Nation

Nation
Author	Terry Pratchett
Cover artist	Jonny Duddle
Country	United Kingdom
Language	English
Genre(s)	Alternate history, Fantasy
Publisher	Doubleday
Publication date	September 11, 2008
Pages	416
ISBN	ISBN 0385613709 ISBN 978-0385613705
OCLC Number	231884187
Preceded by	Making Money
Followed by	Unseen Academicals

Nation is a Terry Pratchett novel, published in the UK on September 11, 2008.^[1] It is the first non-Discworld Pratchett novel since Johnny and the Bomb (1996). Pratchett took his editors by surprise by writing it before the previously scheduled Tiffany Aching conclusion. He has said "I want to write this one so much I can taste it", and that he's been ready to do it for four years.^[2]

Pratchett said in February 2007, "At the moment I'm just writing. If it needs to be Discworld it will be Discworld. It could be set in this world 150 years ago while still more or less being a fantasy. The codename for it is Nation."^[2] Nation is not set on the Discworld but in an alternate history of our world in the 1870s.

Plot summary

This article describes a work or element of fiction in a primarily in-universe style. Please help rewrite it to explain the fiction more clearly and provide non-fictional perspective. (October 2009)

The time is the early 1870s. The place is a world, strangely like ours, but different in many subtle (and not-so-subtle) ways.

Scattered across the Great Southern Pelagic Ocean are chains of tiny islands. On one island, a boy named Mau has almost completed his ritual ordeal to become a man. Now he must launch the canoe he has built and sail back to his home island, where he will receive his adult tattoos and be given a man-soul to replace the child-soul he has left behind. His entire village waits on the beach for his arrival.

Aboard the schooner Sweet Judy, presently voyaging through the Southern Pelagic Ocean, bound for Port Mercia, Ermintrude ('Daphne') Fanshaw sails to join her father, the Governor of the Pelagic Territories, presently stationed at Port Mercia.

In England, the dreaded Russian Influenza has killed all other heirs to the throne. The Gentlemen of Last Resort, a secret organisation serving the Crown, set out for Port Mercia to bring back Daphne's father within the nine months required by the ratified version of the Magna Carta, accompanied by the heir's mother. Thanks to the epidemic, he is now king, and Daphne is now heir to the throne of the British Empire. Neither she nor anyone else within ten thousand miles knows this.

Far to the south, a volcano erupts, blowing itself to bits and setting off an enormous tsunami. When the wave has passed, only Mau and Daphne remain alive, marooned together among the wreckage and corpses on the island called the Nation. A boy-without-a-soul and a Proper Young Lady who has been Taught To Maintain Standards must rebuild the world. But first, they must rebuild themselves.

Upon arrival at the island, Mau discovers that his entire village and family has been wiped out by the tsunami. Numb with horror Mau begins burying the dead, sending them into the sea wrapped in papervine, where island tradition says they will become dolphins. He is only prevented from joining them by Daphne, who tries to talk to him. Mau is still practically comatose, and believes her to be a ghost. Daphne is afraid of Mau and when they meet again, she tries to shoot him. Fortunately for him, the gunpowder got wet during the tsunami and subsequent beaching of the Sweet Judy on the island, and the gun didn't fire.

With the gun as a device to make fire, Mau manages to get by, gradually warming up to Daphne, whom he calls a "ghost girl". Soon, survivors of the tsunami arrive at the Nation, including an old priest called Ataba, and a nameless woman and her child. Mau struggles to feed and protect them while questioning his belief in the gods and the Grandfathers. The Grandfathers are ancestors who in their lifetime were great warriors, and in death are revered.

Later, more survivors arrive, including Milo and Pilu, two brothers who are able to communicate with Daphne in English.

Confronted with the problem of the missing god stones, artifacts that are said to anchor the gods and stop them drifting away, Mau tries to salvage the stones from the lagoon. While doing so he discovers more of the white stones, one of them with a carving on it. The priest Ataba tries to destroy one of the god stones, which he thinks was false. Mau is nearly killed rescuing him from a shark. After this Mau falls into a coma and Daphne travels to the land of Locaha, the Nation's god of death, and rescues him.

Still more survivors arrive, bringing news of cannibal raiders from another island who are hunting survivors.

Daphne is at one point told by the Grandmothers (the not-at-all remembered counterpart to the Grandfathers) to open the cave of the Grandfathers. Convincing Mau that this is what they should do, Daphne, Ataba and Mau enter the Grandfathers' cave, an ancient burial chamber. There, they discover that the Nation is far older than any other civilisation on Earth, and has made huge discoveries (up to and including maps of the stars, telescopes and glasses) which have later been forgotten. Their knowledge of the stars is shown in the ancient legends of the Nation, which can also be seen as metaphors for the movements of the planets. It is from this ancient cave that the white stone that formed the god anchors came.

When Mau, Daphne and Ataba leave the cave they are met by two English men who mutinied on the Sweet Judy and who were set adrift by the captain of that ship. They shoot Ataba, who has threatened them with a spear, killing him, and take Daphne hostage. She learns from them that the leader of the mutiny, a man named Cox, has joined the tribe of cannibal raiders, who worship the death god Locaha. Soon after this Daphne poisons one of the mutineers and scares off the other.

Certain that the raiders will arrive soon, Mau arranges for the cannon on board the Sweet Judy to be set up over looking the bay for the defense of the Nation. A test firing goes well. However, they only have enough gunpowder for one more shot.

The Raiders arrive, with Cox as their new chieftain. Instead of allowing Cox and the Raiders to attack the entire village, Mau has the cannon shot, frightening the Raiders. The Raiders and the Nation then agree to have the chiefs fight in single combat, as is the tradition. Using his skills as a swimmer and his knowledge of the lagoon to benefit him, Mau manages to defeat Cox. Enraged with the wrath of Locaha, Mau drives away the Raiders, forcing them to release their prisoners.

A few days after this battle, Daphne's father arrives. He, like Daphne, is fascinated with the discovery made in the Grandfathers' cave. The Gentlemen of Last Resort arrive two weeks later, informing him of his new status and presenting him with the crown. Mau, who has learned about world politics from Daphne and Pilu, does not want to become part of the Empire but requests that his Nation become a member of the Royal Society which is granted. In the end, Daphne leaves with her father. Though it is never explicitly stated in the book, it is clear that she and Mau would rather stay on the island and be together, but their combined sense of duty leads her to return to England and Mau to remain behind.

Years later, in an alternate present day, an old scientist tells this story to two children of the new Nation. He explains that Daphne returned to England to marry a prince from Holland and that Mau died of old age. When Daphne died, soon after him, her body was sent to the Nation to be buried. He tells them that from those days onward, thousands of scientists have visited the island, including Charles Darwin, Albert Einstein, Carl Sagan, and recently a Professor Dawkins (who was bitten by a tree-climbing octopus) and that dozens of observatories have been created to learn about the stars, as the Nation has done for thousands of years.

Reception

The novel was well received with The Independent calling Nation 'one of his finest books yet',^[3] the Washington Post 'a thrilling story',^[4] and The Guardian printing "Nation has profound, subtle and original things to say about the interplay between tradition and knowledge, faith and questioning."^[5] Times Online called the novel "Thought-provoking as well as fun, this is Terry Pratchett at his most philosophical, with characters and situations sprung from ideas and games with language. And it celebrates the joy of the moment." Go to their website to find out more^[6]

Adaptation

The Royal National Theatre has announced a theatrical adaptation of the book by Mark Ravenhill. Previews started on November 11 and the show opened on November 23 2009.^[7]

References