The main city on the main continent of the Discworld is Ankh-Morpork where many stories are set. The city's citizenry includes the usual supply of wizards, politicians, thieves, assassins, dwarves, the occasional vampire or werewolf and the Night Watch who try (sometimes even hard) to keep them all in order. Oh yes, and Death is usually around, when he isn't taking a holiday.

Travelling outside of the city often leads to Lancre which is well known for its breeding of extraordinary witches (and the occasional lost prince).

The Discworld books started life as a parody of traditional fantasy novels, but evolved to become social commentary on topics ranging from politics to the media, the military, religion, fads, and Australia. Each book is guaranteed to have multiple pithy moments that make the reader stop and say "Wow, how the heck did he come up with that and how did he get it so right?" while simultaneously trying to catch one's breath from laughing so hard.

Amazingly, for a series with more than 25 books in it, the quality continues to improve with each book, which is an extraordinary feat.


Personal:

The WriterGroupie only discovered Terry Pratchett's Discworld books after she'd spent years reading Piers Anthony's Xanth books and Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series. She has since talked to many other fantasy readers who seem to agree that you start off in about junior high or high school reading Xanth, but by the time you're in college you'll have 'graduated' to reading Discworld.

These are the only books guaranteed to catch the WriterGroupie offguard in the most public of reading places and send her into peals of laughter.

While visiting the U.K., the WriterGroupie met two people who said they were the sources for characters Nanny Ogg and her cat. And if the WriterGroupie has learned one thing from the Discworld books, it's not to argue with Gytha Ogg.