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Discworld Companion Books

The Discworld Bestiary

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The perfect Christmas gift for fans of Terry Pratchett and fantastical beasts...

Step into the wonderfully strange world of Sir Terry Pratchett's iconic Discworld universe with this fully illustrated guide to its most curious, dangerous, and downright baffling creatures.

All manner of animal life is here, from the Curious Squid and Hermit Elephant to the Terrible Man-Eating Sloth of Clup. Discover the eating habits of the Ambiguous Puzuma, and marvel at the startling prevalence of ominous ducks in cosmic matters (including wereducks).

Teeming with insights and beastly wisdom, The Discworld Bestiary is packed with extra advice from Rincewind, Unseen University’s latest (and reluctant) adjunct professor of Perplexing Beasts and curator of its Curiobiological Museum.

With beautiful illustrations - including new artwork - from Paul Kidby, Pratchett's longtime artistic collaborator, this stunning, funny companion to the Discworld novels is a must for Pratchett fans.

Praise for the Discworld

'Sir Terry Pratchett is the single greatest writer of the twenty-first century' Brandon Sanderson

'One of our greatest fantasists, and beyond a doubt the funniest' George R.R. Martin

‘One of the most consistently funny writers around’ Ben Aaronovitch

'[Pratchett’s] spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction' Mail on Sunday

‘Pratchett is a master storyteller’ Guardian

'One of those rare writers who appeals to everyone’ Daily Express

‘Masterful and brilliant’ Fantasy & Science Fiction

‘Pratchett uses his other world to hold up a distorting mirror to our own… he is a satirist of enormous talent ... incredibly funny ... compulsively readable' The Times

‘The best humorous English author since P.G. Wodehouse' The Sunday Telegraph

'Consistently funny, consistently clever and consistently surprising in its twists and turns' SFX

‘[Discworld is] compulsively readable, fantastically inventive, surprisingly serious exploration in story form of just about any aspect of our world…There's never been anything quite like it’ Evening Standard

158 pages, Kindle Edition

Published October 15, 2026

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About the author

Terry Pratchett

745 books47.6k followers
Sir Terence David John Pratchett was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983–2015, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman.
Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.

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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
Profile Image for Mehsi.
16.2k reviews478 followers
November 3, 2026
A fantastic addition to the series, highly recommended. I loved all the various beasties + information + (side) notes + the gorgeous illustrations by Paul Kidby (also thanks for the nightmares in some cases, like the Drop Bear). It was as if Rincewind himself was talking at times and that made it so fun. Also that poor guy given the ending.
Profile Image for Hannah.
47 reviews2 followers
October 27, 2026
The descriptions of the various creatures are interesting but it's unsurprisingly the art that brings this book to life. Kidby's illustrations are stunning from start to finish, from the full-page paintings to the smallest sketches.
Profile Image for Ian Banks.
1,215 reviews6 followers
November 6, 2026
An utter delight. Featuring many of the exotic beasts that roam the Disc (and beyond!) this is an exhaustive text produced by Professor Rincewind of Unseen University. It’s informative, funny and contains many gems of information that exist independently of the books but which fill up blank spaces in Discworld lore beautiful;y.
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews