Pratchett's homeage to the film industry. The Discworld has discovered--or is that re-discovered the magic of film making. Ankh-Morpork is stripped of people to build a town in Holy Wood, become production crew and film stars. ( )

I first read this back in - what, 1995 or so? It's been a while. Strangely, I've a clear memory of reading it then, curled up at my grandparents' house. I get more of the jokes by now.

The plot (eldritch Things try to break through into the world by enrapturing people, and in doing so create mass entertainment) is a nice idea but hardly there; the better parts of the book are the characters and the style. The wizards are described beautifully, and some of the incidental characters come out very nicely.

This isn't the first Discworld book written as an extended riff on a single general theme (the first was probably Pyramids), but it's probably the first to take that theme and use the existing setting of the Discworld to reflect it. This and Soul Music are extreme examples of it - the plot is definitely secondary to the way he tries to cram in as many allusions as possible. On the whole, it works, though I feel the more "balanced" novels are better.

Not his best, but nothing wrong with it, and a couple of flashes of excellence.

Tenth in publication order of the Discworld humorous fantasy series. This is Pratchett’s spoof of Hollywood and the movies, or “Holy Wood" and ‘moving pictures’ as they say on the Discworld. People don’t eat popcorn, they have ‘banged grains’ to munch while watching the moving pictures. Of course, the pictures are only 10 minutes long and no one has ever heard of a three-reel film until Throat Dibbler encouraged the movie mogul Thomas Silverfish to try it. (You can blame ‘advertising’ on him as well.) Perpetual wizard student Victor (‘Can’t sing. Can’t dance. Can handle a sword a little) and small-town girl Ginger are about to become big stars, first in Cohen the Barbarian and then Sworde of Passione when the magic of Holy Wood infects them and everyone else. Much hilarity ensues as Pratchett seems to catch a pretty darned accurate picture of the way things really work in (our) Hollywood when you boil it all down. Wonderful reading, hilarious light reading as always—wonderful escapism. Much better than any Hollywood (or even Holy Wood!) fillum. ( )

A door from the dungeon dimensions opens up and unleashes the technology for movies. Before you can blink an eye, a thriving movie industry is set up nearby, and the Discworld becomes dangerously addicted to the demonic results. This is basically a huge send up of the early days of the real movie industry, and on a gags level it works well, with some very funny moments. But I also found the novel somewhat dull and confused in places, as Pratchett lost site of the unique features of the Discworld universe and centred too much on satirising early Hollywood. Also, neither of the two male leads were all that memorable or interesting. To me, the Hollywood theme deserved to be one part of a larger novel, rather than being stretched out into a complete novel in itself. And again there was a chaotic, prolonged climatic ending that I felt frustrated by. One of my least favourite Discworld novels to date. ( )

Terry is in scintillating form for this novel, in which Victor Tugelbend finds himself called to Holy Wood to be part of the Clicks. Film-enthusiasts will love the references that Pratchett has sprinkled liberally throughout the story. ( )