This article is classified "Real"
Space. And a background of stars greets both us and the beginning of this
article. The intro to Strauss's Also sprach Zarathustra is playing ("daa
daaa!") [1]. The camera slowly pans across the starscape... ("bom-bom
bom-bom bom-bom")
...And into view, just on the edge of vision, appears a turtle ("daa daa
daaa -- da daaa!"). It is Great A'tuin, the space turtle, sex unknown
(despite several attempts to find out what would be an important piece of
cosmological information). It makes its way through space towards the
Destination, also unknown. Perhaps it is travelling to find another space
turtle of opposite sex. If this is the case, the future of the world
carried by the turtle on its back would be thrown into uncertainty.
As the camera approaches Great A'tuin, we can see its load more clearly.
Upon its back, supported by four giant elephants, is the Discworld, so
called because it is disc-shaped, although of course not flat -- no world
is completely flat.
As the Disc looms up into view, its features become visible. Day is
dawning over the Rim of the Discworld. The Disc's sun rises gradually,
causing the Rimfall -- the water cascading from the edge of the Disc into
the infinity of the void -- to sparkle brightly. We can see the sunlight
spread to cover the Disc (light travels slowly in the Discworld's strong
magical field), filling in the deep crevices and canyons in some parts of
the Disc's surface.
Closer and closer the Discworld gets. Ever fast approaching, the camera
disappears into a layer of cloud. Emerging seconds later, the Hub of the
Disc can now be seen, extending into the sky, the wilderness of the
Hublands menacing.
Now, below us, the city of Ankh-Morpork is visible, hundreds of people
occupying its dirty streets, scurrying around, going about their business,
shouting, adding to the general atmosphere.
The atmosphere -- and boy, does Ankh-Morpork smell.
* * *
About The Discworld Novels
--------------------------
This is the Discworld, the setting of Terry Pratchett's series of novels,
which have now become far too numerous to be plausibly called a trilogy.
Starting with The Colour of Magic [2] in 1983, the novels continued as
"it became obvious that the Discworld series was much more enjoyable than
real work," to quote Terry Pratchett's biographical blurb.
The Discworld series can be described as humourous Tolkienesque science
fiction, or fantasy, or whatever, if you must put a label on such things.
They are in a similar vein to Douglas Adams' Hitchhiker's Guide to the
Galaxy (though more numerous), so if you are a fan of DNA's work it is
quite possible that you will like Pratchett's works as well.
The Discworld series currently consists of the following novels, although
undoubtedly this list will grow in the future (the years of first
publication and the ISBNs of the paperback versions, published by Corgi,
are given here):
* The Colour of Magic (1983, ISBN 0-552-12475-3)
* The Light Fantastic (1986, ISBN 0-552-12848-1)
* Equal Rites (1987, ISBN 0-552-13105-9)
* Mort (1987, ISBN 0-552-13106-7)
* Sourcery (1988, ISBN 0-552-13107-5)
* Wyrd Sisters (1988, ISBN 0-552-13460-0)
* Pyramids (1989, ISBN 0-552-13461-9)
* Guards! Guards! (1989, ISBN 0-552-13462-7)
* Eric (1990, ISBN 0-575-05191-4)
* Moving Pictures (1990, ISBN 0-552-13463-5)
* Reaper Man (1991, ISBN 0-552-13464-3)
* Witches Abroad (1991, ISBN 0-552-13465-1)
* Small Gods (1992, ISBN 0-552-13890-8)
* Lords and Ladies (1992, ISBN 0-552-13891-6)
* Men at Arms (1993, ISBN 0-552-14028-7)
* Soul Music (1994, ISBN 0-552-14029-5)
* Interesting Times (1994, ISBN 0-552-14235-2)
* Maskerade (1995, ISBN 0-552-14236-0)
* Feet of Clay (1996, ISBN 0-552-14237-9)
* Hogfather (1996, ISBN 0-575-06403-X in hardback)
* Jingo (Not yet published)
The last few publications in the series aren't novels, but are guides to
the Discworld:
* The Streets of Ankh-Morpork (1993, ISBN 0552-14161-5)
* The Discworld Companion (1994, ISBN 0575-60030-6)
* The Discworld Mapp (1995, ISBN 0552-14324-3)
* Terry Pratchett's Discworld Quizbook
(1996, ISBN 0575-60000-4)
* The Pratchett Portfolio (1996, ISBN 0-575-06348-3)
* The Josh Kirby Discworld Portfolio (1993, ISBN
1-85028-259-5)
A bibliography of Terry Pratchett's works and their blurbs
(http://www.co.uk.lspace.org/books/reviews/index.html) can be found on the
L-Space Web site -- he has written other books besides the Discworld
series.
Features Of The Novels
----------------------
The first couple of books are based around the character Rincewind, an
incompetent "wizzard" (sic) who can't spell wizard. He meets Twoflower,
probably the Disc's first (and last) tourist, and -- well, I won't say what
happens, but when Rincewind is involved they frequently almost get killed,
and Rincewind runs away a lot.
The other novels generally feature different characters, who often come
back, if only briefly, in later books. For example, Guards! Guards!
features the City Watch of the City of Ankh-Morpork, who appear again in
other Discworld books [3].
Some of the novels have strong themes describing what the Discworld is
like. Small Gods is, as the title implies, a novel about the small gods
of the Disc (and also pokes fun at religion a bit). Mort is the first
book with Death as a main character [4], allowing us to get to know the
Disc's best-known anthropomorphic personification.
Terry's novels also contain loads of references to other things, some
subtle, some not-so-subtle (witness the Annotated Pratchett File [5] for
annotations of many of the references he makes). For example, Wyrd
Sisters has hundreds of references to Shakespeare's Macbeth, and Soul
Music naturally makes many references to the rich world of popular music.
The geography of the Discworld is equally rich (and is shown in The
Discworld Mapp). The novels are set in places ranging from the city of
Ankh-Morpork, to Tsort and Ephebe, to the Sto Plains, to the Hublands, to
the rain-sodden town of Llamedos [6]. A lot of the places actually mirror
locations here on Earth, but I won't spoil any fun by pointing them out!
The Finest Discworld Bibliographies
-----------------------------------
Naturally, the first place to go if you want to find out more about the
Discworld books is to a bookshop. Or to a library (ook!). Read one, and
see if you like it!
After that, the Internet is a good place for further Discworld and
Pratchett information. There are the alt.fan.pratchett and
alt.books.pratchett newsgroups, for discussion of all things Pratchettian,
and alt.fan.pratchett.announce for Pratchett-related announcements [7].
Terry Pratchett himself posts to these groups quite often.
As for Web sites, one of the best sites is the L-Space Web
(http://www.lspace.org/) which contains almost everything Disc-related that
you could possibly want (or, at least, links to it), all bar the novels
themselves.
Miscellany
----------
There are a number of Discworld games, including an old 8-bit game, and two
point-and-click adventure games on CD-ROM which both use the voices of
several famous people. Some MUDs (Multi-User "Dungeons") with a Discworld
theme also exist.
As for TV and movie versions of the Discworld, there are at least
animations of Wyrd Sisters (which was shown on BBC2 in the UK recently)
and Soul Music (which is available on video). Apparently there is talk
of a Discworld film, which would be good. And if you really are too lazy
to read the books, abridged and unabridged audio versions of some of them
are available, the abridged versions read by Tony Robinson.
Lastly, holidays to the Discworld are unfortunately unavailable at present.
[1] The introduction to Also sprach Zarathustra, by Richard Strauss, is
the piece famously used in 2001: A Space Odyssey.
[2] The colour of magic is, of course, octarine, the eighth colour.
[3] And in the Discworld short story, Theatre of Cruelty
(http://www.lspace.org/books/misc/theatre-of-cruelty.html), also
written by Terry Pratchett.
[4] Death always speaks in capital letters: I COULD MURDER A CURRY, he
says in Mort.
[5] The Annotated Pratchett File can be found at
http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/index.html.
[6] Llamedos -- try reading it backwards.
[7] There are various FAQs, including an FAQ for the Pratchett
newsgroups, at http://www.lspace.org/faqs/index.html.