The Discworld Diaries

[Marky Lazer]

If I'd live in Death's world where Time is not an issue, I would write a review...

[Marky Lazer]

Witches Abroad is out of the way, which means I take a short break from the Discworld...

[Marky Lazer]

Coming back to the Discworld! Reading now Small Gods, the next in the series...

[Joel007]

I hope you like it, people have mixed feelings about that one

[Marky Lazer]

The Cat--known to you, yeah?--was silly enough to give me The Last Hero. And, it's my favorite one ever. Not because the story is so great, but I'd like to have all my discworld as richly illustrated as this one! Only fifty pages to go in this one, and then it's back so silly old boring books for my literature classes...

[Marky Lazer]

Picking it all up again. Small Gods is up!

[Joel007]

I'd be interested in your opinion about that one, a lot of people didn't like it. I enjoyed it but it isn't my favourite. Then again, as a Pratchett, it's way ahead of most other books anyway!
I have the last hero great book! If you liked that you should try and get your hands on the Art of the Discworld book, loads of great pictures and comments in there.

[Thadlerian]

Small Gods is definitely one of the better ones. I feel that Pratchett gets his messages across in a clear, but unobtrusive way. The book, along with Witches Abroad, initiates sort of a "golden age" of DW books - a series of light-hearted, memorable books of a consistent high quality.

[Marky Lazer]

So far, I think Small Gods is quite good with a great mixture of subtleties and bland, silly jokes.

[Marky Lazer]

Small Gods is finished. So far, this one is really in my Top 5. I think I'm going to think about everything and gonna make a Top So far tomorow...

[Joel007]

Excellent, I wasn't sure how you'd view that one

[Marky Lazer]

For uni, I had to write a proper book review and I took up The Last Hero for that one. Here it is:

Review


Terry Pratchett and Paul Kidby, The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable. London: Gollancz, 2007. Pp. 176. ISBN 978-0-575-08196-3, (pb.) £8.99


Reviewed by


M___________

A Review of The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable

As is usual with Mr Pratchett’s novels that are part of the Discworld series The Last Hero is not organized in any chapters; it is a continuous story because “life doesn’t happen in chapters” either (Grant). Where this fable differs from its brethren is that it is rather short – only 40,000 words. That, however, has been made up by the amazing artwork of Mr Kidby. Where the tale itself is engaging as it is these illustrations – easily over a hundred – truly gives the story “an extra dimension” as Pratchett said it himself. “Some parts of it [the story] are written in paint,” he said (FantasyLibrary).
The twenty-seventh novel of Discworld takes us along with Cohen the Barbarian and his “infamous and notorious” Silver Horde that exists of Caleb the Ripper, Boy Willie, Truckle the Uncivil and Mad Hamish.

‘And what about the old men who’re with him?’
‘Oh, they’re not old men … well, yes, they are old men … but, well … they’re his Silver Horde, sir.’
‘Those are the Silver Horde? All of it?’
‘Yes, sir,’ said Rincewind.
‘But I thought the Silver Horde conquered the entire Agatean Empire?’
‘Yes, sir. That was them’ (29).

Once a bunch of sturdy adventurers who fought monsters, defeated tyrants, stole rare treasures and rescued maidens (Pratchett and Kidby 20), the Silver Horde is now a group of senior citizens who forget where they put their false teeth (Pratchett and Kidby, 35). Because of that fact they are climbing the highest mountain on the Disc: Cori Celesti. There where the gods live. There where Cohen will have word with the gods and tell them “he doesn’t like the way they let men grow old and die” (Pratchett and Kidby, book’s blurb). Cohen plans to go out with a bang, which means blowing up the world with a “fifty-pound keg of Agatean Thunder Clay” (Pratchett and Kidby, 21). Unfortunately, this quest will mean the end of the world (TerryPratchettBooks.com). Now there is only one ‘expert’ who can save all Discworld by interfering with the ancient barbarians and that is “the most inept wizard to ever exist in any universe” : Rincewind (Pratchett 2000, 216). He has saved the disc once before after all (in The Light Fantastic). And he met Cohen before as well: “ ‘Are you a friend of his?’ ‘Well we’ve met a couple of times and he didn’t kill me,’ said Rincewind. ‘That probably counts as a ‘yes’ ” (Pratchett and Kidby, 29). Together with an inventor (Leonard da Quirm), a city watch (Carrot Foundersson) and a librarian turned orangutan he will fly around the ‘Hub’ with a dragon-powered spaceship that will then catapult them unto the Cori Celesti where they catch up with the Silver Horde and convince the barbarians about how bad of an idea this whole quest is.
The plot of the story is in one word amazing. The way how Pratchett makes Cohen beat Fate (who cannot be cheated [153]) is “as cunning as a fox who’s just been appointed Professor of Cunning at Oxford University” to use a Captain Blackadder line from “Blackadder Goes Forth.”
In The Last Hero Mr Pratchett satirizes again a lot of things in his imaginary world that are only too common in our own everyday world. This time it is Greek myths – and in particular the myth of Prometheus (only the other way around): Cohen intends to “return fire to the gods (20) and the bringer of fire gets rescued by the Silver Horde; after being cut from his bondages he “could hear … the beat of an eagle’s wings. He was going to enjoy this” (174), spacecraft: “Ankh-Morpork, we have an orangutan…” (113) is Discworld’s equivalent of “Houston we have a problem,” Leonardo da Vinci’s paitings: Paul Kidby’s illustrations of The Vitruvian Man and the Mona Lisa (87 and 30) and Da Vinci’s flying machines, “ ‘Ah, you intend to build a ship that can be drawn into the sky by dragons?’ … ‘[Y]our surmise is broadly correct’ ” (31), Role-playing games: the Discworld gods “have got the world to fight in” and are doing so with dice (153) and also all the clichés of the barbarian story depicted in books and films (including the Evil Genius).
The humour in the story is a great mixture of subtleties and bland, silly jokes; some of it is thought-provoking and some of it is simply laugh-out-funny. The Last Hero is a page-turner all by itself, but with the vast amount of stunning illustrations it has also become a book to just stare at. Kidby seems to effortlessly switch between simple funny faces (88, 98, 147,) and dazzling panoramas of the cosmic and cities (6-7, 10-11, 94-95).
The Discworld series started as humorous fantasy, but with every subsequent novel it leaves the days of this simple genre behind – and does so too with The Last Hero. Pratchett should be recognised among the finest satirists as Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain, George Orwell and Kurt Vonnegut (if he is not already). Together with the great illustrator Paul Kidby has he created a thoroughly enjoyable book that lends itself for many a re-read too; with every following read the reader can – and will – discover new jokes and clever observations, and will keep being astonished by the many superb illustrations.

Works Consulted

FantasyLibrary. “Last Hero: A Discworld Fable, The.” 14 Sep 2002. 11 Apr 2008. < ht tp://www.fantasylibrary.net/book.php/106 >.

Grant, Gavin, J. “Terry Pratchett.” Booksense.com. Date Unknown. Accessed 04/10/2008 < http://www.booksense.com/people/archive/pratchettterry. jsp >.

Pratchett, Terry. “A Brief Musing on Discworld (in Theory and Practice).” In: The Colour of Magic. New York: Harper Torch, 2000. Pp. 211-221.

Pratchett, Terry, and Paul Kidby. The Last Hero: a Discworld Fable. London: Gollancz, 2007.

Pratchett, Terry. The Light Fantastic. New York: HarperTorch, 2001.

TerryPratchettBooks.com. Date unknown. Accessed 04/11/2008 < http://www.harpercollins.com/features/pratchettbooks/description.aspx?isbn=9780060507770 >.

[Joel007]

Now that is a book review

Awesome! I dislike the constant referencing when it isn't superscript, but I understand why you have to do that kind of thing.

[Marky Lazer]

Why do you want superscipt in it?

[Joel007]

I'm just used to references being in small letters or annotations, otherwise I have a tendancy to read all of it as I dash through the words at my customary hectic pace and it feels as though it breaks up the flow of your review when that happens.