Dragons at Crumbling Castle (Terry Pratchett)



This collection of stories was written when Pratchett was only 17, and for children so they're much more low-key than the Death-filled Discworlds (both the character and the concept) or Amazing Maurice and His Educated Dog-Crotch-Biting Rodents. The endings range from shaggy dogs to anticlimaxes, and teenage Pratchett couldn't write an action scene to save his life, instead opting to gloss over them with "all of a sudden"s or "after a long battle"s. Yeah the stories are kind of toothless, but it's like d'awwing at a newborn kitten whose teeth haven't come in yet - it's still cute, and you have an idea of what he's going to be when he grows up.

Towards the end you start to see some of the Pratchett-isms that would eventually make their way into Discworld. Namely, the Joke Monks who believe the world was made by God as a joke and will end once the last joke has been told, so they go around telling and documenting jokes.

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