The light grows stronger (The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett)

Member Name: davidbuttery

Product:	The Light Fantastic - Terry Pratchett
Date:	04/11/09 (32 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More assured writing, Death, Cohen is a wonderful character

Disadvantages: The Discworld is still not quite mature

The Light Fantastic, the second of the Discworld novels, is the only straight sequel within the series. It shares many features with The Colour of Magic, as one might expect, and like its predecessor gives the impression of a writer not yet entirely sure of his ground. Given that the said writer is Terry Pratchett, however, there's still plenty to enjoy, even if a part of that enjoyment is the knowledge that you have a large number of better books ahead of you in the series.

This book follows Rincewind, the Disc's most incompetent "wizzard" [sic] and Twoflower, the planet's first known tourist. The former has lived all his life in the bustling, dangerous city of Ankh-Morpork, while Twoflower has appeared without warning from the Agatean Empire or "Counterweight Continent". This almost unknown and indeed semi-legendary place has a number of unusual features, as are made clear in later books in the Discworld series, but one of these is that gold there flows like water. (Well... not *exactly* like water, but you see the point.)

Twoflower, impressed by the charming antiquity (for which read "murderous filth") of Ankh-Morpork and in the wizzard's ability with languages, one of his very few genuine skills, has offered Rincewind a fee of such staggering vastness - in local terms - to be his guide as to overcome the latter's suspiciousness of strangers, foreign travel and indeed anything that might require him to indulge in his outstanding ability: that of running away from things. (As Rincewind points out in another novel, never mind where to; the important thing is the *from*.) Unfortunately, things have not gone entirely to plan, and Rincewind begins the book having fallen off the edge of the world.

The story in The Light Fantastic has a slightly more expansive feel to it than does that of its prequel, despite the fact that you'd think you couldn't get a lot more expansive than falling off the world into infinite space. Well, fairly infinite: some of it is occupied by Great A'Tuin, the huge turtle on whose back the Discworld stands. With four elephants providing intermediate pillars, of course. Not having those would just be silly. The turtle is unfortunately heading directly for a red star, and the only way of saving the world is apparently to read the Eight Great Spells of the Octavo spellbook - except that one of those is lodged - squatted might be a better word - in Rincewind's head. The top wizards (fewer zeds but more power) at Unseen University are therefore after him, though exactly what they intend on doing when they find him is not something Rincewind wishes to stop and find out.

The Light Fantastic introduces two of the Discworld's best recurring characters. A magical accident results in the transformation of the University Librarian into an ape; an orang-utan, to be precise. He seems remarkably content with this state of affairs - unless, of course, he is called a monkey - and remains so in future books. Many miles out on the endless steppes, we also meet Cohen the Barbarian, an ancient and grizzled hero whose whip-like muscles and feats of derring-do are matched only by his wish for a world of "hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper".  He is one of Pratchett's earliest really memorable guest characters, and the scenes involving him are rarely less than excellent.

The book also fleshes out - a rather unfortunate phrase, admittedly - the character of Death, who from the slightly stereotypical and really quite nasty figure in The Colour of Magic here starts to move towards the much more sympathetic and in some ways very human Death familiar to readers of the later novels. He is still summoned by the senior wizards by means of the ancient and terrifying Rite of AshkEnte, but is perfectly capable of appearing out of the mists holding a cheese-and-pineapple-on-a-stick snack - "I WAS AT A PARTY" is his perfectly reasonable explanation. It is really in this book where it starts to become clear that Death is, as many have pointed out, in some indefinable way "on our side".

Several other characters are used only in this book and then dropped, most disappointingly Bethan, the young woman rescued from a ritual sacrifice (and not altogether happy about the fact) who becomes a companion of Rincewind, Twoflower and Cohen for a while. The non-reappearance of the character - if you can say that about a slavering nightmare from the Dungeon Dimensions - of Bel-Shamharoth was probably inevitable, however, as he/it/whatever would have seemed out of place in the more advanced - one might say "civilised", but only with due caution - society of the later books. This also means that something of a running gag about wizards not being able to say the number eight - "or you'll be ate alive" - is gradually forgotten about as time goes on.

The classic cover design of The Light Fantastic is that by the late and much-missed Josh Kirby, showing the main characters hurtling through the sky while clinging to the Luggage, Twoflower's ferociously loyal travelling-chest-with-feet. The picture doesn't really tell you anything much about the story, and Rincewind looks far too powerful, but Kirby's style is so distinctive that it works pretty well nevertheless. The demand for similar "grown-up covers" to those that the Harry Potter books offered, together with Kirby's untimely death, means that there is an alternative version, as shown here on Dooyoo as it happens, showing a spellbook on a plain black background - but really, why would you want that?

It's hard to sum up The Light Fantastic on its own, so closely bound up as it is with the story begun in The Colour of Magic that the two really form a single tale. However, subtle as they may be, the differences are there. Pratchett does seem to be gaining confidence as his world takes shape, and while the humour and parody is still quite broad, there seem to be more occasions - such as the aforementioned summoning of Death - on which something happens which takes a fantasy convention in a completely new direction, not actually murdering it but certainly giving it a good going-over behind the bike sheds. The Light Fantastic is not yet mature Discworld, but it's growing up fast.

Summary: Keep at it - it gets better!