The Science of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen

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The Science of Discworld by Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen
pub: Random House/Ebury Press. 414 page Paperback. Price: Ł 6.99 (UK). ISBN: 0-091-88657 0)

‘The Science Of Discworld’, first published in 1999, represented a substantial departure for Terry Pratchett and the Discworld novels. It was not, as many may suspect, just another guide to the fictional universe and characters of Pratchett’s popular fantasy series.

Instead, it was an original and largely successful attempt to combine a fictional world with the real one and to blur the lines of science fiction and science fact. After 25 novels, the Discworld universe could be seen as almost as established as our own, complete with its own ideas on life and death, religion, science and philosophy.

It has creation myths – the turtle Great A’Tuin carries the world on its back – and death is a concept made real, as a character in black robes holding a scythe. It also runs largely on magic rather than science and gods are numerous and have their place, too.

However, rather than explaining all this at great length, Pratchett uses it as a comparison and platform from which to explore and explain our own universe.

Together with the added credentials of Ian Stewart - a mathematician - and Jack Cohen - a reproductive biologist, it becomes a combination of fact and fiction. A Discworld novel and a factual science book which covers everything from the Big Bang to Evolution, and is now reprinted in an updated and revised edition.

The basic premise is that the Discworld wizards of the Unseen University accidentally create a universe whilst playing around with chemical reactions. Our universe. This universe is contained in a small globe the size of a Christmas ornament. Soon they discover the creation of a small ‘roundworld’ which appears to operate on rules completely alien to them. For one thing, there is no magic on this world.

For another, there is no ‘narrativium’, the element which provides a story, and therefore gives narrative structure and logic to a situation. Randomness appears to describe the way that the Roundworld works and so the wizards set about studying it and it’s confusing rules.

The story develops from here, with alternative chapters reading like a whirlwind trip through our universe’s history, and a Discworld novel exploring Rincewind’s (who is sent into the Roundworld and try and understand it) adventures on this world.

We travel through the creation of the universe, stars, planets, atoms and chemical elements, formation of the Earth, Moon and Solar System, through to the beginning of life on Earth, evolution, dinosaurs, and finishing with the possibility of space colonies and further evolution of the human species. Interspersed with this are Rincewind’s reports that the world is full of gases, full of water, raining, raining still, raining again.

There’s strange and scary life in the seas, now there’s a colony of crabs. The crabs get killed by a meteor and life begins its struggle again.

Soon there are huge lizards roaming around. They get killed and a race of apes takes their place. Sadly, they only appear to Rincewind to be interested in sex, but he and the Librarian (who, being an orang-utan felt a great affinity with them) teach them about fire and hope for the best. The rest, as they say, is history.

Or, should that be the present? ‘The Science Of Discworld’ is both interesting and entertaining. It becomes a brief yet up-to-date journey through popular science which is accessible to laymen but also detailed enough for those with a little knowledge in the area.

It is presented with the usual Pratchett wit and originality and should still satisfy strong Pratchett fans as well as newcomers to his work.

Laura Kane

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