Title: Strata
Author(s): Terry Pratchett
Release year: 1981
Publisher: Colin Smythe
Why in Database:One of the first books by Terry Pratchett, it does not belong to the Discworld series, however, the series uses some ideas that the author use for the first time in this book.
There are 2 turtle fragment in the book (in polish edition, two more):
‘Some humans used to believe the world was flat and rested on the backs of four elephants,’ said Silver.
‘Yeah?’ said Kin. ‘What did the elephants stand on?’
‘A giant turtle, swimming endlessly through space.’
Kin tasted the idea. ‘Stupid,’ she said. ‘What did the turtle breathe?’
‘Search me. It’s your racial myth.’
A shadow moved under the sunlit waves, a big turtle, island sized, with four paddle legs and a head the size of a small house. As they watched it flapped lazily into the depths.
‘I saw it wake,’ said Marco. ‘I had been pondering the regularity of the legs, wondering if they were shoals, and then one moved. No doubt it makes a practice of this and feeds on the unfortunates who light fires on its shell.’
‘A carapace length of a hundred metres,’ mused Silver. ‘Remarkable. Do such exist on Earth, Kin?’
‘No,’ said Kin, through chattering teeth.
In the next two, the turtle is the result of the polish translator’s invention. In the first fragment, the translator translated “on the floating island” to “on the turtle” (this island was a turtle, as described above), the second fragment looks completely like the creativity of the translator: :
Miałam zamiar użyć twojego stunnera, ale nie ma go w kombinezonie – przerwała jej rzeczowo Silver. – Musiałaś go zgubić koło żółwia, co załatwia plan A.
‘I had intended using your stunner, but it was not in your suit,’ said Silver. ‘No doubt you lost it on the floating island.
– To dlaczego się z nami nie skontaktowaliście, gdy tylko przylecieliśmy?! Cholera, żarły mnie wszy, omal nie zostałam śniadaniem dla przerośniętego żółwia i wylądowałam w haremie, że nie wspomnę o…
Then why didn’t you contact us as soon as we arrived? Hell, I’ve had fleas, I’ve nearly been burned alive, I was shoved in a seraglio–
Author: XYuriTT
