Amazing Humble deal includes 39 Terry Pratchett Discworld books for $16

Back in 2014, Humble Bundle introduced a package deal that includes digital copies of nearly every Discworld book by bestselling, beloved British fantasy writer Terry Pratchett. That deal is back as part of the "Best of Humble" rotation, and it's gotten better — the base price is now cheaper, and the bundle includes one additional Pratchett book that was excluded from the first round. Whether you first heard about Pratchett when the Good Omens adaptation got its long-awaited TV adaptation, you're a longtime fan, or you're completely unfamiliar with his work, this is a convenient way to get most of his books in one place. The bundle includes 39 fantasy novels, for as little as $16. To access the books, you’ll need to create a Kobo.com account, or log in to your existing account.

Pratchett started writing Discworld books — set in a fantasy world that rides through space on the back of a giant turtle — back in the 1980s, and continued up until his death in 2015. They were consistent bestsellers: The BBC estimates his lifetime sales at more than 100 million copies. Longtime fans got to watch the series evolve over decades from the light, goofy, satiric fantasy of its opening novel — 1983’s The Colour of Magic — to much more sophisticated novels about duty, power, responsibility, and the evolution of society. At the same time, Pratchett never lost his knack for wry, clever, unexpectedly hilarious turns of phrase.

The deal happening at Humble includes almost all the Discworld novels, apart from 2013’s Raising Steam and the short illustrated novel The Last Hero. The 2015 novel The Shepherd’s Crown, excluded from the previous deal, is now included. This particular bundle supports HFC, an Alzheimer's support non-profit founded by by Seth Rogen and Lauren Miller Rogen.

Buying thirty-nine books at once is as much of a burden as a deal, though, if you aren't already a well-established Pratchett fan. Once you’ve downloaded them all, what next?

Where to start reading Terry Pratchett’s Discworld

Longtime Discworld fans have a lot of very strong opinions about the proper reading order for the Discworld books, and particularly about where to enter the series. That’s because the series as a whole contains many different sub-series, each of which follow a specific set of characters in a setting within the world, and different fans have different favorite characters and themes.

It isn’t necessary to read the books in chronological order of publishing — and if you try, you aren’t likely to get the best view of Pratchett’s work with this series, since the earliest books are much sillier and more superficial than the later ones. But it’s generally better to check a guide to those sub-series (like the one linked above) and read the books about any particular characters in order, since those characters evolve over time. Unlike most long fantasy series, Discworld isn't organized into trilogies or other sets, with cliffhangers or unfinished business between books. Every Pratchett novel has its own start-to-finish plot. So you really can pick up nearly any Discworld book at random without missing more than some basic setup context.

All that said, my personal recommendation for people approaching Discworld for the first time is 2003’s Monstrous Regiment, the rare Discworld book that isn’t really part of any sub-series. While it features a few established characters in minor roles, the central characters and their dilemma are all new to this book, so it’s an easy jump-in point to the later series, and to Pratchett’s more developed narrative voice. It also deals with a comparatively remote and sheltered part of the Discworld, so you don’t need to know much going in.

Monstrous Regiment follows Polly Perks, a newly established soldier in the army of the benighted nation of Borogravia, as she disguises herself as a man and goes to war, Mulan-style. Like Mulan, Polly is trying to protect a family member — in this case, her missing soldier brother, who she’s seeking by heading into combat with Borogravia’s bordering nation, Zlobenia. Stuck in a society that oppresses and devalues women, and that’s controlled by an increasingly erratic deity that’s declared everything from cats to garlic to the color blue as anathema, Polly has to pretend to be male to get by. But in a series of comic reveals, it turns out that her fellow soldiers are harboring secrets of their own. Those secrets emerge one by one in a story that’s part satire of the “disguised as a boy” trope, part knowing deconstruction of repressive societies, and part going-to-war adventure.

It’s a breezy, snappy, enjoyable read, but it also illustrates how well Pratchett balanced serious character arcs and fantasy plotting with insights about humanity, and with quintessentially British dry humor. And it’ll give you a side introduction to Samuel Vimes, one of Pratchett’s all-time favorite Discworld characters, and the core of one of those sub-series. If you like Monstrous Regiment and you’re ready for more, try Guards! Guards!, the first of the Vimes-centered City Watch books — and consider yourself well on the way toward becoming yet another Pratchett fanatic, and well on your way to getting your money's worth out of this Discworld bundle.