When the team arrives, they find a world that matches with the old myths about the Earth — it's flat, things go round it, stars are actually points on a sphere surrounding it, and so on. The technology of the world is still in the dark ages, and demons very much exist. The flat world appears Earth in all these points, except for being flat and only covering the equivalent of the Eastern Hemisphere. Příběh se odvíjí někdy ve vzdálené budoucnosti, kdy lidstvo žije na více planetách vesmíru a je v kontaktu s mnoha mimozemskými civilizacemi. Těch je tu zmíněno jen pár, kdy pouze dvě z nich zde hrají podstatnější roli tím, že jejich představitelé jsou členy výpravy, která má za cíl vstoupit na „plochou“ planetu. Tato skupina dobrodruhů pak putuje od okraje planety do jejího středu a postupně objevuje tajemství tohoto podivného světa. Delven (Dutch) (published together with The Dark Side of the Sun in one volume in 1982: republished separately as Strata in 1994) [3]

Artificial Cannibalism: Silver is fed meat cultured from her own cells because there isn't anything else with a compatible biochemistry. Humanity Is Superior: Humanity rules the galaxy, and the few alien races we see in any detail have crippling physical or psychological problems. Kung are neurotically afraid of everything except immediate physical danger, and go berserk if threatened; the Chew Toy-like Shand are not only instinctively cannibalistic but turn into mindless eating machines if they don't feed regularly. The closest thing to a similar problem humans have is getting bored because they live too long.A lot of the writing is a bit inscrutable. Even if I was fully alert and not tired, I sometimes struggled to figure out what was going on and who was talking. It’s totally not readable if you’re anywhere near sleepy. none of the Abrahamic religions ever developed in its history (a mixture of Buddhism and folk religion seems to have predominated, punctuated by an assortment of flash-in-the-pan religious cults) Well, sure enough, it was fascinating - but it wasn't the well-honed Pratchett I know and love. The story was pretty much a sci-fi of the type that was very common in the 80s, post-Star Wars. The were plenty of witty remarks from the gaggle of characters, but none of the brilliant humour and repartee that the author's later characters would engage in. The Discworld itself is a shadow - almost a caricature - of what that world would come to be. All of this makes for disappointment.

Apparently this book is a parody of Nivens Ringworld. Anyway, via a series of circumstances, she is joined by two aliens and they find themselves on a flat earth. It’s a Discworld, not THE Discworld but something very similar. The ultimate point of the story is to figure who built it and why. In Kin's Earth America is called Valhalla and was colonized by the Vikings. However the resulting state uses a flag involving white and red stripes, just like our world's USA, but in this case they stand for blood and ice.That's more like it! Reading Pratchett chronologically, I was disappointed by the first two books. They were funny, but chaotic and disjointed. Strata wraps all the chaos and absurdity into a story which successfully holds it together, and stays strong throughout. Beast Man: The Shandi, who have giant tusks and need to eat constantly to stop them from going berserk. Tomato in the Mirror: Kin is briefly 'awakened' by the technology of the Disc at the end and we discover that she, and presumably everyone else, are Precursors who deliberately forgot their origins 'because if One cannot forget, how can One learn?' This concept was also used in The Dark Side of the Sun. I'm glad the local library had Strata, and that I read it. The archeology of a favorite author's writing can be interesting, especially if you Age Without Youth: It's stated that without Day Bills to buy treatments offered only by the Company, you can get immortality via other genetic treatments, but you'll look your true chronological age. While many men on the disc seem to be interested in Kin (if she looked 200 years this would not be the case), she worked for the company and so kept up her rejuvenation treatments. However, hair never gets past the first century.