Discworld/Fanfic Recs

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


Proof that the remaining 10% is worth dying for here.

These are recommendations made by Tropers for Discworld fanfics, all of which have to be signed to stay on the page. Feel free to add a fanfic of your own to the list, but remember to use the template found here.

You can also add to the current recommendations if you want. Refrain from posting Conversation in the Main Page though; that goes in the discussion page.


Authors, and Websites

The works of Sam Storyteller (aka samvimes, copperbadge)

  • Recommended by Roach Patrol
  • An all-around stellar writer.

SilverInkBlot

  • Recommended by The Mysterious Mister Imperial
  • Most of her work is Kingdom Hearts, but the ongoing drabble collections of "Iconographs" and "Collection of Moments" are full of magnificent character studies.
  • Elkian recommends this DA user, particularly for Unwound. Careful - disturbing elements and possibly NSFW.

General Fics

Stories focused on the family and the friendly relationships of the cast. Plot-focused stories or light day-in-the-life stories. Pretty much anything that isn't focused on romance.

Dwarf Bread by keswindhover

In The Blood by Sam Storyteller

  • Recommended by Roach Patrol
  • Synopsis: Vimes is turned into a werewolf.

Some Buggers by Sam Storyteller

  • Recommended by GG Crono
  • Synopsis: A story about Vimes' funeral...and what comes next.
  • Comments: Brilliant Original Flavor story that really captures the tone of Pterry's own writings.

Prudent by Chibiursachan

  • Reccomended by Thinks Too Much
  • Synopsis: Kadaj, Yazoo and Loz, from Final Fantasy VII: Advent Children, somehow make it to Discworld. Granny Weatherwax has a number of opinions of this.
  • Comments: Third-person limited, Granny's perspective, and absolutely hilarious. Those of you who are wondering how Square Enix's aesthetic could possibly mesh with Discworld, well, that's most of why it's funny.

Cunning Artifice by Fanless

  • Recommended by TMOH
  • Synopsis: In the Ankh-Morpork of a distant future, there lives a brilliant scientist and two men who are not all they seem.
  • Comments: Pratchett meets Asimov in the best possible way—though the characters are transferred to a new setting, their voices and personalities are perfectly Canon.

Exit Interviews by Casira

  • Recommended by trimeta
  • Synopsis: Ever wondered how Susan went from being a governess in Hogfather to a schoolteacher in Thief of Time? This fic will tell you.
  • Comments: A very sweet story showing how Susan deals with "CONCLUSIONS AND DEPARTURES," to quote her grandfather. Good Original Flavor, fits seamlessly into canon.

Unwound by Miss Yetigoosecreature

  • Recommended by Gosurori Otaku
  • Synopsis: There was a Sam Vimes she knew, who went out and came home again, and out there was another Sam Vimes who hardly belonged to her and lived in the same world as all those men with the dreadful names.
  • Comments: A brilliant expansion from a line from The Fifth Elephant which perfectly captures Sam Vimes' struggle with his inner beast, especially when he's dealing with the most horrible things humans can do.

Employment by Makou

  • Recommended by Bookhobbit
  • Synopsis: "Shortly after that ugly business with the Octavo, Rincewind finds himself in The Mended Drum feeling sorry for himself. He isn't the only one."
  • Comments: Nice look at how and why Rincewind started in at the Library. Set between The Light Fantastic and Sourcery.

Inspiration by Indigo Tantarian

  • Recommended by Bookhobbit
  • Synopsis: "What inspired Ponder to search for solutions beyond traditional magic, or Rincewind to open the Octavo? Probably nothing like this, but between the Trousers of Time and quantum, you can't be sure."
  • Comments: Good look at Rincewind and Ponder as students at UU. Which may not make sense by the unofficial official Discworld timeline, but blame it on the History Monks and enjoy the story, because it's a very good rendering of all the characters involved.

Due Rimward by Paul Jamison.

  • Recommended by Daibhid C
  • Synopsis: Due South crossover. Ray and Fraser arrive in Ankh-Morpork, and help stop a nobleman with an evil plan.
  • Comments: A brilliant grasp of all characters (it manages to maintain both Original Flavors), with much made of the similarity between Constable Fraser and Captain Carrot.

Policing Middle Earth by aoteoran.

  • Recommended by: Ag Prov
  • Synopsis: Lord Vetinari has made contact with Steward Denethor via a possibly malfunctioning palantir. He is prevailed upon to send Sam Vimes into Middle Earth as a tenth member of the Fellowship of the ring, so as to hold together a party of inept dreamers and make a long-shot desperate idea work. Watch and laugh as Discworld conceptions of elves, trolls, wizards, Dwarfs, et c, clash with Middle Earth's rather nobler ideals. Vimes duly treats the War of the Rings with the same "breach of the peace" attitude he expressed over the Leshp war...
  • Shipping: none. don't waste time looking for it.
  • Comments:- gleefully anarchic crossover written in the best Discworld tradition as two divergent cultures collide.

The New Guild by A.A. Pessimal.

  • Recommended by: Ag Prov
  • Synopsis: a good short introduction to the works of A.A. Pessimal. Over sixty fanfics submitted and most of them Discworld. Lord Vetinari has to rule on the establishment of a new City Guild, and whether or not to award it a Charter in the face of determined opposition from vested interests.
  • Comments: funny and witty and succeeding in overturning and subverting what was already a Discworld subversion. Open it up and read the unanimously good reviews it garnered.

The Brain Thief by hollimichele.

  • Recommended by Suspiciouscookie
  • Synopsis: Young Sam grows up, meets a girl, cracks a case, and tells a lie. Not necessarily in that order.
  • Comments: A wonderfully written and plotted story that reads like something by Pterry himself, together with humour and philosophy and some really heartwarming moments.

A Study in Batesian Mimicry by Twist .

  • Recommended by: Feranard
  • Synopsis: "'Vetinari, for the second time in his life, looked at what some might have called his reflection. He wouldn't call it that, if only because normally his actual reflection breathed along with him.' One-shot, because I miss Charlie"
  • Comments: Taking place after the Truth, this is an interesting look at what Vetinari could have done with Charlie

Mr. Vimes'd Go Spare! by Lunik

  • Recommended by: Andyroid
  • Synopsis: In the wake of the death of his Grace Sir Samuel Vimes, the various city watches across the Disc are brought together in a way seldom observed among coppers.
  • Comments: An impressive little fic that explores the idea, introduced at several points in the Discworld series, that "a man's not dead as long as his name is still spoken". Death may have come for Sam Vimes, but his legacy lives on... with, ultimately, unusual results.

Shipping Fics

Stories focused on the romantic relationships between the cast.

The Seamstress Series by Mercator

  • Recommended by Lagomorph
  • Pairing: Vetinari/Hannah
  • Synopsis: Composed of Say Yes, A Conspiracy of Beers, Vetinari in Absentia, and His Lordship Had a Little Lamb—following the courtship/power plays/adventures of Lord Vetinari and Hannah, who's a... seamstress. My favorites are the first and third, but all four are good. Of course, I'm a sucker for Vetinari.
  • Comments: PG-13 (The first is possibly an R. FF.net lists it as M, for full disclosure).

TGWTG/Discworld Crossover by iambic5

"Death Insurance" by Nimori

  • Recommended by: Idraena
  • Pairing: Death/Vetinari
  • Synopsis: Death and Vetinari bond and fall in love when Death comes to take a soul Vetinari has killed. Something of a crack pairing, but adorably Victorian, almost in-character and hilarious (complete with footnotes!).
  • Rating: PG, mostly for the subtext. Mostly good clean fun.

"Jolt", by Your Evil Nemisis Bwahaha

  • Recommended by: Belphegor
  • Pairing: Rincewind/OC (of sorts)
  • Synopsis: Magical flares? Serial killers? Ankh-Morpork needs a hero! Unfortunately, all it's got is a certain Wizzard and a mysterious young lady with a taste for trouble...
  • Comments: The original (female) character of this story is the spunky niece of Vetinari, a bright, unconventional and very pretty girl who is also an enchantress whose mere presence actually causes the aforementioned magical flares... And yet, through sheer writing talent, the author manages NOT to make this is Mary Sue. Of course, it helps that the canon characters are perfectly characterised (especially Rincewind), the story itself is enthralling, and it ends on a wistful, bittersweet note.
  • Rating: M (for rather gory stuff that happens in relation to the "serial killer" bit). And it's a one chapter, but it's long.


"Midwinter" by kindkit

  • Recommended by: Idraena
  • Pairing: Drumknott/Vetinari
  • Synopsis: Another crack pairing, but helped considerably by Drumknott's only real canon characteristic being his exceptional skill at his job. Exquisitely written, not at all like Pterry's style but not out of character. Details what happens when Drumknott finally gets the courage to tell Vetinari that he wants their relationship to be something more. Second part may be found here.
  • Rating: R

"Nature Studies" by A.A. Pessimal

  • Recommended by: Ag Prov
  • Pairing: Ponder Stibbons/miss Smith-Rhodes
  • Synopsis: In which a half-baked attempt by Dibbler to establish a Longleat-like safari park in Ankh-Morpork goes dramatically wrong. In the ensuing urban safari to round up and recapture the animals, Ponder Stibbons meets a personable young woman from a faraway former colony who shares a few things in common with him. She's a scientist, a zoologist, single.... and an Assassin. But romance begins against a background of lions, bewilderbeeste, chimpanzees, gorillas, and other fauna of her native Howondaland. Ponder reasons that an Assassin girlfriend is probably going to be more restful than risking death in the HEM every day, while she vows to fatten him up a bit and improve his presentation and dress sense. The romance begins here and continues in "Pere Porcher" and "Whys and Weres". Johanna Smith Rhodes is a very minor chracter in the canon: these stories bring her to centre-stage as a "Rimward Howondalandian", ie from a country which is not South Africa in the same way Fourecks is not Australia.
  • Rating: U, like all good wildlife movies for all the family.

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