Guide

Discworld reading order

Updated 1 October 2026

The 41 Discworld novels in publication order, with the usual subseries starters, and a note on what this list leaves out.

Discworld is a long comic fantasy series by Terry Pratchett. There are 41 novels. The official stance, repeated by the publisher, is that you can start almost anywhere. Publication order is still the clearest single list, because jokes, bit characters, and the city of Ankh-Morpork accumulate. If you want one path and no theory, read the list below from top to bottom.

If you would rather follow a thread, the usual starters are Equal Rites for the witches, Mort for Death, Guards! Guards! for the City Watch, and The Wee Free Men for Tiffany Aching, which is also the friendlier door for younger readers. Rincewind's books begin at The Colour of Magic. Small Gods and Monstrous Regiment stand well on their own. None of these doors is a rule. They are ways in.

Publication order

Years below are publication years of the novels, checked against the L-Space bibliography and Wikipedia's Discworld bibliography. The Colour of Magic is often spelled The Color of Magic on US editions. The cover on that card is the US Harper edition we matched on Open Library, so the Buy link follows that ISBN. Guards! Guards! is the other ISBN we verified. Every other card searches by title and author, because we did not attach an unchecked barcode.

This list is novels only. Companion volumes that alternate a short story with chapters of popular science are left off on purpose. Short stories, maps, and diaries are also left off. The Shepherd's Crown, published in 2015, is the last Tiffany Aching novel and the last Discworld novel. It came out after Pratchett's death.

You do not need to own the set before you know whether you like the voice. Read one starter. If you want the next book in that thread, buy that book. If you want the shape of the whole series, come back to publication order. Either way, write down what you own. Discworld paperbacks are exactly the copies used shops sell twice to the same person.

All guides