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Discworld — by Terry Pratchett

Discworld Series in Order: 44 books

  • The Colour of Magic

    Book - 1

    DISCWORLD -- perched on the backs of four cosmically gargantuan elephants (who themselves are traveling the intergalactic void atop a giant sea turtle)--is a place where anything can happen. And it does when Twoflower, a naive insurance salesman tur...

  • The Light Fantastic

    Book - 2

    RINCEWIND -- was the most truly inept wizard the flat earth of Discworld had ever known. He was a wizard with only one spell, a spell he would never dare to say, one of the Eight Great Spells froth the magical Octavo. So powerful was this magic that ...

  • Equal Rites

    Book - 3

    "THERE'S NO SUCH TIHING AS A FEMALE WIZARD!" But on the Discworld, a flat realm carried by four elephants riding on the back of a giant turtle, there's also no such thing as impossible. And so, a wizard on the brink of death tries to pass on his s...

  • Mort

    Book - 4

    SOMETIMES EVEN DEATH NEEDS A HOLIDAY--and on the Discworld, the only Flat Earth in any universe, this skeletal keeper of all the hourglasses of life has suddenly realized the only way he'll ever get a chance for some time off is by taking on an appre...

  • Sourcery

    Book - 5

    HE WAS THE EIGHTH SON OF AN EIGHTH SON... Coin's father was a wizard who'd been drummed out of the Unseen University for the unthinkable, unmagical crime of getting married and having eight kids. Everyone knows that the eighth son of the eighth so...

  • Wyrd Sisters

    Book - 6

    ALL THE DISCS A STAGE..:: And when three witches have their monthly cauldron stirring disturbed by murder, mayhem, and the sudden arrival of a royal baby, trouble is bound to be brewed up in the little kingdom of Lancre. Especially when the witche...

  • Pyramids

    Book - 7

    Unlike most teenaged boys, Teppic isn't chasing girls and working at the mall. Instead he's just inherited the throne of the desert kingdom of Djelibeybi--a job that's come a bit earlier than he expected (a turn of fate his recently departed father w...

  • Guards! Guards!

    Book - 8

    THE NIGHT WATCH wasn't respected or well-staffed but it was all Vimes had to be Captain of. And in a town like Anhk-Morpork, where wizards worked any spells they pleased, the thieves and assassins belonged to well-established guilds. For Vimes it als...

  • Eric

    Book - 9

    ERIC IS THE DISCWORLD'S ONLY DEMONOLOGY HACKER. PITY HE'S NOT VFRY GOOD AT IT. All he wants is his three wishes granted. Nothing fancy--to be immortal, rule the world, have the most beautiful woman in the world fall madly in love with him, the usu...



  • Moving Pictures

    Book - 10

    Discworld's pesky alchemists are up to their old tricks again. This time, they've discovered how to get gold from silver -- the silver screen that is. Hearing the siren call of Holy Wood is one Victor Tugelbend, a would-be wizard turned extra. He can...

  • Reaper Man

    Book - 11

    IT'S A WONDERFUL AFTERLIFE... But if you can't take it with you, why go at all? That's the kind of query troubling Death these days as he begins to ponder some of the P's and Q's of the RIP business. But the last thing the Discworld needs is a squ...

  • Witches Abroad

    Book - 12

    DEATH WAITS FOR NO ONE -- NOT EVEN A FAIRY GODMOTHER... So when Desiderata waited a little too long to find a successor, it was up to the Discworld's own zany version of the three witches--Magrat Garlick, Granny Weatherwax, and Nanny Ogg--to grab ...

  • Small Gods

    Book - 13

    Internationally acclaimed author Terry Pratchett takes the name of religion humorously in vain in this classic tale of gods, miracles, and monsters. A simple lad who can neither read nor write, Brutha is content growing melons for the Temple monks. B...

  • Lords and Ladies

    Book - 14

    Although they may feature witches and wizards, vampires and dwarves, along with the occasional odd human, Terry Pratchett's bestselling Discworld novels are grounded firmly in the modern world. Taking humorous aim at all our foibles, each novel revea...

  • Men at Arms

    Book - 15

    A YOUNG DWARF'S DREAM Corporal Carrot has been promoted! He's now in charge of the new recruits guarding Ankh-Morpork, Discworld's greatest city, from Barbarian Tribes, Miscellaneous Marauders, unlicensed Thieves, and such. It's a big job, particula...

  • Soul Music

    Book - 16

    When her dear old Granddad -- the Grim Reaper himself -- goes missing, Susan takes over the family business. The progeny of Death's adopted daughter and his apprentice, she shows real talent for the trade. That is until a little string in her heart g...

  • Interesting Times

    Book - 17

    "May you live in interesting times." --Ancient Curse When a carrier albatross arrives with an Urgent Request for a "Great Wizard," Rincewind finds himself summoned to the endangered Empire of Hong, Sung, Fang, Tang, and McSweeney, where a new Emp...

  • Maskerade

    Book - 18

    IT'S NOT OVER TILL THE FAT LADY SINGS There's a Ghost in the Opera House of Ankh-Morpork. It wears a bone-white mask and terrorizes the entire company, including the immortal Enrico Basilica, who eats continuously even when he's singing. Mostly sp...

  • Feet of Clay

    Book - 19

    MURDER IN DISCWORLD A killer is stalking Ankh-Morpork. A grim reaper who belongs to neither the Assassins' Guild nor the Thieves' Guild. A prowling perp who jauntily leaves behind corpses and strange-smelling tracks of curious white clay. Comma...



  • Hogfather

    Book - 20

    It's that most wonderful time of the year, Hogswatchnight, when the Hogfather himself dons his red suit and climbs in his sleigh pulled by--of course!--eight hogs, bringing gifts to all the boys and girls of Discworld. But this year someone else is r...

  • Jingo

    Book - 21

    Something, new has come up between the ancient rival cities of Ankh-Morpork and Al-Khali. Literally. An island, rising out of Discworld's circular sea. Since it's uninhabited and claimed by both cities, Commander Vimes and his faithful trolls and ...

  • The Last Continent

    Book - 22

    Something is amiss at Unseen University, Ankh-Morpork's most prestigious (i.e., only) institution of higher learning. A professor is missing--but a search party is on the way! A bevy of senior wizards will follow the trail wherever it leads--even to ...

  • Carpe Jugulum

    Book - 23

    In this latest satiric triumph, King Verence, in a fit of enlightened democracy and ebullient goodwill, unthinkingly invites Uberwald's undead, the Magpyrs, into Lancre to celebrate the birth of his daughter. But everyone knows you don't invite a vam...

  • The Fifth Elephant

    Book - 24

    Everyone knows that the world is flat, and supported on the backs of four elephants. But weren't there supposed to be five? Indeed there were. So where is it?... When duty calls. Commander Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork constabulary answers. Even when ...

  • The Truth

    Book - 25

    The denizens of Ankh-Morpork fancy they've seen just about everything. But then comes the Ankh-Morpork Times, struggling scribe William de Worde's upper-crust, newsletter turned Discworld's first paper of record. An ethical joulnalist, de Worde ha...

  • Thief of Time

    Book - 26

    Everybody wants more time, which is why on Discworld only the experts can manage it--the venerable Monks of History who store it and pump it from where it's wasted, like underwater (how much time does a codfish really need?), to places like cities, w...

  • The Last Hero

    Book - 27

    Cohen the Barbarian. He's been a legend in his own lifetime. He can remember the good old days of high adventure, when being a Hero meant one didn't have to worry about aching backs and lawyers and civilization. But these days, he can't alwa...

  • The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents

    Book - 28

    The Amazing Maurice runs the perfect Pied Piper scam. This streetwise alley cat knows the value of cold, hard cash and can talk his way into and out of anything. But when Maurice and his cohorts decide to con the town of Bad Blinitz, it will take mor...

  • Night Watch

    Book - 29

    One moment, Sir Sam Vimes is in his old patrolman form, chasing a sweet-talking psychopath across the rooftops of Ankh-Morpork. The next, he's lying naked in the street, having been sent back thirty years courtesy of a group of time-manipulating monk...



  • The Wee Free Men

    Book - 30

    A nightmarish danger threatens from the other side of reality ... Armed with only a frying pan and her common sense, young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching must defend her home against the monsters of Fairyland. Luckily she has some very unusual help: t...

  • Monstrous Regiment

    Book - 31

    War has come to Disc world . . . again. And, to no one's great surprise, the conflict centers around the small, arrogantly fundamentalist duchy of Borogravia, which has long prided itself on its unrelenting aggressiveness. A year ago, Polly Perks'...

  • A Hat Full of Sky

    Book - 32

    Witch-in-training Tiffany Aching hadn't expected magic to involve chores and ill-tempered nanny goats! But as Tiffany pursues her calling, a sinister monster pursues Tiffany, and neither Mistress Weatherwax (the greatest witch in the world) nor the s...

  • Going Postal

    Book - 33

    Suddenly, condemned arch-swindler Moist von Lipwig found himself with a noose around his neck and dropping through a trapdoor into ... a government job? By all rights, Moist should be meeting his maker rather than being offered a position as Postm...

  • Thud!

    Book - 34

    Once, in a gods-forsaken hellhole called Koom Valley, trolls and dwarfs met in bloody combat. Centuries later, each species still views the other with simmering animosity. Lately, the influential dwarf, Grag Hamcrusher, has been fomenting unrest amon...

  • Where's My Cow?

    Book - 34.5

    "At six o'clock every day, without fail, with no excuses, Sam Vimes must go home to read Where's My Cow?, with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy. There are some things you have to do.It is the most loved and chewed book in the world. ...

  • Wintersmith

    Book - 35

    At 9, Tiffany Aching defeated the cruel Queen of Fairyland. At 11, she battled an ancient body-stealing evil. At 13, Tiffany faces a new challenge: a boy. And boys can be a bit of a problem when you're thirteen. . . . But the Wintersmith ...

  • Making Money

    Book - 36

    Amazingly, former arch-swindler-turned-Postmaster General Moist von Lipwig has somehow managed to get the woefully inefficient Ankh-Morpork Post Office running like ... well, not like a government office at all. Now the supreme despot Lord Vetinari i...

  • Unseen Academicals

    Book - 37

    The wizards at Ankh-Morpork's Unseen University are renowned for many things -- wisdom, magic, their love of teatime -- but athletics is most assuredly not on the list. So when Lord Vetinari, the city's benevolent tyrant, strongly suggests to Archcha...

  • I Shall Wear Midnight

    Book - 38

    As the witch of the Chalk, Tiffany Aching performs the distinctly unglamorous work of caring for the needy. But someone -- or something -- is inciting fear, generating dark thoughts and angry murmurs against witches. Tiffany must find the source of u...



  • Snuff

    Book - 39

    For nearly three decades, Terry Pratchett has enthralled millions of fans worldwide with his irreverent, wonderfully funny satires set in the fabulously imaginative Discworld, a universe remarkably similar to our own. From sports to religion, politic...

  • The World of Poo

    Book - 39.5

    A Discworld series tie-in picture book, a companion to Snuff (part of the City Watch novels). Go beyond the novels to discover more about the fantastically funny and gloriously inventive world of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series.'A gloriously old-f...

  • Raising Steam

    Book - 40

    Steam is rising over Discworld, driven by Mister Simnel, the man with a flat cap and a sliding rule. He has produced a great clanging monster of a machine that harnesses the power of all of the elements -- earth, air, fire, and water -- and it's soon...

  • Mrs Bradshaw's Handbook

    Book - 40.5

    A Discworld artefact -- Georgina Bradshaw's guide to the railways of Raising Steam. Authorised by Mr Lipwig of the Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plains Hygienic Railway himself, Mrs Georgina Bradshaw's invaluable guide to the destinations and diversions o...

  • The Shepherd's Crown

    Book - 41

    A SHIVERING OF WORLDS Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength. This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a ...

Series Premise

The Discworld is a flat, disc-shaped world carried on the backs of four giant elephants who stand on the shell of a gigantic space-faring turtle named Great A'Tuin. This absurd cosmological setup immediately signals that the series is not traditional high fantasy. Instead, Discworld is a satirical mirror of our own world, using a magical, medieval-to-early-industrial fantasy setting to lampoon real-world institutions, philosophies, politics, religions, and human behavior. The novels are mostly standalone (or loosely grouped into sub-series), each focusing on a different aspect of Discworld society: - The City Watch sub-series (crime and policing in Ankh-Morpork) - The Witches sub-series (Lancre witches dealing with folklore and human nature) - The Death sub-series (Death and his family grappling with mortality) - The Wizards sub-series (Unseen University faculty causing chaos) - The Tiffany Aching sub-series (young witch coming-of-age tales) - Standalone novels and other arcs (Moist von Lipwig’s industrial revolutions, Rincewind’s misadventures, etc.) The overarching premise is that Discworld is a place where magic exists but is treated as a force of nature (and often unreliable), gods are real but petty and bureaucratic, heroes are rare and usually incompetent, and ordinary people (and non-humans) muddle through life with cynicism, ingenuity, and surprising decency. Pratchett uses fantasy tropes to satirize everything from organized religion and bureaucracy to journalism, war, racism, sexism, capitalism, and environmental destruction—always with compassion and a belief in the redemptive power of humanity.



Discworld Series Characters

The series features a large ensemble cast, with rotating protagonists across sub-series:
- Sam Vimes — Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (Night Watch sub-series). Cynical, alcoholic (later recovering), brilliant detective. Starts as a drunken wreck and becomes one of the most principled men in the city. Married to Lady Sybil Ramkin.
- Death — The anthropomorphic personification of Death (Death sub-series). Skeletal, speaks in ALL CAPS, deeply fascinated by humanity. Has an adopted daughter (Ysabell), a granddaughter (Susan), and a manservant (Albert).
- Granny Weatherwax (Esmerelda Weatherwax) — Most powerful witch in the Disc (Witches sub-series). Stern, morally uncompromising, fiercely intelligent, and deeply kind beneath her gruff exterior.
- Nanny Ogg (Gytha Ogg) — Granny’s best friend. Jolly, earthy, mother of many children, expert in folk magic and gossip.
- Tiffany Aching — Young witch (young adult sub-series). Practical, brave, and fiercely protective of her land and people.
- Rincewind — The incompetent wizard (Rincewind sub-series). Cowardly, fast-running, and constantly in the wrong place at the wrong time. Survives through luck and cowardice.
- Moist von Lipwig — Con man turned reformer (Moist von Lipwig sub-series). Charismatic, fast-talking, and morally flexible; revitalizes Ankh-Morpork’s institutions.
- Other key figures — Lord Vetinari (Patrician of Ankh-Morpork), Carrot Ironfoundersson (naive but brilliant Watch captain), Nobby Nobbs (disgustingly human corporal), Fred Colon (long-suffering sergeant), Susan Sto Helit (Death’s granddaughter), and the Librarian (an orangutan).

Setting of the Discworld Series

The Discworld is a flat, disc-shaped planet carried through space on the backs of four giant elephants standing on the shell of the enormous turtle Great A'Tuin. The disc is roughly 10,000 miles in diameter, with a central hub of mountains (the Hublands) and a rim where the ocean falls off into the void. Magic is real but decaying (the disc’s magic is slowly fading), and the laws of physics are more suggestions than rules—narrative causality, morphic resonance, and the power of belief often override normal logic.

The most important location is Ankh-Morpork, the largest city on the Disc and a parody of London, New York, and every great metropolis. It is filthy, crowded, corrupt, and gloriously alive—a melting pot of humans, dwarfs, trolls, vampires, werewolves, zombies, golems, and more. The city is ruled (loosely) by the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, a brilliant, amoral, and ruthlessly competent tyrant who keeps order through cunning rather than force. Other recurring locations include:
- Lancre — a tiny, backward mountain kingdom ruled by King Verence and Queen Magrat (home of the witches)
- Überwald — a gothic, Eastern European-inspired region of werewolves, vampires, and dwarfs
- Genua — a fairy-tale kingdom gone wrong
- Klatch — a desert region inspired by the Middle East and North Africa
- The Agatean Empire — an isolationist empire inspired by imperial China

The world evolves over the series—from a purely medieval fantasy parody to a quasi-industrial society with newspapers, railways, postage stamps, and early technology.

Tone & Themes of the Discworld Series

Satirical, humane, witty, and deeply funny—comic fantasy with razor-sharp intelligence and a warm, forgiving heart. Pratchett’s tone is playful yet profoundly serious: he mocks folly, hypocrisy, and cruelty mercilessly, but never with malice. Humor ranges from puns and wordplay to absurd situations, biting social commentary, and laugh-out-loud set pieces, often delivered in footnotes or deadpan narration. Beneath the comedy is genuine empathy—characters are flawed, often ridiculous, but rarely evil for evil’s sake; even villains are given understandable motives. The series is optimistic and humanist: evil can be defeated (or at least contained) by cleverness, kindness, and stubborn decency rather than raw power. It is accessible yet intellectually rich—suitable for teenagers and adults alike, with layers of meaning that reveal themselves on rereading.

The Discworld series is a towering achievement in comic fantasy—41 novels (plus extras) of razor-sharp satire, profound humanity, and endless invention. Terry Pratchett created a world that is both absurdly funny and deeply wise, using a flat world on a turtle to hold up a mirror to our own. Through unforgettable characters—Sam Vimes’s stubborn decency, Granny Weatherwax’s iron morality, Death’s quiet curiosity, Moist von Lipwig’s cunning charm—Pratchett explored power, belief, justice, prejudice, progress, and the stubborn goodness that survives in ordinary people. The series is endlessly re-readable: hilarious on the surface, philosophical underneath, and profoundly humane at its core. It remains one of the greatest achievements in modern fantasy—a joyful, biting, compassionate celebration of humanity’s flaws and virtues. A masterpiece that makes you laugh, think, and believe in the power of stories to make the world better.



Books in this series fall into the following genres

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Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ)

There are 44 books in the Discworld series. The series includes 41 novels and 3 short stories/novellas.

The Discworld series does not have a new book coming out soon. The latest book, The Shepherd's Crown (Book 41), was published in September 2015.

The first book in the Discworld series, The Colour of Magic, was published in August 1983.

The Discworld series primarily falls into the Fantasy genre.

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