The Light Fantastic: A Discworld Novel (original 1986; edition 2005)

A long while ago, I tried Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, picking up the first book I found (Monstrous Regiment) and didn't like it. But so many people are raving about this series (people who seem to like the same stuff I do) so I needed to give it another shot. I decided to start from the beginning, collecting and reading the books in publication order. I read "The Colour of Magic" last year, and a few weeks ago, I finally found the second book, "The Light Fantastic" second-hand.

In this book we continue travelling with Rincewind, Twoflower, and his Luggage which follows him around. This time around disaster seems to be ready to strike Discworld, and everybody wants Rincewind, or more exactly, the Spell in his head. What follows is a good story with the famous Pratchett humor and a lot of adventure.

I liked the book, because I like Pratchett's humor. It is pretty dry, and if you don't like it, forget this book and forget this series. For those who liked the first book, try this second one too. I give it four out of five stars. ( )

Rincewind and Twoflower are surprisingly rescued after falling off the disc, only to be charged by the Octavo with stopping Trymon from getting complete power and saving Discworld from the foreboding red star. The storyline follows directly on [The Colour of Magic], but where that one spent a lot of time setting the stage and building the Discworld, this one gets right into the action so that the story flows much better. Rincewind and Twoflower and their various adventures are at the forefront at all times, and hilarious characters such as Cohen the Barbarian and DEATH get full rein. The loony humor even comes across better when the characters get to indulge completely in their own madness. Although I've heard that later installments are much better, I am still glad that I started reading the series here so that I have the lay of the land down - I'm looking forward to continuing on in the lunacy that is Discworld. ( )

The sequel to The Color of Magic was pretty good. I thought that it would be much more sarcastic and satirical but it was just a well written and silly fantasy story.

I think I still am not as enthralled with the Wizards arc as with some of the others in this series, but still, this was a very good book. The further adventures of Rincewind, Twoflower and the Luggage, with the addition of Cohen the Barbarian, gave me plenty of chuckles as well as some hair-raising moments, even though I was pretty sure everything would turn out OK. Definitely recommended. ( )

To truly enjoy Pratchett's Discworld novels, requires two things: a love of fanciful silliness, and a reasonable working knowledge of the real world.

I've heard it said that the Discworld books are too "far out there" for some folks. IMO, these books are an assessment of your experience/knowledge of history/science/philosophy/religion/etc. I say this, because everything in this book is a spin/joke about something in the real world. So the more you already know, the more you will laugh.

Pratchett's breadth of experience/knowledge is awe inspiring. The man can do funny spins on Mongolian culture, druid religious practices, geological nomenclature, integrated circuit materials, and probably tons more things that I simply don't yet have the experience needed to 'get' the joke. Well, I'll have to work on that.
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