I’m slowly reading the novels of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, and I finished all the Tiffany Aching saga.
Then I read The Amazing Maurice and its Educated Rodents since from this Discworld Reading Order image, there was a minor connection between the novels. I didn’t find any clear connection. At first I thought that Malicia and Granny Weatherwax had the same knack for ‘stories’, but it turned out there was no glimpse of link between them.
Could anybody point out the missing link?
I'm fairly sure that the link is what might be described as thematic. That is, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents features a boy whose main companions are a group of small non-human people, many of whom regard thievery and deceit with equanimity, and of whom the adult world is largely unaware, and the Tiffany novels feature a young girl whose main companions are a group of small non-human people, many of whom regard thievery and deceit with equanimity, and of whom the adult world is largely unaware.
Keith is the 'stupid looking kid' who people are prone to underestimate, and Tiffany is a girl; hence prone to being underestimated.
Keith's story takes place entirely away from Ankh-Morpork and the earlier Tiffany books do likewise.
In addition to this, I think it may be a case of the author of the reading order striving to include all the discworld novels in their schema and there being no stronger or more explicit links than a general thematic one as I propose.
As you have mentioned Malicia, I think there is also a thematic link there, in that the L-Space wiki describes her as 'a girl who asks questions' which would also describe one of Tiffany's defining characteristics.
As there is a gmail address for the originator of that reading order included on the image you linked, I will drop them a line with a link to this answer and invite them to let me know if they disagree or have anything further they would wish to add.
The response from the reading order author reads as follows:
Hi, there is no link other than these are young reader novels.
So, so much for my literary analysis!
In addition to the reading order author's comments, Terry Pratchett himself may be the reason for the link in some people's mind (including my own), to some extent. Note from the Annotated Pratchett on L-Space, he mentioned them as linked:
It is possible that there will also be books in the spring -- certainly the Wee Free Men will be one, and it will be on the line of Maurice, ie, set on DW but ostensibly written for children and set outside the pattern of the main novels.
So not a direct link per se but similar in that they're Discworld novels intended for children. They were originally shelved next to each other in the children's section, also (in my bookstore, it was shelved in the "intermediate reader" section, intended for kids in the 10-year old range roughly - think just younger than Harry Potter) which lead to people thinking they were connected.
While the reading order guide is unofficial (and there is more than one out there), the publishers include a list of Discworld books in the front matter.
One of the two publishers simply includes all the books in one list, so The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is book 28, and The Wee Free Men is book 30. However, the other publisher splits it out into two separate lists: Discworld, and Discworld for Younger Readers. In this scheme, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents is the first book in the Discworld for Younger Readers series; the remainder of the series are the Tiffany Aching books.
So the reason for the line is simple: It's the Discworld for Younger Readers subseries (the only official subseries, in that one of the two publishers actually shows it in the books).
Any other subseries split (Watch Books, Witches Books, etc.) is unofficial. (And reality is more complicated anyway: is Carpe Jugulum a sequel to Lords and Ladies or to Small Gods?)
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