But don't read this book if you aren't already a fan of the Disc World Series. And don't read it if you have a hard time carving out space to read fabulous books you can't wait to inhale. The thing about it though, is that it's FUNNY. Taken by itself, it's an exceptional example of a sci-fi comedy action adventure. The story moves at a good pace, there's action in the right places, there some wonderful imagery. Waterfalls at the end of the world will never not be cool. It's just too crazy. It doesn't gel. I liked the idea of one of the main characters being an oversized alien having adventures on a mostly primitive world. The stuff with the food synthesizer was smart and was maybe the only thing that gave the story any real sense of stakes. I mean, if you can't digest the food around you, the idea of your stuff being taken away is pretty relatable.

The further along it went, it felt more and more familiar to Terry’s Discworld style of writing and action. Mega-Corp: The Company. It builds planets. It also holds a monopoly on life-extending treatments and pays its employees in Days of added lifespan. The entire economy of human space more or less runs on the Day standard. A lot of the writing is a bit inscrutable. Even if I was fully alert and not tired, I sometimes struggled to figure out what was going on and who was talking. It’s totally not readable if you’re anywhere near sleepy. Strata by se totiž dala považovat za příběh o tom, jak by mohla vypadat Zeměplocha, kdyby ji Pratchett nepsal jako fantasy, ale jako sci-fi. Starfish Aliens: The Ehfts — they have one leg and move with tentacles, record things with 'touch-books' and speak in translated broken English. (Of course, the other races are also more subtly weird to each other and humans, as part of the theme.)

Wilkins said: “It’s such an important novel, because we know now what’s standing on its shoulders. I asked him, ‘What would you have said to your younger self about your early efforts, the 1971 edition?’ He said, ‘Must try harder.’ I thought that was a little bit harsh, but that was very much Terry, with his tongue in his cheek … When you look at master craftsmen like Terry, always honing their skills, they do get better. But, for me, The Carpet People is timeless.”

The implication of the denouement is that the conventional planet Kin Arad will build is in fact the readers' own " Earth". By the end of the story, Kin comes to the further suspicion that the builders of the flat world constructed the whole universe. The evidence of previous races would then be hoaxes, and the flat world itself would be a prank by the universe’s construction crew – analogous to the artificial strata Kin and the Company manufacture, and the occasional prankster employees inserting hoaxes in the artificial strata. Although it takes place in a different fictional universe and is more science fiction than fantasy, it could be said to be a kind of precursor to the Discworld novels, as it also features a flat Earth similar to the Discworld. It has been called a "preconsideration" of Discworld, though the plot and characters are modelled on (or parodies of) the novel Ringworld by Larry Niven. [1] Plot summary [ edit ] I love Pratchett's Disc World books. They are like literary potato chips to me, I can't read just one. I reread them when life is being particularly difficult and I need a safe and enjoyable place to park my brain.In his author’s note for the revised edition, Pratchett wrote that the original story “had a lot of things wrong with it, mostly to do with being written by someone who was 17 at the time”. Rereading it, the then 43-year-old Pratchett thought: “Hang on. I wrote that in the days when I thought fantasy was all battles and kings. Now I’m inclined to think that the real concerns of fantasy ought to be about not having battles, and doing without kings. I’ll just rewrite it here and there.” All Myths Are True: On Flat Earth. Apart from its shape, dragons, giant turtles and demons are shown. En route, the team encounter the superstitious Medieval inhabitants of the disc, who believe the end of the world is near, due to increasingly chaotic climate (caused by the disc's machinery breaking down), the recent disappearance of one of their planets, and the general devastation caused by the ship's crash. The three travelers also discover a number of other differences. If you are new to Pratchett and are reading this, my recommendation would be to start with something more mature - anything with the witches in, for example. My biggest critical complaint, from the point of view of the internal wranglings of the novel, is that the character of Jago Jalo is simply not used correctly. He comes in as a major character who is the whole reason for the story occurring at all, and is then written out, never to appear again. I was waiting for his denouement at the end and...it didn't happen, though he is briefly mentioned. It's annoying because this makes it obvious that he was just a vehicle to get the characters into place. It's all too contrived. Terry Pratchett would never make that mistake again.