Monstrous Regiment

 

By Terry Pratchett

The little country that was Polly's home, Borogravia, was at war. Which was not unusual, it was frequently at war with its neighbors, being very vigilant against any intrusions across its borders. Part of the problem was the river that formed one of the boundaries was prone to change its course and thus creating arguments about the boundary location. The other was that Borogravia's religion was intolerant of other beliefs and its leaders were militant in their protection of the state religion.

What was different about this latest war was the alliance that had formed against Borogravia. Out numbered, Borogravia was on the verge of losing the war. Finding new recruits to fight was becoming increasingly difficult. The more men sent to the front, the more the home front suffered, as the able-bodied  men were swallowed up in the war. One of those men was Polly's brother, Paul.

So when the recruiters came to her town, Polly cut her hair and donned Paul's clothes and joined up, calling herself Oliver. She wasn't really interested in being a soldier, her goal was to find out if Paul was dead or alive and bring him home where he belonged. 

As the recruiters traveled to the various villages looking for new recruits, Polly came to understand that she was not the only female passing for male among the new recruits. Each had joined for different reasons, some to escape unhappy home lives, some looking for a lost lover, some who wanted to practice a profession that was not acceptable for a female. 

The truth about the war is finally revealed when the new recruits reach the front lines: Borogravia is losing and losing badly. They also know that the enemy has captured an important fortress and that it is where they are keeping the prisoners of war. Polly is desperate to get inside the fortress to find out if Paul is among the prisoners. So the small band of raw recruits remove their male disguises and don female clothes, determined to sneak inside the fortress as part of a group of local washerwomen. They manage to get past the first gate but are soon apprehended and locked up. All is not lost however and the women prove that even females can be good soldiers. 

This was an interesting story about women, of various sorts including vampires and trolls, trying be successful in a world that assigns rigid limits on the choices available to women. The humor, of course, comes from females trying to act masculine and how well they succeed or not. Pratchett is on the side of women being whatever they wish to be, without the traditional constraints placed on them by society's expectations. At the end of the story, it is revealed that several of the top military brass are women who have successfully passed as men for years and years. 

When the women find out that their sergeant knew they where women, they ask why he didn't say anything. His response: 

"You ain't the first," he said. "I've seen a few. Mostly by themselves, always frightened . . . and mostly they didn't last long. But one or two of them were bonny soldiers, very bonny soldiers indeed. So I looked at you lot and I thought to myself, well now, I thought, I wonder how they'll do when they find out they're not alone? You know about lions? ... Well, the lion is a big ol' coward, mostly. If you want trouble, you want to tangle with the lioness. They're the killers, and they hunt together. It's the same everywhere. If you want big grief, look to the ladies."

 

Feet of Clay

 

By Terry Pratchett

Things are rotten in the city state of Ankh-Morpork. Which is nothing new in a city where the river is so polluted it is almost firm enough to walk on. That's just the status quo. 

The sole source of governance in Ankh-Morpork is the Patrician, Lord Vetinari. He rules with a firm hand and naturally he is resented. He has suddenly become very unwell and it is clear that he is being slowly poisoned. How he is being poisoned not known or who among the criminally ambitious of the city is resposible.

Naturally, the head of the city guard, Commander  Sir Samuel Vimes is in charge of the investigation of the attack on Vetinari. And it is a puzzler. No matter what Vimes and his people do, they can't figure out how the poison got into the Patrician nor can they figure out how he is still being poisoned, which it seems he is as his condition continues to decline. 

Meanwhile, back at the city guard headquarters, Captain Carrot, the over six foot tall dwarf and Constable Angua, the werewolf woman, have to investigate the murders of two elderly and seemingly harmless men, one the keeper of a museum devoted to Dwarf Bread who was beaten to death with a loaf of his own bread and the other a priest who was found with his head smashed in and with a piece of paper stuffed in his mouth containing a message written in the priest's own blood in an ancient script.

The phrase "feet of clay" is from the Bible and refers to a prophecy to a king in which the kingdoms of the world are described in terms of a statue. The top part of the statue is gold kingdom, next is the silver kingdom and so on down, each kingdom declining in value, till it gets to the feet kingdom which are of the worst value, clay. It's also come to mean that even the seemingly best people can have hidden or not so hidden flaws: feet of clay. 

But also feet of clay refers to the golems of Ankh-Morpork, who are animated clay statues who actually do have feet of clay. A Golem is an inanimate dummy that is brought to life through magic, something like the puppet Pinocchio from the fairy tale.  

Probably the best thing about this story is Vimes effort to bring more diversity to the city guard. Such as Corporal Angua, the werewolf woman. And Sergeant Detritus, the troll. And new recruit Cheery Littlebottom, a dwarf who startles Vimes by showing up to work wearing lipstick. Eventually the guard even includes a golem, Dorfl, who was freed from slavery by Captain Carrot and hired by Vimes to be a member of the city guard soon afterward. 

The city guard stories are some of my favorites of the Discworld series and this one does not disappoint. It's fun and the mystery of golems and of the poisoning of the Patrician, while not particularly puzzling, are still really interesting. And the Corporal Nobbs subplot is really amusing when Nobbs suddenly finds himself elevated to be among the elites of the city. This one is a definite keeper!

Equal Rites

 

By Terry Pratchett

A Discworld fantasy.

Wizards know when their time is coming. Traditionally, they bequeath their powers via their magical staffs to the eighth son of an eighth son. Which is probably what the wizard Drum Billet intended to do. So he left Ankh-Morpork and traveled to the village of Bad Ass and passed his staff on to the eighth child of an eighth child, Gordo Smith. However, Gordo's eighth child is not his son, it is his newborn daughter, Eskarina. Once given to the child, the staff refuses to be separated from her, no matter what the parents and local witch and midwife, Granny Weatherwax try. They only succeed in hurting themselves in the attempts. So the baby is allowed to keep her magical wizard staff.

As Esk grows, she begins to experience the powers that belong to wizards. One of her early efforts results in turning her annoying brother into a pig. At which point Granny Weatherwas realizes Esk needs more guidance than Granny can give her and she takes Esk on a trip to Ankh-Morpork.  While on the trip, Esk wanders off and joins a group traveling there also. Granny and Esk eventually get back together but when Esk tries to gain entrance to the Unseen University, she is sent packing, because females can't be wizards. However, Granny points out that the University has plenty of women in it, working there as servants. And so, with all the training that Granny has given Esk, she soon finds herself working there as a maid. And in the process picking up the scraps of knowledge that will help her understand what a female wizard is capable of achieving. 

Esk learning her powers and learning about the world outside of Bad Ass made for a fun and interesting tale. Granny Weatherwax makes her first appearance in the series and comes off as more human in this version as she sets up shop in Ankh-Morpork, selling potions and telling fortunes and actually acquiring some newer clothing instead of her usual raggedy outfit. Things I don't think Pratchett's later versions of her would approve of. Granny Weatherwax becomes an important recurring character in the Discworld series. Oddly, Esk, the female wizard, doesn't reappear in the novels until many years later. Instead Pratchett returns over and over to Rincewind, the inept wizard-wannabe who stars in the first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic. 

Carpe Jugulum

 

By Terry Pratchett

The king of Lancre just became a father for the first time and he felt it would be a good idea to invite the neighbors to his daughter's naming ceremony. A bad idea, since the neighboring country, Uberwald, is a land ruled by vampires and inviting vampires into your home is never going to work out well.

Sure enough, the vampire family, Count Magpyr and his wife, son and daughter move into the castle and take over the king's mind and turn the locals into cattle to be "milked" for their blood.  The queen, Magrat, who is a witch, escapes the castle with her baby and joins forces with her old friends, a coven of witches, who take it upon themselves to rid the kingdom of Lancre of the Magpyr family and their vampire associates. But they are going to need a little help, which comes in the form of a priest of Om (a cult know for its history of burning witches) and a young phoenix. 

This was a fairly good read. The poor king comes off as a complete fool and does very little to save his kingdom and Granny Weatherwax, a powerful witch and a recurring character in the series, spends most of the story stumbling around the countryside getting wet and falling down and ends up bitten by the vampires. Still it all comes together in the end, with the various characters doing their bit to bring down the reign of the vampire invaders. 

Here is a review by Publishers Weekly.

Men at Arms

 

By Terry Pratchett

Times are changing in Ankh-Morpork. The Patrician has ordered the Night Watch to become more representative of the citizens of the city, resulting in three new hires, Cuddy, a dwarf; Detritus, a troll and Angua, a woman (and a bit more). Captain Vimes doesn't quite know what to think about this new direction for the Night Watch. But it is hardly his problem any more as he will shortly be marrying the richest woman in Ankhj-Morpork, Lady Sybil and his working days will soon be  behind him. Of course, it will be quite an adjustment for Vimes, going from being so poor that he used to line his boots with cardboard when they wore out because he couldn't afford new ones to having anything he wants just by asking for it.

Lady Sybil has a passion for swamp dragons and runs a sanctuary for them and she is worried about the disappearance of one of her dragons, Chubby. So she asks Vimes to keep an eye out for Chubby as he makes his final patrols. And he does find Chubby, or what is left of him. Someone used Chubby to blow a hole in the wall of the Assassin's Guild. All that is left of the little dragon is its blue collar.

It soon become clear that the explosion was used to gain access to a weapon in the Guild's possession, a weapon that they were supposed to have destroyed in the past. This weapon, the "gonne" is unique in a world were explosives are only used in fireworks. And the person who stole the "gonne" has a demented plot to restore a king to the throne of Ankh-Morpork, and his chosen king is the clueless and innocent Night Watchman, Corporal Carrot. And one of his first victims is the ruler of Ankh-Morpork, the Patrician himself.

This is one of Pratchett's best stories, in my opinion. Vimes finally gets the breaks he deserves and three fun, new characters are added to the watch, Cuddy, Detritus and Angua, with the possibility of even more strange policemen in future stories like zombies and vampires. Plus the story introduces us to Gaspode, a scruffy little street mutt, who, as a consequence of sleeping too near the Unseen University, has acquired the ability to talk, even though most humans refuse to hear what he says. 

Some of my favorite Discworld stories are about the adventures of  the Night Watch and this story is one of my favorites of the Night Watch series.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

The Last Continent

By Terry Pratchett

Rincewind is off on another of his involuntary adventures, this time on XXXX aka Fourecks, the Discworld equivalent of Australia. Or not, as the author explains in the front of the book, "This is not a book about Australia. No, it's about somewhere entirely different which just happens to be, here and there, a bit . . . australian. Still . . . no worries, right?"
Rincewind's arrival was predicted and he is expected to save Fourecks, helped out by his usual weird lucky bad luck. And by a disappearing kangaroo who calls himself Scrappy.
Meanwhile, back in Ankh-Morpork, the Librarian is quite ill. He keeps changing shape, involuntarily. The wizards want to work a spell on him but in order to do so, they need to know his true name. But the Librarian refuses to reveal his name because he likes being an orangutan and he is afraid the wizards will make him human again. But none of the wizards know the Librarian's name. In fact, the only one, other than the actual Librarian, who might know his name is Rincewind, who used to be the Librarian's assistant.
The wizards are not sure how to get Rincewind back to the Unseen University. Before they figure it out, they discover a passageway in a bathroom that leads to a tropical island. Of course, they all have to go there. And of course, they all get stuck there when the housekeeper shuts the passageway unknowingly and trapping them all, including herself, on a tiny island in the distant past, inhabited by a strange little god who is trying to invent evolution and failing massively.
So what does it all have to do with Rincewind? Quite a lot. But first Rincewind has to survive living in XXXX.

This was a good story. There is a dwarf who is based on the Mad Max movie character. There is a bartender who a crocodile, called Crocodile Crocodile and the scene from the Crocodile Dundee movie, "you call that a knife" appears in the story. There is a nod to the movie, Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, and the song Waltzing Matilda. And that Australian criminal that faced down the police in a suit of homemade armor, Ned Kelly, gets in the story, sort of. I suppose there are even more references that I didn't catch.
I think Mr. Pratchett had a lot of fun writing this story.

Interesting Times

By Terry Pratchett

Rincewind is off on another adventure when he finds himself magically transported to the land of Twoflower, the innocent tourist from The Color of Magic.
When Twoflower arrived back home, he wrote a travel book describing the wonders of Ankh-Morpork and incidentally creating much dissatisfaction in the denizens of the Agatean Empire. A revolution is in the making, helped along surreptitiously by Lord Hong, the Grand Vizier to the elderly emperor. Lord Hong has grand ambitions and envious eyes on Ankh-Morpork.
The wizards of the Unseen University have been instructed to send the "great wizzard" to the Agatean Empire. The only wizard who spells it "wizzard" is Rincewind and so Rincewind is summarily snatched and instantaneously sent thence, only to end up in prison next to his old traveling companion, Twoflower. Together the two of them and a few young, idealistic followers will overthrow an empire and reanimate an ancient, long buried army.

This is one of the better Rincewind stories. The plot is more solid and a less chaotic than most Rincewind stories. The social commentary manages to stay amusing while being quite pointed. It has a very intriguing ending, with Rincewind finding himself transported to the continent of XXXX, the Discworld equivalent to Australia where he has an immediate encounter with a boomerang.

Review by Publishers Weekly.

Eric

By Terry Pratchett

Rincewind gets mistaken for a demon when young demonologist Eric summons him to do his bidding. All Eric wants is three wishes: to rule the world, have the most beautiful woman in the world and live forever.
Rincewind tries to explain that he is not a demon but Eric refuses to believe it since Rincewind is constrained by the spells he uses to control a demon. And he demands his wishes be fulfilled. Of course, this wish thing never works out the way the wisher intended and Eric and Rincewind find themselves in nearly constant danger. They finally end up in hell where they encounter some of the folks they meet during their travels and where the king of hell is being subtly undermined by his reactionary subordinates.

A typical Rincewind story, with the failed wizard stumbling from one misadventure to another, helped out by the relentless luggage. I have to admit that the Rincewind character is not my favorite of the Discworld series.

The Light Fantastic

By Terry Pratchett

Book Two in the Discworld series.

The first book ended with Rincewind falling off the edge of the world to certain death. But he is miraculously saved along with Twoflower, the tourist. Together, with the "luggage," the two continue to survive against all odds, helped this time by Cohen, the octogenarian barbarian.
But near death is not just a problem for Rincewind and Twoflower. The whole world is facing annihilation by the sudden appearance of a rogue red star. The key to the world's survival is the major spell lodged in Rincewind's head.
Meanwhile, back in Ankh-Morpork, things are unsettled at the Unseen University as the wizards try to deal with the threat posed by the red star. In the process, the head wizard is killed and an ambitious younger wizard Trymon quickly steps in to take his place.
Meanwhile, the wizards are hunting Rincewind, wanting to gain access to the major spell and they will get him any way they can, dead or alive.

This was quite a lively story. Lots of frantic action, with Rincewind and company constantly in danger but still managing to escape fairly intact. In many ways, it is quite similar to the first book in the series, Rincewind and Twoflower against all odds, only this time the odds include the end of the world.

Review by Fantasy Book Review.

The Color of Magic

By Terry Pratchett

The first book in the Discworld series where the reader is introduced to the main character, Rincewind, the sort-of wizard. (He flunked out of wizard school and only knows one spell. But that one spell is so powerful, he doesn't dare use it and he doesn't even know what it does.)
Rincewind has a knack for languages, so when a tourist arrives at Ankh-Morpork, Rincewind is the only one who can communicate with him. The tourist, Twoflowers, is loaded with gold and the denizens of Ankh-Morpork are eager to relieve his of all his gold. Rincewind is given the task of keeping Twoflower safe and serving as his guide. Which is going to be a real challenge as everyone who crosses Twoflower's path immediately has plans to murder him and take his trunk full of gold. What the thieves don't realize is that the trunk has a mind of its own and is absolutely loyal to Twoflower and extremely protective of its contents and very capable of defending itself.

A romp of an adventure as Rincewind and Twoflower tumble from one disastrous encounter to another. It ends in cliffhanger, though, which is more than a little annoying.

Unseen Academicals

By Terry Pratchett

The Unseen University, a school for and of wizards located in Ankh-Morpork of Discworld, has an unassuming gray fellow working as a candle dribbler. His job is to make all the candles look well and properly dribbled, as befits an antique institution like the Unseen University.
Mr. Nutt doesn't like draw attention to himself, preferring to go about his job efficiently dribbling candles. But Mr. Nutt has begun to make friends with some of the other employees of the University, mainly Trevor Likely, his boss, and Glenda Sugarbean, who runs the Night Kitchen with the help of her best friend, the beautiful Juliet Stollop, and makes the University's pies and other after-hours treats. There is some question about exactly what Mr. Nutt is, and it is commonly accepted that he is a goblin. Or maybe not.
Ankh-Morpork is football-mad and competition between rival teams has become quite fierce and uncontrolled. So the ruler of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari, has decided to step in. He orders the wizards of the Unseen University to set up a team of their own and formalize the rules and move the games from the city streets to a proper arena. And, amazingly, Trevor Likely, Glenda Sugarbean, Juliet Stollop and shy Mr. Nutt are going to be the key figures who will make this plan a reality.

This was an amusing and well-laid out story, even if the subject, football, is one that doesn't interest me. Mr. Nutt is another of Pratchett's memorable and unusual characters, another strange being in Ankh-Morpork's melting pot of strange beings. And like the others, Mr. Nutt manages to find a place for himself and the respect of a reluctant community.

Snuff

By Terry Pratchett

Ankh-Morpork Commander of the City Watch Sam Vimes has finally agreed to take a much-deserved and long put-off vacation. So he and his wife, Lady Sybil and their young son, Sam, are going to spend a couple of weeks at Lady Sybil's family estate in the country.
But it isn't long before Sam's vacation turns into a criminal investigation with Sam set up to take the fall for a local man's disappearance, a man with whom Sam had a brief confrontation at the local pub. Before long, Sam is on the trail of a cruel murderer and after a gang of drug smugglers who are being backed by the local bigwigs.
It all leads to a thrilling riverboat ride on a river in roaring flood. Sam comes out on top and in the process manages to bring a downtrodden local minority into equal status with the rest of the Discworld community.

This was another interesting novel in the Discworld series but not as funny as some of the earlier novels. It does have some amusing moments but its also pretty serious as it deals with discrimination, murder and the indifference of the illegal drug industry to the dire effects of their product on their customers. I appreciate that Pratchett has some important points to make about society. But I don't read his books for their social commentary. I just want to be amused. For the most, I wasn't amused by this book. It was just too serious for my taste.

Pyramids (Discworld)

By Terry Pratchett

Teppic is the son of the Pharaoh, or rather the Discworld's version of a pharaoh. His father is the king of Djelibeybi, a narrow land stretched along the two banks of a desert river. And like a pharaoh, he is considered to be a god, responsible for causing the sun to rise and the crops to grow.
Teppic was sent off as a lad to Ankh-Morpork to Assassin's school and just as he was all set to start his new career, his father died and now Teppic has to go home to run the kingdom. But being king isn't quite what he thought it would be as he is completely under the thumb of the high priest Dios and finds himself pressured to do only what the high priest approves. Succumbing to the pressure, and even though the kingdom is bankrupt, Teppic orders a pyramid to be built as a tomb for his father. This will be the biggest pyramid ever built. What nobody understands, though, since pyramids influence time, this huge new pyramid will have catastrophic effects on the kingdom. And Teppic finds himself on the run from his own high priest who finally tires of Teppic's resistance and sets out to kill him. And the only thing that maybe able to set things right is a camel named You Bastard.

This was a pretty funny and interesting book. Teppic isn't much of an assassin nor is he much of a king and the massive new pyramid certainly turns things upside down in Djelibeybi as the dead come back to life and the old gods become real. My favorite character in the book was Teppic's dead father, who didn't want to be buried in a pyramid and who doesn't particularly want to live forever either. He just hangs around watching the embalmers dismember his body, plucking his eyes out of his head and his brains out through his nostrils and stuffing his interior with sawdust. That is probably one of the funniest parts of the book. One of the other funniest parts is when the priests are doing the play-by-play as various suddenly real gods vie for control of the sun. Absolutely priceless.

Mort

By Terry Pratchett

Mort is an awkward young man who doesn't seem to fit into the small rural community where he lives. His dad has tried to teach him farming but it didn't seem a good choice for Mort. So his dad takes him to an apprentice fair in a nearby town. At the fair, employers come looking for lads to hire as apprentices. Mort and his dad wait at the fair all day and evening but no one wants to hire Mort. Finally, at midnight, when Mort is the last boy left, someone finally shows up who wants to hire Mort -- Death.
Death has been performing his duties for forever and he is frankly getting a little tired of it. So he has gotten the bright idea of taking on an apprentice, training him in all he needs to know, and letting the apprentice take over his duties so Death can have some time off.
Problem is, Mort is human, and although he learns all the tricks of the trade, his heart gets in the way. Death is off trying to have fun and Mort screws up big time when he prevents an assassin from killing a beautiful young princess. Now the march of history is totally bollixed up and when Death finds out, Mort will be up that proverbial creek.

This was a pretty interesting book as Mort grows into the roll of Death and Death turns his hand to being a short order cook in an inn in Ankh-Morpork. The best parts though, were learning the back story about Albert, Death's decrepit servant and then Albert's brief return to the land of the living. While not as funny as some of Pratchett's stories, this was still a pretty good read.

Witches Abroad

By Terry Pratchett

This is Discworld, which travels through space on the back of four elephants which themselves stand on the shell of Great A'Tuin, the sky turtle...Discworld exists right on the edge of reality.

Discworld is a place of magic and has all the usual magical creatures, like vampires, werewolves, trolls, witches and wizards. In this story, the focus is on five witches: the maiden (Magrat), the mother (Nanny Ogg), the crone (Granny Weatherwax), Mrs. Gogol (Voodoo queen), and the "other" one (Lily). Magrat has just inherited a magic wand and with it the responsibilities of a fairy godmother. (In Discworld, you apparently don't have to be a fairy to be a fairy godmother.) Along with the wand came instructions that she and Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax were to journey to Genua to help out Princess Emberella, the fairy god-daughter. Lily is very attached to stories and is using magic and mirrors to make fairy tales come true and she is determined that Emberella will marry the Prince, even though Emberella is dead set against it. The other four witches will band together to face the awesome powers of Lily, the mad, bad witch who believes she is the good guy and is determined that everything shall be done her way. There will be zombies, voodoo dolls, frog princes and there will even be brief appearances by a vampire who runs afoul of Nanny Ogg's mean tomcat Greebo, and Little Red Riding Hood and the big bad wolf, who turns out to be a starving, pathetic victim of Lily's obsession with stories.

I always enjoy Discworld stories and this is no exception. The three witches, Magrat, Nanny Ogg and her cat Greebo, and Granny Weatherwax are always fun to read about as they have their adventures in Discworld and this story certainly has its moments of high comedy. The Discworld series is one of the best fantasy series ever. It doesn't take itself seriously, it is quirky, amusing and just a whole lot of fun. Discworld Forever!

The Last Hero

By Terry Pratchett

Set in Discworld, this illustrated novel sees the ancient Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde of octogenarian heroes returning fire to the gods. In the Greek legend it was Prometheus who stole fire from Zeus; on Discworld it was Mazda who stole fire and he received the same punishment that Prometheus did: chained to a rock to have his liver eaten everyday by eagles. Cohen and his crew, who have a grudge against the gods, have decided to return the stolen fire to the gods, but in the form of an extremely explosive device, a Discworld version of a WMD.
The wizards of Ankh-Morpork are concerned that Cohen's actions could result in the destruction of the whole world. The Patrician, Lord Vetinari, sends two of his best men and one of his worst to deal with the gang of aging heroes, the Silver Horde. His two best men are the genius Leonard of Quirm, the Discworld version of Leonardo da Vinci, and Corporal Carrot, the true blue captain of the City Watch. His worst man is Rincewind, failed wizard (or as Rincewind spells it, wizzard) and unwilling world traveler. Rincewind knows Cohen and the boys and it is thought he may be able to persuade them not to blow up the world.
Cohen and the Horde are headed to Dunmanifestin, the city of the gods, located atop the impossibly high mountain, Cori Celeste. In order to get there in time to stop the Horde, Carrot, Leonard, and Rincewind will have to fly there in a machine designed by Leonard of Quirm. This flying machine, a space ship really, is propelled by the fiery breath of swamp dragons. Using this ingeniously powered vehicle, they will attempt to reach Dunmanifestin and halt Cohen's misguided attempt to get back at the gods.
This oversize illustrated novel is packed with drawings by Paul Kidby. I actually didn't care that much for his drawings, they are just too cartoony, I think. Also, I know that Cohen and the Silver Horde are heroes, but I just can't believe that even a hero could survive for long in a snow drift wearing a loin cloth and little else. After all, they are not super heroes.

I always enjoy Discworld stories. However, I find the stories about Rincewind just a little less enjoyable. This story held true to that trend. For one thing, it seemed truncated, like it needed more detail. I know I found the story kind of choppy and abrupt in parts. I have never really cared for Rincewind, he is my least favorite Pratchett character. Despite these points, I enjoyed this Discworld story.

Review from Publishers Weekly.