The science of Discworld - Terry Pratchett

The fantastic first book in the Sunday Times bestselling Science of Discworld series

When
a wizardly experiment goes adrift, the wizards of Unseen University
find themselves with a pocket universe on their hands: Roundworld, where
neither magic nor common sense seems to stand a chance against logic.

The
Universe, of course, is our own. And Roundworld is Earth. As the
wizards watch their accidental creation grow, we follow the story of our
universe from the primal singularity of the Big Bang to the internet
and beyond.

Through this original Terry Pratchett story (with
intervening chapters from Cohen and Stewart) we discover how puny and
insignificant individual lives are against a cosmic backdrop of creation
and disaster. Yet, paradoxically, we see how the richness of a universe
based on rules, has led to a complex world and at least one species
that tried to get a grip of what was going on.

Terry Pratchett is the acclaimed creator of the global bestselling Discworld series, the first of which, The Colour of Magic,
was published in 1983. Raising Steam is his fortieth Discworld novel.
His books have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he is the
winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal, as well as
being awarded a knighthood for services to literature. After falling out
with his keyboard he now talks to his computer. Occasionally, these
days, it answers back.

www.terrypratchett.co.uk
@terryandrob

Professor Ian Stewart is the author of many popular science books. He is the mathematics consultant for New Scientist
and a Professor of Mathematics at the University of Warwick. He was
awarded the Michael Faraday Prize for furthering the public
understanding of science, and in 2001 became a Fellow of the Royal
Society.

Dr Jack Cohen is an
internationally-known reproductive biologist, and lives in Newent,
Gloucestershire. Jack has a laboratory in his kitchen, helps couples get
pregnant by referring them to colleagues, invents biologically
realistic aliens for science fiction writers and, in his spare time,
throws boomerangs. Jack, who has more letters to his name than can be
repeated here, writes, lectures, talks and campaigns to promote public
awareness of science, particularly biology. He is mostly retired.