Being at home now for over 13 weeks, I have the time to work through a lot of audiobooks and podcasts. So here’s my next batch of books.
Being a big fan of Terry Pratchett and his Discworld books, I have read almost all of them, but for some reason I have never got around to reading any of the “science of Discworld” books. So I’m going to crash through these easily…..
The Science of Discworld I – Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
The Discworld part of the book begins when a new experimental power source for the Unseen University is commissioned in the university’s squash court. The new “reactor” is capable of splitting the thaum (the basic particle of magic), in homage to the Chicago Pile-1 nuclear reactor, which was housed in a rackets court at the University of Chicago.
However, the wizards’ new reactor produces vastly more magical energy than planned and threatens to explode, destroying the University, the Discworld, and the entire universe. The university’s thinking engine, Hex, decides to divert all the magic into creating a space containing nothing—no matter, no energy, no reality, and, importantly, no magic. The Dean sticks his fingers in the space and “twiddles” them, inadvertently creating the universe. The wizards soon discover that they can move things around in the universe, using Hex. They call it the Roundworld (the Earth), because in it, matter seems to accrete into balls in space (instead of discs on the backs of turtles). They decide to appoint Rincewind, whom they dragged out of bed in the early hours of the morning, the Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography, and send him down (against his will) to investigate this strange world.
The wizards create a series of balls of matter in space, and give one of them a Moon (accidentally). This stabilizes the ball enough that, over a score of millennia (the wizards can skip over vast periods of Roundworld time, allowing them to view the history of the universe in less than a month), blobs of life emerge, ready to begin evolving into more complex forms. The book also features a fictional crab civilization and the dinosaurs (both of which are wiped out by comets/asteroids colliding with the earth), before jumping ahead to when an advanced civilization (presumably humans) has evacuated the earth due to an impending natural disaster.
The Science of Discworld II The Globe – Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
In the story, the wizards accidentally are transported to Roundworld (the real universe, inadvertently created during the first book) during the Elizabethan era. This is the first time they learn there are humans on Roundworld; they previously learnt that something would escape an Ice Age by heading for the stars via a space elevator, but missed which species it was. They are befriended by the magician John Dee, who is understandably confused by their appearance. Back at Unseen University, the thinking machine Hex informs the remaining faculty (Ponder Stibbons, the Librarian and Rincewind) that history has changed and humanity no longer makes it to the stars. The reason for this is, apparently, an infestation of elves feeding off human imagination and encouraging them to be scared of the dark and the monsters within.
The wizards travel back in time to suppress the elvish influence, but this only makes things worse; people are no longer superstitious, but they are no longer creative either. In the “new” 17th century humans are still in the Stone Age, with a particular tribe having only slight fascination about a tree. Then Rincewind suggests doing the opposite, encouraging humanity to be more creative. They travel through time doing this, with the intent of creating a history in which William Shakespeare writes A Midsummer Night’s Dream. This achievement is symbolic of a new way of thinking, the human imagination is now sophisticated enough that stories can be told about stories. With the elves now seen as a harmless fiction, their power over Roundworld is gone.
The Science of Discworld III Darwin’s Watch – Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
In the Discworld story the wizards learn that, once again, the history of Roundworld has changed, resulting in humans failing to leave Earth before the extinction event shown in the earlier books. They discover that the difference from established history was that Charles Darwin wrote a book called Theology of Species, which described how evolution must be controlled by a Creator. This was generally accepted by both religious figures and conservative scientists, and led to a certain stagnation of thought, preventing the eventual invention of the space elevator. When the wizards try to correct this, the potential futures of Roundworld go mad. The possibility of Darwin ever writing the book becomes near zero, with most futures featuring his death or failure to write a book in seemingly improbable—and sometimes downright ridiculous—ways.
The wizards eventually deduce that Roundworld has caught the attention of the Auditors of Reality, who approve of a universe which runs on unthinking rules, and disapprove of humans, who try to make it more like the Discworld. Unlike the elven invasion in The Globe, which suppressed our creativity unthinkingly, this is a deliberate attempt to prevent humans escaping Earth.
While attempting to maintain a timeline where The Origin was written, the wizards inadvertently take Darwin to the Discworld. There they discover that his line of thought was disrupted by an Auditor-advised visit from the Disc’s God of Evolution, leading to Theology. After defeating the Auditors the wizards manage to correct this, by explaining the situation to Darwin. Since Darwin then wishes to forget the whole thing, they are ethically able to grant his request after showing him the culmination of his legacy—the Natural History Museum in London.
The Science of Discworld IV Judgement Day – Terry Pratchett, Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
In the Discworld story an attempt to perform a magical feat overseen by Ponder Stibbons results in a magical accident which sees the Roundworld librarian, Marjorie Daw, sucked into the Discworld from her library in England. Meanwhile, the High Priests of Omnia (see Small Gods) have declared that, since Omnism has always speculated that the Discworld is, in fact, spherical and Roundworld is, clearly, a spherical world (though one that is currently in a glass container on a small shelf in the Unseen University) it proves that Omnism was always correct and use this as “evidence” that Roundworld should belong to Omnia.
The wizards of Unseen University, especially Mustrum Ridcully, The Dean (now Archchancellor of the new Brazeneck University), Ponder Stibbons and The Librarian reject this, since Roundworld was created by accident when the Dean twiddled his fingers in a pile of raw universal firmament some books previously. The arguments are brought before Lord Vetinari to judge, who ultimately decides in favour of the University.
Dropped a few and picked up a few new podcasts lately, and some have paused while the world is on lockdown…..
