APF Chapter 4: Other Annotations

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Strata

Annotations | Information | Quotes

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- The whole book is, in a very general way, modelled on Larry Niven's classic Ringworld novel: a group of differently-raced beings explore an improbable, artificial world and try to find its mysterious builders.

Terry explains:

"I intended Strata to be as much a (pisstake/homage/satire) on Ringworld as, say, Bill the Galactic Hero was of Starship Troopers. All Niven's heroes are competent and all his technology works for millions of years... but he's a nice guy and says he enjoyed the book."

- [p. 12/13] "Her skin was presently midnight-black [...]"

Previous editions of the APF considered this sentence proof of a true Josh Kirby goof-up, since he pictured Kin Arad as a Caucasian woman on the Strata cover.

However, it had totally escaped my attention that on p. 22/26 we read: "Now her skin was silver [...]", indicating that skin-colour is not a permanent attribute for Kin -- by the time the scene from the cover is reached she could well have changed her skin colour to white.

On the other hand, after Kin is captured by the locals, Silver suggests that she claim to be an Ethiopian princess, so presumably her skin color was dark at the time, and Josh Kirby didn't read carefully enough after all...

- [p. 21/25] "Back and forth, crossing and leaping, the robots danced their caretaker Morris."

I think this is the earliest reference to Morris dancing in a Terry Pratchett novel. See also the ...and Dance section in Chapter 5.

+ [p. 130] "Kin rose like a well-soaped Venus Anadyomene [...]"

See the annotation for p. 128/127 of Wyrd Sisters .

- [p. 76/92] "To introduce phase two Kin began to whistle the old robot-Morris tune Mrs Widgery's Lodger."

'Mrs Widgery's Lodger' is a perfect name for a non-existent Morris tune. While not seeming to be a direct takeoff on any actual tune name, it calls several to mind: 'Blue-Eyed Stranger', 'Mrs Casey', and 'Old Woman Tossed Up in a Blanket', for instance. 'Mrs Widgery's Lodger' would also resurface later on the Discworld as one of the eight orders of wizardry. For more information, see the 'Unseen University' entry in the Discworld Companion.

- [p. 107/132] "'Cape illud, fracturor', [...]"

Dog-Latin which roughly translates to "Take this, buster".

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