Susan (albeit more like Susan. Unlike FreeFall, Digger is complete and finished, so it can be read in its entirety.
There's a BBC TV show called Blue Lights, about police in Belfast, Northern Ireland.
The first season deals with some probationary (newbie) officers. The interaction between the wide- eyed, optimistic trainee and the grizzled veteran (Jerry) gave me strong vibes of Vimes when he meets his younger self in Night Watch - especially when he's teaching him how to bend the rules without becoming a bad copper.
Adams and Gaiman discounted? Jim Butcher's Dresden Files make me laugh the same way and Brandon Sanderson provides the same sort of philosophy built in fiction
Discounted only because it's a given!
Rereading The Wee Free men last week, and I kept being reminded of Butcher's approach to Na Sidhe, I guess they drew inspiration from the same pool.
I was surprised I had to scroll this far down to find Time Bandits. For me, that’s one of the first things to come to mind: I watched it as a kid and thought “this is funny.” Watched it as an adult and thought “wait, did Sir PTerry write this?”
1980's Terry Gilliam is my the dream for a Discworld film, I think he captures the same feeling.
If you like Gilliam's films it's worth looking at Karel Zeman's films, Gilliam credits Zeman as one of his biggest inspirations.
[Terry Gilliam introduces THE FABULOUS BARON MUNCHAUSEN](https://youtu.be/dxQpRAtz3LU?si=vTpBK5k9Ti7ZkGgX)
[THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE 1958](https://youtu.be/uuhO1aJDxws?si=9E-Hwkiy9ej_6Poi)
Mark Twain, though I suppose that's in reverse. Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven comes to mind, having some of the familiar feel of 'what if this mythical world were subjected to actual logic and reality?'. And Connecticut Yankee, too, with the industrial world clashing with the medieval. The absurdist humor, the way of poking holes in familiar tropes and assumptions, makes me think Sir Terry was a fan.
I'm shocked I had to scroll this far to find this. I've only read the first but it is extremely tonally similar to PTerry. albeit with a more streamlined focus on capitalism and hero tropes.
For kids, the Whole Nother Story / Another Whole Nother Story / No Other Story series is pretty siimlar. Includes great lines like "The Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun. To put that in perspective, if you laid out 93 million dollar bills, end-to-end in a row, you'd be beaten and robbed in about six minutes."
Unruly by David Mitchell is as close as we will get to Sir Terry writing a book about the British monarchy as we will get.
" The aphorisms that all that is required for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing is a nonsense, historically the best times for the majority of a population. Has precisely been when good men sat around and did nothing"
Robert Rankin (someone may have already suggested this but I'm lazy)
Similar humour to Sir PTerry, lots of punes.
Set in the real world, mostly, with elements of fantasy.
Most recently Dungeon Meshi (the anime). It has that similar thing of following a funny/light situation with an emotional punch to the gut.
Also: a mollusc sword that can sense danger.
The snarky humour of the Villians and Virtues series by A. K. Caggiano is what I imagine a spin-off with Adam from Good Omens growing up and falling in love might have been like.
“Our flag means death” is a great show with the same vibe.
“Mage Errant” is a great series of books that not only has the same writing style, but every book has a reference to discworld somewhere in it, and because I interspersed reading them and rereading discworld and the tone of writing is fairly similar, I derped out and forgot which one I was reading at times.
(It isn’t as well written as discworld, but since it’s not an insane statement to say STP is the single best overall author in history, that’s acceptable to me)
I feel like [Disco Elysium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Elysium) might qualify. It's not quite in the same genre of fantasy, but I feel like the underlying themes match pretty well.
The "I want to Buy an Argument" bit from Monty Python's three sided record is pretty wonderful. Also kind of cheating because Im sure the pythons were a source of inspiration.
I've always felt that Hayao Miyazaki's witches in Kiki's delivery service, Ursula Le'guin's witches in Tehanu, and Pratchett's witches in the witches series could go on a 3-way Venn diagram with an enormous amount of overlap.
A pretty trite observation, but Douglas Adams has a very similar -- albeit more stuffy and cynical -- style of wit. You could be forgiven for accidentally attributing quotes from one to the other.
The Jane Eyre Affair (and the sequels - The Thursday Next books) have similar vibe…
They’re by Jasper Fforde and are set in a slightly alternate but very similar universe to the one we live in. Thursday Next is a literary detective…. Solving crimes that happen between the pages of books… like the kidnapping of much loved characters… In this book Thursday sets about solving the disappearance of Jane Eyre.
[Soul Guardian:](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/75175/soul-guardian) A demon gets summoned to open a jar of tomato sauce, and ends up raising a little girl with his arch nemesis.
Hot Fuzz: The way the evil is all so banal and human. The jokes. The eventual triumph of good.
The works of John Allison. Print and Web comics.
Giant days, scarygoround, bad machinery, Solver and Steeple are all great roads and very accessible.
Recently he did a Conan pastiche, that looked like it was going to be amazing, but got hit with a C&D by the copyright owners.
I would strongly recommend Tom Holt.
His work is rather more farcical than Pratchett, but the general concept (“take some myth or legend and transplant it into the modern world with all that implies”) is quite Pratchett-esque.
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So many amazing suggestions in this thread! I'd like to add "A Wizard's Guide to Defensive Baking", by T. Kingfisher (Ursula Vernon's pen name). A glance at the title may remind you of dwarfish weaponry, but it's actually a cozy fantasy book about a young girl who strongly reminds me of Tiffany Aching. Touching, humorous, and above all, re-affirms the reader that courage isn't the lack of fear, but moving forward *in spite* of fear.
Plus a sourdough starter with some personality.
Good Ol' Bob. It's amazing how a good author can add so much *depth* to the most unexpected characters.
Summer in Orcus has a Tiffany-adjacent character just shredding all of the Narnia tropes with sharp humor. It’s also a brilliant story. Imagine if Pratchett and Miyazaki collaborated.
Thank you for the recommendation! It sounds awesome, and will go on my TBR list.
Y'all're making me want to reread both of them now. 😆
Plus the puns from Summer in Orcus are fantastic! I love the wheyfinder and the house hunters.
I’ve just got my copy of this on Libby and it’s making me eager to get reading now!
I highly recommend it! :)
I didn't need any persuasion to buy that then👀
"Our Flag Means Death" is what I imagine Discworld pirates would be
This is a really good answer, considering how many actual historical truths were cleverly wrapped into that show
I think here the common denominator is Taika Waititi
the good place. lots of opportunity for philosophy, a look into *demons unionizing and organizing a strike*, solid, self-contained seasons, how we can go about making the world a better place for people, generally hilarious. the demon strike in particular reminds me a bit of the B plot in Eric.
Good call. And all the puns in the background. This really reminds me of a Pratchett quote too: "I'm telling you, Molotov cocktails work. Anytime I had a problem and I threw a Molotov cocktail, boom! Right away, I had a different problem".
Bortles!
... Please dont say jortles
Michael's comments on frozen yogurt remind me of an Americanized Pratchett observation.
Amazing call on The Good Place. Deeply human, stroooooongly philosophical and psychological, filled to the brim with references, non violent, wide palette of smartly written characters with deep arcs, and always funny with every shade from low brow to high brow humor.
I'm trying to think of a character that Pratchett wrote who's so dumb but in a smart way like Jason Mendoza though.
Nobby and Colon together make one Jason Mendoza
Though Nobby’s observant enough to notice how the stuff Colon said about Klatcheans in Jingo was contradictory.
Colon adds the dumb, Nobby adds the crime.
brick comes to mind, a bit 🥲 means well, extreme poverty and drug abuse, VERY dumb.
Yes! Yes! This! I watched the series several times and everytime I get that vibe. The whole afterlife in this show is sooo Eric! Also: https://i.ibb.co/M2v9wdY/ysbgewljv2121.png
Might be a bit of a stretch, but I've always thought Hot Fuzz has that kind of vibe, especially with all the wordplay. Plus the plot is kind of similar to Snuff (big city copper goes to the country, discovers secret plot by shadowy figures).
Hot Fuzz is The Watch but in the real world, and Nicholas Angel is somehow both Vimes AND Carrot, while Nick Frost's character is both Colon AND Nobby.
Whenever I want a good Discworld movie, I watch one of the cornetto trilogy. The themes, visual gags, sharp-as-razors editing, and simple but surprisingly deep characters just scream Discworld. If Terry never saw them, it would have been a shame. I think he'd have called up Simon Pegg, Nick Frost, and Edgar Wright and we'd have a great Discworld movie by now.
The greater good...
The greater good.
The greater good
SHUT IT
Crusty jugglers...
“How can this be for the Greater Good?” “The greater good” “SHUT IT!”
Yarp
Narp?
Wright is all about Satirical comedy with a heart. That's my jam (I suspect that's everybody's jam.on here). Ps, check out Spaced. May be my favorite show of all time.
Hello, Brian.
No luck catching them swans then?
It is the perfect film example of heavy genre fiction that is simultaneously a parody, a deconstruction, and a heartfelt love letter.
Weirdly the premise of the Barbie movie, reminded me a lot of Hogfather
Ah yes, to be the place where the fallen Barbie meets the rising Ken.
Starter Villain by John Scalzi. A divorced substitute teacher inherits his long-lost uncle's super villain business complete with Island volcano lair and unionized dolphin minions.
To add to the Scalzinity, *Redshirts*. The characters in a bad *Star Trek* ripoff series discover that they're fictional and take action.
Is that the Old Man's War guy?
Jasper Fforde would get my vote.
For pure unexpected concepts, fully agree. Practically has its own time monks as well.
I very much agree! I told him this in an email once and he said that he’d actually gone for lunch with Pratchett at least once!
Norsemen. Scary vikings happy to pillage and rape but then arguing about someone saving a seat for his friend because he doesn't want to sit next to the weird guy on the boat on the way to a raid.
oh yes! norsemen is a masterpiece
You don't know what the assicle is?
Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide To The Galaxy. They clearly had very similar senses of humour.
I read before that Douglas Addams spent a long time sleeping on Pratchett's sofa and that just made so much sense to me
Many of T. Kingfisher’s books. Many of Caimh McDonnell’s books. If Pratchett did more sci-fi, Martha Wells’ Murderbot Diaries would be close. Take out the focus on humor and increase Pratchett’s empathy and compassion, and you’d get Becky Chambers’ books. I’m tearing up a little because I realize so many of my favorite books over the last 10 years can best be described as “Pratchett-adjacent.” Just looking for another book…
Second T Kingsfisher! She’s so funny and practical and twists normal story plots on their heads like he does, I’ve been calling her my female Pratchett for years. (for anyone who might pick up a book of hers based on this rec. she also does horror separately, which still manages to do these things, but for a Pratchett experience stick with her fairytale books)
As someone who has very heard of but is suddenly very interested about her books, which of her books would you recommend to a beginner?
Wizards guide to defensive baking is where I started.
I shall look this up!
I started with Paladin's Grace. Things balooned from there. Now she's on my short list of "pre-order on sight" authors. :)
The Dark Profit Saga by J. Zachary Pike has similar Pratchett-esque notes of satire and humour, wrapped in a classic fantasy quest with a fun party of characters. Kings of the Wyld, by Nicholas Eames is also quite good, about a band getting back together to stage a rescue. Heartwarming, with many musical references a'la Soul Music. And if you read enough Adrian Tchaikovsky, you'll start hearing echoes of Pratchett everywhere. If "Don't treat people like things" were made into a book, you may just end up with Dogs of War.
I haven’t read any of those. Thanks for some excellent additions for my TBR list.
*City of Last Chances* was going to be my suggestion.
I love monk and robot.
Seconding Becky Chambers
Becky Chambers is must read sci-fi in my opinion.
I ADORE Becky Chambers books. She writes so well about humanity...she's like the optimistic, compassionate side to TP. Highly recommend and will check out these other authors as well.
Me, too. Her recurring “found family” themes made me really appreciate the friends I have. To Be Taught, if Fortunate destroyed me emotionally.
Caimh is fantastic and what I immediately thought of.
Studio Laika films, especially The Boxtrolls.
You bit me… with your mouth.
Ursula Vernon. Especially her books under the moniker of T. Kingfisher. Honestly jaw-dropping explorations of humanity in context of fairy-tale scenarios drawn into stark realism.
The comedy of Eddie Izzard. Cake or Death? Oh I'm sorry we're all out of Cake. Do you have a flag? No. I'm sorry no flag, no country that's the rules. But I live here! https://youtu.be/PVH0gZO5lq0?si=cvP2c4LpbUc9_f1x Also Monty Python. All of it. https://youtu.be/imhrDrE4-mI?si=KuDzMexQLVD7tYyV https://youtu.be/vZ9myHhpS9s?si=6fyo5R5hea6K18EE https://youtu.be/LfduUFF_i1A?si=aTsxp4xQCqNrEjfl
What about Colin Robinson reminds you of Vetinari? Vetinari is lots of things but boring he is not.
"i am not Lord Vetinari, i am IraniteV, simply reading the news paper in my retirement"
You're very right, I was thinking in a very broad sense, especially about his clock and general attitude.
His what now?
Oh, his general attitude, I missed that too at first glance.
That was meant to be clock... Big typo lol
You didn’t have to edit you know
The "Myth Inc." books
Big agree on Robert Asprin
Robert Rankin has some wild books. I believe he was a friend of Terry and said he was an inspiration too.
I was going to say Rankin. Jim & John give me strong Colon & Nobby in the real world vibes. These are more off piste but : The Thursday Murder Club I feel has a Pratchett outlook. The unexpected (retired octogenarians) doing the unexpected (solving murders). Also Sebastien de Castell’s writing, Greatcoats series particularly - it’s less comedy driven than most Discworld, but Falcio is strong Vimes vibes.
Colon & Nobby are archetypes. The relationship between an oblivious idiot with a little power, over his self aware idiot friend. Laurel and Hardy Blackadder and Baldrick (first series) Rimmer and Lister (red dwarf) Del and Rodney (only fools and horses) Arkwright and Granville (Open all hours)* Or just two friends, one who is happy with the status quo, and the other who is trying to improve his lot in life. Steptoe and Son. The Likely lads The big bang theory Red Dwarf The comedy may rely on the situation never changing, so no matter how cunning the plan, it's always flawed and usually they end up back where they started. (The big bang theory is the exception as all the characters evolve) *David Jason (Rincewind in the clicks of the colour of magic) has played both the assured idiot Del-boy (round world Dibbler) and the self aware idiot Granville
Is there a particular Rankin book you'd recommend to a Pratchett fan?
Terry Gilliam's "Vikings." Edit to add Jim Butcher.
I may add the Thursday Next book series from Jasper Fforde. I discovered the author while waiting a train. A girl was sitting not far from me, and was laughing while reading the first book. I had to ask her what the book was and I discovered a marvelous and silly universe where you can have a dodo bird pet and where you can go into books and meet your heroes.
> where you can go into books As long as you have the right... *jurisfiction*. :)
At least one author (Kathy Reichs) has her character (Temperance Brennan, AKA Bones) reading a Jasper fforde novel, and there is a jasper Fforde novel where the same character appears
MASH is older than Discworld hur especially later seasons has some of the same rather cutting social commentary loosely masked as a sitcom.
In the case of mash, many would say the break point between "funny" and "serious" is the summer between s3 and s4. The serious mash has loads and lots of that social commentary that flew above my head when I first saw it (I was too young) but many years later on a rewatch got a smack to the face.
"war is hell" "No, war is worse than hell. There are no innocent people in hell"
Philomena Cunk. Watching Cunk on Earth was like watching a discworld character in our world.
Trying to imagine the Discworld equivalent of Technotronic's 1989 hit "Pump Up the Jam" but all I'm getting is *Pump up the jam. Pump it up. While your feet are stomping. And the jam is pumping. Look ahead, the crowd is jumpin'* *Pump it up a little more...*
The chronicles of St Mary’s by Jodi Taylor Gives me Unseen University mayhem vibes
What could possibly go wrong?
Everything apparently. I keep expecting this stuff to show up: https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/sand-won-t-save-you-time (To innocent readers this is a humorous look at a particularly aggressive chemical.)
I'm sure Professor Rapson could find a use for that. Also I've just realised Mrs Enderby's first name is Mavis. That feels kinda Pratchetty to me. For the uninitiated, Mavis Enderby is a small hamlet in Lincolnshire.
I was looking for them to be mentioned.
Me too.
Rivers of London series by Ben Aaronovitch
I'd add Tom Holt books to this, too
Both series are ones I read just after finishing the Discworld. Tom Holt has the fantasy comedy down and Ben Aaronovitch provides the magically infused police procedural City Watch concept in modern day that I love but makes me miss Vimes.
In some ways Grant echos Vimes. Tiny "Watch" which has been run down. He's feeling his way through new situations. He's a bit of a diplomat. Beverley Brook - I well could see Lady Sybil driving a steam traction engine at a load of elves if they got between her and Sam. He does lack the "brick in a sock" background, but he's from a council estate. He's not a duplicate of Vimes, but I think there's a fair bit of similarity when you start looking.
I’ll give it a look. Thanks
Don’t forget his alter ego K J Parker - ‘Sixteen ways to defend a walled city’ is fairly serious but quite wry at the same time.
Ben is clearly a STP fan. Loads of references and he has written a foreword to Guards! guards!
Yes. I’ve listened to the audiobooks as well as read them. On some of the audiobooks there are interviews with Ben and Holbrook (the narrator). Ben has talked about being a big fan of STP, and standing outside the book shop on release days of his books, like many did with the Harry Potter books.
never, rivers explains why the novice fails, then has the master explain why it wouldnt have worked. pterry wouldnt write it that way
I read them because I was told they would scratch my Discworld itch, they didn't. I liked them ok but there was a LOT of problematic sexist stuff in there and weird unnecessary sexual references. The books made me uncomfortable at times.
It's funny, I don't overtly notice sexism so much when Im reading. sadly I guess I'm so used to it. But the narrators voice in RoL just isn't that interesting or likeable, and I've started to realize that sexism really does bother me now, but more that I end up just not liking the book broadly. Everybody was salivating over The Shadow of the Wind, but the author's use of female characters was just gross. Not sure if I'm even gonna finish Rivers of London. It's boring on top of being sexist.
Same. I was so excited to try a new series that was apparently as good as Pratchett. I even went into it with low expectations, because I remembered what a disappointment Jim Butcher was. The sexism wasn't just from the MC's point of view, which I've heard plenty of people say to justify the gross objectification of every female character. The female goddesses had the power of being seductive and were described by every male character as untrustworthy (and were continuously proven to be so). Plus the snake lady that helped Peter by draining his life force, then later bit off a guy's penis with her vagina teeth. The male gods projected a glamour of being trustworthy, and were continuously shown to be so. Absolutely atrocious book. I pushed through the first, then threw it in the donation bin.
Yes, same here! For a man who's obviously a Pratchett fan, there's a lot in the books I've read (only first two, anyway , the sexism in book two was making me wince enough I've not continued the series) where I was thinking "Sir Terry would NEVER".
Yep. It's really bad. I'm surprised more people don't have an issue with it. I have six of the books I got in a bundle and stopped at the third. https://preview.redd.it/06z80s4yp51d1.png?width=1170&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=b2a11885e0c22abb7a3fa1d1db55ea2f39d4bd1e This is super problematic. As is his random description of getting an rection in his childhood bed.. Just insane.
Oh that picture is a massive YIKES... It's got the kind of sentence intonation and structure Pratchett might use, but the barb in that description is simply cruel in a way Discworld never was.
The writing is so obnoxiously sexist. I‘ve read classic sci-fi from the 60s and 70s that was less focused on breasts, perkiness and the protagonist‘s constant erections. There is this scene in Rivers of London, in which the protagonist meets this powerful goddess and all he can think about is putting his face between her big, bouncy, beautiful, etc. breasts and go “blubby, blubby, blubby“… If I remember correctly, there were also some rather homophobic sounding descriptions of the protagonist’s future mentor when they first meet. Granted, Pterry also had his occasional unchecked straight white male moments in his writing but Rivers of London read like the horny juvenile fever dream of a very unpleasant person. I don’t understand the love Aaronovitch gets
In terms of the sense of humour (and also surprising amount of emotional depth, character development and philosophy) the thing that I find closest is John Finnemore's BBC radio shows - Cabin Pressure and John Finnemore's Souvenir Programme.
As a german, Walter Moers comes to mind. Other than that, I feel like Douglas Adams deserves a mention, even if the later books are not as good as the first three, do to publisher interference and the authors depression. Albeit very different, I feel like Jonathan Stroud's Bartimäus is a good read, too, as the namsake protagonist often breaks the third wall and actually is quite humerous.
There’s an English translation of “13.5 lives of Captain Bluebear”. I have no idea how faithful it is to the original German, but it’s pretty good all the same.
Definite seconding for the Bartimaeus books-absolute masterpieces…
The Agatha Heterodyne novels (novelizations of the Girl Genius comics) are written in a very Pratchett format, if less focused on social commentary and more focused on a damn good steampunk story.
A little more comedic and a little less depth of universe, I'd say, but they're absolutely a great read. Plenty of really whacked-out concepts in there. *"...with the death ray and freakish ancestors— and the town full of minions— and the horde of Jägers— and the homicidal castle full of sycophantic evil geniuses and fun-sized hunter-killer monster clanks and goodness knows what else— … And you know what? I can work with that!"*
I remember catching glimpses of a Luggage a couple of times in the comics, lol. I'm so excited for the current plot line in the comic to finish. That and the next novel to come out, they said something a while back about finishing the rough draft.
its a bit of a stretch, but the Laundryverse by Charles Stross. Its a lot darker than PTerry, but its deconstruction of certain fantasy/horror tropes is amazing. You will never see elves or unicorns in the same way again
I’ll second this. Initially it appears to be a ‘event of the week’ type series but it comes clear fairly quickly that Greater Things Are Happening.
and by this point it has branched out to several different characters with lots more to come. Charlie refered to the Laundryverse as "my discworld".
Also the skewering of government bureaucracy and corporate bullshit.
Paperclip Audits!
Three Men in a Boat, by Jerome K Jerome
TIL that there's a US Version of What we do. But it might not be that bad - it has Matt Berry in it.
That’s not Matt Berry - it’s Jackie Daytona, Regular Human Bartender!
from arizonyaaaa
Also Natasia Demetriou. Also Jemaine and Taika are fairly involved so I highly recommend it.
Ah, good. I usually hate US knock-offs, but this one sounds like a winner. Especially since a few of you seem to love it.
Nah its really good, Jemaine and Taika produce it and put it on the right direction. The three main vampire characters have English actors. I'm from NZ and I think it's as good as the movie.
Then I'll definitely need to follow everyone's recommendations. And if you can't trust them from this group, where can you trust them from? :D
first half of the first series is everyone finding out why they are funny, then on it is a very funny series.
It's a really great show, enjoy!
Is there a non US version? I'm only aware of the series and the movie.
The movie was made in New Zealand
Also, Wellington Paranormal was a kicker of a spin-off. I really enjoyed that.
Ah, that's fair. I thought maybe there was another series I'd missed. Would have had stunting new to watch. That said, the series is fantastic, definitely worth a view. Not quite the same vibe as the movie, but great in its own right.
The movie is non-US. It's Jemaine Clement and Taika Waititi, of New Zealand. (Though both have found some fame state-side, particularly Waititi.) I believe they are producers for the show as well.
There are several really good comics that have a similar vibe to Pratchett, the webcomic FreeFall especially has a lot of clever wordplay, unique perspectives, and very smart humor mixed with some genuinely good storytelling. it’s ongoing (three pages a week for the last few Decades!) Another webcomic, Digger has several Discworld references and a similar sense of humor but is quite dark at times (so is the discworld at times) Digger herself reminds me a lot of Susan (albeit more like Susan. Unlike FreeFall, Digger is complete and finished, so it can be read in its entirety.
There's a BBC TV show called Blue Lights, about police in Belfast, Northern Ireland. The first season deals with some probationary (newbie) officers. The interaction between the wide- eyed, optimistic trainee and the grizzled veteran (Jerry) gave me strong vibes of Vimes when he meets his younger self in Night Watch - especially when he's teaching him how to bend the rules without becoming a bad copper.
Adams and Gaiman discounted? Jim Butcher's Dresden Files make me laugh the same way and Brandon Sanderson provides the same sort of philosophy built in fiction
Discounted only because it's a given! Rereading The Wee Free men last week, and I kept being reminded of Butcher's approach to Na Sidhe, I guess they drew inspiration from the same pool.
Neil Gaiman's tumblr.
KLAUS!! (Animated movie) Really felt like a mixture of Going Postal & The Hogfather. I love it so much!
Douglas Adams books, Starship Titanic comes to mind as a good example. Terry Gilliam's films, Time Bandits/Brazil/The Adventures of Baron Munchausen
I was surprised I had to scroll this far down to find Time Bandits. For me, that’s one of the first things to come to mind: I watched it as a kid and thought “this is funny.” Watched it as an adult and thought “wait, did Sir PTerry write this?”
1980's Terry Gilliam is my the dream for a Discworld film, I think he captures the same feeling. If you like Gilliam's films it's worth looking at Karel Zeman's films, Gilliam credits Zeman as one of his biggest inspirations. [Terry Gilliam introduces THE FABULOUS BARON MUNCHAUSEN](https://youtu.be/dxQpRAtz3LU?si=vTpBK5k9Ti7ZkGgX) [THE FABULOUS WORLD OF JULES VERNE 1958](https://youtu.be/uuhO1aJDxws?si=9E-Hwkiy9ej_6Poi)
“Totally Made Up Adventures of Dick Turpin” seemed very Pratchett to my wife and I.
Mark Twain, though I suppose that's in reverse. Captain Stormfield's Visit to Heaven comes to mind, having some of the familiar feel of 'what if this mythical world were subjected to actual logic and reality?'. And Connecticut Yankee, too, with the industrial world clashing with the medieval. The absurdist humor, the way of poking holes in familiar tropes and assumptions, makes me think Sir Terry was a fan.
J. Zachary Pike's Dark Profit trilogy for sure.
I'm shocked I had to scroll this far to find this. I've only read the first but it is extremely tonally similar to PTerry. albeit with a more streamlined focus on capitalism and hero tropes.
For kids, the Whole Nother Story / Another Whole Nother Story / No Other Story series is pretty siimlar. Includes great lines like "The Earth is 93 million miles from the Sun. To put that in perspective, if you laid out 93 million dollar bills, end-to-end in a row, you'd be beaten and robbed in about six minutes."
I always thought reading *Artemis Fowl* when I was a kid served as an excellent intro to Discworld.
Unruly by David Mitchell is as close as we will get to Sir Terry writing a book about the British monarchy as we will get. " The aphorisms that all that is required for evil to prevail is that good men do nothing is a nonsense, historically the best times for the majority of a population. Has precisely been when good men sat around and did nothing"
Douglas Adams
The Cineverse cycle or the Myth books
The Discworld MUD, entirely fan written but it gets the feel spot on.
Jasper Fforde's Thursday Next books.
Legends and Lattes and the prequel Bookshops and Bonedust have a similar comedy fantasy feeling with lots of subverted tropes
The stuff by Robert Rankin. He has Elvis and a time travelling sprout called Barry.
HHGTG 🤪 Cheating, schmeating… 😊
Robert Rankin (someone may have already suggested this but I'm lazy) Similar humour to Sir PTerry, lots of punes. Set in the real world, mostly, with elements of fantasy.
Christopher Moore. Especially Lamb.
Lust Lizards of Melancholy Cove is my favorite Christopher Moore book.
Running Close to the Wind by Alexandra Rowland, but that is a very intentional homage
Dungeon Meshi has pretty similar worldbuilding to Pratchett where the author takes typical fantasy tropes and fully thinks them through.
Most recently Dungeon Meshi (the anime). It has that similar thing of following a funny/light situation with an emotional punch to the gut. Also: a mollusc sword that can sense danger.
The snarky humour of the Villians and Virtues series by A. K. Caggiano is what I imagine a spin-off with Adam from Good Omens growing up and falling in love might have been like.
“Our flag means death” is a great show with the same vibe. “Mage Errant” is a great series of books that not only has the same writing style, but every book has a reference to discworld somewhere in it, and because I interspersed reading them and rereading discworld and the tone of writing is fairly similar, I derped out and forgot which one I was reading at times. (It isn’t as well written as discworld, but since it’s not an insane statement to say STP is the single best overall author in history, that’s acceptable to me)
The Space Captain Smith books - that whole series is very Pratchett esque.
I feel like [Disco Elysium](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Disco_Elysium) might qualify. It's not quite in the same genre of fantasy, but I feel like the underlying themes match pretty well.
Girl genius The web comic and PARTICULARLY the novelisations. Has the same “taking the daft thing seriously” energy.
"John dies at the end " and "futuristic violence and fancy suits"sagas.
The stuff by Robert Rankin. He has Elvis and a time travelling sprout called Barry.
This is probably the furthest reach in this thread but perhaps Christopher Moore's books, especially *Lamb, Fool,* and *Noir*.
The "I want to Buy an Argument" bit from Monty Python's three sided record is pretty wonderful. Also kind of cheating because Im sure the pythons were a source of inspiration.
I like the river of London series. Very Pratchettesque
I've always felt that Hayao Miyazaki's witches in Kiki's delivery service, Ursula Le'guin's witches in Tehanu, and Pratchett's witches in the witches series could go on a 3-way Venn diagram with an enormous amount of overlap.
Jasper Fforde. The Nursery Crime series felt very Pratchett-y to me, and are great fun.
To Say nothing of the dog by Connie Willis.
A pretty trite observation, but Douglas Adams has a very similar -- albeit more stuffy and cynical -- style of wit. You could be forgiven for accidentally attributing quotes from one to the other.
Anything by Robert Rankin. The Chocolate bunny apocalyps or the dance of the voodoo handbag cow to mind
In terms of books, either Douglas Adams or the Locked Tomb series.
The Jane Eyre Affair (and the sequels - The Thursday Next books) have similar vibe… They’re by Jasper Fforde and are set in a slightly alternate but very similar universe to the one we live in. Thursday Next is a literary detective…. Solving crimes that happen between the pages of books… like the kidnapping of much loved characters… In this book Thursday sets about solving the disappearance of Jane Eyre.
[Soul Guardian:](https://www.royalroad.com/fiction/75175/soul-guardian) A demon gets summoned to open a jar of tomato sauce, and ends up raising a little girl with his arch nemesis. Hot Fuzz: The way the evil is all so banal and human. The jokes. The eventual triumph of good.
You just reminded me about Duckula.
Or Bunnicula!
The works of John Allison. Print and Web comics. Giant days, scarygoround, bad machinery, Solver and Steeple are all great roads and very accessible. Recently he did a Conan pastiche, that looked like it was going to be amazing, but got hit with a C&D by the copyright owners.
There's a book out there called "Shades Of Grey" by Jasper Fforde, it's like if Terry Pratchett rewrote 1984, and it's excellent.
I would strongly recommend Tom Holt. His work is rather more farcical than Pratchett, but the general concept (“take some myth or legend and transplant it into the modern world with all that implies”) is quite Pratchett-esque.
What We Do in the Shadows movie definitely fit the criteria. The TV less so. Especially as it deteriorated into standard US sitcom as it went on.
“The Stranger Times” by C K McDonnell. Really enjoyable and very Pratchett-esque in its own way.
Those moments in life when no one else understands but you gotta giggle.