The Last Continent

There's nothing more dangerous than a god with too much time on its hands.

What a brilliant statement. Honestly, Pratchett continues to wow me with this series. I came for the funny, but I'm staying for the intelligence.

Though, to be fair, the funny is still amazing. Witness several high muck-a-mucks from the Unseen Academy attempting to explain sex to a clueless god. Hilarious.

But it's the seemingly casually tossed-off observations that spur comments that, while also meant to be funny, are also deeply intelligent observations.

Absolutely love this series.

The Librarian of the Unseen University is suffering of a mysterious illness that causes him to periodically change shape. Worried about an imminent hole among the academic personnel (what respectable university lacks a library with a librarian?), the staff concoct a plan to spell him back to normal. The only snag: nobody aside Rincewind remembers the Librarian's actual name, a prerequisite for casting any spell on a person.

Alas, the University's worst wizard was not exactly on the premises at the time, busy exploring (i.e. surviving) the Last Continent: a place so remote that no one really knew its precise location. As the staff tries to find the continent, they accidentally travel back millions of years in time when said continent was show more still being built.

Long story short, it once again falls to Rincewind to save the day and undo his colleagues' ill-thought-out adventures. A prospect he's bound to regret, if past experience is anything to go by.

On the surface, this book was insanely well-researched and well-written. I mean with the amount of detail that went into crafting the various landscapes that Rincewind visits, not to mention the ironic take on evolution involving cake-bearing trees and bushes, was hands-down genius. And then God's workshop with all the half-built ancient mammals... absolute genius!

"Time here is," the kangaroo shrugged, "not the same. It was... glued together differently, right?"
"Search me," said Rincewind. "I'm a man sitting here listening to a kangaroo. I'm not arguing."
"I'm trying to find words you might understand," said the kangaroo.
"Good, keep going, you'll get there."

Unfortunately, as I progressed deeper into the story, my continued immersion started to become a lot of work. To be fair, I'm among the very first to disparage "light reading", gleefully slashing a star or two from their GR rating, but I'm also not here to learn stuff. Unless of course it is done organically, without the need for further study on my part. Reading is my escape therapy and I like to keep it that way; hence my loss of interest when serious effort starts to creep in.

Perhaps that's why I started feeling that the story took a backseat, and the author would just resort to info-dump through any unfortunate character that happened to catch his fancy at the time. Not that other books don't do this, but the whole veiled reference aspect make things easier to digest.

Score: 3.4/5 stars

My main gripe is that I felt like I was constantly playing catch-up with the author's many allusions, so much so that reading stopped being fun anymore. I'm sure there is an entire theory on how "proper reading" needs to be done, but as far as I'm concerned, unless it's a textbook, I shouldn't be putting in this much effort. Alternately, maybe I just need to visit Australia.

--------------------------------------
Other stories featuring Rincewind the Wizard:
book 1:The Colour of Magic
book 2: The Light Fantastic
book 3: Sourcery
book 4: Eric
book 5: Interesting Times
book 7: The Last Hero show less

In this final installment of the Rincewind Saga, the poor fellow finds himself washed up on the blasted hellscape of XXXX. Forever running from poisonous snakes, spiders, plants, drop bears, jellyfish and a thousand other unknown terrors he bumps into a talking Kangaroo named Scrappy. Something is not right in Fourecks. It doesn't rain there and Rincewind has been charged with bringing back the wet before it's too late.

Meanwhile, the ever curious faculty of UU have bumbled their way through a mysterious hole and find themselves sucked back in time to the creation of the Last Continent. Consulting with the local creator god, they must work out a way to return home before they ruin the future forever.

A hilarious and deeply satisfying romp.

The Last Continent is - like all of Terry Pratchett's books - rich in humorous observations and wisecracking footnotes. However, it's also remarkably thin on plot. I feel like it was put together as more of a way to work in as many Australian references as possible, and then before the print run someone realized that nothing really happened in the whole book and they slapped an ending on and called it a day. It's still a good read, of course; Pratchett could easily make the phone book into a laugh out loud knee-slapper and I'd enjoy every second of reading it, but it doesn't flow as easily as his more well-structured works.

In this final installment of the Rincewind Saga, the poor fellow finds himself washed up on the blasted hellscape of XXXX. Forever running from poisonous snakes, spiders, plants, drop bears, jellyfish and a thousand other unknown terrors he bumps into a talking Kangaroo named Scrappy. Something is not right in Fourecks. It doesn't rain there and Rincewind has been charged with bringing back the wet before it's too late.

Meanwhile, the ever curious faculty of UU have bumbled their way through a mysterious hole and find themselves sucked back in time to the creation of the Last Continent. Consulting with the local creator god, they must work out a way to return home before they ruin the future forever.

A hilarious and deeply satisfying romp.

When last we saw Rincewind he was leaving the Counterweight Continent by force of magic. But the spell went wrong and this is where he went.
Terra Incognita. Ecks Ecks Ecks Ecks. The land of koalas and drop bears and Didjabringabeeralong. Where it never rains and Rincewind meets a shady kangaroo.
Meanwhile the faculty of Unseen University find a window propped open that leads to a sunny beach. It seems like the ideal idyll until the window shuts and there's no way home.
My favorite part is making beetles, but my second favorite part is Letitia, Darleen, and Nielette and their new acquisition Trunkie.
Very fun, highly funny, only recommended if you have a taste for Rincewind.

Another giggle-worthy instalment in the Discworld series, set on a continent resembling Australia, in which the jokes come thick and fast. Plenty of playful concepts (a Trickster kangaroo, a crocodile bartender, desert-travelling drag queens, sheep-shearing, and lots and LOTS of beer), cheekily inventive names (the cities of Buggerup and Didjabringthebeer spring to mind), and the wizards of the Unseen University bumbling around as only they can make this a solid, swift read. Not the best Pratchett I've ever read, but no worries - even a lesser Pratchett is still heaps of fun and packed with laugh-out-loud jokes (and New Zealanders always enjoy jokes about Australia, after all ;-).