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The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure it orth all the effort

Another Disc day dawned, but very gradually, and this is why

When light encounters a strong ht down And on the Discworld the , which ht of dawn flowed over the sleeping landscape like the caress of a gentle lover or, as soolden syrup It paused to fill up valleys It piled up against es When it reached Cori Celesti, the ten reen ice that ods, it built up in heaps until it finally crashed in great lazy tsunami as silent as velvet, across the dark landscape beyond

It was a sight to be seen on no other world

Of course, no other world was carried through the starry infinity on the backs of four giant elephants, who A'ere theiant turtle His naht – was Great A'Tuin; he – or, as it ht be, she – will not take a central role in what follows but it is vital to an understanding of the Disc that he – or she – is there, down below the mines and sea ooze and fake fossil bones put there by a Creator with nothing better to do than upset archeologists and give them silly ideas

Great A'Tuin the star turtle, shell frosted with frozen methane, pitted with meteor craters, and scoured with asteroidal dust Great A'Tuin, with eyes like ancient seas and a brain the size of a continent through which thoughts reat slow sad flippers and star-polished carapace, labouring through the galactic night under the weight of the Disc As large as worlds As old as Time As patient as a brick

Actually, the philosophers have got it all wrong Great A'Tuin is in fact having a great time

Great A'Tuin is the only creature in the entire universe that knows exactly where it is going

Of course, philosophers have debated for years about where Great A'Tuin , and have often said hoorried they are that they ht never find out

They're due to find out in about twoto worry

Soinative philosophers on the Disc is the question of Great A'Tuin's sex, and quite a lot of ti to establish it once and for all

In fact, as the great dark shape drifts past like an endless tortoiseshell hairbrush, the results of the latest effort are just co into view

Tu past, totally out of control, is the bronze shell of the Potent Voyager, a sort of neolithic spaceship built and pushed over the edge by the astronomer-priests of Krull, which is conveniently situated on the very rim of the world and proves, whatever people say, that there is such a thing as a free launch

Inside the ship is Ter, the Disc's first tourist He had recently spent so it for reasons that are rather complicated but have to do with an attempt to escape from Krull

This attempt has been one thousand per cent successful