Terry Pratchett - The Science of Discworld: A Novel

Terry Pratchett is the acclaimed creator of the best-selling Discworld series, the latest of which is Raising Steam. He has been appointed OBE and a Knight Bachelor in recognition of his services to literature.

www.terrypratchett.com

Ian Stewart is a Fellow of the Royal Society, a professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick, and the author of numerous books on math and popular science, as well as science fiction novels coauthored with Jack Cohen.

Jack Cohen is a professor of biology and honorary professor of mathematics at the University of Warwick, and has coauthored several books with Ian Stewart.

Books about Discworld

THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD

THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD II: THE GLOBE

THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD III: DARWIN S WATCH

THE SCIENCE OF DISCWORLD IV: JUDGEMENT DAY

(with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen)

TURTLE RECALL: THE NEW DISCWORLD COMPANION SO FAR

(with Stephen Briggs)

NANNY OGG S COOKBOOK

(with Stephen Briggs, Tina Hannan, and Paul Kidby)

THE PRATCHETT PORTFOLIO

(with Paul Kidby)

THE DISCWORLD ALMANAK

(with Bernard Pearson)

THE UNSEEN UNIVERSITY CUT-OUT BOOK

(with Alan Batley and Bernard Pearson)

WHERE S MY COW?

(illustrated by Melvyn Grant)

THE ART OF DISCWORLD

(with Paul Kidby)

THE WIT AND WISDOM OF DISCWORLD

(compiled by Stephen Briggs)

THE FOLKLORE OF DISCWORLD

(with Jacqueline Simpson)

THE WORLD OF POO

(with the Discworld Emporium)

THE COMPLEAT ANKH-MORPORK

THE STREETS OF ANKH-MORPORK

(with Stephen Briggs; painted by Stephen Player)

THE DISCWORLD MAPP

(with Stephen Briggs; painted by Stephen Player)

A TOURIST GUIDE TO LANCREA DISCWORLD MAPP

(with Stephen Briggs; illustrated by Paul Kidby)

DEATHS DOMAIN

(with Paul Kidby)

The Discworld Series

THE COLOUR OF MAGIC

THE LIGHT FANTASTIC

EQUAL RITES

MORT

SOURCERY

WYRD SISTERS

PYRAMIDS

GUARDS! GUARDS!

ERIC

(illustrated by Josh Kirby)

MOVING PICTURES

REAPER MAN

WITCHES ABROAD

SMALL GODS

LORDS AND LADIES

MEN AT ARMS

SOUL MUSIC

MASKERADE

FEET OF CLAY

HOGFEATHER

JINGO

THE LAST CONTINENT

CARPE JUGULUM

THE FIFTH ELEPHANT

THE TRUTH

THIEF OF TIME

THE LAST HERO

(illustrated by Paul Kidby)

THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS

(for young adults)

NIGHT WATCH

THE WEE FREE MEN

(for young adults)

MONSTROUS REGIMENT

A HAT FULL OF SKY

(for young adults)

GOING POSTAL

THUD

WINTERSMITH

(for young adults)

MAKING MONEY

UNSEEN ACADEMICALS

I SHALL WEAR MIDNIGHT

(for young adults)

SNUFF

RAISING STEAM

Shorter Writing

A BLINK OF THE SCREEN

Non-Discworld Books

THE DARK SIDE OF THE SUN

STRATA

THE UNADULTERATED CAT

(illustrated by Gray Jolliffe)

GOOD OMENS

(with Neil Gaiman)

THE LONG EARTH

(with Stephen Baxter)

THE LONG WAR

(with Stephen Baxter)

Non-Discworld Novels for Younger Readers

THE CARPET PEOPLE

TRUCKERS

DIGGERS

WINGS

ONLY YOU CAN SAVE MANKIND

JOHNNY AND THE DEAD

JOHNNY AND THE BOMB

NATION

DODGER

IAN STEWART

CONCEPTS OF MODERN MATHEMATICS

GAME, SET, AND MATH

THE PROBLEMS OF MATHEMATICS

DOES GOD PLAY DICE?

ANOTHER FINE MATH YOU VE GOT ME INTO

FEARFUL SYMMETRY

NATURE S NUMBERS

FROM HERE TO INFINITY

THE MAGICAL MAZE

LIFE S OTHER SECRET

FLATTERLAND

WHAT SHAPE IS A SNOWFLAKE?

THE ANNOTATED FLATLAND

JACK COHEN

LIVING EMBRYOS

REPRODUCTION

PARENTS MAKING PARENTS

SPERMS, ANTIBODIES AND INFERTILITY

THE PRIVILEGED APE

STOP WORKING AND START THINKING

(with Graham Medley)

IAN STEWART AND JACK COHEN

THE COLLAPSE OF CHAOS

FIGMENTS OF REALITY

WHEELERS

EVOLVING THE ALIEN

FIRST ANCHOR BOOKS EDITION, JUNE 2014

Copyright 1999, 2002 by Terry Pratchett, Lyn Pratchett, Joat Enterprises, and Jack Cohen
Line drawings copyright 1999, 2002 by Paul Kidby and Sandra Kidby

All rights reserved. Published in the United States by Anchor Books, a division of Random House LLC, New York, a Penguin Random House company. Originally published in Britain by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, a division of the Random House Group Ltd., London, in 1999. This revised edition published by Ebury Press, an imprint of Ebury Publishing, a division of the Random House Group Ltd., London, in 2002.

Anchor Book and colophon are registered trademarks of Random House LLC.

Terry Pratchett and Discworld are registered trademarks.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the authors imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

The Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication data has been applied for.

Anchor Trade Paperback ISBN: 978-0-8041-6894-6
eBook ISBN: 978-0-8041-6895-3

Cover illustration by Justin Gerard
Cover design by Jason Booher

v3.1_r3

Any technology distinguishable from magic is insufficiently advanced.

GREGORY BENFORD

The reason why truth is so much stranger than fiction is that there is no requirement for it to be consistent.

MARK TWAIN

There are no turtles anywhere.

PONDER STIBBONS

O NCE UPON A TIME , there was Discworld. There still is an adequate supply.

Discworld is the flat world, carried through space on the back of a giant turtle, which has been the source of so far twenty-seven novels, four maps, an encylopaedia, two animated series, t-shirts, scarves, models, badges, beer, embroidery, pens, posters, and probably, by the time this is published, talcum powder and body splash (if not, it can only be a matter of time).

It has, in short, become immensely popular.

And Discworld runs on magic.

Roundworld our home planet, and by extension the universe in which it sits runs on rules. In fact, it simply runs. But we have watched the running, and those observations and the ensuing deductions are the very basis of science.

Magicians and scientists are, on the face of it, poles apart. Certainly, a group of people who often dress strangely, live in a world of their own, speak a specialized language and frequently make statements that appear to be in flagrant breach of common sense have nothing in common with a group of people who often dress strangely, speak a specialized language, live in er