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Original poster

Next read for a Pratchett loving young teen?

35 replies

Thematic · 03/05/2025 21:38

Hi, my son has just about finished every Terry Pratchett book. He's a voracious reader and I need suggestions for his next read. He's a very mature 13 year old with a reading age more like 18, so I need exciting, funny and mildly complex books but ideally without too much sex. Probably not kids books as he's ready pretty much everything going. Doesn't have to be fantasy or sci-fi - I don't think specifically that is what he enjoyed about Pratchett, it was more the cleverness and humour. I had thought maybe some Stephen King like the Dark Tower perhaps?

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redastherose · 05/05/2025 21:06

Ben Abramovich the Peter Grant books or Jasper Fforde the Thursday Next books. I’m a massive Terry Pratchett fan and these are some of my favourites since we lost TP!

Nellodee · 05/05/2025 21:05

Jasper Fforde - he has a similar sense of the ridiculous to Pratchett and Adams.

jennylamb1 · 05/05/2025 20:48

Rick Riordan is very good and the classics, The Hobbit, C.S. Lewis, Alan Garner.

GingerLiberalFeminist · 05/05/2025 20:37

Thematic · 05/05/2025 19:52

I was thinking Gaiman, but there's quite a weird sex bit in American Gods I remember, so I was thinking maybe the adult books weren't quite suitable? He's only just 13.

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Yeah but Neverwhere, Anansi's Boys, Stardust are good. Plus Good Omens.

My godson is 12 and adores all the Percy Jackson books, and other stuff Rick Riodan has done. No sex in those.

Original poster
Thematic · 05/05/2025 19:52

GingerLiberalFeminist · 03/05/2025 21:57

Inkheart trilogy
We aren't supposed to recommend him but Neil Gaiman
Ray Bradbury and Philip Dick are good sci-fi choices although less humorous

I was thinking Gaiman, but there's quite a weird sex bit in American Gods I remember, so I was thinking maybe the adult books weren't quite suitable? He's only just 13.

OP posts:
Bibbitybobbitybo · 04/05/2025 11:39

Loads of good recommendations here. I'd add Chris wooding - the haunting of alaizabel Cray was excellent, and the Montmorency series by Eleanor updale.

BunnyRuddington · 04/05/2025 10:04

Some great suggestions on here already. I’d just like to add in Day of the Triffids. At tgat age I used to pick up a lot of my DF’s books and loved some of the Tom Sharpe ones.

BeachRide · 04/05/2025 09:23

shellyleppard · 03/05/2025 23:18

@Thematic the first dark tower book is very stitlted in my honest opinion. But the second one....wow!!! Its a very good series, i hope your son enjoys it. Would he like bill Bryson's notes from a small island ? Very dry sense of humour but also funny. Clive cussler does a really good series of adventure stories. My son used to devour them at that age. Enjoy!!

Notes From a Small Island was the first book that made me cry with laughter on a train. Love all his books!

Gremlinsateit · 04/05/2025 02:14

Garth Nix, but not A Confusion of Princes - too old for him.

T Kingfisher’s Minor Mage but not her other books for the same reason.

Jasper Fforde The Last Dragonslayer series, though book 4 was less good.

Diana Wynne Jones, especially The Ogre Downstairs.

Douglas Adams above all :)

Creepybookworm · 03/05/2025 23:51

Arc of a Scythe trilogy or the Unwind trilogy by Neal Shusterman.

The Loop trilogy by Ben Oliver.

Whatsgoingonherethenagain · 03/05/2025 23:28

Virals by Kathy Reichs is an excellent young adult series. Not so well known as her “Bones” books but definitely great on their own and have that SF element.

Some of my favourite authors as a teen were Clive Cussler, Sidney Sheldon and believe it or not Jeffrey Archer. Not quite the SF that Sir Pterry does so well but great storytellers.

glittercunt · 03/05/2025 23:22

James Patterson does some superb young adult books.

shellyleppard · 03/05/2025 23:18

@Thematic also the mortal engine book series might be good too.

shellyleppard · 03/05/2025 23:18

@Thematic the first dark tower book is very stitlted in my honest opinion. But the second one....wow!!! Its a very good series, i hope your son enjoys it. Would he like bill Bryson's notes from a small island ? Very dry sense of humour but also funny. Clive cussler does a really good series of adventure stories. My son used to devour them at that age. Enjoy!!

LegoLivingRoom · 03/05/2025 23:14

Has he read the lesser known TP books, like Strata and Dark Side of the Sun?

BeachRide · 03/05/2025 23:14

DisplayPurposesOnly · 03/05/2025 22:50

Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

Seconded!

LegoLivingRoom · 03/05/2025 23:09

RavenclawWitchy · 03/05/2025 22:31

The Redemption of Althalus by David and Leigh Eddings

Oh, I loved that one!

Pringlebeak · 03/05/2025 22:56

Robert Rankin?

Morningmorning · 03/05/2025 22:54

My DS at that age loved Eragon by Philip Paolini. I think there was more than one book in the series. He did also love classic detective fiction especially on audio so some of the above suggestions are also good!

DisplayPurposesOnly · 03/05/2025 22:50

Philip Pullman, His Dark Materials

Pixiedust1234 · 03/05/2025 22:47

I always enjoyed Isaac Asimov for Sci Fi.
Anne McCaffrey for fantasy, especially her dragon rider series.
James Herriot has gentle humour and animals, same as Gerald Durrell.

Edit - apparently I had the same reading youth as two other pp!

merryhouse · 03/05/2025 22:46

Talipesmum · 03/05/2025 22:43

Haha except for your first paragraph, you’ve described exactly my teenage reading 35 years ago!

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I was tapping into my own experience... Grin

Talipesmum · 03/05/2025 22:43

merryhouse · 03/05/2025 22:42

Isaac Asimov's Robot short stories - they're sufficiently dated to be interesting for it Grin

Wodehouse. Then maybe some Dorothy L Sayers to mix it up a bit. Wimsey is like Bertie with brains (and PTSD).

Georgette Heyer is a bit of a wildcard for a teenage boy, may have to wait until after he's read all the Wodehouse and Sayers, then introduce the detective ones first.

ooh, maybe the Falco books? Lindsey Davis, first one The Silver Pigs. Roman PI.

James Heriot. Gervase Phinn. Father Neil Boyd. Chesterton's Father Brown series. Gerald Durrell (My Family and Other Animals).

Ellis Peters' Cadfael books (12-C monk detective). On the surface totally different from Pratchett, but in certain ways I think they go well together.

Haha except for your first paragraph, you’ve described exactly my teenage reading 35 years ago!

merryhouse · 03/05/2025 22:42

Isaac Asimov's Robot short stories - they're sufficiently dated to be interesting for it Grin

Wodehouse. Then maybe some Dorothy L Sayers to mix it up a bit. Wimsey is like Bertie with brains (and PTSD).

Georgette Heyer is a bit of a wildcard for a teenage boy, may have to wait until after he's read all the Wodehouse and Sayers, then introduce the detective ones first.

ooh, maybe the Falco books? Lindsey Davis, first one The Silver Pigs. Roman PI.

James Heriot. Gervase Phinn. Father Neil Boyd. Chesterton's Father Brown series. Gerald Durrell (My Family and Other Animals).

Ellis Peters' Cadfael books (12-C monk detective). On the surface totally different from Pratchett, but in certain ways I think they go well together.