Book:The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day

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The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day
Cover art by Paul Kidby
Co-author(s) Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen
Illustrator(s)
Publisher Ebury Press
Publication date April 2013
ISBN 0091949793
Pages 352
RRP £18.99
Main characters the Wizards
Series Science books
Annotations View
Notes
All data relates to the first UK edition.

Blurb:

A new Discworld story from Terry Pratchett.

The fourth book in the Science of Discworld series, and this time around dealing with THE REALLY BIG QUESTIONS, Terry Pratchett's brilliant new Discworld story Judgement Day is annotated with very big footnotes (the interleaving chapters) by mathematician Ian Stewart and biologist Jack Cohen, to bring you a mind-mangling combination of fiction, cutting-edge science and philosophy.

Marjorie Daw is a librarian, and takes her job -- and indeed the truth of words -- very seriously. She doesn't know it, but her world and ours -- Roundworld -- is in big trouble. On Discworld, a colossal row is brewing. The Wizards of the Unseen University feel responsible for Roundworld (as one would for a pet gerbil). After all, they brought it into existence by bungling an experiment in Quantum ThaumoDynamics. But legal action is being brought against them by Omnians, who say that the Wizards' god-like actions make a mockery of their noble religion. As the finest legal brains in Discworld (a zombie and a priest) gird their loins to do battle -- and when the Great Big Thing in the High Energy Magic Laboratory is switched on -- Marjorie Daw finds herself thrown across the multiverse and right in the middle of the whole explosive affair.

As God, the Universe and, frankly, Everything Else is investigated by the trio, you can expect world-bearing elephants, quantum gravity in the Escher-verse, evolutionary design, eternal inflation, dark matter, disbelief systems -- and an in-depth study of how to invent a better mousetrap.

Due for release in May, 2013.

Bonus Material

Some previously ?unreleased material, deleted from the published edition, is to be found here. alas, it's Ian Stewart's contribution to the scientific side, but interesting all the same.

The booklet 'The Worlde Not A Dysk' by Omnian Priest Spread-The-Word Gladly was included with the Waterstones exclusive first edition hardback, and then later reprinted in the Tesco exclusive paperback as an extra chapter. This booklet contains material that 'proves' that the world is indeed round and not astride the back of a giant turtle.

Characters

Collectors Edition Cover

Main Characters

Minor Characters


Cameos and Mentions

Locations

Things and Concepts

Annotations

Reference is made to the Bliss system of library classification - thought in some respects to be better than the far better known Dewey Decimal, but forced into a footnote to history by a technically inferior system which, like VHS tape cassettes, had better marketing men and superior PR than Betamax. In a Discworld context, think of the Blit system.



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