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The Discworld is the creation of Terry Pratchett. It is an imaginary location that appears in most of his books. (One of Pratchett's earlier novels, Strata, also features a disc-shaped world, but a different one.)
It consists of (as the name suggests) a flat disc (complete with edge-of-the-world drop-off and consequent waterfall) resting on the backs of four huge elephants (Great T'phon, Tubul, Berilia, and Jerakeen) which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle (Great A'Tuin) as it slowly swims through space.
The gender of the Turtle is something of a mystery to the inhabitants of the disc, being not able to peer underneath the turtle themselves. This leads to some great debate and argument as to what position the turtle would assume should there be another cosmic big bang.
Directions within the discworld are not given as North, South, East and West, but rather as directions relating to the disc itself, eg Hubward (towards the centre), Rimward (away from the centre) and to a lesser extent, turnwise and widdershins (relation to the direction of the disc's spin). It relies on magic.
Eight is a significant number on the Discworld. There are eight colours in the spectrum (the eighth being octarine, the "colour of magic"), and eight days in a week (the eighth being Octeday). There are also, due to the peculiar astronomical arrangements, eight seasons (and 800 days) in a year, although most Discworlders consider four seasons make a year, whatever astronomers say.
There are five main continents on the Discworld. The one on which most of the books is set is unnamed, it is essentially the equivalent of Eurasia, and contains the Sto Plains and Ramtops, as well as the more Eastern European lands around Überwald.
On the Sto Plains lies the most famous city on the Disc, Ankh-Morpork, site of the Unseen University and setting of many Discworld novels.
Hubward of the Sto Plains are the Ramtops, incredibly high mountains which are dotted with tiny kingdoms such as Lancre. At the very Hub is Cori Celeste, a massive mountain upon the peak of which rests "Dunmanifestin", home of the Discworld's gods.
Chief among the Gods, by reason of having more worshippers than any of the others, is Blind Io. He is a thunder god: in fact, he is every thunder god worshipped on the disc, appearing under different guises and answering different names in various places, so as to ensure the largest possible number of worshippers. (He nevertheless comes by his position of leadership relatively fairly, since all his rivals use similar dodges.)
The other continents and geographic areas are the Counterweight Continent, which has a decidedly Oriental feel, Klatch, which generally reflects the culture of Northern Africa and the Middle East, but also contains elements of India (and is often, from an Ankh-Morpork point of view, just "generically foreign") , and XXXX(commonly refered to as "Fourecks"), which is clearly influenced by Australian culture.
The world has been chronicled through at least 30 novels so far and several short stories. The novels prior to The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents (and almost all Pratchett books to date) had cover art done by Josh Kirby (who died in October 2001), but only in the original British editions. The American editions, published by HarperCollins, do not feature Kirby's cover art.
Almost all of the Discworld novels are notable for having no chapter divisions. Instead, most of the time there are different storylines interwoven with each other. The biggest advantage of not having chapters is that you can stop reading on nearly every page... if you are able to. Or you can just go through it non-stop, as some do.
The novels can be grouped into several story 'arcs', with characters or themes in common:
The Discworld novels are as follows:
| Name | Group | ISBN | Notes | Motifs | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| The Colour of Magic | Rincewind | Paperback: ISBN 0552124753 | Fantasy clichés; Role-playing games | ||
| The Light Fantastic | Rincewind | Paperback: ISBN 0552128481 | Fantasy clichés | ||
| Equal Rites | The Witches | Paperback: ISBN 0552131059 | Fantasy clichés, Gender equality | ||
| Mort | Death | Paperback: ISBN 0552131067 | Death and its personification | ||
| Sourcery | Rincewind | Paperback: ISBN 0552131075 | Fantasy Stories, Apocalypse | ||
| Wyrd Sisters | The Witches | Paperback: ISBN 0552134600 | Shakespeare, especially Macbeth and Hamlet | ||
| Pyramids | Miscellaneous | Paperback: ISBN 0552134619 | School stories; Egyptian mythology; Quantum Physics | ||
| Guards! Guards! | The City Watch | Paperback: ISBN 0552134627 | Cop Novels, Pedigree dog (dragon) breeding, Fantasy Stories | ||
| Eric | Rincewind | Paperback: ISBN 0575600012 | Originally published as a 'Discworld story': larger format and fully illustrated by Josh Kirby; more recently reissued as a normal paperback with no illustrations. | Faust, Dante's Inferno, Homer's Iliad | |
| Moving Pictures | Miscellaneous | Paperback: ISBN 0552134635 | Hollywood, The Cthulhu Mythos | ||
| Reaper Man | Death | Paperback: ISBN 0552134643 | Alien invasion SF, "Man With No Name" Westerns, Modernization, Shopping malls, Minority rights movements | ||
| Witches Abroad | The Witches | Paperback: ISBN 0552134651 | Fairy tales, Voodoo | ||
| Small Gods | Miscellaneous | Paperback: ISBN 0552138908 | Religion, Philosophy | ||
| Lords and Ladies | The Witches | Paperback: ISBN 0552138916 | Shakespeare, UFOs, Fairy lore | ||
| Men at Arms | The City Watch | Paperback: ISBN 0552140287 | Cop novels | ||
| Soul Music | Death | Paperback: ISBN 0552140295 | Rock music and related mythologising | ||
| Interesting Times | Rincewind | Paperback: ISBN 0552142352 | The Orient | ||
| Maskerade | The Witches | Paperback: ISBN 0552142360 | Opera; The Phantom of the Opera | ||
| Feet of Clay | The City Watch | Paperback: ISBN 0552142379 | Cop Novels; Robots | ||
| Hogfather | Death | Paperback: ISBN 0552145424 | Christmas; Children's stories | ||
| Jingo | The City Watch | Hardback: ISBN 0575065400 | War, Diplomacy | ||
| The Last Continent | Rincewind | Hardback: ISBN 0385409893 | Action/Adventure; Australia | ||
| Carpe Jugulum | The Witches | Hardback: ISBN 0385409923 | Vampire novels | ||
| The Fifth Elephant | The City Watch | Hardback: ISBN 0385409958 | Diplomacy, Eastern European folklore and literature, The Maltese Falcon, Political-conspiracy novels | ||
| The Truth | Miscellaneous | Hardback: ISBN 0385601026 | Watergate, Newspapers, The Front Page and His Girl Friday | ||
| Thief of Time | Death, or arguably Miscellaneous | Hardback: ISBN 0385601883 | Wuxia and Martial arts films, Chaos, The Fab Four and the Apocalypse | ||
| The Last Hero | Miscellaneous | Published in a larger format, fully illustrated by Paul Kidby. | Legends, Prometheus, D&D, Conan the Barbarian, the Space shuttle, Apollo 13, the designs of Leonardo da Vinci | ||
| The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents | Miscellaneous | A children's Discworld book. | Beatrix Potter, The Pied Piper of Hamelin, The Rats of NIMH | ||
| Night Watch | The City Watch | Hardback: ISBN 0385602642 | Cop Novels, Historical novels (Les Misérables), time travel, the Russian Revolution | ||
| The Wee Free Men | Tiffany Aching | Hardback: ISBN 0385605331 | Another children's Discworld book. | Folklore, Mythic Scotland, as seen in Braveheart and Highlander, the fairy paintings of Richard Dadd | |
| Monstrous Regiment | Miscellaneous | For the the origin of the title of this novel, see The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstrous Regiment of Women. | Folk song (especially Sweet Polly Oliver), women who disguise themselves as men to join the army (e.g. Colonel Gauntlett Bligh Barker), the Napoleonic Wars (possibly as interpreted through Bernard Cornwell's Sharpe novels). | ||
| A Hat Full of Sky | Tiffany Aching | Hardback: ISBN 0385607369 | A third children's Discworld book. | The history and folklore of witches in Britain, mind controlling aliens in science fiction, arguably Jill Murphy's The Worst Witch | |
| Going Postal | Miscellaneous | Hardback: ISBN 0385603428 | Scheduled to be released in the first week of October 2004. |
There are also three short stories by Pratchett based in the Discworld: Troll Bridge, Theatre of Cruelty, and The Sea and Little Fishes. The first two are available online. The third was published in Legends, edited by Robert Silverberg.
Thus far, there are also two Discworld Quizbooks compiled by David Langford:
Furthermore, there are four Maps:
The first two were drawn by Stephen Player, based on plans by Pratchett and Stephen Briggs, the third is a collaboration between Briggs and Kidby, and the last is by Paul Kidby. All also contain booklets written by Pratchett and Briggs.
Pratchett has also collaborated with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen on three books using the Discworld to illuminate popular science topics:
Stage adaptations of nine Discworld novels have been published, with proceeds from the rights going to charity. The adaptations are by Stephen Briggs, and were first produced by the Studio Theatre Club in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. They include adaptations of The Truth, Maskerade, Mort, Wyrd Sisters, and Guards! Guards!.
There have been several aborted attempts at bringing stories from the Discworld to the silver screen, including a fan attempt of Maskerade that inevitably failed through lack of funds. Australian group Snowgum Films have completed principal photography on the short story Troll Bridge. A link to their website can be found below.
Animated adaptations of Soul Music and Wyrd Sisters were produced by Cosgrove-Hall Productions for Channel 4 in 1996. These are available on DVD and VHS in the US from Acorn Media.
There have been several BBC radio adaptations of Discworld stories, including versions of Wyrd Sisters, Guards! Guards! (narrated by Marin Jarvis) and Mort.
In addition Terry Pratchett co-authored with Phil Masters two role-playing game supplements for Discworld, utilising the GURPS system:
There is also a Discworld board game, Thud, created by puzzle compiler Trevor Truran.
Various other types of related merchandise have been produced by cottage industries with an interest in the books, including Stephen Briggs, Bernard Pearson and Clarecraft.
It is even possible to get a character in one of the future Discworld books named after yourself. Usually people appear in the books by bidding for the privilege in charity auctions.
The Discworld is populated by numerous classic fantasy/mythological races. Pratchett has different characteristics for some of these races when compared to other noted authors.
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