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non-Discworld

#Pratchat68 Notes and Errata

08/08/2023 by Ben Leave a Comment

These are the episode notes and errata for Pratchat episode 68, “Discus Ex Machina”, discussing Terry Pratchett’s third novel, 1981’s Strata, with guest EJ Mann.

Iconographic Evidence

Australian Bush Heritage’s thread of “Pedro Pascal as Australian frogs” first appeared in a Twitter thread, but we’ve embedded the Instagram version below. (Twitter is…not as stable as it once was.) Make sure you check out all of them!

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Bush Heritage (@bushheritageaus)

Here are the first edition covers of Pratchett’s two early science fiction novels. Ben mistakenly remembered Pratchett’s cover for The Dark Side of the Sun featuring dragonflies, not bees; he may be remembering the later cover, also by original Strata artist Tim White, which depicts a robot insect which…well, it’s also not a dragonfly, but it’s more like one than Pratchett’s bees. Though the weird fungal creatures on his Strata cover do look like dragonflies – one of the many details that makes it entirely unlike the book in every way, aside from the inclusion of a lightning bolt.

Strata first edition; cover art by Tim White
Strata first edition; cover art by Tim White
The Dark Side of the Sun, first edition; cover art by Terry Pratchett
The Dark Side of the Sun, first edition; cover art by Terry Pratchett

Below is the earliest post we could find for the photo of the common snapping turtle with the “world” on its back. It’s from the source, the Twitter account for Task Force Turtle; see below in the notes for more on the turtle, and for an article where you can see it if Twitter becomes too unstable to supply this embedded tweet.

pic.twitter.com/eEM4lyukCh

— Task Force Turtle (@TaskForceTurtle) November 27, 2018

Notes and Errata

  • The episode title plays with the well-known Latin phrase “deus ex machina”, “God from the machine”. Originally used in Ancient Greek theatre as a literal stage direction, in which actors playing the roles of gods would be brought on stage via a machine, it has come to mean an unexpected plot resolution brought about by supernatural or implausible means, especially if those means have not previously been established in the narrative. We don’t think Strata is an example of this, but the Latin for “disc from the machine” seemed too perfect not to use.
  • The last in-person Australian Discworld Convention was Nullus Anxietas 7, held in Melbourne in April 2019. We recorded a live episode there: #PratchatNA7, “A Troll New World”, discussing the short story “Troll Bridge”.
  • Bush Heritage Australia is a non-profit organisation which was started as “The Australian Bush Heritage Fund” in 1991, with the purchase of forest land in Tasmania by environmentalist and former leader of the Australian Greens, Bob Brown. The charity now owns millions of hectares of bushland across Australia, which it manages in partnership with Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples. You can find out more at bushheritage.org.au, or follow them (and their very funny social media manager) as @BushHeritageAus on Twitter or Instagram.
  • You can read what Pratchett had to say about the Disc in 1981 on Colin Smythe’s website, where you’ll also find early reviews – including one by Neil Gaiman! Of the Discworld, Pratchett said:
    “I am also working on another ‘discworld’ theme, since I don’t think I’ve exhausted all the possibilities in one book!”
  • Thanks to subscriber Craig, who shared a photo of the full blurb for the first edition of Strata, which we can also confirm was first published by Colin Smythe in hardcover. (See above for the original covers of both Strata and The Dark Side of the Sun.) Here’s the longer blurb:

A flat earth? Impossible.
Kin Arad is the 210-year-old supervisor in charge of resurfacing the newly named planet, Kingdom. When she finds Jago Jalo, a man who has a cloak of invisibility and should have died a thousand years ago, in her office, she decides he must have an unusual tale. He has. He knows where such a world is. It is like the medieval earth…almost. Leiv Eiriksson is setting off for the New World, but he will never find it. Instead he sails to the edge of the world and its eternal waterfall.
It is obvious that this ‘earth’ has been built by the Great Spindle Kings, makers of universes, inventors of the strata machine and the ultimate in claustrophobes, and Jalo lures the human Kin, the kung Marco Farfarer and the fiftv-six-syllable-named shand better known as Silver, to undertake a voyage of discovery with him: the rewards must be beyond their dreams…or nightmares.
In Strata Terry Pratchett again shows the remarkably witty, imaginative and descriptive talents that have characterised his earlier works and show him to be one of the best s.f. writers of the younger generation.

Strata – blurb from the first hardcover edition (1981)
  • You can find many different covers for Strata at the Internet Speculative Fiction Database. While many seem to use stock sci-fi or fantasy art, most use Josh Kirby’s cover (though some use his art for The Dark Side of the Sun!). The German cover by Katarzyna Oleska is Ben’s favourite, and is the only one to show Kin as a Black woman; we also like the French one by Marc Simonetti, though he inexplicably depicts Kin as a cyborg with red skin, though accurately makes her bald. The mass market US paperback has a cover by Darrell K. Sweet which gets special mention for the very retro image of Kin in a silver spacesuit holding a raygun while on a Viking ship menaced by a dragon, but it makes her white (and ginger) and leaves out Marco and Silver entirely.
  • Magrathea is the fabled planet manufacturing planet which features prominently in the plot of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. As well as many luxury planets built during a boom in the galactic economy, it also built the planet Earth; the fjords were designed by planetary architect Slartibartfast, who meets Arthur Dent during the final chapters of the first radio series/book/film etc.
  • Speaking of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, Ben is correct: the original radio series was broadcast betweem 1978 and 1980. The first novel was published in 1979, while the original BBC television series was made in 1980, but broadcast in 1981. There have been numerous other versions, including an LP (which differs from the radio series), a videogame, a feature film, several stage plays, a comic book and, supposedly, another television series currently in production at Hulu.
  • The film Liz mentions with Olivia Wilde where remaining lifetime is a currency is indeed In Time (2011, dir. Andrew Niccol), a sci-fi action film starring Amanda Seyfried and Justin Timberlake. It’s similar to the earlier film Price of Life (1987, dir. Stephen Tolkin), and also the 1965 Harlan Ellison short story “‘Repent, Harlequin!’ Said the Ticktockman”. Ellison briefly sued Niccol (who is best known for Gattaca) and the producers of In Time, but dropped the suit after seeing the film.
  • Ringworld is a 1970 science fiction novel by American author Larry Niven. In the book, 29th century human Louis Gridley Wu is recruited on his 200th birthday by an alien “Puppeteer” named Nessus to go on an expedition. He is to investigate the Ringworld, a massive construct surrounding a Sun which has an immense Earth-like inner surface. He travels there with Nessus, a cat-like Tzin named Speaker-to-Animals, and another human, Teela Brown. Their ship is damaged on arrival and crashes; its hyperdrive still functions but it cannot get back into space to use it safely. The crew head towards the edge of the Ring, hoping to find technology to help them repair their ship, encountering strange technologies and the remnants of the Ring’s civilisations along the way. As Terry Pratchett put it on alt.fan.pratchett, “I intended Strata to be as much a (pisstake/homage/satire) on Ringworld as, say, Bill the Galactic Hero was of Starship Troopers. All Niven’s heroes are competent and all his technology works for millions of years…but he’s a nice guy and says he enjoyed the book.” There are four sequels: The Ringworld Engineers (1979), The Ringworld Throne (1996), Ringworld’s Children (2004) and Fate of Worlds (2012), which is also the last book in Niven’s Fleet of Worlds series. All of these books are set in Niven’s broader “Known Space” universe.
  • EFTPOS systems, which allow a transfer of funds direct from a purchaser’s bank account to a merchant, first appeared in America in 1981. The system was slow to be adopted by consumers, and credit cards and cheques remained much more popular alternatives to cash. Australian banks were pretty quick to adopt a national EFTPOS system, in part because they had already had to cooperate to set up Bankcard, a domestic credit card implemented in the 1970s before the major card companies came to Australia and New Zealand. Unfortunately, as is so often the case with these things, it appears one of the main reasons Australians call it EFTPOS is advertising: the major company making and selling the infrastructure equipment, and marketing it to the public during the 80s and 90s, was “eftpos Australia”. EFTPOS is also popular, and known by that term, in New Zealand and Singapore.
  • Budgie is the nickname for the budgerigar, a small species of parakeet with long tails. Like Liz, many Australians growing up in cities don’t realise they’re native birds, in part because they’re so commonly kept as pets – very unusual for native animals! In country areas they gather in huge flocks at water holes. Their popularity is largely due to their small size, colourful plumage (usually white and blue or yellow and green, but many other breeds exist), and their ability to “speak” and whistle. They’ve been exported – legally and otherwise – to many countries around the world. A common bit of Australian slang for men’s swimming costumes is “budgie smugglers”, referring to the fact that they don’t leave much to the imagination and the wearer’s genitals are often outlined, appearing around the same size as a budgie.
  • The Wayfarer series by American author Becky Chambers begins with her debut 2014 novel, The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet, which she originally crowdfunded and self-published. It was nominated for several awards and republished by Hodder & Stoughton in 2015. The Wayfarer of the series title is a “tunnelling ship” – a spacecraft which builds wormholes between distant parts of space for other spaceships to use as shortcuts. The original novel follows the multi-species crew of the Wayfarer and their relationships during one long mission. It has so far been followed by three sequels: A Closed and Common Orbit (2016), Record of a Spaceborn Few (2018) and The Galaxy, and the Ground Within (2021), plus a short story, “A Good Heretic” (2019), though these follow different characters and stories in the same universe. The species who can communicate via coloured patches on their cheeks are the Aeluon, otherwise plain-coloured humanoids who are one of the more powerful species in the galaxy.
  • The Lying Bastard, the spaceship constructed by the Puppeteers for the mission to the Ringworld and named by Louis Wu, was sadly not shaped like a disc. In most depictions, including the ones sanctioned by Larry Niven himself, it looks more like a fighter jet.
  • Silver actually says her name is fifty-six syllables long – considerably more than Ben’s guess of twenty-three! The “unpronounceable name” trope is a common excuse to give aliens, demons and the like simple names, even when their origins suggest they should have a language and/or culture very different to human ones. Doctor Who has several examples, including the Doctor’s own name (in the modern series a secret, but hinted to be very long in some of the books) and that of fellow Time Lord Romanadvoratrelundar, more commonly known as Romana (though when they first meet, the Doctor also offers to call her “Fred”).
  • Slashie and multi-hyphenate are both terms for those who diversify into multiple disciplines, particularly in the arts. “Multi-hyphenate” is more common in the screen industry, where one might be a writer-director-producer on the same project; “slashie” is a more general arts term, for folks who (like Ben) have several different freelance careers to ensure enough work. (Ben is an actor/writer/game designer/educator, among other things.)
  • We’re still pretty sure that the whole “you might outnumber me, but how many of you will die before you get me?” thing does appear in a Discworld book somewhere, but we haven’t been able to find it. Do you know where it is? Let us know!
  • The turtle that burrows underground and comes up looking like A’Tuin (or Torterra, if you’re a Pokémon fan) is the common snapping turtle of North America, Chelydra serpentina. They migrate to muddy holes where they bury themselves to hibernate during Winter. In 2018, a photo of one such turtle was taken in Maryland by Timothy Roth, a psychology professor working with Task Force Turtle. The photo went viral on social media and is now posted to various Discworld forums at least a few times each year, though this turtle hadn’t just woken up from hibernation… You can see the image above, and read the story of how and why it was taken, and learn more about the turtles themselves, in the LiveScience article “How Butt Gas, Drugs and Amazing Memories Led to This Weird Turtle Photo”, from December 2018. As EJ mentions, its often linked to the “turtle island” stories of several North American peoples, including the Lenape and Haudenosaunee.
  • Stephen Briggs’ unabridged audiobooks of both Strata and The Dark Side of the Sun were released by Isis Audio Books as boxed sets of CDs in the early 2000s. The same recordings were re-released around 2007 on “mp3-CD” – yes, a CD-ROM with the tracks from the original CDs as mp3 files. This format was playable by some CD players produced in the 2000s (and may still be playable by some in-car CD players now), but quickly became obsolete as solid-state media (like USB drives) became cheaper, and then the audio industry shifted to download and streaming. When the Isis unabridged recordings of the Discworld novels and other books were licensed for digital distribution via Audible, Apple Books and so on, it seems Strata and The Dark Side of the Sun were not included, but then the Isis Discworld audiobooks – including the earlier ones narrated by Nigel Planer – don’t seem available digitally any more either. (We assume they were removed to avoid confusion, now the new Penguin audiobooks are out; Tony Robinson’s ones are still available, but under the series title “Discworld (abridged)” to make the distinction clear.) You can still find the physical media versions secondhand, though, if you’re keen.

More notes to come soon!

Thanks for reading our notes! If we missed anything, or you have questions, please let us know.

Posted in: Episode Notes Tagged: Ben McKenzie, EJ Mann, Elizabeth Flux, non-Discworld, sci-fi, standalone, Strata

#Pratchat49 – Once More, With Future

08/11/2021 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

Arts journalist, critic and broadcaster Richard Watts joins Liz and Ben on a trip sideways in time with reluctant wizard Mervin (with a V) in Terry Pratchett’s 1995 short story “Once and Future”, originally published in the Arthurian collection Camelot.

As he stands on the beach waiting for the right hopeful king to come along, professional time traveler Mervin recounts his story of how he became stranded in a sideways version of medieval Britain. Here the stories of Arthurian myth are more or less real – though one notable figure is missing… With his knowledge of modern technology, a stash of emergency supplies and help from sharp local girl Nimue, he has a plan to fill the gaps in this other history…

Pratchett explores a new angle on the Matter of Britain, mixing sci-fi and engineering into a story about stories and “a world that’s not exactly memory and not exactly story”. Published in between Interesting Times and Maskerade, but stewing in his head for a decade before that, it features some of Pratchett’s most developed ideas about time travel, and was something he was proud and fond of. He even thought of turning his more extensive writings for it into a novel!

Did you enjoy Pratchett’s take on the practicalities of time travel? Would you have the skills to make it as a time traveler? Does it have the beginnings of a full-length novel? And what’s the best thing you’ve ever found in a charity shop? …we’re not sure where that one fits in either, but you asked so we answered! (Thanks Ryn.) Join the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat49 on social media.

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_49.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:45:22 — 48.6MB)

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Guest Richard Watts (he/him) is indeed a titan of the Melbourne arts community. He’s best known as a journalist for ArtsHub, where he is the National Performing Arts Editor, and as the host of SmartArts, 3RRR’s long-running weekly arts programme. As well as being named a living legend of the Melbourne Fringe Festival in 2019, Richard’s contributions to the arts were further recognised in 2021 when he was awarded the Sidney Myer Performing Arts Awards’ Facilitator’s Prize and a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Green Room Awards. He’s also written for roleplaying games including Call of Cthulhu, Elric!, Vampire: The Masquerade, Werewolf: The Apocalypse and Wraith: The Oblivion. You can find Richard on Twitter as @richardthewatts.

As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our web site.

Next episode is our fiftieth – and to celebrate, we’re cracking open Nanny Ogg’s Cookbook! This is Pratchett’s 1999 collaboration with Stephen Briggs and Tina Hannan, the latter of whom is responsible for the actual recipes inside – some of which we’ll be trying out with our very special returning guest, comedian and author Cal Wilson! We’re also hoping to cook up something a little extra to send your way around Hogswatch as well… For now though, send us your questions – about the book, the recipes, Nanny’s etiquette advice or even just doing a Pratchett podcast for over four years. Use the hashtag #Pratchat50, or send us an email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ben McKenzie, Elizabeth Flux, non-Discworld, Richard Watts, short story, time travel

#Pratchat46 – The Helen Green Preservation Society

08/08/2021 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

Writer and editor Deanne Sheldon-Collins joins Liz and Ben as they return to the infinite worlds of the Long Earth to discuss Terry Pratchett’s second collaboration with Stephen Baxter: 2013’s The Long War.

In the ten years since anti-stepping extremists nuked his home town of Madison on the original “Datum” Earth, natural stepper and explorer Joshua Valienté has settled down. He’s husband to pioneer Helen Green and mayor of Hell-Knows-Where, a thriving town established more than a million steps West of the Datum. But Sally Linsay, fellow far stepper, soon arrives to ask Joshua for help. Trouble is brewing in the Long Earth: settlers are abusing the intelligent humanoids known as “trolls”. Tensions are rising between the American government and the far-flung colonies in its “footprint” on other worlds. And on another distant Earth, other species make plans to push the humans back where they came from…

The multi-threaded cosy travelogue continues in (probably) Pratchett’s second-longest novel. More Earths, more characters, more non-humans! A sense of potential disaster looms in every other chapter, while the characters and narrative ponder humanity’s relationship with Earth, and the ways in which society might respond to twenty-five years of unlimited resources and living room.

Does this still feel like Pratchett to you? What did you think of the women in the novel – especially Joshua’s “young wife” Helen? Did you enjoy the various side treks to weird worlds with strange creatures, or did they just leave you wanting more time with the trolls, kobolds, elves and even weirder Long Earth creatures? And, perhaps most importantly: will you stick with the series and see where it’s going next? Use the hashtag #Pratchat46 on social media to join the conversation!

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_46.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:29:23 — 68.8MB)

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Guest Deanne Sheldon-Collins (she/her) is an editor and writer who’s been an active part of Australia’s speculative fiction scene for a decade or so. Deanne has worked for Aurealis magazine, Writer’s Victoria, the National Young Writer’s Festival and Speculate, the Victorian Speculative Fiction Writers Festival, where she was co-director with previous guest Joel Martin. (Speculate has since closed down, but you can find old news about the festival on its Twitter account, @SpecFicVic.)

As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our web site.

Next episode it’s time to restart the experiment as we shake up the globe that is the wizards of Unseen University’s Roundworld experiment! Prepare to mix science and magic in The Science of Discworld II: The Globe, which we’ll be discussing with science comedian, Alanta Colley! Send us your questions using the hashtag #Pratchat47, or get them in via email: chat@pratchatpodcast.com

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ben McKenzie, collaboration, Deanne Sheldon-Collins, Elizabeth Flux, Helen Green, Joshua Valienté, Lobsang, non-Discworld, Sally Linsay, The Long Earth

#Pratchat45 – Hogswatch in Grune

08/07/2021 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

Surprise! In the great Australian tradition of Christmas in July, Liz and Ben are joined by writer and literary horror fan Penelope Love to discuss Terry Pratchett’s short story “Twenty Pence, With Envelope and Seasonal Greeting”, first published on the 16th of December, 1987.

It’s Christmas Eve, 1843, and the driver of a missing Mail Coach is discovered lying in the snow in Wiltshire. A local doctor determines he is scared out of his wits, but nonetheless records the coachman’s horrifying tale of passing through a weird rectangular portal. He and his passengers strayed from the world we know into others filled with nightmares: strangely glittering snow, terrifyingly flat London streets, monstrous giant animals and nonsensical language…

Written in the style of Victorian horror fiction from authors like M R James, H P Lovecraft and A C Doyle*, with a side order of Dickens, this story was inspired when Pratchett glanced at his shelf full of Christmas cards. Despite the ridiculous premise, he plays it totally straight, with phrases that could have come straight from The Call of Cthulhu and other works of the era he’s emulating.

But in 1987, people still sent Christmas cards. Does the story still work now, when we have to think a bit harder to recall the kinds of things printed on those ineffable pieces of cardboard? Can we be spooked and made to laugh at the same time? And does the old-school “horrors humankind was not meant to know” genre still make our blood run cold in this age of smartphones, satellite imagery and Google? Use the hashtag #Pratchat45 on social media to join the conversation!

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_45.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 1:19:46 — 36.9MB)

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Guest Penelope Love is a writer best known for her short fiction, and her work on roleplaying games, most notably Chaosium’s Call of Cthulhu, based on the works of H P Lovecraft. Penny is also part of the team at Campaign Coins, who make gorgeous metal coins and counters for use with roleplaying and other tabletop games. You can find Penny’s collections of comic fantasy stories about “The Three Dungeoneers” via the Campaign Coins website, and also look up Penny’s author page on Amazon to find many of Penny’s other works. Penny is on Twitter as @PennyLoveWrites, or you can follow @CampaignCoins for more on their projects.

As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our web site.

Next episode, as previously advertised, we’re going West and/or East again as we head back into the Long Earth with The Long War – this time joined by writer and editor, Deanne Sheldon-Collins! Send us your questions using the hashtag #Pratchat46, or get them in via email: chat@pratchatpodcast.com

* With apologies to Sir Arthur Ignatius Conan Doyle.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ben McKenzie, Christmas, Elizabeth Flux, horror, non-Discworld, Penelope Love, short story

#Pratchat41 – The Adventures of Crab Boy and Trouser Girl

08/03/2021 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

Educator Dr Charlotte Pezaro joins Liz and Ben on a trip to the South Pelagic, where they find tsunamis, gods and science in Nation, Terry Pratchett’s standalone young adult novel from 2008.

Mau is returning from his rite of passage when a huge wave washes over his island Nation, killing everyone he has ever known. He is all alone, stuck without a soul between the states of boy and man. Lost in his despair and anger at the gods he now isn’t sure he believes in, he’s ready to give in to the dark water until he meets Daphne, the only survivor from a “trouserman” ship flung into the Nation by the wave. As they learn each others’ customs and languages, and other survivors gradually begin to arrive, Mau and Daphne must both reckon with the gods and ghosts of the Nation’s past – and work hard to ensure it has a future…

Pratchett’s own proudest achievement, and winner of multiple of awards, Nation presents an alternate universe where things are a little bit different in some ways…and considerably different in others. Pratchett examines his favourite themes of belief, death, imperialism and science through a new lens, in a tale of loss, growing up, and asking big questions.

Is this Pratchett’s magnum opus? Does inventing an entire universe next door make it okay for a white Englishman to tell a story about South Pacific Islanders with the serial numbers filed off? Why did he split Australia in half ? Tell us by using the hashtag #Pratchat41 on social media to join the conversation!

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_41.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:29:46 — 69.0MB)

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Guest Dr Charlotte Pezaro is an educator with a PhD in pedagogy and years of science and technology communication experience. Charlotte is also a qualified primary school teacher, and works with other teachers to help them improve their skills. You can find out more about Charlotte at charlottepezaro.com, or follow her on Twitter at @dialogicedu.

Next time we’re heading back to Ankh-Morpork for a tale of journalism, vampirism and authoritarianism, the 25th Discworld novel: 2000’s The Truth! We’ll be joined by returning guest, writer and deputy culture editor for Guardian Australia, Stephanie Convery. Send us your questions using the hashtag #Pratchat42, or get them in via email: chat@pratchatpodcast.com

You’ll find the full notes and errata for this episode on our web site.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ben McKenzie, Charlotte Pezaro, Elizabeth Flux, Nation, non-Discworld, standalone

#Pratchat34 – Only You Can Save Deadkind

08/08/2020 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

Liz and Ben (who had microphone issues this episode) introduce children’s author Oliver Phommavanh to the world of Terry Pratchett with Johnny Maxwell’s return, in 1993’s Johnny and the Dead.

Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell is enduring Phase Three of the Trying Times between his parents, which involves living with his Mum at his Grandad’s place. His shortcut home from school takes him through an old rundown cemetery, where he knocks on a tomb door – and discovers he can see dead people. As Johnny gets to know them, the dead discover the Council has sold their cemetery for development – and they want Johnny to put a stop to it. While the gang delve into the history of Blackbury and discover a whole new side to their boring hometown, the dead begin to wonder if there might be more to life after life – earning the disapproving scowl of Mr Eric Grimm…

Content note: this episode contains discussion of (fictional) suicide, from around 1:34:00 to 1:40:00. If you or anyone you know needs help, use the Wikipedia list of crisis lines to find one local to you.

Johnny Maxwell and (most of) his friends are back, this time dealing with the mundane as well as the fantastical. Touching on themes of history, tradition, belief and capitalism, Pratchett makes a very different kind of “boy sees dead people” story as Johnny tries to save the local cemetery. There’s lots of Pratchett philosophy in here, like his well-known positive attitude towards death as a part of life. It’s also full of his trademark little jokes and asides, some of which feel very, well…early nineties.

So what do you think? Has this aged well since 1993? Do the lessons about the past and present, living and dead still ring true? Do the trials and tribulations of a small English town translate to 2020 and wherever you live? Use the hashtag #Pratchat34 on social media to join the conversation!

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_34.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:06:27 — 58.3MB)

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Guest Oliver Phommavanh is a children’s author, teacher and stand-up comedian based in Sydney. At the time of recording he’d written ten books, including the semi-autobiographical Thai-riffic and Con-Nerd, and his next book was the short story collection Brain Freeze in September 2020. (Please consider supporting your local bookshop by ordering his books from them!) You can find out more about Oliver at his web site, oliverwriter.com, and find him on Instagram and Twitter as @oliverwinfree.

Next month we’re celebrating National Science Week in Australia by reading Pratchett’s collaboration with science writers Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen, The Science of Discworld! We’ll be joined by science communicator and chemist Anna Ahveninen of the Australian Academy of Science! Get your questions in via the hashtag #Pratchat35 by science week, which starts August 15, 2020.

You’ll find the full notes and errata for this episode on our web site.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ben McKenzie, Bigmac, Elizabeth Flux, Johnny Maxwell, non-Discworld, Oliver Phommavanh, Wobbler, Yo-Less, Younger Readers

#Pratchat68 – Discus Ex Machina

08/08/2023 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

We engage the matrix drive and set course for the Discworld that might have been, as EJ Mann joins us to discuss Terry Pratchett’s first attempt at writing a flat Earth, 1981’s Strata.

200-year-old human Kin Arad works for the Company building planets – the traditional, oblate spheroid kind. So when deep space pioneer Jago Jalo shows up wearing an invisibility cloak, and says he’s discovered a flat Earth full of advanced technology, she can’t resist. She’s joined by Marco, a four-armed paranoid Kung pilot who thinks he’s human; and Silver, a huge, gentle, bear-like and potentially ravenous Shand linguist. But the expedition soon goes wrong: betrayed by Jalo, their ship destroyed, the trio are stranded on a bizarre Disc-world full of dragons, demons and humans with strange beliefs. It’s also a duplicate of medieval Europe – but the world is breaking down. It’s a race against time as they journey to the centre of the Disc looking for a means of escape – and something is watching them all the way…

Pratchett’s third novel, the last before The Colour of Magic changed his life forever, Strata is a direct parody of Larry Niven’s 1970 sci-fi classic Ringworld. Many of Pratchett’s favourite ideas, jokes and themes appear here for the first time. You’ll find talking ravens, magic mixed with technology, characters who TALK LIKE THIS and an author taking the fantastic seriously to the point of absurdity. There are even a few bright young things who’ll later make it big on the Discworld, like the Broken Drum and Mrs Widgery’s Lodger.

Did you know this was a parody of Ringworld? Does it stands on its own, or is it doomed to live in the shadow of it’s more successful younger sibling? Could Pratchett have made it as a science fiction writer if he hadn’t switched to fantasy? And what standalone novel do you wish would inspire a series of 41 similar-but-different novels? Let us know! Use the hashtag #Pratchat68 to join the conversation. Though not on Bluesky, if you’re joining us there, because apparently they’re too good for hashtags?

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_68.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:22:18 — 65.6MB)

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Guest EJ Mann (they/them) is spec fic fan, occasional spec fic writer (as E. H. Mann), nature nerd and long-time participant and organiser on the Australian convention scene. You can read some of their short fiction at their website, ehmannwrites.com. As mentioned at the top of the episode, EJ currently works for conservation charity Bush Heritage Australia, who work to preserve Australian wildlife by buying and caring for bushland in consultation with traditional owners. You can find out more about them at bushheritage.org.au.

As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website.

Next month we get back to the actual, honest-to-Glod Discworld with the short story “Theatre of Cruelty”, which we’ll be discussing with Irish author Caimh McDonnell! You can most easily find the story in Pratchett’s fiction anthology A Blink of the Screen. Get your questions in via social media using the hashtag #Pratchat70 (again, not on Bluesky), or send us an email at chat@pratchatpodcast.com.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ben McKenzie, EJ Mann, Elizabeth Flux, non-Discworld, sci-fi, standalone, Strata

#Pratchat69 – Long Fall Sally

23/07/2023 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

We travel from Victorian London to the ends of an Earth as Deanne Sheldon-Collins returns to the podcast to face the consequences of three books’ worth of bad decisions in the fourth Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter Long Earth novel, The Long Utopia.

It’s 2052. Datum Earth is dying a slow death in the wake of the Yellowstone eruption. The Earths next door are building space elevators, while a new way of living emerges in the high meggers. Lobsang has died, Maggie Kaufman has retired, Sally Linsay is off helping settlers, and the Next are covertly recruiting more of their kind to join them in their “utopia”. Joshua Valienté – now fifty and further estranged from his ex-wife and son – says yes when Nelson Azikiwe offers to track down the father he never knew. But Joshua is also having another one of his headaches, which can only mean trouble is brewing in the Long Earth. Sure enough, in the high meggers settlement of New Springfield, fresh pioneers “George” and Agnes discover something is deeply wrong with their new planet. The solution might have long-reaching consequences for all of humanity – and especially for Sally…

The first of Pratchett’s novels to be published after his death, The Long Utopia feels different to the ones that came before it. (If you need a recap, see “The Long Footnote” bonus episode.) The action takes place mostly on just a few worlds – there’s no picaresque travelogue of weird new Earths. One plot thread goes further back in time than we’ve been before to fill in backstory for one of our main characters, while another stars someone we’ve never met (and won’t meet again). The biggest plot starts like a horror film, but shifts gears into old-school big concept science fiction.

Was this what you came to the Long Earth for? Did it feel like a fitting end for…certain characters? Was Pratchett’s voice in there for you, or was something perhaps lost as he moved on quickly to other work he wanted to finish? And if stepping could join up different universes, which of Pratchett’s fictional worlds would you like to talk to one another – and how would stepping change the Disc? Let us know! You can use the hashtag #Pratchat69 on social media.

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_69.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:49:23 — 78.0MB)

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Guest Deanne Sheldon-Collins (she/her) is an editor, writer and a fixture in Australia’s speculative fiction scene, working for Aurealis magazine, Writer’s Victoria, the National Young Writer’s Festival, and co-directing Speculate, the Victorian Speculative Fiction Writers Festival. Deanne didn’t have anything to spruik, but she did recommend – as have many of you! – Martha Wells’ series The Murderbot Diaries, which begin with the 2017 novella All Systems Red. The seventh book, System Collapse, will be published this year.

As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website.

We’re getting back on track in August with #Pratchat68, our delayed episode discussing Pratchett’s proto-Discworld novel, Strata, with guest EJ Mann. In September we return to the Disc proper with the short story “Theatre of Cruelty”, which we’ll discuss with UK author C. K. McDonnell. Get your questions in for “Theatre of Cruelty” via social media using the hashtag #Pratchat70, or send us an email at chat@pratchatpodcast.com.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ben McKenzie, collaboration, Deanne Sheldon-Collins, Elizabeth Flux, Joshua Valienté, non-Discworld, Sally Linsay, The Long Earth, The Long Utopia

#Pratchat31 – It’s Just a Step to the West

08/05/2020 by Pratchat Imps Leave a Comment

In episode 31, Liz, Ben and returning guest Joel Martin step sideways into the infinite earths of Terry Pratchett’s 2012 collaboration with Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth.

In 2015, plans for a strange but simple box-shaped device called a “Stepper”, powered by a potato, are posted online. Kids all over the world build them and discover that the boxes let them step “East” or “West” into other Earths. There are thousands of such worlds – perhaps millions – all subtly different. But they do have one thing in common: there are no humans on any of them. Fifteen years after “Step Day”, human society is irrevocably altered, and experienced far-stepper Joshua Valienté is offered a new job: to step further from Earth than even he has ever been, and explore the mysteries of the Long Earth in the company of a Tibetan motorcycle repairman reincarnated as a supercomputer…

Based on ideas from Pratchett’s 1986 short story “The High Meggas”, written before the popularity of The Colour of Magic led him down a particular leg of the trousers of time, The Long Earth is the first in a series of five novels set in a near future world forever changed by the existence of limitless worlds next door. An epic journey across millions of worlds, Pratchett chose to work with his friend Stephen Baxter, a prolific science fiction author whose work encompasses hard future sci-fi, speculative evolution, alternate history and sequels to classic novels by the likes of H. G. Wells and Arthur C. Clarke. That all seems quite a distance from comic fantasy – but the pairing just works. So – it’s five years since Step Day. Would you visit another Earth? Could you pick which bits were Pratchett, and which Baxter? And what kind of potato is in your stepper box? Use the hashtag #Pratchat31 on social media to join the conversation!

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_31.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:17:33 — 63.3MB)

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Guest Joel Martin is a writer, editor and podcaster who previously appeared on Pratchat in episode 14, discussing the book that derailed the Long Earth back in 1986, The Colour of Magic. Joel is also the director of the Speculate speculative fiction festival (specfic.com.au). His latest work is the short story “Hunting Time” in Strange Stories Vol. 1, scheduled to be published this month by 42books. Joel’s writing podcast, The Morning Bell, is currently on hiatus, but you can find the full back catalogue at themorningbell.com.au. Find out more about him at thepenofjoel.com.

Next month we’re stepping back onto the Disc to meet adventurous nine-year-old Tiffany Aching, in 2003’s The Wee Free Men! Get your questions in via the hashtag #Pratchat32 by around May 23rd.

You’ll find the full notes and errata for this episode on our web site.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ben McKenzie, Elizabeth Flux, Joel Martin, Joshua Valienté, Lobsang, non-Discworld, Sally Linsay, Stephen Baxter, The Long Earth

#Pratchat28 – All Our Base Are Belong to You

08/02/2020 by Pratchat Imps 1 Comment

In episode 28, players Liz, Ben and guest Steve Lamattina press start and blast away at Terry Pratchett’s 1992 novel of kids, war and videogames, Only You Can Save Mankind.

Twelve-year-old Johnny Maxwell isn’t the best at computer games, but he loves them all the same. While playing Only You Can Save Mankind, a space combat simulator, he’s taken by surprise when the Captain of the enemy ScreeWee fleet offers to surrender. After he accepts, the game starts to invade his dreams, and the aliens disappear – from everyone’s computer. Something weird is going on – but at least it’s a distraction from the war on TV and the Trying Times at home…

Only You Can Save Mankind – dedicated to Pratchett’s daughter Rhianna, now a renowned videogame writer – is explicitly about the first Gulf War (1990-1991), at a time when games looked more real and televised war looked more like a game. In early 2020, many themes of the book seem alarmingly current – even as the experience of computer games it describes is firmly rooted in the past. Did you connect with Johnny’s experience? Do you like videogames? Does this episode contain too much Pokémon and Freddi Fish? Use the hashtag #Pratchat28 (and maybe #DeliciousPokémon) on social media to join the conversation!

https://media.blubrry.com/pratchat/pratchatpodcast.com/episodes/Pratchat_episode_28.mp3

Podcast: Play in new window | Download (Duration: 2:02:01 — 56.2MB)

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Guest Steve Lamattina is a writer and editor who has worked in film, music, education and tech. He was also CEO of youth publishing company Express Media, and has written about food, events, movies, games, social media and much much more. You can find him on Twitter as @steve_lamattina.

Next month it’s back to the Discworld, and close to home – more or less – as we catch up with Rincewind in 1998’s The Last Continent, and welcome back a returning guest: Fury! We’ll be recording in late February, so get your questions in before then via social media using the hashtag #Pratchat29.

You’ll find the full notes and errata for this episode on our web site.

Posted in: Podcast Tagged: Ben McKenzie, Bigmac, Elizabeth Flux, Johnny Maxwell, Kirsty, non-Discworld, Steve Lamattina, Wobbler, Yo-Less
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