The Last Continent - Terry Pratchett

At the end of 'Interesting Times', a slight magical miscalculation sees the unfortunate 'Wizzard', Rincewind, end up on the continent of EcksEcksEcksEcks (or FourEcks, if you prefer). It's a large uncharted area of the Discworld, where - as Death's library informs us - the list of dangerous creatures comes in 23 very heavy volumes, whereas the un-dangerous ones consist of "some of the sheep". How on earth - I mean Disc - will the most unmagical wizard ever survive?! For those who haven't been paying attention, Terry Pratchett - recently hailed by the BBC as the saviour and most important modern-day writer of fantasy fiction (although personally ...  Read the complete review

“Against the stars a turtle passes, carrying four elephants on its shell.” And so begins ‘The Last Continent’, the 22nd Discworld novel by bestselling author Terry Pratchett, which takes as its starting-point the satirical target of Australia. Having once been a massive Discworld fan, going back to the series after so long a gap reminded me of the reason why I tired of the books in the first place, and probably the same reason why the series has now become so perennially popular. Discworld, you see, is a series which has become respectable in a somewhat middle-aged sort of way; reading a new volume feels more like sliding on a ...  Read the complete review

Well this month I have sat down and read two Pratchett novels; THE TRUTH was the first one which I really enjoyed and which I have already reviewed, this was the second one. All I can say is that after such a brilliant predescessor, this entry into the Discworld series that is not really a series was nothing but a great big let down. The libarian of Unseen University is suffering from some form of magical ailment (In an earlier book he was transformed into an orangutan(don't ask) and now can only say "ook") and so the Professors of Magic decide to try and come up with a cure-which is a problem because none of them can remember his true ...  Read the complete review

The Last Continent (a strange land which is called "EcksEcksEcksEcks") is one of the longer Discworld novels, and that can never be a bad thing. It centres on ... er... The Last Continent, which was made thousands and years ago... only Rincewind (an inept wizard who cannot learn new spells because one of the eight "great spells" has lodged itself in his brain and any others are too frightened to be near it... oh, and a perpetual coward who somehow escapes every form of death through no skill of his own) has to save it. From what he does not know. How he does not know. And does he even want to? Discworld is a planet that in some ways ...  Read the complete review

This is the 22nd book in the discworld series and the first book in the series that I read. At first I found the split plot quite difficult to read because the story jumped about so much, but after a couple of pages it was much easier to understand and this is the style used in most of the Discworld books. This time the story is based around Rincewind and the wizards of the Unseen University (including their housekeeper who adds a lot of humor to the book) and a country strangely reminiscent of Australia although we are assured in the foreword that this is definitely not the case. The Luggage, which is a box with many many vicious legs and a vicious ...  Read the complete review