May 2008

New Nation cover art

27 May 2008 (11:12) 2 Comments

A first look at the Nation cover art is now available at HarperCollins.com. The cover features a young boy discovering a shipwreck and the tagline “When much is taken, something is returned.” To quote the synopsis on Amazon.co.uk:

Finding himself alone on a desert island when everything and everyone he knows and loved has been washed away in a huge storm, Mau is the last surviving member of his nation. He’s also completely alone–or so he thinks until he finds the ghost girl. She has no toes, wears strange lacy trousers like the grandfather bird and gives him a stick which can make fire. Daphne, sole survivor of the wreck of the Sweet Judy, almost immediately regrets trying to shoot the native boy. Thank goodness the powder was wet and the gun only produced a spark. She’s certain her father, distant cousin of the Royal family, will come and rescue her but it seems, for now, all she has for company is the boy and the foul-mouthed ship’s parrot. As it happens, they are not alone for long. Other survivors start to arrive to take refuge on the island they all call the Nation and then raiders accompanied by murderous mutineers from the Sweet Judy. Together, Mau and Daphne discover some remarkable things–including how to milk a pig and why spitting in beer is a good thing–and start to forge a new Nation. As can be expected from Terry Pratchett, the master story-teller, this new children’s novel is both witty and wise, encompassing themes of death and nationhood, while being extremely funny. Mau’s ancestors have something to teach us all. Mau just wishes they would shut up about it and let him get on with saving everyone’s lives!

Nation is the newest Terry Pratchett book, and is being marketed as a non-Discworld children’s book. It will be released September 30, 2008 in the U.S. and September 11, 2008 in the U.K.

Terry Pratchett book signing June 14

25 May 2008 (12:44) Comment!

To celebrate the launch of the Making Money paperback, Terry Pratchett will be signing books at the Foyles bookshop on the Southbank this June 14, beginning at noon.  The Saturday signing ends at 2:30 p.m., and fans are urged to arrive early.

Terry Pratchett, astronomer

23 May 2008 (14:35) Comment!

timesonline.co.uk reports that Terry Pratchett, along with The Sky At Night BBC program, is traveling aboard a cruise ship in July to see the total eclipse of the sun next year, which the BBC will broadcast live.

The eclipse, whose totality is predicted to last 6.39 minutes, will be the longest for a century.  The next eclipse of this length occurs more than one hundred years later, on 13 June 2132. Terry Pratchett leaves Taipei in Taiwan July 17, 2009 for a nine-day cruise run by the travel company Eclipse of the Century.  The cruise will include a July 22 trip to the optimum position for viewing the eclipse, which is about 22,224 meters off the coast of Yakushima, a Japanese island.

To book a place on the tour, visit EclipseOfTheCentury.com.

Terry Pratchett on On The Ropes on BBC

22 May 2008 (15:01) Comment!

BBC4’s radio program On The Ropes interviewed Terry Pratchett May 20 with the tagline “he [Terry Pratchett] has everything, except his health.” The interviewer, John Humphrys, asks Terry Pratchett about his adolescent dreams of being a world-famous author (nonexistent), his choice to become a journalist (he was no good at anything else), the origins of The Carpet People, and the “upward escalator” toward writing success. Terry Pratchett recounts the story of the man who was too radioactive to walk out of the nuclear plant, the story of his job interview at the local newspaper, and so on. Terry Pratchett even talks about J. K. Rowling’s success and his objection to the Muggles in the Harry Potter series.  The half-hour program concludes with a discussion of Alzheimer’s and its effect on Terry Pratchett’s life.

Making Money: Locus Awards finalist

19 May 2008 (11:35) Comment!

Discworld’s latest entry, Making Money, has made it to the the Locus Awards finalist list in the fantasy novel category. Making Money attained the honor by ranking in the top five in Locus Magazine’s yearly poll and survey, and shares the honor with Endless Things, by John Crowley; Pirate Freedom, by Gene Wolfe; Territory, by Emma Bull; and Ysabel, by Guy Gavriel Kay. The winner will be announced June 21, in Seattle, at the Locus Awards Ceremony during the Science Fiction Hall Of Fame Awards Weekend.

Finalists in other categories include The Yiddish Policemen’s Union, by Michael Chabon; Powers, by Ursula K. Le Guin; Un Lun Dun, by China Mieville; After The Siege, by Cory Doctorow; Memorare Gene Wolfe; The Witch’s Headstone, by Neil Gaiman; Overclocked, by Cory Doctorow; The Year’s Best Fantasy & Horror 2007: Twentieth Annual Collection, by Ellen Datlow, Kelly Link, and Gavin J. Grant, ed. ; and Brave New Words: The Oxford Dictonary Of Science Fiction, by Jeff Prucher, ed.

Terry Pratchett opens display at Bath’s Postal Museum

18 May 2008 (17:49) Comment!

ThisIsBath.co.uk reports that Terry Pratchett opened a new exhibition, which runs till September, at Bath’s Postal Museum on Northgate Street. The exhibition celebrates Victorian innovations like the penny post and post boxes. To quote Terry Pratchett:

This has been a wonderful exhibition and I am pleased to be here to look around.
The Victorian period was such a great age of inventions and they were all inventions which we could get our heads around - they were easy to understand unlike today’s inventions.

Terry Pratchett used the Postal Museum while researching for Going Postal.

Warning: Do not buy Discworld novels from Hill House, Publishers until further notice

1 May 2008 (19:53) 5 Comments

Hill House’s proposed facsimile editions of the first twelve Discworld novels, advertised since at least 2005, will probably not be published, according to Terry Pratchett’s agent Colin Smythe.

The new editions were supposed to reproduce the early Discworld novels “in exact facsimile editions,” with the use of identical binding, paper, type, and jacket art as the originals. The books were due to be published about every four months and since 2005 only The Colour Of Magic and The Light Fantastic have been published.

Terry Pratchett’s literary agent Colin Smythe responded to questions with “as far as I’m aware, the owner of Hill House, Publishers Peter Schneider has been ill and as it’s a one man operation I don’t believe that he’s going to publish any more of the facsimiles. It’s a considerable disappointment.”

Discworld fans should be warned that the series of facsimiles is still being advertised on the site, with no mention of these concerns.

“I … paid the company $210 for the first six titles–[which] sounded like a good deal,” said one fan, whose complaint brought the situation to light. “As of [April 2008] only two books have been published. At $105 per book this doesn’t sound like as good a deal.”

He had emailed Hill House repeatedly, with no response and no refund.