Discworld

Discworld is the vast comic fantasy series written by English author Terry Pratchett (1948–2015). Its first novel, The Colour of Magic, appeared in 1983, and the series grew to forty-one books; the last, The Shepherd's Crown, was published after the author's death. The stories are set on a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants, which stand on the shell of Great A'Tuin, a giant turtle. The setting begins as a medieval fantasy world and gradually modernises over the course of the series, allowing Pratchett to place magic, bureaucracy, the press, money and science side by side.

The novels frequently satirise classic fantasy, from Tolkien to Robert E. Howard and H. P. Lovecraft, and borrow freely from mythology, folklore, fairy tales and the plays of Shakespeare. On this material Pratchett builds sharp commentary on real-world concerns: religious fundamentalism, exploitation, racial prejudice, business and politics, popular music, cinema and sport. Beneath the humour runs a steady defence of critical thinking and humanist values, most visible in the stories of the witches and in the sub-series about Tiffany Aching.

Each book can be read on its own, but many are grouped into sub-series around particular characters or themes. The Rincewind arc, following an incompetent wizard who would rather avoid adventure, is the first and serves to introduce the geography of the Discworld. Other sub-series follow Death, the witches of the mountainous country of Lancre, the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, which grows from a ramshackle trio into a modern police force, and the wizards of Unseen University.

The series was enormously successful: Pratchett was among the best-selling British authors of the 1990s, and the books have sold more than eighty million copies in dozens of languages. They have inspired stage and radio adaptations, television series, video games and maps, as well as popular science books about the Discworld written with scientists. In Spain, nearly all the novels have been translated, first by Martínez Roca, then by Plaza & Janés, and the subseries for younger readers by Almuzara.