The Last Continent

This was an great story with some interesting and unexpected turns. I loved the talking kangaroo, and the two Creator characters. The wizards are once again the Keystone Kops of the story, bumbling their way into a different time and place through a window in the bedroom of a missing professor, then bumbling their way back to their own time and place, accidentally inventing surfing and duckbilled platypuses in the interim. Meanwhile, Rincewind is lost. He is so lost. But his luck is, as usual, coincidentally perfect, and he always seems to do the right thing, even when it doesn’t seem so at the time. He seems to know in an instant how to take advantage of any situation, and the kangaroo gives him a lot of help. No worries. He accidentally invents vegemite (or something very similar), meets a real drop bear, and nearly gets hanged for stealing a sheep he didn’t steal–but as with Mr. Cheeky in “Life of Brian”, someone always comes along to rescue him. In this story, a wagonload of drag queens comes along just at the right time. There were several laugh-out-loud moments in this book for me, and I’m not one to laugh much at Pratchett’s awful puns. There were lots of creative ideas, too. But I don’t want to spoil it. It’s a fun read, paced as the Discworld books usually are: painfully slow at the beginning, picking up the pace and tension about halfway through, then really action-paced in the next 25% of the book, with the last 5% reserved for tying up loose ends and character curtain calls.

How does Terry Pratchett manage to write books that are both hilarious and profound? “Logic is a wonderful thing but doesnt always beat actual thought” is from The Last Continent. In the intro he says it’s not about Australia, really, just about someplace Australia-like. He must have had a heck-uv-an interesting trip to the Round World ™ Australia to write this book. In this installment of Rincewind the Wizzard’s adventures, the cowardly Rincewind is tasked with saving, not the Discworld, but the dry, isolated continent of Ecks-Ecks-Ecks-Ecks, from the unwitting interference in its weather by the wizards of Unseen University, who are trying to cure the Librarian of an instability in his morphic function (every time he sneezes, he changes form, for example, into a red furry armchair). The wizards have gotten lost in the past searching for the Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography, Rincewind invents the cork-bobble hat, the Luggage, having been unearthed by opal miners, falls in with a traveling group of transvestite…, well, no, I’ll let you find out about that yourselves. Don’t forget to read the footnotes.

Ahh! Now this is another Rincewind favorite! Sadly I had not read this one so this is a first time for me and I loved it! I’ve never been to Australia, which Terry Pratchett says this book is nothing about by the way, but after reading this I think it would be fun to venture over there.

In this one Rincewind is at his best. He’s once again told that HE and only he can save the Discworld but he’s having none of it. Saving worlds puts you into a lot of danger! He’s tired of being in danger and just wants to get home! It’s funny because I do not think Rincewind would exactly call himself lucky, but there is a bit of luck on his side here. Just when he’s about to die of dehydration he trips, falls, and lands face first into a pond of water. Every time! Someone is looking out for him, even if it isn’t Rincewind himself!

The funny thing is, he has not learned that the harder you try to run away the faster you get to where you do not want to be. And I’m impressed with just how oblivious he is to the lives around him! Of course it does not really matter because he accepts everyone for who they are anyway, but it does add some hilarity into this one.

It’s not all about Rincewind though. The Librarian has a nasty case of a cold which keeps changing his shape into various things that blend in with his environment. Because of this the wizards from Unseen University want to help him but the only wizard that knows The Librarian enough to know his real name is Rincewind. He is also the wizard that Ponder Stibbons accidentally sent to XXXX. No way to cure The Librarian and no way to get to Rincewind? That is not going to stop a bunch of wizards! They find themselves on their own little adventure, way away from UU and have to deal with Gods that are creating evolution, sharks, and a very good looking housekeeper!

It is a rare day when I do not laugh at a Terry Pratchett novel, but this one had my sides splitting! It was read wonderfully and I not only listened to it once but loved it so much that I wound up listening again! This is one that I’ll listen to every year.

If you are a Rincewind fan you will definitely not want to pass this one up. Terry Pratchett at his best!

Sadly, I am ending the Rincewind series with this one. Later I’m going to go back and read The Last Hero which is a graphic novel. I’m looking forward to another Rincewind story!

It’s a weird book – just my cup of tea. I have read all but the latest book, given them all away when we downsized, and am now just over half way through the lot in Kindle format (no space to store books!). As I have said many times before, Terry is an acquired taste – you either love them or hate them because you can’t understand them! I am in the former category!

This is another great book in the famous Discworld series, in this book we are transported to the magical, mystical world that Terry Pratchett has created. We meet characters such as: Rincewind, Luggage, The Libarian, DEATH and Mustrum Ridcully.
In the book we go on another great adventure with Rincewind (the wizard who can’t quite spell wizard) and his faithful companion Luggage, this book can be read as a stand alone book which is great if you havent managed to track down all of the series yet. It is full of funny moments that will have you laughing and maybe even crying with laughter, the writing style is done in a way that makes you be able to visualise the conversations that the characters are having with each other as if you are actually there in the room with them. This is a great book for young adults and adults, it is sure to make your imagination stretch and expand. It is one that is also very hard to put down and step away from, you are sure to find yourself back reading it. I love this book!

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