2008-01-22 Another Hilarious Romp on the Discworld

Terry Pratchett has become one of the most popular authors alive today and his popularity is richly deserved. But not even with his fertile mind could ever have envisaged the heights to which his Discworld series would rise. This book was first published in 1988 and is number six in the Discworld novels.

You would think that a fantasy world full of trolls, zombies, witches, vampires would be an alien concept to most readers. Werewolves and dwarves in the Ank Morpork city watch. Wizards running a university. All this produced by one of the funniest minds writing today. Surely this type of writing would have a very limited readership. Not a bit of it, new books by Pratchett are almost as eagerly awaited as are the current J. K. Rowling offerings.

What do you do when you are fourteen years old and live on a place as crazy as the Discworld. Well, whatever fourteen year old boys do wherever they live. Make a nuisance of themselves. Eric has achieved that magical age of fourteen, how, nobody knows and has decided that as he is a little devil himself he might as well try and raise a few more, with less than successful results. What he does manage to raise is our old friend Rincewind, a wizard. Now what Rincewind doesn't know about wizardry really isn't worth knowing. No really it isn't worth knowing. Of course where Rincewind goes, the Luggage will surely follow. Now this really is worth having, a piece of luggage that never gets lost and it does, it always manages to find you. What a boon for the modern day airport.

The usual hilarious mayhem occurs, hocus pocus, the old three wishes trick and even a trip to hell, not to be recommended for the those of a nervous disposition. Hell that is, not the book which is hilarious and should be recommended to anybody and everybody.