Ian Stewart, Jack Cohen and Terry Pratchett have combined talents to tell the story of the Universe from outside, looking in. And from the outside it's as magical as any world on a turtle...

 


I love the Discworld and everything Pratchett, so the idea of having all the wonderfully nutty parts of the physical world subjected to science is very attractive. I started reading this when it was first released, and at the time was too ill to take in all the big thoughts. Now I'm relatively more able to concentrate I thought I'd give it another whirl. That there's a second volume to read afterwards makes me want to find out what good stuff I've missed.

 


June 25th 2002
Up to page 99

I'm finding this a little heavy going, not so much that the science language is too hard to get a grip on but my brain is a little disadvantaged due to brainfog. I love the premise, that the Unseen University wizards (without Rincewind, waah) have created Round World...i.e.. Earth. Between chapters charting their progress are scientific explanations and insights into the history or the principles involved. Whether or not it seems to be penetrating at the time I was able to come up with the answers to questions on the nature of the Universe on Paxo's University Challenge, so I'm learning something.

At the moment I feel that the story is playing second fiddle to the theory, and I'm hoping that this will change. After all, I bought and am reading this because I love Discworld novels, not because I'm into quantum theory and cats in boxes (which I was scarily able to explain to a third party after reading it...ummm). As with so much in life, there's too much science and not enough wizards. Still, it's making me smile...but it's making me frown a lot too.

 


June 22nd 2002
The End

I was hugely apprehensive about reading this, which is probably why it's been on my book shelf for the last year and a half unread. The surprising thing was that I really enjoyed reading this, and not just the parts with wizards either.

This book tells the story of creation and evolution in a pretty unique way; from the outside looking in. The wizards of Unseen University created 'Roundworld', our Earth, as an experiment and then poked and prodded it a bit to see if it would break. They were totally amazed by how much their new universe would take without breaking, and it caught their curiosity.

The story is told in alternating chapters, one hard science in easily understandable lay terms, and then one chapter of wizards. By the way, I couldn't have been more wrong about lacking Rincewind!! Yay!!! The wizards needed a volunteer to see how things are going with the new life forms of Roundworld. Obviously the wouldn't want to use just any otherwise useful member of the faculty, and so Rincewind is sent for. Dressed in what is the Disc's equivalent of a virtual reality suit, Rincewind gets to experience evolution first hand. He is left with a feeling of despair, wondering why life even bothers trying when faced with such astronomical odds.

I came away from this book with a real sense of achievement, feeling as though I had really learnt something. It was hard to follow at times, and some of the maths and probability talk when over my head with a resounding whooosh! Other stuff that had previously been a mystery though finally seemed to make a little sense. I could even explain some of the stuff when asked. Regardez-vous:

 

Blithe: Well...first there was a big bang...except it wasn't so much a bang as a blip into existence, though that would be misleading as that would assume there was a non-existence to pre-date it...science gets a headache thinking about that. Then everything whirled around a bit, though when I say everything that would mistakenly imply that everything had already been created, where in fact there were in fact only a few things whirling...but the potential for much more came when it all started smashing into each other. 

I don't think I was made to be a teacher...but continuing...

The stuff whirled and smashed until some bits got big enough that due to whirling and gravity they started attracting more stuff...and soon there were some really big things, let's call them suns and planets, all whirling and bashing and being gravitational until it all decided that as much fun as they were having it would be much more conducive to all try and get along. As they stopped crashing into each other and creating lots of energy and heat, they gradually began to cool and then chemicals started reacting and creating atmospheres. That's when the fun really began.

Sarah: Stephen Hawking 'said' something along those lines on The Sky at Night the other day. Well done.

Blithe: yay! lol, thank you. Through it all the one thing all the science bods seem to agree on is that they really don't know how or why it's all happening, but generally they think it's a good thing and means we get to watch TV and stuff.

Sarah: Scientists are cool

Blithe: Yeah, but the more I read the more I think they're having us all on a bit. And they're really crap at naming things

I'm very  much looking forward to embarking on the next through Disc science, though I think I may need a purely fictional break before taking that Journey. If you love Pratchett, of if you love the whole science/creation/evolution trip this is a phenomenal book. Even if you don't you may want to know why cats in boxes are alive, dead and angry all at the same time and why space elevators are really cool! This book will fill in the blanks.