Got to Be the best Fantasy Series Ever
|
Terry Pratchett has become one of the most popular authors alive today and his popularity is richly deserved. But not even with his fertile mind could ever have envisaged the heights to which his Discworld series would rise. This story was first published in 1986 is the second of the Discworld novels and to a degree it is amazing that these books have achieved such popularity. On this the audio version of the story, it was a stroke of genius to cast Tony Robinson as the narrator of the story. What a pity, that as with most audio books it has had to be abridged.
First published twenty one years ago The Light Fantastic is the second book in Terry Pratchett's wonderful Discworld series and once again features the incorrigible and cowardly wizard Rincewind a graduate of the Unseen University of wizards in Ankh-Morpork. Rincewind has the unfortunate knack of getting most of his spells wrong and this tends to put him in ever deeper trouble than he was to start with.
Twoflower is the Discworld's `first tourist' along with his remarkable luggage, oh for such a piece of luggage in today's modern airports. A piece of luggage that can never get lost. Equipped with a number of legs and the homing instinct of a carrier pigeon, it will always find its owner, even when he owner doesn't want to be found.
In this sequel, the Discworld is rapidly moving towards what seems an inevitable collision with a strange red star, and there is only one person who can avert a major disaster. Unfortunately that person happens to be our ham-fisted university graduate, Rincewind the wizard
|
|
|
The Discworld is approaching catastrophe
|
|
One minute Rincewind and Twoflower were dangling off the edge of the world and then, without warning and for no obvious reason, they found themselves somewhere else - somewhere safer. The luggage is also confused. The wizards of the Unseen University are having trouble with a restless book of spells. The Discworld's greatest hero is suffering something wicked with his piles and lumbago. And if all this were not challenge enough, the world seems to be hurtling inexorably towards a red star - or perhaps it's the star that's doing the hurtling. Whichever massive body is doing the actual hurtling, it looks the same viewed from the surface of the Disc. Either way, a collision looks inevitable. Or, then again, perhaps something magical is about to happen. It could go either way. Great A'Tuin is, in any case, determinedly carrying the Discworld towards some momentous event and it's all a bit worrying. There's a prophesy. The believers have expectations. A sharp wizard could turn a profit if he incants the eight spells at the right time, according the ancient prophesy. A bunch of end of the world fundamentalists are roaming the streets hunting down those who dabble or deal in magic. Wouldn't you just know that the outcome of all this apocalyptic potentiality hangs on the good sense of a failed wizard? I'm just listening to it all again. Brilliant. Even though it's abridged. There are bound to be several absolute gems criminally omitted, in any *abridgement* of a Terry Pratchett book. There are 3 discs in the box and the running time is about 3 hours. Far too short. I have to give the reader, Tony Robinson, credit though. He reads it, complete with what seem to be just the right voices for all the characters, to perfection, or near enough.
|
|
|
United States | 
United Kingdom | 
Canada