“The Nation” by Terry Pratchett

It was interesting reading this book right after finishing The Baroque Cycle, because it felt in a way like a sequel from a young adult point of view. It takes place a couple of generations after the founding of the Royal Society, which is an important part of the plot resolution.

It's not a Discworld book, and it lacks the non-stop hilarity of some of the better Discworld books, but it's an unusually good young adult novel, with both male and female point of view characters.

Terry Pratchett says he wrote it because there had to be a fourth verse to Eternal Father, Strong to Save. It's sung by the captain of a ship which is lifted by a tsunami and deposited on an island:

Oh Thou who built'st the mountains high,
To be the pillars of the sky
Who gave the mighty forests birth
And made a Garden of the Earth
We pray to Thee to stretch Thy hand
To those in peril on the land.

You can hear Terry Pratchett himself sing this in on the Barnes and Noble site.

Related posts:

1. The Color of Magic
2. When Everything Changed
3. The Book of Judith