It took me a long time to finish this book. When I first started reading it last year I just wasn't really feeling it. It wasn't that I disliked it, I just wasn't in the right frame of mind of reading it. That just happens sometimes. While I was on holiday I decided to finish it off, this means that the first 65% I read about nine months before I the rest of it.. so some of my memory I a bit hazy! I'm glad that I did pick it up again because once I did I couldn't put it down, and I really enjoyed it. I guess I was just in the right headspace for Discworld!

This is the first Discworld book and the first one I've ever read. They're funny! I laughed out loud so often reading this. I know other people have said this, but it really is just like Hitch Hiker's Guide To The Galaxy but fantasy. The humour is very similar, a little more absurd perhaps and it's brilliant. It's daft and the writing is a little haphazard but I love that about it. Perfect escapism material.

This first story focuses on failed wizard Rincewind, he was expelled from the wizard school - Unseen University - for accidentally breaking in and stealing one of the great eight spells. He still doesn't understand how all the doors became unlocked. This one spell is the only one that he knows, he doesn't know what it does and he's too afraid to ever speak it. He runs into Twoflower, the worlds first ever tourist, who is rich in money and optimism but poor when it comes to common sense and the ability to recognise danger. Twoflower pays Rincewind to be his guide and they set off to explore the Disc with his sentient Luggage in toe.. untold danger and chaos ensues.

The plot is just crazy. They stumble from one ridiculous dangerous situation to the next in just about every situation you could imagine from fantasy cliches. I did love poor sweet Twoflower and his naivety and inability to see danger. I particularly admired his technique of communicating with those who speak a different language (speaking much louder and slower in his own language). Luggage of course is my favourite, who knew a wooden box could have so much personality, and tenacity. I often shared Rincewind's sense of exasperating with everything, but admired him for never giving up!

I enjoyed reading this book a lot on my second go, although it isn't the best story I have ever read and it did take the right mood for it to click with me. I doubt I'd be able to read a continue run of all 38 novels in the series, I'm sure I'll need to break them up, but I'll keep going! This silly and absurd humour is right up my ally! ( )

272

I've read this multiple times and my opinion has changed over the years. When I first read it back in the early 90s it was an amazing book. Both Pratchett and Adams had an incredible way of writing a story that grabs me. They would take absurd situations and ideas and make them completely reasonable while still maintaining the "wackiness". And I love the use of parenthetical remarks.

This and the next book have a different feel than the rest of the Discworld books and that's why my opinion has flip-flopped over the years. I've gone back to loving this one and maybe part of it is because I know what's coming up in the many books to come. But it's still good. Pratchett sets up so much of the Discworld in this first book and drops many little tidbits that are waiting to be exploited.

One down, many to go! ( )

Ultimately a brilliant introduction to the world of Discworld, and very well written. However it is a product of the hype around this massive series of books that I didn't enjoy it as much as I thought I would. Not to say that it's a bad book, because it certainly isn't. I laughed while reading Pratchett's signature style and I enjoyed the amazing world building that he walks us through; it just feels like there's something missing to it...
Nevertheless, I'll be reading more of Discworld for sure. ( )

I guess I just have to say the Terry Pratchett is not for me. This comes as a surprise. I had a difficult time following it for a while. Then I could follow it but it was just one ridiculous situation after another and that is the way it ends. Perhaps I have changed? I really liked "Good Omens". Perhaps I have to reread that and see how I feel. ( )