The Last Hero

This short Discworld fable is so much fun. Cohen and his Silver Horde are returning fire to the gods and the crew from Ankh Morpork are on a mission to stop them. The gorgeous illustrations absolutely make this book a delight on top of PTerry at the top of his form.
The cover calls this a Discworld fable. I loved it. Cohen and his Silver Horde are going to bring fire back to the gods, but doing so could cause the end of the world. The Ankh Morpork crew of wizards, Watch, and Leonard of Quirm leap to the rescue...
This fully illustrated book is full of the Pratchett sense of humor mixed with apt, wry observations on human nature. And gorgeous color illustrations!
I have owned this volume for over a decade and never read it until now. I have show more no idea what was wrong with me. I look forward to reading it again and again. show less

A Discworld oddity, this is basically a short story turned into a giant book with fantastic Paul Kidby illustrations. I especially liked the dragons one. Cohen and his gang are always good for a laugh and here we find them taking on the gods themselves. Technically they won, too. I hadn't read this since getting it for christmas the year it came out. I got rid of that book very quickly as it was too big for any shelf or even most boxes. So it was a pleasure to return to a book whose jokes I had long forgotten. This was an all star run-out, with Leonard of Quirn, Captain Carrot, and Rincewind all rushing together to save the world, a Discworld Universe mash-up that worked surprisingly well. I would love to see more of the Dark Lord Harry show more and his incredibly stupid minions, they should have gotten a book of their own! Final comments: I think this was intended to be a pivot around which the Discworld series changed direction. The Last Hero gave Cohen his send off, but also Rincewind (until Unseen Academicals, which was a terrible book and should never have been published). The witches had already had their last ensemble novel. These send-offs would have completed the Discworld's First Mission as pastiche of fantasy novels and it would now be fully into its Second Mission as exploration of the creation of the Modern World. Thus Vimes-as-politician continues, the Industrial novels begun, and Tiffany Aching takes over as the focus on witches and thus the place where the real and the supernatural clash in an early modern world. There are some great moments to come! show less

Lately, the Terry Pratchett books I've read have either been from his middle period, when he was acknowledged as a master of Important Satire; or from his later life, when the decline caused by his "embuggerance" was becoming more and more evident. So reading this turned into a delightful trip back to the times when Pratchett was a purveyor of comedy first and foremost. In this, he was helped by Paul Kidby's illustrations - more precise and all-encompassing than the late Josh Kirby's work for the earlier illustrated Discworld title, Eric, and a true enhancement to this story.

The story? Oh, if you insist: Cohen the Barbarian, feeling his age, brings together his Silver Horde to help wreak revenge on the Gods of the Discworld for old age, show more by returning fire to them - in the military sense, it seems - and going out in a blaze of glory. To prevent this, and the destruction of the Disc that would follow the concomitant disruption of its thaumaturgical field, the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork enlists the aid of his captive mechanical and artistic genius, Leonard of Quirm, plus the wizards of the Unseen University. To reach Cori Celesti, the mountain at the Hub of the Disc and abode of the Gods, in time to thwart Cohen, Leonard designs a wooden spaceship, powered by captive dragons, and crewed by himself, Captain Carrot of the City Watch, and Rincewind. The rest may not be history, but it does threaten to become Legend.

Perhaps one of the greatest delights of this book is the number of Easter Eggs concealed within its pages. Kidby's illustrations of Leonard's spaceship and its crew are directly out of "Ye Right Stuffe", and Rincewind makes a passing reference to being a wizard who advocates running very fast in a straight line, which will make those of a certain age think about a classic short indie fantasy film (everyone else go and look up Mike Jittlov). And Mad Hamish of the Silver Horde appears to be channelling Father Jack Hackett from Father Ted...

This is well worth seeking out in its glorious large-format original. Avoid all other format reductions. show less

The Last Hero is the 27th in the Discworld series and the 7th in the Rincewind sub-series. Cohen the Barbarian and the Silver Horde embark on one final quest: to return to the gods what the first hero stole. Which could bring about the end of the world.

This was a different reading experience the book is an illustrated novel. I absolutely loved Paul Kidby's artwork. Even though it's short, the story takes its time to get going. Kind of like the previous book, Rincewind doesn't feature as prominently as equal time is given to all the side characters, which I think worked well. I was surprised at the touching ending and found myself enjoying the book more than I expected to.

Pratchett's witty humor finds its perfect target - a group of aging heroes, a Dark Lord, and a group of misfit heroes trying to stop them from ending the world. A superb skewering of what heroing, villaining, wizarding and genius inventing is all about. Not to mention moon landings, proper attire for aging heroes, and the many varieties of swamp dragons, complete with chance of explosion under various circumstances.

Y'know, I'm not the biggest Discworld fan around. In fact I'm getting pretty tired of the series after, what, over two dozen of them. But this is marvelous. Short enough so there's not a lot of confusing plot twists, red herrings, asides... a clear point, lots of the usual humor, and fantastic illustrations. I don't think I'd read this first, as it helps to have some sort of familiarity with some of the characters (Rincewind, Vetenari, Carrot, the Wizards, but not the witches), but do read it before you give up on the series.

But there's lots more a proper historian could tell you," said the minstrel.
"Hah!" said Cohen. "It's what ordin'ry people remember that matters. It's songs and sayin's. It doesn't matter how you live and die, it's show more how the the bards wrote it down."" show less

Terry Pratchett won me over about half way through THE LAST HERO. Believe it or not, I have read Pratchett, but none of his Discworld books. So while browsing shelves of my local library, I noticed this short, fun looking fable illustrated with great humor by Paul Kidby. A quick read and a good place to begin.
At first, Pratchett’s gag-a-second style put me off … just too silly and juvenile. But the characters acting out their slap-stick story engaged me. My mood mellowed. My grown-up inhibitions softened. Soon warm fuzzies of happiness and reading pleasure overwhelmed my lit critic. She began to appreciate the satire tucked in among toilet jokes. She looked at me knowingly, winked, and we shared a belly laugh about how easily she show more and I fall into the pit of earnest, hair-shirt ART. We look forward to more Discworld tales.

Terry Pratchett overflows with stories. His narrative brims with asides and bit characters and throw-away lines. Here is a piece of flash-fiction, irrelevant to the plot-line yet essential. The only background info you need is that some of our heroes are on the moon when a stupendous explosion happens. It has to do with the digestive problems of swamp dragons.

“On the veldt of Howondaland live the N’tuitif people, the only tribe in the world to have NO IMAGINATION WHATSOEVER.
“For example, their story about the thunder runs something like this: ‘Thunder is a loud noise in the sky, resulting from the disturbance of the air masses by the passage of lightning.’ And their legend ‘How the Giraffe Got His Long Neck’ runs: ‘In the old days the ancestors of Old Man Giraffe had slightly longer necks than other grassland creatures, and the access to the high leaves was so advantageous that it was mostly long-necked giraffes that survived, passing on the long neck in their blood just as a man might inherit his grandfather’s spear. Some say, however, that it is all a lot more complicated and this explanation only applies to the shorter neck of the okapi. And so it is.’
“The N’tuitif are a peaceful people, and have been hunted almost to extinction by neighbouring tribes, who have lots of imagination, and therefore plenty of gods, superstitions and ideas about how much better life would be if they had a bigger hunting ground.
“Of the events on the moon that day, the N’tuitif said: ‘The moon was brightly lit and from it rose another light which then split into three lights and faded. We do not know why this happened. It was just a thing.’
“They were then wiped out by a nearby tribe who KNEW that the lights had been a signal from the god Ukli to expand the hunting ground a bit more. However, THEY were soon defeated entirely by a tribe who KNEW that the lights were their ancestors, who lived in the moon, and who were urging them to kill all non-believers in the goddess Glipzo. Three years later they in turn were killed by a rock falling from the sky, as a result of a star exploding a billion years ago.
“What goes around, comes around. If not examined too closely, it passes for justice.” (129-130) show less