Before Discworld was, there was Strata...
Written: Mar 20 '04 (Updated Mar 20 '04)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Quite funny and insightful, pretty good characters, inventice
Cons: The Discworld concept just doesn't work as well_in_a_sci-fi_setting, Pratchett's writing style not_fully_developed at_this_stage
The Bottom Line: Essential reading for Pratchett fans, sci-fi comedy afficionados will also enjoy it.
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| captaind's Full Review: Strata Books |
We all know Terry Pratchett as the creator of the Discworld series (or if you don’t, it’s about time you did). But Strata (kindly added to the database for me by GraceF) is an early exploration of that idea and, while I don’t think it’s up to the standard of the majority of the Discworld novels, it’s still good and is basically required reading for Pratchett fans.
The story centres around Kin Arad, a woman over 200 years old (surgical techniques are pretty advanced and people are paid by The Company in “days” rather than cash), who works for the afore-mentioned “Company”. This organisation creates planets – they take a likely looking asteroid and terraform it into a living breathing planet, but they also add history – fossils and so on – for the new inhabitants of the planet to find so that they establish a proper identity for themselves. At the start of the book she has to reprimand two young and fairly new workers, who were found to have planted a fossilised dinosaur in the wrong stratum – holding a banner that reads: “End Nuclear Testing”.
Things get more interesting when she meets a man named Jalo, a pilot from a ship sent out in desperation many, many years earlier, all of which ships were thought lost or destroyed. He has found a previously uncharted planet – and guess what? It’s not spherical, it’s a Disc… and there’s the promise of untold riches there – he has a wallet that never runs out of credit notes as proof, and that’s just for starters…
Kin meets two other creatures (aliens, but one claims to be human as he was born on earth), Silver (a Shand – don’t let her run out of food or you could be the next meal) and Marco (a Kung – a very aggressive, 8-armed race), whose behavioural characteristics are somewhat difficult for Kin to accept at times, even though she assures herself that she should be used to them. In fact, though this is a comedy, it’s one of the most interesting studies of culture clash that I’ve read – the parallels between the different species in the book and the different races on our own planet is plain enough to see but never actually stated as such. Marcos identity struggle as he acts like one species but tries to be another leads to some very funny moments but is also quite touching at times, and anyone who’s had to try to acclimatise to a new environment will be able to sympathise with him.
In finding out about the Discworld, Kin also learns something very startling about the while universe she knows… but enough of the plot, you’ll have to find out for yourself.
Unlike the Discworld series, Strata is very much a science fiction books (albeit with a couple of fantasy elements), and while it’s a good book as is stands, it’s also easy to see why Pratchett opted to go for a fantasy setting for the eventual series. Discworld aficionados will recognise certain familiar elements – for instance, there is a pub called The Broken Drum on one of the planets. As sci-fi comedies go it is a good one, though never really touches on brilliant.
The characters are pretty well developed but this is very much plot oriented. Which is no bad thing as it is a good plot, with a few twists that I didn’t see coming, and with common sci-fi themes exploited to good effect. There’s a bit of bad language and innuendo here (when on the Discworld, Silver continually suggests that if relations with the natives get strained, Kin can take the strain away by having relations with the nearest Chieftain), though nothing terrible – it’s certainly not recommended for younger children or the very sensitive. Otherwise the humour flows steadily, never stolid but never reaching the dizzying heights of the best in the Discworld series. (Sorry to keep comparing the two but there’s really no way of avoiding it, even if I wanted to!) A knowledge of science fiction and, to an extent, fables such as Aladin is necessary to fully appreciate some of the jokes.
I find myself wondering if I would have enjoyed the book more if I hadn’t already been a fan of the Discworld series. But at the end of the day I don’t think I would – it’s similar in a few ways but different in others, and while I did compare the two in my mind while reading it, it’s still an enjoyable book in its own right. It was first published in 1981, two years before the first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, came out. Pratchett’s writing style was not fully developed in either book, however – personally I tend to think he truly came of age by about the fourth / fifth books in the Discworld series, Mort and Sourcery.
Okay so just round off the review…
All right then. If you’re a Pratchett fan you’ll want to read this; even if you don’t like science fiction much, you’ll be wanting to see how it compares to the Discworld series. If the fantasy setting of Discworld has put you off in the past and you like skiffy, you may well find this more to your tastes. If you like sci-fi comedy in general, you’ll probably enjoy this.
As always, thanks for reading, rating, commenting!
CaptainD
Reviews of Discworld Novels:
The Colour of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Sourcery
Mort
Reaper Man
Moving Pictures
Pyramids
Soul Music
Small Gods
The Hogfather
The Last Continent
The Fifth Elephant
Thief of Time
The Truth
Nightwatch
Monstrous Regiment
Reviews of Pratchett’s Books for Children:
Diggers
Only You Can Save Mankind
Reviews of Discworld-related Computer Games
Discworld: Noir
Recommended:
Yes
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