Pratchat - a Terry Pratchett and Discworld book club

For our sixtieth episode – our troll’s teeth anniversary – Liz and Ben are once again devoting an entire show to answering your questions, about the Discworld, Pratchett’s other work, and their own – with an eye on what’s still to come. (And yes, we allowed ourselves to break the 2.5 hour limit, just this once.) What would your ideal Pratchett adaptation look like? Who’s the best Dicsworld villain? If one of your possessions could be made from sapient pearwood, what would it be? Which books have been the worst, the most challenging, and the most surprising? If Vetinari died and the people of Ankh-Morpork could queue up to see his body, what would happen? And which is the most confused bird? You asked these and many more amazing questions! Plus we specifically asked you: Do you have other people in your life with whom you share your love of Pratchett? How are you reading – or re-reading – the books, if you are? What do you do when you listen to the show? Can you follow the show if you haven’t read the book? Do you have a word or phrase you’ve said most of your life that you discovered was wrong? What joke did you not get until years later? Use the hashtag #Pratchat60 on social media to answer any of the above. (Thanks again to listener Jodie for this eternally useful idea.) You can find Elizabeth on Twitter as @elizabethflux, and on Instagram at @elizabethflux. Watch out for her amazing self-made outfits. You can find Ben and via his web site benmckenzie.com.au, on Twitter at @McKenzie_Ben and Instagram at @notongotham, where you might catch a glimpse of his T-shirt collection. Special thanks to our sibling Pratchett podcasts for their questions: Who Watches the Watch, Desert Island Discworld, Wyrd Sisters and The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret. And thanks to each and every one of you listens, asks questions or sends in answers. Next month is a special double-header: we’ll be reading the 34th Discworld novel, 2005’s Thud!, with guest Matt Roden. Get your questions in via the hashtag #Pratchat61 by late October! Plus we’re teaming up with Jo and Francine from The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret to tackle the book-within-a-book, Where’s My Cow? Ask questions for this team-up using the hashtag #MakeYeChat. You’ll find the full notes and errata for this episode on our web site. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

Scientist, writer and editor Dr Kat Day joins Liz and Ben on a timey-wimey to Roundworld, as the wizards once again try to save humanity in Terry Pratchett’s third collaboration with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen: 2005’s The Science of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch. Roundworld – the impossibly non-magical universe in a bottle which runs on rules – has gone wrong again, and the wizards feel duty-bound to set it right. Humanity’s survival depends on the publication of a specific book, but something is trying very hard to make sure its author writes a different one…or gets eaten by a giant squid. With the fate of humanity hanging in the balance, the wizards go to war – but who is their hidden enemy? And why is there one beardy fellow too many in the Great Hall? In the (short) fiction chapters, the wizards must once again travel into Roundworld history, this time with a clear mission: to get Charles Darwin onto the Beagle so he can write The Origin of Species. In the science chapters, Jack and Ian have a focus – the importance of the theory of evolution – but they also feel free to use the time travel plot to explain infinity, DNA, the nature of science and history, and much more besides. They’ve learned to stay away from the cutting edge – but have they come entirely out of the “philosopause” they didn’t seem to know they were in last time? Does the plot rely too much on prior knowledge of the Discworld? Is that really a problem, given the nature of the book? Did you follow the explanations of Minkowski spacetime and the different kinds of infinity, or were you happy coasting across the science chapters? Do they completely miss the point in that last non-fiction chapter – and does it really matter, when the end of the fiction part is so satisfying? Join in the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat59 on social media! Guest Dr Kat Day (she/her) is a chemist, a former teacher, a medical editor and a writer of both science and fiction. Kat became well known via her chemistry blog The Chronicle Flask, which is currently on hiatus; you can also find her fiction at the fiction phial. Kat is also an assistant editor for Pseudopod, the horror fiction anthology podcast from Escape Artists. Kat recommended the story “Celestial Shores” as a possible entry point for Pratchett fans, as well as “Let the Buyer Beware” from Pseudopod’s sister podcast for young adult speculative fiction, Cast of Wonders. Over on Twitter you can follow Kat at @chronicleflask, and Pseudopod at @pseudopod_org. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. Next episode Pratchett turns sixty! As promised back in #Pratchat30, we’re doing another all-questions episode. This is your chance to send in questions about books you missed first time round, pitch your wild Discworld theories, and ask us pretty much anything you like that doesn’t fit into the usual book-focussed episode. We’d also love you to answer our questions: what are do you enjoy most about the show? What kind of episodes do you wish we’d do? Which of our opinions have you most disagreed with? And have you learned anything from us? (Ben sure has!) Send us your answers, and questions, using the hashtag #Pratchat60, or via email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com. Oh, and in November, get ready for a double-header: not only are we reading Thud! with educator Matt Roden for #Pratchat61, but we’re cooking up a bonus crossover episode! Yes, we’re teaming up with Jo and Francine from The Truth Shall Make Ye Fret, another great Pratchett podcast, to discuss Where’s My Cow?, the hottest children’s book in Ankh-Morpork. We thought we’d let you know a little early, since it might be tricky to track down a copy… Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

We prepare to find out why infinite Earths aren’t enough as writer, editor and podcaster Joel Martin returns to the podcast to fire up the fusion engine and have a close encounter of the crustacean kind in the third Terry Pratchett and Stephen Baxter Long Earth novel, The Long Mars. It’s 2045 – five years after the eruption of the Yellowstone super-volcano on Datum Earth. The climate has catastrophically changed and there’s been mass migration to stepwise Earths. Maggie Kauffman, captain of the new stepping airship Neil Armstrong II, is sent ten times further into the Long Earth than anyone has gone before, to find out what happened to the ship’s missing predecessor. Meanwhile reclusive stepping pioneer Joshua Valienté is called back to the Datum by the A.I. Lobsang to search for a new kind of human emerging from the Long Earth. And Willis Linsay, who disappeared after giving Stepper box technology to the whole world thirty years ago, sends a message to his super-stepper daughter, Sally. He wants her to go on a mysterious mission to Mars… The last of Pratchett’s novels to be published before his death, The Long Mars marks a turning point in the series where Pratchett’s involvement was limited after the first draft, and Stephen Baxter did most of the polishing. Like The Long War it skips over the immediate aftermath of the disaster at the end of the previous book to inhabit the world of its longer term consequences. It also continues the tradition of switching between multiple narratives with at least a dozen key characters. There are old friends and new faces, but some of them are barely glimpsed. It’s a book full of big ideas, but not so much plot – and even less emotional and character development. Does this one feel more Baxter than Pratchett? Is this the troubled middle episode of the series? What did you think of the portrayal of the Next? How cool are those acid snakes? Will any of these awesome ideas return in the final two books? And where the Hell-Knows-Where is Helen? Join in the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat57 on social media. Guest Joel Martin is a podcaster and writer who is now our first four-time guest. He previously joined us in #Pratchat14 and #Pratchat44 for The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, and in #Pratchat31 for The Long Earth. His independent podcasts, The Morning Bell and The Youth Vote, are currently on hiatus, but watch out for the new season of The Dementia Podcast from The Dementia Centre, produced by Joel, in September 2022. Find Joel online at thepenofjoel.com or on Twitter at @thepenofjoel. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. Due to some technical difficulties we ended up delaying this episode until after #Pratchat58, so thank you for your patience! We’ve already recorded our next episode, #Pratchat59, in which we discuss The Science of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch with science and fiction writer, Dr Kat Day. But in October for our sixtieth episode we’re having an open slather questions-only special, just like we did for #Pratchat30! So please send us your general Pratchett-related questions: about the show, books we’ve already covered, Sir Terry himself, the Discworld in general, the Guild of Recappers & Podcasters, Liz and Ben, being Australian/Fourecksian or anything else even vaguely on-topic. Use the hashtag #Pratchat60 on Twitter, Instagram or Facebook, or send us an email at chat@pratchatpodcast.com. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

We explore every author’s worst nightmare as writer Penny Love returns to Pratchat and finds the barrier between reality and fiction getting all wibbly-wobbly in Terry Pratchett’s 1988 short story, “Final Reward“. After a particularly bad row with his girlfriend Nicky – and a pint of wine – author Kevin Dogger decides to kill off the protagonist of his best-selling fantasy series. The next morning, Erdan the Barbarian appears on Dogger’s doorstep with the milk. He was, after all, promised a final reward: an eternity of carousing in the halls of his creator… Content note: the story “Final Reward” contains discussion of (fictional) suicide.If you or anyone you know needs help, use the Wikipedia list of crisis lines to find one local to you. Written for the short-lived roleplaying magazine G.M., “Final Reward” is Pratchett’s go at the age-old tradition of writers writing about writers. But in true Pratchett form, it’s not just about that… Hailing from around the time of Wyrd Sisters and Pyramids, but “tinkered with” before appearing in A Blink of the Screen, it depicts an author ill at ease with the real world and human relationships – by all accounts not much like Pratchett himself at all. And then there’s the way it ends… What did you think of this one? Have you ever written a character you’d like to meet in person? Would you swap places with them? And is this a dig at any real fantasy authors, and we’ve missed the joke? Join in the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat58 on social media. Guest Penelope Love is a writer best known for her roleplaying game work, especially with Chaosium for Call of Cthulhu, including the upcoming Victorian London campaign she mentions this episode. She previously joined us for #Pratchat45, “Hogswatch in Grune“, discussing the quite Lovecraftian “Twenty Pence with Envelope and Seasonal Greeting”. Penny is also part of Campaign Coins, who as well as making gorgeous metal coins for use with tabletop games, publish Penny’s comic fantasy short story collections about “The Three Dungeoneers”, which you can find here. 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 website. As previously advised, due to some technical difficulties – and not a time machine, to Ben’s disappointment – the next episode to be released will be #Pratchat57, discussing the third Long Earth novel, The Long Mars, with Joel Martin. Look for it in the Pratchat podcast feed on August 25. Next month in #Pratchat59, we’re discussing The Science of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch with science and fiction writer, Dr Kat Day! And after that, in October, it’s finally time for another general questions episode, #Pratchat60. This is the perfect opportunity to ask us about books you missed first time round, or general questions about Discworld, Pratchett, us and the show! Send in your questions for either of those episodes via social media (using the appropriate hashtag), or send us an email at chat@pratchatpodcast.com. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

We take a last-minute step (or five) to the West, as Liz and Ben delay their chat about The Long Mars to go back to where it all began: Pratchett’s original 1986 short story “The High Meggas“. Larry Linsay, who perfected the belt technology that allows humans to move between parallel Earths, has shunned civilisation. He’s living near the coast of what would be France in a world in the “high meggas”, the weirder Earths a million or so removed from the original. Like all the other Earths, it’s devoid of human life – or it was, until two guards from Forward Base, the nearest human settlement many worlds away, arrive in Linsay’s world. The first one he finds, Joshua Valienté, claims he’s chasing the other one: a terrorist who poisoned the other fifty personnel at Forward Base. Trouble is, that’s exactly what she says about him, too… When we had to change plans at the last minute and delay our episode on The Long Mars, we decided to take the opportunity to produce a bonus episode about the story where it all started. “The High Meggas” was written in between the first two Discworld novels and never published until its ideas became a novel, and it’s a fascinating look at how Pratchett’s idea evolved. Some things are very similar – names like Linsay and Valienté, the concept (though not the name) of the Long Earth. Others are tweaked – the belts become boxes, movin‘ becomes stepping. And then there’s some which are flipped entirely – compare the “Sideways Doctrine” to the idea of US Aegis. Do you prefer the more technological version of “stepping” in the original story? Does the central drama of the story work for you, or is the villain too obvious? And what do you think Pratchett’s career would have been like if The Colour of Magic hadn’t been a success, and this had been his next big project instead of The Light Fantastic? Join the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat57West5 on social media. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. This bonus episode won’t stop us from discusses the third Long Earth novel, The Long Mars, with returning guest Joel Martin! …or at least that was the idea. #Pratchat57 was to be released the same month as this one, but unfortunately some further technical problems complicated the editing process, so we’ve delayed it until the 25th of August. For our regular August episode, #Pratchat58, we’ll be reading another short story: 1988’s “Final Reward”. Send us your questions using the appropriate hashtag on social media, or via email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

We travel down a leg of a very 1990s pair of the trousers of time this month, as author and musican Sean Williams joins Liz and Ben to get stuck into the artificial reality of Pratchett’s 1990 short story “#ifdefDEBUG + ‘world’/’enough’ + ‘time’“. Darren Thompson is a repairman who specialises in Seagems: artificial reality consoles that can edit aspects of your everyday life, or plug you into a whole artificial world. His latest job is to inspect a machine in which the user has died. That’s not a first for Darren – but there’s something about this particular corpse in the machine that makes this job feel different… Originally published in the anthology Digital Dreams alongside works by authors including Diana Wynn Jones, Neil Gaiman and Storm Constantine, “#ifdefDEBUG + ‘world’/’enough’ + ‘time'” is a short story that packs a lot in – and potentially goes to a much darker place than most of Pratchett’s other work. It’s since been collected in A Blink of the Screen, Once More* *with Footnotes and the German collection Der ganze Wahnsinn: Storys (in which it’s accompanied by an original illustration by Josh Kirby). Was Pratchett right to think that the virtual reality angle dates this horribly – or would he have thought differently only a few years later, as VR comes round again? Is this a happy ending, a dystopian nightmare, or the fantasy ramblings of a self-important creep? Would you want to be a ghost in the machine? And just what is going on with that illustration in the German collection? Join the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat56 on social media. Guest Dr Sean Williams is an award-winning author of science fiction novels and short stories, makes music under the name “the Adelaidean”, and teaches creative writing at Flinders University. His novels run the gamut of original sci-fi and best-selling work for the worlds of Star Wars and Doctor Who, and he’s also collaborated with other authors – including previous Pratchat guest Garth Nix (#Pratchat51). You can find out more about Sean via his (hopefully updated) website, seanwilliams.com, and listen to his music via his Bandcamp page. He’s also (sometimes) on Twitter at @adelaidesean. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. Next month we continue the sci-fi theme with the third Long Earth novel, The Long Mars, which we’ll be discussing with returning guest Joel Martin! Send us your questions using the hashtag #Pratchat57, or via email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

It’s a second instalment of the Pratchat Eeek Club! Each year, on the Glorious 25th of May, we release a bonus episode discussing Terry Pratchett-related topics selected by our “Eeek” tier subscribers. This year, the topics are: What was good, fun and enjoyable about The Watch? Is Vimes a Cynic, a Stoic, or an Epicurean? What was Granny Weatherwax and Ridcully’s relationship like, and why didn’t it continue? What pop culture would you have liked to have seen referenced in a Discworld novel? What moments from the series hit you personally because of a personal experience? If democracy came to Ankh-Morpork, what political parties would we see? A big thank you to all our subscribers for making Pratchat possible, but especially to our Eeek Club contributors: Graham, Frank, Cath (and Eddy), Steph, Jess and Ellie, Karl and Soren! You’ll find detailed notes and errata for this episode on our website. Want to make sure we get through every Pratchett book – or even choose a topic for next year’s Eeek Club? You can support Pratchat by subscribing for as little as $2 a month and get access to bonus stuff, including the exclusive supporter podcast Ook Club! Click here to find out more.

It’s an illustrated Discworld crossover special as Georgina Chadderton rejoins Liz and Ben to talk gods, dragons and outer space in the twenty-seventh Discworld novel, 2001’s The Last Hero, illustrated by Paul Kidby. Genghiz Cohen, Emperor of the Agatean Empire, has deserted his throne, and along with his horde is heading for the mountain at the hub of the world. He is planning to pay a little visit on the gods, and “return what the first hero stole” – with explosive interest. According to the wizards, this will destroy the source of the Disc’s magic and thus end all life on (and under) it. A rag-tag team of misfits is quickly assembled – a dangerously genius inventor, a stout and honest officer of the Watch, and a reluctant “wizzard” – to take a risky flight looping around the Disc, and intercept Cohen before its too late… The second large-format illustrated Discworld novel, The Last Hero – subtitled “A Discworld Fable” – is a relatively short story, but crosses the streams of the various sub-series more than any other book, providing Paul Kidby with the chance to showcase a whole host of characters and places – including the Disc as seen from above and below! It both feels like a throwback to some of the earlier books – the whole world at stake, Rincewind and Cohen on wild Disc-crossing adventures, the gods playing games with mortals – and a fitting last hurrah (more or less) for two of Pratchett’s most beloved characters. Is this a fitting send-off for Cohen? What’s happening in the Agatean Empire now its Emperor is gone? How many hours have you spent poring over the illustrations finding references, in-jokes and Easter eggs? And what do you imagine the minstrel’s saga sounds like? Join the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat55 on social media. Guest Georgina Chadderton (aka George Rex) is a comic book creator and illustrator based in Adelaide. She was last our guest way back in #Pratchat7 in 2018 to talk about the first illustrated Discworld novel, Eric. Since then she’s continued to make delightful autobiographical comic (including her upcoming book), run comic-making workshops, organise the Papercuts Comics Festival, and even found the time to create the cover art for Pratchat! You can find her online at georgerexcomics.com, where you can find out about Georgina’s upcoming events and also buy all manner of cool comics, postcards and stickers. You can also follow her on Instagram at @georgerexcomics. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. Over the next two months we’re returning to Pratchett’s sci-fi work. In June, we’re discussing his 1990 short story “ifdefDEBUG + ‘world/enough’ + ‘time’” with science fiction author Sean Williams. That’ll leave us (and you) a bit of extra reading time before July for the third Long Earth novel, The Long Mars, which we’ll be discussing with our old friend Joel Martin! But in the meantime, you can send us your questions for the short story using the hashtag #Pratchat56, or via email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

The Trousers of Time end up in a knot as writer Nadia Bailey rejoins Liz and Ben and we go back to the Glorious Past in the twenty-ninth Discworld novel, 2002’s Night Watch. While pursuing dangerous killer Carcer across the rooftop of Unseen University, a magical bolt of lightning (or something) sends Sir Samuel Vimes, Commander of the City Watch and Duke of Ankh, thirty years into the past – along with his quarry. Carcer kills Vimes’ old mentor, Sergeant John Keel, and Vimes steps into Keel’s thinly-soled shoes; he’ll have to show himself the ropes to keep history intact. But he’s not just reliving any old past: it’s almost the Glorious 25th of May. The day the people deposed the paranoid Patrician Lord Winder; the day hundreds were killed in violent clashes across the city; and the day John Keel died… Night Watch is beloved by Discworld fans, no least because it gives a double dose of everyone’s favourite “honest copper”, Sam Vimes. But he leaves Sybil in labour as he’s thrust back intp the best and worst days of his early career, forced to grapple with the darkness in his and others’ souls with only the technobabble of a few time boffin monks for guidance. It’s possibly Pratchett’s darkest book, and certainly takes us into one of the darkest corners of the Discworld: Ankh-Morpork before the rise of Vetinari and the Guilds. Does Vimes knows where to draw the line in this book? Is Carcer an intriguing villain, or a cookie cutter evil psychopath? Could you teach your younger self everything you needed to know to become you? And is this book in your top five, or do you fail to see what all the fuss is about? Join the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat54 on social media. Guest Nadia Bailey is a writer, editor and critic. She’s published a number of pop-culture related books about such diverse subjects as Stranger Things, Frida Kahlo and Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Her latest publication is The Deck of Crystals, a deck of cards which looks into the history, superstition and lore of gemstones. Nadia has just begun a PhD researching (among other things) the lives of queer women during World War I. You can find Nadia on Twitter as @animalorchestra, or visit her website at nadiabailey.com. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. Next month we’re joining a ragtag crew of misfits on a desperate mission to save the Disc in the second big illustrated Discworld adventure, The Last Hero! And to help us navigate Paul Kidby’s astonishing illustrations, we’re welcoming back illustrator and comic book creator Georgina Chadderton. Send us your questions via the hashtag #Pratchat55, or via email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.

Surprise! In an emergency substitution, Liz and Ben get a glimpse of everyday life in Ankh-Morpork as they dive into three very small bits of Discworld ephemera collected in A Blink of the Screen. The Ankh-Morpork National Anthem captures the experience of those forced to sing patriotic songs everywhere – but even the single complete verse tells us quite a lot about the character of the city. Meanwhile the Ankh-Morpork Guild of Barber-Surgeons have put together a few Medical Notes to keep the population informed about a few diseases peculiar to the city. And, on the occasion of Ankh-Morpork being “twinned” with a small city on Roundworld, we read A Few Words from Lord Havelock Vetinari to mark the occasion… We picked these three “Discworld Shorter Writings” as they are both about Ankh-Morpork, whose history is explored in Night Watch (our next book), and written around the same time as that book – the anthem is from 1999 (though it its based on jokes from Moving Pictures, published in 1990) while the others are from 2002, the year Night Watch was published. How do you feel about your national anthem? Does anyone know the second verse? What weird “diseases” are particular to the place where you live? Would you like to live in a town twinned with Ankh-Morpork – or somewhere else from the vast universe of fiction? And does anyone want a “sausoboros” T-shirt? We’d love to hear your answers! Join the conversation using the hashtag #Pratchat53. As usual, you can find notes and errata for this episode on our website. Next month we’re back on track to talk about 2002’s Night Watch with guest Nadia Bailey! It’s a fan favourite and we already have an absolute tonne of questions, but if you have one you’re burning to have us answer, you can send it via the hashtag #Pratchat54, or via email to chat@pratchatpodcast.com. Want to help us get to the end of our six(ish) year mission and read every Pratchett book – and more? You can support us with a tip, or a subscription for as little as $2 a month, and that’s cuttin’ our own throats! See our Support Us page for details.