The Discworld. (Discworld Series - Terry Pratchett in general)

Member Name: danbakuk

Product:	Discworld Series - Terry Pratchett in general
Date:	05/01/04 (30 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Suitable for all ages., Filled with all the things that make out for adventure., Funny with a capital F

Disadvantages: You must have a brain that is a bit warped and filled with imagination.

Terry Pratchett :- The Discworld Novels.

To properly introduce you to the Discworld let me use the authors own words
from the prologue of The Colour Of Magic,

In a distant and second hand set of dimensions, in an astral plane that was
never meant to fly, the curling star-mists waver and part.....see.... Great
A'Tuin the turtle comes, swimming slowly through the interstellar gulf,
hydrogen frost on his ponderous limbs, his huge and ancient shell pocked
with meteor craters. Through sea sized eyes that are crusted with rheum and
asteroid dust He stares fixedly at the destination.
In a brain bigger than a city, with geological slowness, He thinks only of the
weight.
Most of the weight is of course accounted for by Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon
and Jerakeen, the four giant elephants upon whose broad star-tanned
shoulders the disc of the world rests, garlanded by the long waterfall at its
vast circumference and domed by the baby-blue vault of heaven.

So the Discworld is a flat planet resting on the shoulders of four giant
elephants who inturn stand on the shell of a turtle.

The series of novels began way back in 1983 with the Colour Of Magic, and
the 28th novel Monstrous Regiment was released mid 2003. So if you are
planning on starting to read Pratchett you will have no shortage of material to
get stuck into.

The Discworld resides just on the border of reality, and is a place to find
Witches, Wizards, Hero's, Dragons, trolls and many other fantasy characters.
The world which has a high magical field (a bit like Earth's gravity field, but
very different) allows things to happen that would be impossible on normal
worlds. The power of belief on the Discworld has a tendency to really work, if
enough people believe in something the chances are it will exist. This go's
someway to explain why on the Discworld the Toothfairy,
Death, Hope,
Chance, War, Pestilence etc. actually exist in humanoid form. Gods also
exist, so if you dont believe you had better not let them hear you say so!

The books are written in such a way as they seem to grow up with you. I read
The Colour Of Magic years ago and was captivated by the magic, adventure,
and the actual idea itself of a disc shaped world. I read it again recently and
was surprised at how grown up the books were, Terry seems to have written
two books in one - one for kids and one for adults. I now appreciate the
humour that before was wasted on my youthful mind and the hidden jokes
that crop up quite often.

The Discworld has captivated the imaginations of millions of people young
and old across the world. They are both funny and brilliantly written and if you
collect them all will give you years of fun as you read them time and time
again, each time reading a slightly different book!

As I am no writer myself I am not doing the books the justice they deserve so
please go out and buy a copy of The Colour of Magic so you can experience
for yourself the wit and creative genius of Terry Pratchett.

Examples of Discworld hidden fun.
The Discworlds first rock star was Imp y Celyn - Imp means shoot or small
bud and Celyn means of the holly so his name is bud of the holly -Buddy
Holly.
Llamedos a small mountainous country (sounds like Wales to me) is
sod-em-all backwards.
Mort is Deaths apprentice. Mort is Latin for death.
There are loads in each book see if you can spot some more.


The Discworld series can be found in all good bookshops as well as many
bad ones! Priced at £6.99

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