# Why are Pratchett's "Science of Discworld" books so hard to find in the U.S.? **URL:** \ **Category:** Cafe Society\ **Created:** [November 13, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773 "2013-11-13T01:42:05Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 10\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/1 "2013-11-13T01:42:05Z")
[_The Science of Discworld_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Science_of_discworld) [_The Science of Discworld II: The Globe_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Discworld_II:_The_Globe) [_The Science of Discworld III: Darwin’s Watch_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Discworld_III:_Darwin%27s_Watch) [_The Science of Discworld IV: Judgement Day_](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Science_of_Discworld_IV:_Judgement_Day) They’re not really novels – each has a Pratchett-written plot involving the wizards of UU, but it’s just a framing-device for scientific exposition. By far most of the text was written by Ian Stewart and Jack Cohen. Barnes & Noble does not carry them and apparently never has. I’ve read SODWII and SODWIII but I had to get them by interlibrary loan and it took months; still waiting for SODWI and I requested it more than six months ago; can’t get SODWIV on ILL because the Tampa-Hillsborough library system won’t do ILL on any book less than a year old. SODWI is not even on **Amazon** any more except in Kindle format, and when the book was available there it priced at a hundred dollars or more for a mass-market paperback. Why have these books not been published/marketed in the U.S.?! ---
**Author:** ![Lightnin](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/lightnin/32/180_2.png) [@Lightnin](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Lightnin)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/2 "2013-11-13T01:45:44Z")
I’ve been wondering that as well. I managed to find the second and third (I think I found them at a used bookstore), but I’ve had no luck with the first or the new one. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/3 "2013-11-13T02:58:21Z")
Maybe if you sent the Librarian a banana… ---
**Author:** ![RealityChuck](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/realitychuck/32/195_2.png) [@RealityChuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RealityChuck)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/4 "2013-11-13T03:19:48Z")
It looks like it was published by an English publisher. Pratchett is a major author in the UK (before J.K. Rowling came along, he was the UK’s most popular author) while in the US he is just another niche author – solid, but not known outside the fantasy ghetto. It’s likely his US publisher (HarperTorch at the time the Science of Discworld books came out) didn’t see enough of a market for it. ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 10:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/5 "2013-11-13T10:28:34Z")
Not sure if market research would show that books about abiogenesis and evolution would not go down so well Ststeside - and large parts of the books are about just that. But I gather that authors like Dawkins and Hitchens aren’t hard to find at all, so it’s not likely to be that. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/6 "2013-11-13T18:28:36Z")
And yet B&N has a whole big section of popular-science books. ---
**Author:** ![Yllaria](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yllaria/32/3452_2.png) [@Yllaria](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Yllaria)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/7 "2013-11-13T19:23:40Z")
[Amazon.co.uk](http://Amazon.co.uk) - all of them are in stock. [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com)’s consignment section has paperbacks and trade paperbacks. There was one paperback of the first SoDW for $9.22. They’re out there, but not really marketed in the US. I didn’t check to see if my hardbacks would be worth $$, because I’m not parting with them. ---
**Author:** ![BrainGlutton](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/82dd89/32.png) [@BrainGlutton](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BrainGlutton)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 7:32pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/8 "2013-11-13T19:32:09Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > [Amazon.co.uk](http://Amazon.co.uk) - all of them are in stock. [Amazon.com](http://Amazon.com)’s consignment section has paperbacks and trade paperbacks. There was one paperback of the first SoDW for $9.22. > > They’re out there, but not really marketed in the US. > > I didn’t check to see if my hardbacks would be worth $$, because I’m not parting with them. Thanks. Will try that. ---
**Author:** ![cdsilv](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/a9adbd/32.png) [@cdsilv](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/cdsilv)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 7:45pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/9 "2013-11-13T19:45:44Z")
a diligent search of the web will find them… ---
**Author:** ![Miller](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/miller/32/481_2.png) [@Miller](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Miller)\ **Post date:** [November 13, 2013, 7:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/why-are-pratchetts-science-of-discworld-books-so-hard-to-find-in-the-u-s/673773/10 "2013-11-13T19:50:43Z")
How well do his science books sell in the UK, as compared to his fiction?