My first non-fiction book was a reader's guide to Terry Pratchett's magnificent humorous fantasy series; it was published in trade paperback and ebook by BenBella Books in July 2008.
- Copyright 2008 by Lawrence Watt-Evans
- Cover price $14.95 U.S.
- ISBN 978-1-933771-46-5
It's available in trade paperback from Amazon, and from Barnes & Noble.
The ebook edition is available for the Kindle, for the Nook, and from Kobo.
Or, of course, direct from the publisher.
For those unfamiliar with it, Discworld is a fantasy world that rides through space atop four gigantic elephants, who in turn stand atop the shell of a cosmic turtle, Great A'tuin. Terry Pratchett has written dozens of novels in this setting, ranging from decent to incredibly brilliant; the series is a major phenomenon in Britain, not as well known here on the western shores of the Atlantic.
The Turtle Moves! is intended to introduce new readers to the series, and give long-time fans additional background and insight.
It's also intended to make me a little money, of course.
I've tried to suit my style to the subject matter, so The Turtle Moves! is replete with footnotes and attempts at humor. It includes three introductions, a couple of chapters on the Discworld series as a whole, a complete story-by-story summary of the series so far, more comments, an explanation of the various sub-series within the whole, yet more comments, a bibliography, and other stuff intended to make it look like a real book.
SFReader.com: "...an awesome collection for any Discworld fan..." Five stars!
Sci-Fi: Official magazine of the Sci-Fi Cable Channel: Grade: A
The late Sir Terry Pratchett suffered from a rare form of Alzheimer's disease, and donated half a million pounds to Alzheimer's research. His fans and friends organized an effort to match that gift.
It seemed only fair, since I'm indirectly profiting from Mr. Pratchett's creation, to do my part, but I did so by donating $1,000 from my advance to The Fisher Center for Alzheimer's Research Foundation, rather than through the British campaign. I encourage all readers to give what they can, as well.
The Turtle Moves! concludes with an appendix listing online resources; as is inevitable, some of the listed URLs are out of date. It therefore seems simply the polite thing to do to provide an updated version here.
Accordingly, here is Appendix 2: Online Resources, updated as of February 23, 2015.
As in the book, these are listed in approximate order of usefulness, and deliberately do not include the several interviews scattered through cyberspace, which you can find by googling on +interview +Pratchett. Sites listed in the book that are not included here appear to be gone for good.
The L-Space Web:
Terry Pratchett™ Books.com Discworld™ page:
Colin Smythe Ltd.: Terry Pratchett™:
The Turtle Moves:
Wikipedia: Discworld™:
The Discworld™ Convention site:
The Cunning Artificer's Discworld™ Emporium:
And not in the book but should have been:
That's it; here's your list of handy exits:
The Misenchanted PageReviews:
The most extensive Discworld™ fan site. Lots of annotations, bibliographic data, etc.
An official site for the series.
Mr. Pratchett's agent provided news and information about his client, but as of February 2015 the site appears to be closed for renovation.
This fan site is no longer there; the URL now redirects to an interesting but non-Discworld-related site.
The entry point for a great deal of accumulated information about the series. It's amazingly detailed on many subjects.
Home to information about the not-quite annual Discworld™ fan conventions.
Lots of strange and wonderful merchandise.
PJSM Prints:
Discworld art and signed books.
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