“The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn't sure it was worth all the effort.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic
In two months the world is going to end, or else something bad is going to happen, unless the eight great spells are read at that time. The only problem is that one of those spells is in the head of Rincewind, the Disc's worst wizard, and he's far away, tumbling over the edge of the world.
These pieces of information are given rather early in the second novel of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, and help to set the pace and plot for the rest of the book. If you look back at my review of the first Discworld novel, The Color of Magic, you'll see that my number one complaint of the previous book was that there wasn't really any overarching plot unifying the story. Right from the onset, The Light Fantastic does
a great job fixing this problem for this second book.Discworld Reviews
“Inside every sane person there's a madman struggling to get out," said the shopkeeper. "That's what I've always thought. No one goes mad quicker than a totally sane person.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic
If you're just joining me, and haven't seen my review of The Color of Magic, allow me to restate my goal: I am intending to read through the complete Discworld series (41 books) and review each of them here.
I am following in the footsteps of Nolan Nightingale, who is trying to review all the books in a year (but I'm definitely not going to get through them that quickly). His review of The Color of Magic can be found here, and his review of The Light Fantastic can be found here.
My other reviews so far include:
Tying Things Together
“He'sh mad?"
"Sort of mad. But mad with lots of money."
"Ah, then he can’t be mad. I've been around; if a man hash lotsh of money he'sh just ecshentric.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic
As I mentioned above, this story does a much better job of having a plot thread throughout. Specifically, The Great A'Tuin, that is, the space turtle upon whose back rests four giant elephants upon whose back rests the Disc which makes up the world itself, is heading somewhere, and will get there in about two months. From the perspective of the people on the Disc, a red star has appeared in the sky and is getting ever brighter. If nothing is done, they believe the world will be burnt up. An apocalypse, to be sure.
How to prevent this apocalypse? Read the eight great spells (this is justified with a prophecy and/or visions depending on which side of the story you're looking at. It's a bit forced, but it does give things connection). However, as I previously mentioned, one of the spells is in Rincewind's head, and he's very far away from Ankh-Morpork, where the other seven spells reside.
A lot of the story still focuses on the rather random and rambling misadventures of Rincewind and Twoflower, but having the thread of tension and plot allows the audience to feel like these adventures are going somewhere, even before Twoflower and Rincewind have a direction to set upon.
The book does build in tension as it goes on, reaching a crescendo of a climax. The only bad thing to stay about the climax (and it's not even that bad), is that while the Discworld novels typically seem to try to invert standard fantasy tropes, the climax of The Light Fantastic instead seems to accept them for that moment. It reads more serious than the rest of the book, which is arguably good as it helps there to be more impact for that moment. It uses a lot of standard climax tropes, rather than a) subverting them or b) leaning into them to the point of parody. It's still a good ending, to be sure, it just seems sort of outside the style I'd expect from Sir Terry Pratchett.
Another Side, Another Story
"The reason for this is regrettably all too common. When the first explorers from the warm lands around the Circle Sea travelled into the chilly hinterland they filled in the blank spaces on their maps by grabbing the nearest native, pointing at some distant landmark, speaking very clearly in a loud voice, and writing down whatever the bemused man told them. Thus were immortalized in generations of atlases such geographical oddities as Just A Mountain, I Don't Know, What? and, of course, Your Finger You Fool."
― Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic
The Light Fantastic still focuses on Rincewind, Twoflower, and their new friends, as the main characters. However, it also spends a good deal of time jumping to the wizards at the Unseen University, and in particular a power-hungry wizard named Tryman, as they try to figure out what to do about the impending doom coming to the Disc, and about trying to retrieve Rincewind/the last great spell.
This gives a lot of help to the reader so that, when the climax of the story does happen, they see what's been going on to make things go the way they do, rather than just seeming like a random big crescendo from nowhere (like many of the points from the first book.)
The book does also occasionally jump to other characters as well. Sometimes these are minor characters whose actions in some way impact the plot. And sometimes it is just characters reacting to or being affected by the actions of other main characters. Regardless, this, in addition for allowing the narrator to make funny commentary, also makes the world of Discworld seem more real, with more unique individuals, rather than just a world put up and painted around the main characters for their benefit.
Overall
“The important thing about having lots of things to remember is that you’ve got to go somewhere afterwards where you can remember them, you see? You’ve got to stop. You haven’t really been anywhere until you’ve got back home.”
― Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic
I think The Light Fantastic does a much better job of telling an overall story than The Color of Magic. The funny bits were a good deal funnier, with several times that I laughed out loud or was excited to tell my wife about a joke that I'd just read.
Situationally, I think many of the individual situations that the characters end up in might be less interesting/engaging than the situations they were in during The Color of Magic, but I feel that the improvement in the overall arc of the story as well as the more developed humor more than make up for this.
Coming up Next...
“Unseen University had never admitted women, muttering something about problems with the plumbing, but the real reason was an unspoken dread that if women were allowed to mess around with magic they would probably be embarrassingly good at it…”
― Terry Pratchett, The Light Fantastic
I've already started reading the next book of the Discworld series, but I'm not very far into it yet. The third Discworld novel is called Equal Rites, and is the first book with "the witches" as the main characters. So, we leave Rincewind and Twoflower behind for now, moving into brand new territory. Equal Rites was released in 1987. Based on its title, I'd imagine it has some to do with feminism and...well...equal rights (the rites in the title is a pun, cause, you know, magic.) I know that the discussion on gender roles/equality has advanced some in the last 33 years, so it'll be interesting to see how it goes.
Other Projects:
But my main project is The Books of the Universe, a series of books which I am currently releasing in podcast form. The first book of the series, The Book of Destiny, reached its end in December. The series deals with a shattered multiverse, destroyers of worlds, embodiments of the void, and dragons. It focuses on different characters working to set this world right in their own, often contradictory, ways.
Listen from the beginning here: https://anchor.fm/booksoftheuniverse/episodes/Episode-101-An-Allowably-Costly-Bargain-ecat9r or find it on your favorite podcast app by searching "Books of the Universe."
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