Moving Pictures - Terry Pratchett

The Discworld is, of course, a flat world carried on the backs of four elephants that balance on Great A'Tuin, a giant space turtle. To suggest in any way that around the fifth book the turtle should have been quietly rewritten as a space cash cow would be churlish. Terry Pratchett has made a fortune out of writing a brilliant series of novels set in this perversely logical fantasy world. And, just to nail my colours to the mast, the series has defied the law of diminishing returns by getting better and better. Yes it has. When the series kicked off with The Colour of Magic many years ago, the supporting characters were generally one-note fantasy clichés ...  Read the complete review

Cheese on toast, chocolate covered peanuts & cherry flavoured cola. Just three examples of how sometimes combining two ingredients can produce something even better that the sum of it’s parts. As a confirmed movie addict and now a keen Discworld disciple imagine my delight at reaching book ten in Terry Pratchetts massive fantasy series. Otherwise known as ‘Moving Pictures’ it’s the story of the birth of the movie industry on the Discworld. First of all, here comes the science bit. In the multiverse lies the Discworld, a large disc shaped world balanced on the back of four giant elephants who, in turn, stand upon the back of great A’Tuin, the space turtle. ...  Read the complete review

This book tells the story of how movies arrived in the Discworld. The Discworld is Terry Pratchett's best-known creation: a flat world populated with - amongst others - granite trolls, bearded dwarfs, friendly zombies, as well as every conceivable type of human. They live (mostly) peaceably alongside each other, in a culture somewhat reminiscent of Mediaeval England. There are watchmen who call the hour (when they remember), dank alehouses, and a filthy river. Oh, and there's a university run by wizards with an orang-utang as librarian. There are also guilds, an attempt at organising the different craftspeople of the cities. This book particularly ...  Read the complete review

The tenth Discworld novel, Moving Pictures is also one of the best, offering plenty of opportunities for Pratchett's cavalcade of great characters, crazy storylines and clever gags. The plot sees the alchemists discovering the secret behind making "moving pictures" (films to you and me). Of course, in the Discworld, things are never straightforward and Things from the Dungeon Dimensions, drawn by the Magic of Holy Wood threaten to break through and destroy life as we know it. All of which is a fairly traditional nonsensical Pratchett plot, little more than an excuse to craft a storyline which allows him to cast his eye on the film industry ...  Read the complete review

This will quite probably be the hardest book review I have ever done. This isn’t because I didn’t like Moving Pictures – on the contrary, I LOVED it and thought it was brilliant, Terry Pratchett is indeed a genius! But this isn’t a straight-forward book or one that is easy to explain, but I will try. Years ago, I read Small Gods and thought it was great. I have been meaning to read some more Pratchett ever since, but hadn’t got round to it. Then I read a review of Mort the same day I went to the library. With Pratchett freshly in my mind, I headed towards the previously unvisited sci-fi / fantasy section and found four of his novels ...  Read the complete review