Terry Pratchett

Many fans recommend starting with *Guards! Guards!* (1989) or *Mort* (1987), as they introduce popular character arcs without requiring prior knowledge. *The Colour of Magic* (1983) is the first published Discworld novel, but Pratchett's writing style evolved significantly over the decades, making the earliest books less representative of the series at its peak.

Terry Pratchett wrote 41 Discworld novels, published between 1983 and 2015. The final novel, *The Shepherd's Crown*, was published posthumously in 2015 after Pratchett passed away from Alzheimer's disease earlier that year.

Death appears in nearly every Discworld novel as a recurring character, but he is the central protagonist in five dedicated novels: *Mort* (1987), *Reaper Man* (1991), *Soul Music* (1994), *Hogfather* (1997), and *Thief of Time* (2001). These books explore Death as a sympathetic, philosophical figure who speaks in SMALL CAPS and has a fondness for cats.

Yes, Pratchett co-wrote *Good Omens* (1990) with Neil Gaiman, a standalone comedy novel about the apocalypse that predates Gaiman's solo fame. The book was adapted into an Amazon Prime television series in 2019 starring David Tennant and Michael Sheen.