I agree. The Colour of Magic is what got me into Discworld and I thoroughly enjoyed it as a standalone for a while.

I read the Discworld series in publication order and loved it. There was an almost continuous improvement in quality over the first few books which was also satisfying.

I really don't think they're bad or even worse than the rest. I do feel like they're so different from the other books that whether someone liked them or not doesn't tell them if they'll like the rest, which is the only reason I don't recommend it as a taster before deciding on whether to read the other 30+ tomes.

Fair play! I don't think they're bad per se but I do think that the others are significantly better. I wouldn't use the first two to demonstrate why Pratchett is one of the best things to happen to the English language since punctuation.

I'll join you there - I loved Pratchett's writing already from his Johnny series I read at school and read those first two all in one go during a summer holiday in my early teens. Great fantasy comedies.

But - I can see the argument that they're not representative of the series as a whole as it developed... not that I think Terry was probably setting out to write a massive series at the time he was writing those books. Anyway they'll always have a place in my heart.

However, it's a series that ran for decades ago I compare it to something like Doctor Who on TV where people have favourite eras or favourite stories from different era's, and those books are like the first few William Hartnell stories which are great but still have some moments that jar with what came later...