The Discworld Companion: An Invaluable Guide for the Discerning Discworld Traveller

Discworld Companion Books

by Terry Pratchett, Stephen Briggs

For the newcomer and old hand alike the Discworld can be a fatally confusing planet. From the great city of Ankh-Morpork, featuring a river you could skateboard across if it wasn't so knobbly, to the distant Ramtop Mountains and mysterious Counterweight Continent, the Discworld is a place where Death waits around every corner... For safety's sake, you need a guide. And here it is.

Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs, respectively chronicler and cartographer of the Discworld, have the produced the one and only definitive guide to the flat planet - its geography, its flora and fauna, its (many) religions, its architecture and customs, and its outstanding personalities.

What is a Quantum Weather Butterfly? What does Death keep on his desk? Would you drink Bearhugger's Homeopathic Sipping Whiskey? How are the kings of Ankh-Morpork different from the kings of Ankh? Everything the Discworld traveller needs to know is contained in these pages, together with useful maps and illustrations of significant places and emblems in this unique world.

Genres: Fantasy, Fiction, Reference, Humor, Comedy, Science Fiction, Science Fiction Fantasy

477 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Sir Terence David John Pratchett was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983–2015, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman.
Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.

Reviews

[[ J o ] · Rating 3 out of 5]

Published in 1994, this companion to Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels covers the first 17 novels only, which in all honesty renders this book rather obsolete beyond being anything other than an item to own for your Discworld collection.

There are two later editions, published after more Discworld had been invented and written, that include everything in this book and obviously more.

The information itself is concise and set out alphabetically, making it very easy to dip in and out as a reference book. Alongside are some primitive illustrations that don't really add much to the information to be completely honest.

Only necessary for those who collect Discworld or Terry Pratchett books. Otherwise, pretty much a pointless book.

[Andy · Rating 5 out of 5]

Was gibt es da mehr zu sagen als das, was schon auf dem Cover steht: "Der ultimative Führer - handlich, praktisch, unverzichtbar.

[Dane Cobain · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is basically a reference book that works a bit like a dictionary and which contains entries on most of the major places and characters of the early Discworld books. I say “early Discworld” because of the main flaw here, which is that this was published relatively early on into the series and so it’s by no means definitive. My edition only covers the books up to and including Soul Music.

You can figure out for yourself how much that means you’re missing.

Then there’s the fact that it’s a reference book, which makes it a pain to read, at least in the traditional sense. I personally wouldn’t consider it “read” until all of the definitions had been absorbed, and so it basically left me reading this as a bedtime book and working my way slowly through it just so that I could say that I read it.

With all of that said, it was still reasonably interesting, and a lot more fun than when I read the Oxford English Dictionary. With that said, I think the best parts of it were the introductory essays and the Terry Pratchett interview that was included at the end of it. That kind of means that the bulk of the book itself was the bit that I enjoyed the least.

Overall then, this is only really a book for die-hard Pratchett fans and completionists, and I only ticked it off reluctantly because it’s one of the few Pratchett books that I hadn’t read yet. It’s definitely not one to start out with though. So yeah, there’s that.

[Clare · Rating 4 out of 5]

A few years ago a friend of mine was cleaning out her shelves and I wound up with her copy of Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs’ The Discworld Companion, the “updated” version published in 1997 and therefore covering only the first twenty books in the series or so. I picked it up this week largely out of the desire to move it off my TBR shelf and onto the read shelf with all the other Discworld books. (This should tell you what kind of mood I’ve been in lately.)

Despite now being somewhat out of date, it’s still a delightful tour through Discworld, with some new tidbits of information but mostly it just makes a nice trip down memory lane about reading the first 20 Discworld books. It is almost 500 pages long, which seems large until you remember that it’s still a lot faster to read than rereading 20 Discworld books would be. That it makes me want to reread all however-many-there-are-now Discworld books immediately is probably an unintended side effect.

If you have not read Discworld I believe it would probably be quite baffling to read–I cannot imagine why you would even do so in the first place if you weren’t already a fan–but perhaps if the humor resonated it would pique your interest. I don’t know, my initial interest in Discworld was piqued by reading goofy crossover fanfiction back in the graceless days of the early 2000s.

Is there a name for Discworld fandom or its members? Are we just “Discworld fans”? If we don’t have a name, can we go with “Turtle Movement”?

Originally posted at The Turtle Moves.

[Chris The Story Reading Ape · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an invaluable Must Have for all tourists of the Discworld.

[David Melbie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is essential for fans. Others? You need to get with it!

[John E · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the tradition of Sir Terry I read this book from back to front. It turned out to be a great book to read before sleep each night since the encyclopedic entries are nice and short that you can get a number read before falling asleep (and having the book fall on your face). It's not all here so it is still required that you actually read the books to even try to understand Diskworld, if that is even possible. Now it is time to get back to reading the rest of the books that I haven't read. Good Night, Granny Weatherwax.

[Jakub Brudny · Rating 3 out of 5]

Bardzo długo czytałem ten przewodnik, ale to chyba niezbyt ma sens, to dosłownie encyklopedia, a ja nie skończyłem jeszcze nawet polowy książek z cyklu Świata Dysku, nie zacząłem nawet cyklu o Czarownicach, który wydaje się równie ważny jak cykl o Rincewindzie, także myślę ze to spoko pozycja dla osób głęboko osadzonych w uniwersum - dla kogoś kto dopiero wkręca się w ten świat, jak ja, będzie to zbyt dużo informacji, które bardzo szybko zapomnę. Brakuje mi tu też poczucia humoru Pratchetta, niewiele haseł zawiera jakiekolwiek humorystyczne wstawki, to nieco zmarnowany potencjał.

[Katka Olajcová · Rating 4 out of 5]

Veľmi pekný sprievodca svetom Zeměplochy. Pripomenul mi mnoho miest a postáv, na ktoré som zabudla a osvetlil niektoré detaily zo života ľudí v tomto úžasnom svete.

[Lilly · Rating 3 out of 5]

Although a bit dry at times it was cool to see which ideas Pratchett put into reality and which never made it into the Discworld. I also liked revisiting some of the older books and I loved the last part that talked about his fan community.

[Kay · Rating 5 out of 5]

I am a reader with an affinity for complex worldbuliding and info dumps in books. I am also a lifelong fan of Terry Pratchett and his work. Is there any way this could end up worse than 5 stars?

[Manu Boado · Rating 4 out of 5]

Si llego a tener esto antes de mi TFG todo habría sido mucho más fácil.

[Heather · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential to keep the cast of characters straight. Unfortunately only covers half the collection.

[Adam Cleaver · Rating 2 out of 5]

Additional reading with regards to the Discworld Universe

[Dark-Draco · Rating 5 out of 5]

Despite being a massive fan of the Discworld novels, this book proves that there is always more to learn. This is the original 'companion', without the later updates and so only focuses on the start of the series. It's also somewhat bittersweet, as it contains interviews with the late, great Sir Terry (who mentions that he can't see the series continuing for that long!). But it as funny and insightful as the books themselves, with each entry highlighting the key features of a place, organisation, character or facet of the Discworld lore. Well worth keeping around.

[Patricia Ferreira · Rating 5 out of 5]

Uma espécie de enciclopédia com todos os termos, personagens, cidades, elefantes, tartarugas e demais criaturas do Discworld. totalmente excelente! e engraçadíssimo, claro. ainda conta com uma entrevista com sir Terry de 1992, mas que ainda está muito atual, afinal são perguntas sobre o Discworld, que não ficam velhas nunca!

[Sharakael · Rating 4 out of 5]

Nothing much to say except that this edition is the older version. I think this Companion only covered up to 20th+ books, so if you read this one you won't be spoiled with the stories of the 25th+ books.

[Bettie · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Discworld A-Z

[Lindsay · Rating 4 out of 5]

For an encyclopaedic style collection of facts on a fantasy world this is an excellently written book, which I've read completely a number of times.

[Roy · Rating 5 out of 5]

To think that somebody actually waded through the Diskworld novels and compiled a compendium.

[Angelsouth · Rating 5 out of 5]

A must for all obsessive Discworld fans. More characters than you could shake a stick at and all in delightful detail.

[Andy]

1ST EDITION. COVER BY JOSH KIRBY.

[Maria · Rating 3 out of 5]

Nice overview of all the characters, destinations etc. there are to be found in the wonderful world of Discworld.

[Jenny Burridge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent.

[Kars · Rating 3 out of 5]

Invaluable for the true Discworld fan...

[Philip Whiteland · Rating 5 out of 5]

Essential reading for any Discworld fan. Great fun, and makes you want to read the books all over again.

[Duncan · Rating 3 out of 5]

a great book to browse through. the edition I read only went up to soul music so if be intrigued how an updated version looked :)

[Joshua Friesen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The discworld books were so good. Fans need this companion, newbies need to read terry pratchett now.