They said it couldn't be done. Well, it HAS been done, proving them wrong once again. After years of research, cunningly contrived in as many minutes, the Discworld has its map. It takes full account of the historic and much-documented expeditions of the Discworld's fêted (or at least fated) explorers: General Sir Roderick Purdeigh, Lars Larsnephew, Llamedos Jones, Lady Alice Venturi, Ponce da Quirm and, of course, Venter Borass.
Now travellers on this circular world can see it all: from Klatch to the Ramtops, from Cori Celesti to the Circle Sea, from Genua to Bhangbhangduc. The great cities of Hunghung, Pseudopolis, Al Khali and, of course, Ankh-Morpork are placed with loving care upon this world which is carried through space by Great A'Tuin.
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.
There are those readers who dislike drawings of the characters in the book on the cover of the books because they like to use their imagination. I'm slightly dubious of these people, because the Human Brain is incapable of creating an entirely new face from scratch. It can't even take different parts from others because the mish-mash will always return to something else: someone you've seen before.
Therefore pretending the characters looking like certain actors or already existing people is the way I usually do it. It's why I love authors who actively search to get drawings done of their characters. I have no qualms with seeing the authors character there on the page already, because the character is the author's. It is not mine.
And that's why I've always loved maps. If a fantasy book these days doesn't have a map at the beginning I feel short-changed. They're an integral part to fantasy: most non-fantasy books are set within one city, one town, one small, rural countryside village where the characters are killed off quicker than you can say "fusiform gyrus". I don't want to spend five days trying to figure out where one town is in relation to the major city. I want to spend five days imagining my own face as the main character (this sadly happens a lot).
This book will not really appeal to anyone who doesn't know what Discworld is. It won't really appeal to you if you're only a casual Discworld fan, to be honest. It has an introduction by Terry and Stephen Briggs, the artist, and also some fictional information on the Disc's own explorers, which is a nice addition to the general enjoyment of Discworld as a whole.
But the map. Oh the map. It is a very large, colourful map that shows that Disc in all it's flat glory. Seeing how the locations lay in relation to each other adds another kind of dimension to the stories and kind of helps them make sense, in a non-fictional-fantasy kind of way. It's probably not 100% accurate, but then again, it is the Discworld. Nothing ever is.
It must be noted that this map was devised and drawn in the late 90s when there were fewer Discworld novels released and won't contain all aspects of the books since there, but the general geography is accurate.
As a diehard Discworld fan I'm not too sure why it's taken me so long to buy this map but I'm so glad I have it now and I can't wait to start using it to plot the character's journeys on my next reread of the series!
This is exactly like those tourist maps you can buy for any other holiday destination, the ones that have a booklet of information on one side and then a huge fold out map on the other that you can lay out across your dining table and plot your holiday destinations. Unfortunately we can't visit the Discworld in real life but this definitely helps bring the spirit of the place to life. As much as I have been able to picture characters and parts of the Discworld very vividly thanks to Terry Pratchett's wonderful writing I love having this physical map to look at.
The little booklet included is quite small so it won't take you more than 20 minutes to read in it's entirety but it has a nice introduction to the map creating project from both Terry Pratchett and the illustrator Stephen Briggs. It also includes a brief history of the Discworld's most prominent explorers which is written with Terry's trademark wit and humour.
This book may not be for the casual Discworld fan but it's a lovely addition to any superfan's collection.
Que noter ici ? La réalisation incroyable de la Carte du Disque Monde? Ou les petites anecdotes (sur une vingtaine de pages) des grands explorateurs du disque et la géologique de la terre plate ? Un peu des deux certainement! 🤩
The story attached to the mapp is about the History of the Discworld Explorers... Well, the famous ones. There's a general geography, and then a little blurb on each explorer, with occasional maps of their exploration paths.
Not a necessary read for the series, but they were interesting. There was a veiled reference to Rincewind as an "extremely unreliable eyewitness account" to the birth of the World.
The Mapp itself, however, is extremely helpful as a geographical aid when many other countries are visited within the many books of the series. (The Mapp is of Discworld, not any detailed sections of the various cities. You have to get the other Mapps for that.)
This awesome thing is a "must have" for every Discworldfan <3 If u open that beautiful thing u have on the left side a little booklet (with 27 sites) which introduces and explaines the Discworld mapp. Comment from the author on the second site: `This map possibly isn`t the way things are. But it is one of the ways they could be.` After reading the introduction booklett u can relly enjoy the huge colored mapp of the discworld, it`s size is about 71x72,5 cm (~27,95 x 28,54 inch). The only thing i have to critisize is that u have to cut the thing if u want to hang the mapp because it`s glued at the right side.
All maps are beautiful, even the primitive ones exhibited by amateur fantasy writers, and those of professional writers are often thoughtful and witty, if rarely funny (Norton Juster's map in his 1962 The Phantom Tollbooth is more witty than funny, for example). Terry Pratchett's brief introduction to this early map (after only 18 novels) of the Discworld is informative, witty and funny, with his survey of 6 well-known explorers of that parallel world.
The six character sketches (spoilers) exhibit British bluster (a kind of Colonel Blimp crossed with Colonel Deadshott of Norman Hunter's Professor Branestawm series), who rises up the army hierarchy by mistake, to finally make General; a Scandinavian bore, whose reputation preceded him, and so he never met any natives of the places he visited; a pious Welshman who explored either by short loops by boat (to fit in regular choir practise back home), or by travelling in a straight line till he hit something (considering the nature of the Discworld, this presented some considerable risk whichever direction he chose); a female aristocrat who would have called the Watch if she had witnessed native behaviours performed in rituals abroad (often fabricated for the locals' amusement); a seeker of the elixir of life, who died downing his find; and a wizard whose theories on early Discworld geological development and prehistoric reptilian fauna were remarkably accurate (if he had briefly ventured into a public library in our world and borrowed a couple of books).
A short story in itself - Pratchett is most humorous when describing the kinds of directions the locals would provide to the lost explorer (like, 'Follow the sign to the Alzheimer's Clinic, then straight on; or better still, forget that, and...') - there is also a map for the aid of the truly lost who have as yet not come across any such helpful locals, no matter which country he has just visited, like C.M.O.T. Dibbler, whose produce was probably the cause of those searches for the elixir of life.
After starting the series due to prodding and urging of significant others, I quickly ran into questions of 'where is this in relation to that?' I've been raised on the expectation of a world map accompanying any fantasy book that occurs off planet ever since the dreadful Lord of the Rings. I quickly found a high-resolution "Mapp" online that was good enough to satisfy most of my questions while reading the series. BUT! There were twenty-nine numbered circles on the mapp that I had no reference to. Being the determined researcher that I was, I asked for my wife to include the mapp on my Christmas wish list.
BONUS! Extra story material was included!
Negative! This thing was produced cheaply. I'm going to have to cut the back cover off the 'book' to be able to put the map in a frame, and I'll need to chop up the rest of the book to keep the written parts. Why not just put the map and the book in a box? I've only unfolded the map twice and there are already small rips in the surface. Boo.
“They said it couldn't be done. Well, it HAS been done, proving them wrong once again. After years of research, cunningly contrived in as many minutes, the Discworld has its map. It takes full account of the historic and muchdocumented expeditions of the Discworld's feted (or at least fated) explorers: General Sir Roderick Purdeigh, Lars Larsnephew, Llamedos Jones, Lady Alice Venturi, Ponce da Quirm and, of course, Venter Borass. Now travellers on this circular world can see it all: from Klatch to the Ramtops, from Cori Celesti to the Circle Sea, from Genua to Bhangbhangduc. The great cities of Hunghung, Pseudopolis, Al Khali and, of course, Ankh-Morpork are placed with loving care upon this world which is carried through space by Great A'Tuin.”
Not sure when you should read that kind of books; before or after reading the series ? Makes more sense to read it before you're too immersed in the world, but then, I don't know yet any of the places or people it's talking about. But anyway, I read it now, and the map is displayed next to my bed, so I can see it every night. It's so beautiful I want to eat it.
ŚWIETNY ATLAS, choć może raczej książka z mapą XD Praktycznie każdy akapit potrafi rozbawić typowo pratchettowskim humorem, a jednak świeżym. jednocześnie naprawdę mamy tutaj intrygującą opowieść o podróżach po świecie Dysku itd. Nawet jest tu jakaś "Sto Lat Military Academy" która wzięła mnie z zaskoczenia XD
Well, I love exploring a fantasy world map and I love The Discworld, so this was always going to score highly. The accompanying booklet made me snigger and was an added bonus of Pratchett and Briggs genius. And the artwork is beautiful.
An excellent account of the early explorers of the Discworld, including Lars Larsnephew the "Father of Exploration". Well written with the inevitable humour of Terry Pratchett. Plus a wonderful map of Discworld by Stephen Briggs. Who could ask for more. Brilliant!
contains the full colour map, which I might cut up and put on a wall, and a 27 page book about explorers. Made me laugh out loud which is not an easy feat.
Mapa + kilkustronicowy tekst o odkrywcach świata dysku i historii. Dowiedziałem się, że "gdzie indziej" to kategoria podmiejsca, którego jedyną funkcją jest bycie daleko stąd ;]
Zuerst ein paar Worte zum Aufbau der Bücher: Es ist jeweils eine zusammengefaltete Karte und ein kleines Booklet in einem gemeinsamen Einband.
Die Booklets enthalten Berichte dazu, wie es zur Entstehung der jeweiligen Karte kam (sowohl von Pratchett als auch von Briggs). “The Discworld Mapp” enthält darüber hinaus noch einen Text über die bekanntesten Entdecker Discworlds – der in dem herrlich humorvollen Ton geschrieben ist, der die Bucherreihe so besonders macht. Und natürlich sind die Entdecker auch alle sehr merkwürdige Wesen.
Und natürlich das Herz der Bücher – die Karten. Ausgeklappt sind sie größer als ich erwartet habe (was natürlich keine Beschwerde darstellen soll xD) und sind sehr liebevoll und detailliert gezeichnet.
Ich bin absolut begeistert und hab letzten Sonntag mehrere Stunden mit den Karten auf dem Fußboden (ich hab keinen Tisch, auf den beide passen würden) gesessen und mich in Details verloren. Gerade in Ankh-Morpork ist einiges an anderen Plätzen bzw. weiter/näher von einander entfernt als ich dachte. Und Überwald ist auch soviel näher an Ankh-Morpork als ich dachte, dafür Genua viel weiter weg (gleicht es ja irgendwie auf eine absurde Art wieder aus xD). Huh.
Aber ich vermute wirklich zu schätzen werde ich sie erst wissen, wenn ich das nächste Buch der Reihe lesen und bei jeder dritten Seite zu einer der Karten laufe um mich zu orientieren. Hab ich bei A Song of Ice and Fire auch ständig gemacht und es hat mir so geholfen den Überblick zu behalten.
Etwas schade ist, dass die Karten fest in den Umschlag eingeklebt sind und es so keine Möglichkeit gibt sie als eine Art Poster aufzuhängen. Hätte ich nämlich sofort gemacht.
The map is absolutely gorgeous, the art and style match the Discworld feel perfectly and I love all the artistic details and flourishes on the side that make it feel like a realworld ancient map. There Be Dragons indeed.
I enjoyed the text at the beginning, the short introduction from Sir Pratchett himself to a brief and yet illuminating description of the challenges of creating a work such as this by Steven Briggs and the short biographies of famous Discworld Explorers were hilarious and made me want to read books based just on them.
This is probably more for the serious Terry Pratchett fan and collector than for the more casual reader but I find I really love the maps and enjoy the depth they bring to the Discworld.
Head, tail and flippers of the space-turtle Here’s a fine geographical companion to follow Rincewind wherever he runs away from danger! A full colour map that guarantees the Discworld reader will never be lost again, and a comprehensive account of Discworld most famous explorers. Based on Interesting Times drafts (as explained in the booklet introduction), it has distinct elements that may allow it to cover the Discworld series up to Jingo.
This is much like The Streets of Ankh-Morpork in that it's a map of the Discworld, that comes with a little booklet talking about the world and forwards written by Pratchett and Briggs. The booklet makes quite a bit of fun out of European explorers (discovering places, as people who had lived there for millenia couldn't be said to have discovered it really) and it's a fun little thing to look at, but again, not really necessary to enjoy the series as a whole.
Pretty good. The bits of writing about the explorers are clever and funny. The map itself is beautiful, but as it was only written after book 18, Interesting Times, there are a few vital places not there - like the Chalk Country of Tiffany Aching. Well, this only serves to make the map more realistic - cartographers always get stuff wrong for the first few maps - they used to think that Australia and Tasmania were joined together! This map is still well worth it.
This arrived in the mail about an hour ago. So, I opened it up and checked out the wonderful map, then read the VERY short (32 pages!) story that came included.
The story brought several smiles to my face and even an out-loud chuckle or two. The map is GREAT! I wish I had had it when I read all the books a couple of years ago.
I highly recommend getting this map if you are a fan of Terry Pratchett's Discworld novels. It will really add to the experience of reading them.
His Sci-Fi books always leave me surprised. In this book like most of the others I've read in spite of the fact that it is set in the future, it has many lesson that we can learn in the present. Not only that the book has a great storyline and amazing character development. Can't wait for his next book to be published...