Pratchett's novels & short stories

Terry Pratchett's novels and short stories

(not recently updated)

Novels

1971 The Carpet People

Terry was 17 when this, his first novel, was published and he even drew the cover himself. It tells the story of tiny tribes living in the weave of a carpet. The rewrite in 1992 is different enough to be considered a separate novel.

1976 The Dark Side of the Sun

A curious sci-fi novel with hints of Asimov. The original has another Terry Pratchett cover, but the re-print in the late 1980's was given a Josh Kirby cover.

1981 Strata

Another sci-fi novel, but this one parodies Larry Niven's Ringworld. There is a Discworld in the book, but not as we know it!

1983 The Colour of Magic

The first Discworld novel features Rincewind, TwoFlower and the Luggage. If you own a first edition, you might expect to sell it for 500 UK pounds.

1986 The Light Fantastic

Follows on directly from TCOM. Terry's ideas of the Discworld were not fully matured at this stage, so the first two novels have a slightly different flavour to them.

1987 Equal Rites

The series had started to take off when Equal Rites was published. Terry introduced us to Granny Weatherwax and Esk, the first female wizard. Esk has not been mentioned in any subsequent book.

1987 Mort

Death had become a popular figure in the early novels and in Mort he developed real character.

1988 Sourcery

The wizards return in a story about a Sourcerer - a wizard with limitless power.

1988 Wyrd Sisters

Granny is back and is joined by fellow witches Magrat and Nanny Ogg. Who is the rightful heir to the Lancre crown? This novel was serialised by Radio 4 in 1995.

1989 Pyramids

One of those unusual Discworld novels without a sequel, Pyramids is set in the desert regions of Djelibeybi. The oustanding feature of this book is the description of the assassins' final examination which parodies the UK's driving test and is one of the best passages that Terry has written.

1989 Guards! Guards!

Introducing the city watch and Corporal Carrot in a battle against a dragon that has taken over Ankh-Morpork. Another novel to be serialised by Radio 4 back in 1991. Large elements of the story were also used in the Discworld game.

1989 The Unadulterated Cat

Not a Discworld novel, this book takes a humorous look at the behaviour of the feline species.

1989 Truckers

First in the Gnomes trilogy - supposedly for children, but with plenty of interest for adults. The gnomes in question face eviction with the demolition of the department store where they live.

1990 Diggers

Second in the Gnomes trilogy. The gnomes find a new home under ground, but some gnomes have more ambition.

1990 Eric

What happened to Rincewind after Sourcery banished him to the Dungeon Dimensions. This book was originally published with illustrations by Josh Kirby and is much shorter than the other DW novels.

1990 Good Omens

Terry co-wrote this with Neil Gaiman and it has a flavour of both authors. Heaven and Hell prepare for the final battle, but a mix up at the birth of the anti-Christ has strange results.

1990 Moving Pictures

Ankh-Morpork gets movie fever and CMOT Dibbler gets his biggest role yet. Unfortunately, the creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions are at it again. A noteable book because Gaspode the Wonder Dog makes his first appearance.

1990 Wings

Third in the Gnomes trilogy. The gnomes take to the skies and discover their true ancestry.

1991 Reaper Man

Death goes awol in the sequel to Mort. One of the most popular in the Discworld series.

1991 Witches Abroad

The witches in foreign parts in a battle against Grannies evil sister.

1992 Lords and Ladies

A classic witches novel in a parody of A Midsummer's Night Dream. Magrat and Verence make wedding preparations, but evil is afoot.

1992 Only You Can Save Mankind

The first of Terry's stories about Johnny Maxwell which his publishers market as childrens' books. What do you do when the Space Invaders surrender?

1992 Small Gods

A tale of religion in the Discworld's desert regions. Brutha finds god - in the cabbage patch.

1992 The Carpet People

Terry's reworking of his first novel.

1993 Johnny and the Dead

This second Johnny Maxwell book was made into a TV series by LWT. The local graveyard is to be sold as a building site, and its inhabitants are none too happy.

1993 Men At Arms

Following on from Guards! Guards! this novel is the Discworld equivalent of a crime novel.

1994 Soul Music

Death is missing again, and a new craze has gripped Ankh Morpork.

1994 Interesting Times

Rincewind and TwoFlower in a reunion on the Counterweight Continent. It's interesting to see Terry handle characters he hasn't mentioned since The Light Fantastic.

1995 Maskerade

A witches novel based around the Opera House in Ankh Morpork. Fans of Phantom of the Opera will particularly like this one.

1995 Johnny and the Bomb

The third Johnny Maxwell book and the best to date. Johnny time travels back to the second world war using an old shopping trolley belonging to bag lady Mrs Tachyon. With help from his trusty friends (Yoless, Bigmac and Wobbler), he tries to change history and prevent the terrible carnage wreaked by a stray bomb.

1996 Feet of Clay

After Men At Arms, another crime novel. Someone is poisoning the Patrician, but who? And how?

1996 Hogfather

It was the night before Hogswatch... but the Hogfather is missing. HO, HO, HO. A terrible crime is planned against the children of the Discworld to get rid of the Hogfather. And an excess of 'belief' slopping around causes some very strange results.

1997 Jingo

Ankh Morpork is at war with Klatch. This is another Watch book very much in the style of Feet of Clay. Tensions mount over a territorial dispute and ugly racism rears its head.

1998 The Last Continent (working title)

Rincewind finds himself in the inhospitable terrain of XXXX where every plant and animal is out to kill him. Back at Unseen University, the Librarian is ill and the Library is running amok. To cure the Librarian, the wizards need to know his real name, and the only person who knows that is busy falling into waterholes in XXXX!

Future Novels

Next up will be a Witches novel with a strong vampire theme. Following that we will probably be taken to Uberwald with the first novel to feature the Watch away from Ankh Morpork. It seems likely that after this, Terry will take a break from Discworld and write other books.

Short Stories

1963 The Hades Business

Terry wrote this when he was 13 and it was published in Science Fantasy magazine no 60.

1965 Night Dweller

Printed by New World's magazine no 156 (November 1965), this is a rather formulaic and downbeat science fiction story along the lines of "In Space Noone Can Hear You Scream".

1987 Twenty Pence with Envelope and Seasonal Greetings

Time Out printed this seasonal story in issue 904/5. A curious tale written in the style of 19th century horror, it is about weird happenings on the Wiltshire hills outside Bath. Included more recently in "Shivers for Christmas" (1995, Michael O'Mara, 1-85479-919-3).

1988 Incubust

In a book called The Drabble Project published by Birmingham University Science Fiction Society. Every story in the book is 100 words long and Terry's contribution is excellent. Only 1000 copies of the book were published and they are all numbered. (Beccon Publications, 1-870824-12-1).

1988 Final Reward

Used by role-playing magazine GM which folded soon after. An author opens his front door one morning to be confronted by the barbarian Hero he just killed off in his latest novel. I wonder if Terry has nightmares about this sort of thing happening? Later included (with typos) in "Space Movies II" (1996, Severn House 0-7278-4897-6).

1989 Turntables of the Night

Included in the collection Hidden Turnings - short SF and fantasy stories for young people. The story features Death in a night club in rhinestone boots - told in retrospect by one of the lads who ran the disco. (Methuen, 0-416-11272-2).
Also appeared in recent anthology Flying Sorcerers edited by Peter Haining and published by Souvenir Press, 1997.

1990 #ifdefDEBUG + "world/enough" + "time"

Odd SF detective story in collection Digital Dreams. (NEL, 0-459-53150-3)
Also in "Cyber-killers" edited by Ric Alexander (Orion, June 1997).

1990 Hollywood Chickens

Published in More Tales from the Forbidden Planet. (Titan, 1-85286-332-3). A very funny tale about what happens to a brood of chickens that escape onto the roadside verge of a Hollywood freeway. Determined to "cross the road", they evolve over a period of years in a very strange way.

1990 History in the Faking

Evening Standard, Weekend Section (2-Feb-1990). A warped vision of 2990 AD in which a historian explains his view of the 20th century surmised from surviving relics. Cynical and a bit dated now.

1991 The Secret Book of the Dead

A collection of grim poetry, Now We Are Sick was edited by Neil Gaiman and Stephen Jones. Terry's contribution is a pastiche of a famous poem by Philip Larkin which starts "They **** you up, your Mum and Dad." There are several copies of this excellent Larkin poem on the Internet, like here for instance (follow the link "A Commonplace Book").
Terry's version is about how parents don't prepare you for the death of your pets and is somewhat milder than the original poem.
(DreamHaven, 0-9630944-1-6).

1992 Troll Bridge

In After the King (Tor, 0-312-85175-8), a collection in honour of Tolkein. A short story from the Discworld with Cohen the Barbarian setting out to kill a troll in hand to hand combat. Things don't quite work out that way though...
Later included in "The Oxford Book of Fantasy Stories" (1994, 0-19-214216-X).
Also included in "The Mammoth Book of Comic Fantasy" (1998, Robinson Publishers, 1-85487-530-2) edited by Mike Ashley.

1993 Theatre of Cruelty

WH Smith's Bookcase magazine featured this short story with the city watch investigating a Punch and Judy murder. Read the story at LSpace (under "books"). Also published in "The Wizards of Odd" (1996, Souvenir Press, 0-285-63308-2).

1995 Once and Future

A lost time traveller finds himself in Arthurian times and recreates the sword in the stone legend using his advanced scientific knowledge. But the results are not quite what he expects. A pleasant tale with some classic Pratchett plot devices, it appears in an Arthurian anthology "Camelot". May only have been published in the US (Philomel Books 0-399-22540-4).

1996 The Megabyte Drive to Believe in Santa Claus

Western Daily Press (24/12/96). Printed (and set) on Christmas Eve, this is a brief story about Santa Claus turning up at an office. He has received a letter from Tom, who turns out to be a computer who believes in Father Christmas. This is a children's story.

Last modified: June 14, 2005
Author: Ryn Gibbs
URL: http://www.gibbs.net.au/ryn/about/pratchett.html