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Discworld

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(Redirected from The Discworld series)
This article is about the novels. For the fictional world itself, see Discworld (world). For the video game, see Discworld (video game). For the magazine on the Apple Macintosh, see Diskworld.
Not to be confused with Ringworld.

Discworld
Cover of the first edition of The Colour of Magic; art by Alan Smith
AuthorTerry Pratchett
Cover artistJosh Kirby (1983–2001)
Paul Kidby (2001–2015)
CountryUnited Kingdom
LanguageEnglish
GenreComic fantasy
PublisherTransworld Publishers
Doubleday
Random House
Published1983–2015
Media typePrint: Hardback, paperback
No. of books41 novels (List of books)
Websitediscworld.com

Discworld is a comic fantasy[1] book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle. The series began in 1983 with The Colour of Magic and continued until the final novel The Shepherd's Crown, which was published in 2015, following Pratchett's death. The books frequently parody or take inspiration from classic works, usually fantasy or science fiction, as well as mythology, folklore and fairy tales, and often use them for satirical parallels with cultural, political and scientific issues.

Forty-one Discworld novels were published. Apart from the first novel in the series, The Colour of Magic, the original British editions of the first 26 novels, up to Thief of Time (2001), had cover art by Josh Kirby. After Kirby's death in 2001, the covers were designed by Paul Kidby. The American editions, published by HarperCollins, used their own cover art. Companion publications include eleven short stories (some only loosely related to the Discworld), four popular science books, and a number of supplementary books and reference guides. The series has been adapted for graphic novels, theatre, computer and board games, and television.

Discworld books regularly topped Sunday Times best-sellers list, making Pratchett the UK's best-selling author in the 1990s. Discworld novels have also won awards such as the Prometheus Award and the Carnegie Medal. In the BBC's Big Read, four Discworld novels were in the top 100, and a total of fourteen in the top 200. More than 80 million Discworld books have been sold in 37 languages.[2][3]

Composition

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Very few of the Discworld novels have chapter divisions. Instead, they feature interweaving storylines. Pratchett was quoted as saying that he "just never got into the habit of chapters",[4] later adding that "I have to shove them in the putative YA books because my editor screams until I do".[5] However, the first Discworld novel The Colour of Magic was divided into "books", as is Pyramids. Additionally, Going Postal and Making Money both have chapters, a prologue, an epilogue, and brief teasers of what is to come in each chapter, in the style of A. A. Milne, Jules Verne, and Jerome K. Jerome.

Themes and motifs

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The Discworld novels contain common themes and motifs that run through the series. Many of the novels parody fantasy cliches and various subgenres of fantasy, like fairy tales (notably Witches Abroad) or vampire tales (Carpe Jugulum). Analogies of real-world issues, such as religion (Small Gods), fundamentalism and inner city tension (Thud), business and politics (Making Money), racial prejudice and exploitation (Snuff) recur, as do aspects of culture and entertainment such as opera (Maskerade), rock music (Soul Music), cinema (Moving Pictures), and football (Unseen Academicals). Parodies of non-Discworld fiction also occur frequently, including Shakespeare, Beatrix Potter, and several movies. Major historical events, especially battles, are sometimes the basis for both trivial and key events (Jingo, Eric, and Pyramids), as are trends in science, technology, pop culture and modern art (Moving Pictures, Men at Arms, Thud). There are also humanist themes in many Discworld novels, and a focus on critical thinking skills in the Witches and Tiffany Aching series.

Storylines

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A visual overview of how the Discworld books relate to each other

The Discworld novels and stories are, in principle, stand-alone works. However, a number of novels and stories form novel sequences with distinct story arcs:

Rincewind

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Main article: Rincewind

Rincewind was the first protagonist of Discworld. He is a wizard with no skill, no wizardly qualifications, and no interest in heroics. He is extremely cowardly but is constantly thrust into dangerous adventures. He saves Discworld on several occasions, and has an instrumental role in the emergence of life on Roundworld (Science of Discworld).

Other characters in the Rincewind story arc include Cohen the Barbarian, an aging hero of the old fantasy tradition, out of touch with the modern world and still fighting despite his advanced age; Twoflower, a naive tourist from the Agatean Empire (inspired by cultures of East Asia, particularly Japan and China); and The Luggage, a magical, semi-sentient and aggressive multi-legged travelling accessory. Rincewind appears in eight Discworld novels as well as the four Science of Discworld supplementary books.

Death

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Main articles: Death (Discworld) and Susan Sto Helit

Death, a seven-foot skeleton in a black robe who rides a pale horse named Binky, appears in every novel except The Wee Free Men and Snuff, although sometimes with only a few lines. His dialogue is always depicted in SMALL CAPS without quotation marks. Several characters have said that his voice seemed to reach their minds without making a sound.

Death guides souls from this world to the next. Over millennia he has developed a fascination with humanity to a point and feels protective of it. He adopted a human daughter and took on a human apprentice[6] Eventually the daughter and apprentice had a daughter, Susan Sto Helit, a primary character in Soul Music, Hogfather, and Thief of Time.

Characters that often appear with Death include his butler Albert, his granddaughter Susan Sto Helit, the Death of Rats, in charge of gathering the souls of rodents, Quoth, and the Auditors of Reality, the closest thing Death has to a nemesis.

Five Discworld novels feature either Death or Susan with Death appearing. He also appears in the short stories

Witches

[edit]
Main article: Witches (Discworld)

Witches in Pratchett's universe act as herbalists, nurses, adjudicators and wise women who can use magic but generally prefer not to, finding simple but cunningly applied psychology (called "headology") far more effective.

The principal witch, Granny Weatherwax, a taciturn, bitter old crone from the small mountain country of Lancre, largely despises people but acts as their healer and protector because no one else can do this as well as she can. Her closest friend is Nanny Ogg, a jolly, personable witch with the "common touch" who enjoys a smoke and a pint of beer, and often sings bawdy folk songs like the notorious "Hedgehog Song". The two take on apprentice witches: first Magrat Garlick, then Agnes Nitt, then Tiffany Aching, who become accomplished witches.

Other characters in the Witches series include:

  • King Verence II of Lancre, a onetime Fool
  • Jason Ogg, Nanny Ogg's eldest son, the local blacksmith
  • Shawn Ogg, Nanny's youngest son who serves as his country's entire army and civil service
  • Nanny's murderous cat Greebo.

The witches appear in many Discworld books, and are protagonists in seven. They also appeared in the short story "The Sea and Little Fishes". Their stories frequently draw on ancient European folklore and fairy tales, and parody famous works of literature, particularly by Shakespeare.

City Watch

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Main article: Ankh-Morpork City Watch

The stories featuring the Ankh-Morpork City Watch are urban fantasy, and frequently depict a traditional, magically-run fantasy world coming into contact with modern technology. They revolve around the growth of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch from a hopeless gang of three to a fully-equipped and efficient police force. The stories are largely police procedurals, featuring crimes with heavy political or societal overtones.

The main character Sam Vimes is a haggard, cynical, working-class street copper. When introduced in Guards! Guards!, he is the alcoholic captain of the three-person Night Watch, which also includes the lazy, cowardly, and none-too-bright sergeant Fred Colon and Corporal Nobby Nobbs, a petty thief in his own right. Then Carrot Ironfoundersson, a 6-foot-6-inch-tall (1.98 m) dwarf-by-adoption, joins the Watch.

Other main characters include

  • Angua, a werewolf,
  • Detritus, a troll,
  • Reg Shoe, a zombie and Dead Rights campaigner,
  • Cuddy, a Dwarf in Men at Arms,
  • Golem Constable Dorfl.

Cheery Littlebottom, the Watch's forensics expert and one of the first openly female dwarves, tried to rename herself "Cheri" without success. Constable Visit-the-infidel-with-explanatory-pamphlets appears in some novels, and Sam's wife, Lady Sybil Vimes (née Ramkin) is integral to certain storylines. Inspector A E Pessimal was recruited by Vimes as his adjutant after Havelock Vetinari, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, sent him as an auditor.

The City Watch feature in eight Discworld stories, and cameoed in a number of others, including Making Money, the children's book Where's My Cow?, and the short story "Theatre of Cruelty".

Pratchett stated on numerous occasions that the presence of the City Watch makes Ankh-Morpork stories "problematic", as stories set in the city that do not directly involve Vimes and the Watch often require a Watch presence to maintain the story—at which point, it becomes a Watch story by default.[citation needed]

Wizards

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Main article: Unseen University

The Wizards of Unseen University (UU) appear prominently throughout many Discworld novels; the books that centre around them exclusively are The Science of the Discworld series and the novels Unseen Academicals and The Last Continent. In the early books, the faculty of UU changed frequently; promotion usually involved assassination. However, after the ascension of the bombastic Mustrum Ridcully to the position of Archchancellor, the hierarchy settled down and characters had the chance to develop. Earlier books featured the wizards in possible invasions of Discworld by creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions, Lovecraftian monsters that hungered for magic.

The wizards of UU employ the traditional "whizz-bang" type of magic seen in Dungeons & Dragons games, but also investigate the rules and structure of magic in terms highly reminiscent of particle physics. Prominent members include

  • Ponder Stibbons, a geeky young wizard
  • Hex, the Disc's first computer/semi-sentient thinking engine
  • the Librarian, turned into an orangutan by magical accident, who refuses to be turned back
  • the Dean
  • the mentally unstable Bursar
  • the Chair of Indefinite Studies
  • the Lecturer in Recent Runes
  • the Senior Wrangler.

In later novels, Rincewind joins their group, while the Dean leaves to become the Archchancellor of Brazeneck College in the nearby city of Pseudopolis.

The Wizards feature prominently in nine Discworld books and star in The Science of Discworld series and the short story "A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices".

Tiffany Aching

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Main article: Tiffany Aching

Tiffany Aching is a young apprentice witch in a series of Discworld books aimed at young adults. Her stories often parallel mythic heroes' quests, but also deal with Tiffany's difficulties as a young girl maturing into a responsible woman. She is aided in her task by the Nac Mac Feegle, a gang of blue-tattooed, 6-inch tall, hard-drinking, loud-mouthed pictsie creatures also called "The Wee Free Men" who serve as her guardians. She is the protagonist of five novels, The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight, and The Shepherd's Crown. Major characters in this series include Miss Tick, a travelling witch who discovers Tiffany; Nac Mac Feegle chieftain Rob Anybody; and the other young witches Annagramma Hawkin and Petulia Gristle. Both Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg also appear in her stories.

Moist von Lipwig

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Main article: Moist von Lipwig

Moist von Lipwig is a professional criminal and con man to whom Havelock Vetinari gives a "second chance" after staging his execution, recognising the advantages his jack-of-all-trades abilities will give to the development of the city. After putting him in charge of the Ankh-Morpork Post Office in Going Postal, with good results, Vetinari orders him to clear up the city's corrupt financial sector in Making Money. In a third book, Raising Steam, Vetinari directs Lipwig to oversee the development of a railway network for Dick Simnel's newly invented steam locomotive. Other characters in this series include Adora Belle Dearheart, Lipwig's acerbic, chain-smoking love interest; Gladys, a golem who develops a strange crush on Lipwig; Stanley Howler, an obsessive young man who was raised by peas and becomes the Discworld's first stamp collector; and the very old Junior Postman Groat, who never got promoted to Senior Postman because there was never a Postmaster alive long enough to promote him.

Discworld cultures

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Several other books can be grouped together as "Other cultures of Discworld" books. They may contain characters or locations from other arcs, typically not as protagonist or antagonist but as a supporting character or even a throwaway reference. These include Pyramids (Djelibeybi), Small Gods (Omnia), and Monstrous Regiment (Zlobenia and Borogravia).

Characters

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Short descriptions of many of the notable characters:

Bibliography

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Novels

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No. Title Published Subseries Notes
1 The Colour of Magic 1983 Rincewind First edition cover artwork by Josh Kirby. 93rd in the Big Read[7]
2 The Light Fantastic 1986 Rincewind / Unseen University Continues from The Colour of Magic
3 Equal Rites 1987 Witches / Unseen University
4 Mort Death 65th in the Big Read[7]
5 Sourcery 1988 Rincewind / Unseen University
6 Wyrd Sisters Witches 135th in the Big Read[8]
7 Pyramids 1989 Stand-alone British Science Fiction Award winner, 1989[9]
8 Guards! Guards! City Watch 69th in the Big Read[7]
9 Eric 1990 Rincewind (Unseen University) Published in a larger format and fully illustrated by Josh Kirby
10 Moving Pictures Unseen University / Industrial Revolution
11 Reaper Man 1991 Death / Unseen University 126th in the Big Read[8]
12 Witches Abroad Witches 197th in the Big Read[10]
13 Small Gods 1992 Stand-alone 102nd in the Big Read[8]
14 Lords and Ladies Witches (Unseen University)
15 Men at Arms 1993 City Watch 148th in the Big Read[8]
16 Soul Music 1994 Death / Unseen University 151st in the Big Read[10]
17 Interesting Times Rincewind (Unseen University)
18 Maskerade 1995 Witches
19 Feet of Clay 1996 City Watch
20 Hogfather Death / Unseen University 137th in the Big Read;[8] British Fantasy Award nominee, 1997[11]
21 Jingo 1997 City Watch
22 The Last Continent 1998 Rincewind / Unseen University
23 Carpe Jugulum Witches
24 The Fifth Elephant 1999 City Watch 153rd in the Big Read;[10] Locus Award (Fantasy) nominee, 2000[12]
25 The Truth 2000 Industrial Revolution 193rd in the Big Read[10]
26 Thief of Time 2001 Death The last to have original cover artwork by Josh Kirby. 152nd in the Big Read;[10] Locus Award nominee, 2002[13]
27 The Last Hero Rincewind Published in a larger format and fully illustrated by Paul Kidby — the first in the line of his original release cover artwork for all subsequent Discworld novels (bar the 28th).
28 The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents Stand-alone The only novel to have original cover artwork by David Wyatt. A YA (young adult or children's) Discworld book; winner of the 2001 Carnegie Medal[14]
29 Night Watch 2002 City Watch Received the Prometheus Award in 2003;[15] came 73rd in the Big Read;[7] Locus Award nominee, 2003[15]
30 The Wee Free Men 2003 Tiffany Aching (Witches) The second YA Discworld book; also later published in 2008 in a fully illustrated by Stephen Player larger format edition.
31 Monstrous Regiment Industrial Revolution 2004 nominee for Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.[16] The title is a reference to The First Blast of the Trumpet Against the Monstruous Regiment of Women[17]
32 A Hat Full of Sky 2004 Tiffany Aching (Witches) The third YA Discworld book
33 Going Postal Moist von Lipwig / Industrial Revolution nominated for both the Locus and the Nebula Awards, 2005[18]
34 Thud! 2005 City Watch Locus Award nominee, 2006[19]
35 Wintersmith 2006 Tiffany Aching (Witches) The fourth YA book.
36 Making Money 2007 Moist von Lipwig / Industrial Revolution Locus Award winner, Nebula nominee, 2008[20]
37 Unseen Academicals 2009 Unseen University (Rincewind) / Industrial Revolution Locus Award nominee, 2010[21]
38 I Shall Wear Midnight 2010 Tiffany Aching (Witches) The fifth YA book, Andre Norton winner, 2010[22]
39 Snuff 2011 City Watch / Industrial Revolution The third-fastest-selling hardback adult-readership novel since records began in the UK, selling 55,000 copies in the first three days.[23]
40 Raising Steam 2013 Moist von Lipwig / Industrial Revolution
41 The Shepherd's Crown 2015 Tiffany Aching (Witches) The sixth YA book, Completed mid-2014 and published posthumously in 2015[24]

Short stories

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Short stories by Pratchett based in the Discworld, including published miscellanea such as the fictional game origins of Thud, were reprinted in Pratchett's collection A Blink of the Screen (2012), and elsewhere.

Seven of the short stories or short writings were also collected in a compilation of the majority of Pratchett's known short work named Once More* With Footnotes (2004).

Additionally, another short story "Turntables of the Night" (1989) is set in England but features Death as a character; it is available online and in both anthologies.

Five short stories republished in A Stroke of the Pen: The Lost Stories (2023) constitute the first known works by Pratchett that include early versions of places and characters that would later become parts of Discworld. Pratchett authored most of them under a pseudonym that remained unlinked to him for decades, until posthumously discovered in 2022.[29][30][31][32]

"Mapps"

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Although Terry Pratchett said, "There are no maps. You can't map a sense of humour,"[33] there are four "Mapps": The Streets of Ankh-Morpork (1993), The Discworld Mapp (1995), A Tourist Guide to Lancre (1998), and Death's Domain (1999). The first two were drawn by Stephen Player, based on plans by Pratchett and Stephen Briggs, the third is a collaboration between Briggs and Paul Kidby, and the last is by Kidby. All also contain booklets written by Pratchett and Briggs. Terry later collaborated with the Discworld Emporium to produce two much larger works, each with the associated map with the book in a folder, The Compleat Ankh-Morpork City Guide (2012) and The Compleat Discworld Atlas (2015).[34]

Death's Domain

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Death's Domain
Dust cover of first edition
AuthorTerry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs
IllustratorPaul Kidby
Cover artistPaul Kidby
LanguageEnglish
SeriesDiscworld Mapp
GenreFantasy
PublisherCorgi
Publication date
1999
Publication placeUnited Kingdom
Media typePrint (Paperback)
Pages27 pp
ISBN0-552-14672-2
Preceded byA Tourist Guide to Lancre 

Death's Domain is a book by Terry Pratchett and Stephen Briggs,[35] and illustrated by Paul Kidby. It is the fourth in the Mapp series. It was first published in paperback by Corgi in 1999.[36] It was the second in the series to be illustrated by Kidby.[37] As with the other "mapps", the basic design and booklet were compiled by Pratchett and Briggs.

The Mapp shows the parasite universe of Death's Domain. The accompanying booklet provides various details of the Domain, both as portrayed in the Discworld books and newly revealed.

In Death's Domain, the concept of steam locomotives on Discworld is introduced,[38] which became the main theme of Pratchett's Discworld novel Raising Steam fourteen years later.

In the live-action adaptations of Hogfather and The Colour of Magic, Dorney Court is the real-life location used for the exterior of Mon Repos, Death's house.

Science books

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Pratchett also collaborated with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen on four books, using the Discworld to illuminate popular science topics. Each book alternates chapters of a Discworld story and notes on real science related to it. The books are:

Quiz books

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David Langford has compiled two Discworld quiz books:

Diaries

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Main article: Discworld Diary

Most years see the release of a Discworld Diary and Discworld Calendar, both usually following a particular theme.

The diaries feature background information about their themes. Some topics are later used in the series; the character of Miss Alice Band first appeared in the Assassins' Guild Yearbook, for example.[citation needed]

The Discworld Almanak – The Year of The Prawn has a similar format and general contents to the diaries.

Other books

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Other Discworld publications include:

Reading order

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The books take place roughly in real time and the characters' ages change to reflect the passing of years. The meetings of various characters from different narrative threads (e.g., Ridcully and Granny Weatherwax in Lords and Ladies, Rincewind and Carrot in The Last Hero) indicate that all the main storylines take place around the same period (end of the Century of the Fruitbat, beginning of the Century of the Anchovy). The main exception is the stand-alone book Small Gods, which appears to take place at some point earlier than most of the other stories, though even this contains cameo appearances by Death and the Librarian.

Some main characters may make cameo appearances in other books where they are not the primary focus; for example, City Watch members Carrot Ironfoundersson and Angua appear briefly in Going Postal, Making Money, and Unseen Academicals (placing those books after Guards! Guards! and Men at Arms). A number of characters, such as members of staff of Unseen University and Lord Vetinari, appear prominently in many different storylines without having specific storylines of their own. The two most frequently recurring central protagonists, Rincewind and Sam Vimes, are very briefly in a room together in The Last Hero, but they do not interact.

Continuation

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After Terry Pratchett was diagnosed with Alzheimer's disease, he said that he would be happy for his daughter Rhianna to continue the series.[44] Pratchett co-founded Narrativia in 2012 along with Rob Wilkins to serve as a production company for adaptations of his works, with Rhianna as a member of its writing team.[44] Rhianna Pratchett said that she would be involved in spin-offs, adaptations and tie-ins, but there would be no more novels.[45] The first such spin-off by Rhianna was the tie-in book Tiffany Aching's Guide to Being a Witch, co-written with children's author Gabrielle Kent.

Adaptations

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Audiobooks

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Most of Pratchett's novels have been released as audio cassette and CD audiobooks.

Comics

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The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic,[50] Mort,[51] Guards! Guards!,[52] and Small Gods[53] have been adapted into graphic novels.

Film and television

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Due in part to the complexity of the novels, Discworld has been difficult to adapt to film – Pratchett was fond of an anecdote of a producer attempting to pitch an adaptation of Mort in the early 1990s but was told to "lose the Death angle" by US backers.[54]

Cosgrove Hall series (1996-1997)

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Cosgrove Hall produced several animated adaptations for Channel 4 from 1996 to 1997. All three star Christopher Lee as Death. These were made available on DVD and VHS in the US from Acorn Media.

Sky TV movie trilogy (2006-2010)

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Three television movies were commissioned by Sky One in the late 2000s, each of which were broadcast in two parts. Terry Pratchett cameos as a minor character in all three.

Full-length feature film

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The Amazing Maurice is a UK-Germany co-production CGI-animated feature film, with a screenplay by Terry Rossio closely adapting the 28th Discworld stand-alone novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents of 2001. The film stars the voices of Hugh Laurie — as the eponymous lead character of the streetwise talking ginger tomcat Maurice, who befriends a group of talking rats and a pet human to run a money-spinning "Pied Piper" scam across Discworld — with Emilia Clarke, Himesh Patel, Gemma Arterton, Ariyon Bakare, David Tennant, Julie Atherton, Joe Sugg, Rob Brydon, Hugh Bonneville, David Thewlis, and Peter Serafinowicz cameoing as Death. The film's musical score was composed by Tom Howe with English singer-songwriter Gabrielle Aplin. It had its premiere at the Manchester Animation Festival on 13 November 2022 before going on to general release at the end of 2022. [59] [60]

The same film production companies are putting together a CGI-animated feature film sequel to this film due for release in 2027. [61]

Other adaptations

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  • Run Rincewind Run! (2007): A Snowgum Films original story created as a short film for Nullus Anxietas, the Australian Discworld convention. Stars Troy Larkin as Rincewind, and features Terry Pratchett as himself.
  • Troll Bridge (2019): A live-action / hand-animated short film by the Australian group Snowgum Films.[62] It premiered at the Flickerfest International Film Festival in January 2019.[63]
  • The Watch, a TV series inspired by[64] the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, The Watch has been in development by Terry and then Rhianna Pratchett since 2011.[65][66] It was greenlit as an eight-episode series by BBC America in October 2018, with Simon Allen as writer and Hilary Salmon, Ben Donald, Rob Wilkins and Phil Collinson as executive producers.[67][68] However, Rhianna Pratchett has since distanced herself from the adaptation.[69]

Fan works

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  • Mort (2001): A fan movie adaptation of the eponymous novel by Orange Cow Production, 26 minutes.[70]
  • Lords and Ladies (2005): A fan movie adaptation of Lords and Ladies by Almost No Budget Films was completed in Germany.[71]

Radio

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There have been several BBC radio adaptations of Discworld stories, including:

Stage

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  • Stephen Briggs published stage adaptations of 18 Discworld novels. Most of them were first produced by the Studio Theatre Club in Abingdon, Oxfordshire. They include adaptations of The Truth, Maskerade, Mort, Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards![78][79]
  • Irana Brown directed her adaptation of Lords and Ladies, first performed in 1995 at the Winton Studio Theatre. Her adaptation was published in 2001 by Samuel French, and is still being performed as of 2016.[80][81]
  • Allen Stroud directed his adaptation of Reaper Man in 1996, first performed at the Winton Studio Theatre. He retains the script version.[82]
  • A stage version of Eric, adapted by Scott Harrison and Lee Harris, was produced and performed by The Dreaming Theatre Company in July 2003 inside Clifford's Tower, the 700-year-old castle keep in York.[83][84] It was revived in 2004 in a tour of England,[85] along with Robert Rankin's The Antipope.
  • Small Gods was adapted for the stage by Ben Saunders and was performed in February 2011 at the Assembly Rooms Theatre, Durham by Ooook! Productions[86] and members of Durham Student Theatre. Ooook! Productions also adapted and staged[87] Terry Pratchett's Night Watch (February 2012), Thief of Time (February 2013; adapted by Tim Foster[88]), Lords and Ladies (February 2014, adapted by Irana Brown[89]), Monstrous Regiment (2015),[90] and Soul Music (February 2016; adapted by Imogen Eddleston).[91]
  • A stage version of Monstrous Regiment was produced by Lifeline Theatre in Chicago, Illinois in June, July, and August 2014 with an adaptation written by one of Lifeline's ensemble members, Chris Hainsworth.[92]
  • A stage musical version of Witches Abroad, adapted by Amy Atha-Nicholls, was performed at the 2016 International Discworld Convention.

Video games

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  • Two point-and-click adventure games were created in the 1990s- Discworld[93] and Discworld II: Missing Presumed...!? (Mortality Bites in the US/North America).[94]
    • The first follows Rincewind as he is asked to look into the sudden and mysterious appearance of a dragon in Ankh-Morpork, while the second has him investigating the mysterious disappearance of Death. Discworld released in 1995 for PC (MS-DOS), Macintosh, PlayStation, and Sega Saturn, being one of the first games for the original Playstation, it came in a longbox case, rather than a CD Jewel case.
    • The direct sequel, Discworld II, released the following year for PC (MS-DOS and Microsoft Windows), Playstation, and Sega Saturn. Eric Idle plays Rincewind. The game contains many hand-animated cutscenes.
  • Another game, Discworld Noir, was released in 1999, for PC (Microsoft Windows) and Playstation, exclusively in Europe. It is more of a detective story, following a novel main character - a PI named Lewton.[95]

Other video games are:

Merchandise

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Various other types of related merchandise have been produced by cottage industries with an interest in the books, including Stephen Briggs, Bernard Pearson, Bonsai Trading, Paul Kidby and Clarecraft.

Games

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  • Thud, 2002, by Trevor Truran, publisher The Cunning Artificer. It resembles ancient Norse games such as Hnefatafl, and involves two unequal sides, Trolls and Dwarves with different moves and 'capture' abilities.[98]
  • Guards Guards, 2011, by Backspindle Games (Designers: Leonard Boyd & David Brashaw), Published in conjunction with Z-Man Games. This is a 'quest' game where players have to manoeuvre their piece around the board collecting stolen spells to return to the Unseen University, while dealing with various Discworld characters.[99]
  • Ankh-Morpork, 2011, by Martin Wallace, published by Treefrog Games. This is a game where each player has a secret victory condition, usually relating to owning buildings in, or controlling, various areas of the city of Ankh-Morpork. During the game, players play cards from their hand to place control elements in the city, remove other players' pieces, or otherwise manipulate the ownership of areas.[100]
  • The Witches, 2013, by Martin Wallace, published by Treefrog Games. This is a game aimed at younger players. They must move around the town of Lancre and its surrounds, dealing with 'problems' ranging from a sick pig to an invasion by vampires. It is a semi-cooperative game, in that all players can lose if the game wins, but if they resolve all the problems, then one of them will win.[101]
  • Clacks, 2014, by Backspindle Games (Designers: Leonard Boyd & David Brashaw), Published in conjunction with Z-Man Games. In this game players compete to send their 'message' on a clacks board while disrupting their opponents' messages. It resembles the game Amoeba.[102] with its constantly changing board.[103]
  • There are several sets of fan-created rules for the card game "Cripple Mr Onion" which appears in the novels. One of them was published in Turtle Recall.

Musical releases

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  • James Hannigan: Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Main Audiobook Theme (2024; released via digital music outlets including Spotify and Apple Music)
  • Dave Greenslade: Terry Pratchett's From the Discworld (1994; Virgin CDV 2738.7243 8 39512 2 2).[104]
  • Keith Hopwood: Soul Music—Terry Pratchett's Discworld, (1998; Proper Music Distribution / Pluto Music TH 030746), soundtrack to the animated adaptation of Soul Music.
  • Steeleye Span: Wintersmith, (2013; Park Records), a collection of folk-rock songs based on the book Wintersmith and on other Tiffany Aching stories. There is a spoken contribution by Terry Pratchett.

Role-playing games

[edit]

Pratchett co-authored with Phil Masters two role-playing game supplements for Discworld, utilising the third edition of the GURPS system:

A revised second edition, the Discworld Roleplaying Game, was published in 2016. It combined the content of the previous two books with new material, and updated the rules to GURPS Fourth Edition.

Stamps

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In August 2023, Royal Mail introduced a series of eight stamps based on Discworld characters, to mark the 40th anniversary of the first book's publication.[105]

Twin cities

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Critical reception

[edit]

On 5 November 2019, the BBC News listed The Discworld Series on its list of the 100 most influential novels.[108]

See also

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References

[edit]
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Literature

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Books

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Chapters

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Journal articles

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  • Kristin Noone (2010). "Shakespeare in Discworld: Witches, Fantasy, and Desire". Journal of the Fantastic in the Arts. 21 (1): 26–40. JSTOR 24352335.
[edit]
Wikiquote has quotations related to Discworld.
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