Strata was first Sir Terry book for me - I read it when I was teenager and was reading science fiction only. Imagine my suprise reading Colour of magic next,

Strata was first Sir Terry book for me - I read it when I was teenager and was reading science fiction only. Imagine my suprise reading Colour of magic next, having strata in back of my head, waiting for the damn space ships to appear. And they never did, not in a single discworld book I have read later in my life (dark side of moon aside coz its not part of the series). Anyways ... I also recommend strata - the ideas on this book are so vivid and clever that they stay with You for the rest of your life (mechanical deamon with small wings using super fast teleportation as a way to implement flight always comes to my mind whenever I hack a solution with unexpected tools)