Nation (35 page)
Authors: Terry Pratchett
Tags: #Nature & the Natural World, #Social Issues, #English; Irish; Scottish; Welsh, #Tsunamis, #Survival Stories, #Action & Adventure, #Young adult fiction; English, #Juvenile Fiction, #Interpersonal relations, #Fantasy & Magic, #Fiction, #Drama, #Fantasy, #Australia & Oceania, #Humorous Stories, #Oceania, #Alternative histories (Fiction); English, #People & Places, #General, #Survival, #Survival skills
The great big multiple-universes get-out-of-jail-free card…
This might look like a book set in the Pacific Ocean.
Nothing could be further from the truth!!!!!
It is in fact set in a parallel universe, a phenomenon known only to advanced physicists and anyone who has ever watched any episode of any SF series, anywhere. Different things happened, some people lived at different times, some bits of history have been changed, some things are made up out of real pieces (like the beer and the last five minutes of the
Sweet Judy
) and so on. But the Great Pelagic Ocean is its own place.
Oddly enough, though, after the book was finished, I learned that the Society Islands in the Pacific were named after the Royal Society in London by the famous Captain Cook, because it had sponsored the first British scientific survey of the islands. Sometimes it’s hard to make things up….
Drowning bullets
It’s true—bullets fired into water soon lose all their speed. Some high-velocity ones even ricochet off the surface. That’s because the faster you hit water, the more it behaves like concrete. However,
do not try this at home
. Don’t try it at school, either. I do know someone who tried it at work, but since his job is to fire guns for the movies, no one minded. He confirmed it; a bullet hitting the water slows down very fast indeed.
Blue Jupiter
It’s my favorite viewing, when the orbit is right, which means it’s in the eastern sky late in the day. It is remarkable what a telescope will pick up in a clear sky. But if you look at the sun directly through a telescope it will blind you, no kidding. So daylight astronomy should be attempted only with the help of an expert who knows what they are doing. Sorry, sorry, it’s the ol’ “Don’t try this at home” warning, in disguise.
The green cannon
It would work, probably, since papervine is so tough. In the past, cannon have been made of wood, leather, or even ice (a lot of ice). Mostly they were made to be strong and light enough to last for one shot. They were used in what would now be called special operations, when one shot in the right place might make all the difference. They didn’t have to last long—just long enough.
Needless to say, don’t try this at home.
Thinking
This book contains some. Whether you try it at home is up to you.
Terry Pratchett
T
ERRY PRATCHETT’S
books have sold more than 55 million copies worldwide (give or take a few million). In addition to his hit novels about the fantastical flat planet Discworld, he has written award-winning children’s books, including the Johnny Maxwell trilogy and the bestselling Tiffany Aching Adventures. Mr. Pratchett received Britain’s highest honor for a children’s novel, the Carnegie Medal, for
THE AMAZING MAURICE AND HIS EDUCATED RODENTS.
Mr. Pratchett has one grown-up daughter and lives in England with his wife and many cats.
www.terrypratchettbooks.com
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The Carpet People
The Dark Side of the Sun
Strata
T
HE
B
ROMELIAD
T
RILOGY
:
Truckers
Diggers
Wings
T
HE
J
OHNNY
M
AXWELL
T
RILOGY
:
Only You Can Save Mankind
Johnny and the Dead
Johnny and the Bomb
The Unadulterated Cat (
illustrated by Gray Jolliffe
)
Good Omens (
with Neil Gaiman
)
T
HE
D
ISCWORLD
S
ERIES
The Color of Magic
The Light Fantastic
Equal Rites
Mort
Sourcery
Wyrd Sisters
Pyramids
Guards! Guards!
Eric
Moving Pictures
Reaper Man
Witches Abroad
Small Gods
Lords and Ladies
Men at Arms
Soul Music
Feet of Clay
Interesting Times
Maskerade
Hogfather
Jingo
The Last Continent
Carpe Jugulum
The Fifth Elephant
The Truth
Thief of Time
The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
Night Watch
The Wee Free Men
Monstrous Regiment
A Hat Full of Sky
Going Postal
Thud!
Wintersmith
Making Money
Where’s My Cow?
(
illustrated by Melvyn Grant
)
The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable
(
illustrated by Paul Kidby
)
The Art of Discworld
(
illustrated by Paul Kidby
)
The Illustrated Wee Free Men
(
illustrated by Stephen Player
)
Jacket art © 2008 by Bill Mayer
Jacket design by Hilary Zarycky
NATION
. Copyright © 2008 by Terry and Lyn Pratchett. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
Mobipocket Reader August 2008 ISBN 978-0-06-176771-5
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
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*
The tree-climbing octopus (
Octopus arbori
) is found on the Island Where the Sun Is Born, in the Mothering Sunday Islands. They are extremely intelligent, and cunning thieves.
*
The sailfin crocodile (
Crocodylus porosus maritimus
) is still found in all parts of the Pelagic. It travels immense distances on the surface by means of a large skin-and-cartilage “sail” that it can, to some extent, steer.
*
Where it said “Dress,” she’d written: “Yes, please.”
*
The lonesome palm (
Cocos nucifera solitaria
) is common over most of the Pelagic, and is unusual in that an adult tree secretes a poison in its root that is deadly only to other palms. Because of this it is not unusual to find only one such palm on the smaller islands and a thousand cartoons are, therefore, botanically correct.
*
Daphne was quite sure that there had been a female disciple because, as she explained to a surprised Captain Roberts, “Our Lord is always shown wearing white, and someone must have seen to it that he always had a clean robe.”
