Sir Terry Pratchett, famed fantasy author, passed on to another world today. He is one of England’s most read authors next to JK Rowling, and has influenced countless writers, artists, and game designers. He was an avid technologist and video game geek. His most famous series, Discworld, inspired music, video games, graphic novels, and role playing games.
Discworld spans over 40 novels and short stories. He collaborated with Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen on 4 books on the science of Discworld. He expanded the universe onto film and television, radio, comics, video games, and stage adaptations. His work is a testament to world building like few others.
Discworld is about a flat disc balanced on four elephants on top of a giant turtle. It is a world that mirrors current political, social, and scientific issues, and parodies fantasy and mythological elements and motifs.
Early in his career, he wrote 2 science fiction novels. In 1976, he published The Dark Side of the Sun, taking inspiration from Isaac Asimov. The story involves a mysterious race called the Jokers and, in the far future, their race is extinct as the future races only have engineered artifacts and a poem that reveals that they have gone to their new home, the dark side of the sun.
His second science fiction novel, Strata, was published in 1981. It involves ideas about an alternate reality to the origins and history of our planet and how secrets are being protected to keep it that way.
Later in his life, Terry Pratchett suffered from early-onset Alzheimer’s disease and made significant contributions to its research.
To say Sir Terry Pratchett is an influence is an understatement.
[blockquote]So much universe, so little time. -Terry Pratchett[/blockquote]
