The Science of Discworld

Terry Pratchett needs no introduction. Ian Stewart has written fine nonfiction books on mathematics, and he and Jack Cohen collaborated on the quirkily inventive pop-science titles The Collapse of Chaos and Figments of Reality. What on earth, or on Discworld, are they all doing in the same book? Pratchett provides a very funny 30,000-word novella about Discworld science, beginning in the High Energy Magic faculty of Unseen University and leading his eccentric wizards to investigate an alien cosmos where there's no magic to keep things going. This is the Roundworld universe--ours. The key point: much that's true only on Discworld (eg: that suns orbit planets and not vice-versa) was once believed on Earth and the wizards' comic misunderstandings echo the history of real science ... Unusually, Pratchett's story is split into chapters and in between his chapters Stewart and Cohen wittily discuss the concepts underlying the fiction, from the Big Bang through stellar formation to life and evolution. Much of the science we know, they cheerfully insist, is "lies-to-children": good stories that are mostly untrue, like thinking of atoms as tiny solar systems. Discworld operates by narrative plausibility and so does human thought even when our Roundworld universe disagrees. Between the laughs, The Science of Discworld is a provocative, informative book that'll make you think about what you think you know. --David Langford

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the science of discworld - Rated
yet another essential read for discworld fans, this is not your usual outing into the world of mad wizards, instead its part story and part background, all in all still worth owning

Unfortunately, a great disappointment - Rated
To keep it short: it's Dawkinist propaganda. There's much LESS science than politics in the book; it was written solely as a pamphlet of the author's views on what they want people to believe (i.e., science is totally beyond the grasp of ordinary people, scientists are much better than everybody else, who are basically just stupid cattle who can't think for themselves, therefore should only do their bidding).

Interesting but not science of discworld - Rated
The format is part Discworld story, with all of Pratchett's usual charm, and part a very long exposition about how ROUNDWORLD's physics works, not that of, well, Discworld. It's like A Brief History of Time with Discworld as the excuse. Enjoyable, but not actually what I expected.

Excellent book - Rated
Along with Science of Discworld II, a couple of the best science books ever written, but a fun story as well.

MAGIC IS FICTION; PERIOD - Rated
As a scientist and a fan of Terry Pratchett's books I was intrigued by this book, but the authors soon went down the science IS magic route, first of all, by saying science can become soo advanced it looks like magic, (yes LOOKS like but actually ISN'T) then comparing science to magic, (but this doesn't work either chaps, as magic is a work of fiction and science is fact!) and then saying science IS magic (and at this point I stopped reading.) A waste of time.