Make way for The Last Hero of the Discworld!
Written: Oct 16 '06 (Updated Oct 17 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: The Silver Horde, more playing around with religion
Cons: Artwork is hit or miss at times
The Bottom Line: Though colorful and imaginative, it's not for Discworld newbies.
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| arianej's Full Review: Terry Pratchett - Last Hero: A Discworld Fable |
A friend was looking at my Amazon.com wishlist, and said, "My god, do you have down everything Terry Pratchett has ever written?" Well, no. I already have quite a few of his novels! But I hadn't gotten around to reading his The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable, lavishly illustrated by Paul Kidby until now.
The Story
The thing about the Discworld is that it's hard to explain. It's a world shaped like a disc, carried on the back of four enormous elephants, which in turn ride through space upon the back of a giant turtle. And if that sounds weird...well, it gets better. (Or worse, depending on how great your love of normalcy is.) The Discworld is full of magic and odd things and people: inept yet hard-to-kill wizards and an Unseen University of magic, plotting politicians, Assassin's Guilds, wiley witches, broccoli-forbidding religions, talking dogs, trolls, dwarves, vampires, zombies and more. Pratchett wields this world with razor accuracy and a wild sense of humor, constantly parodying and lambasting our world with his truly bizarre storylines.
And The Last Hero is no less bizarre than any of his other books, even though it's a considerably shorter tale than the other novels in the Discworld series. It's a huge mish-mash of characters that will be familiar to Pratchett fans: Lord Vetinari, Captain Carrot, Mustrum Ridcully, Rincewind, Leonard da Quirm, the Librarian, Ponder Stibbons... Even Sam Vimes and the infamous sentient pearwood Luggage make brief appearances. But mainly, this book deals with Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde, a geriatric gang of marauders and troublemakers with names like Truckle the Uncivil, Boy Willie, and Mad Hamish, who's not the least bit deterred from a life of kicking butt and taking names by the fact that he's mostly deaf and in a wheelchair.
"Another response of wizards, when faced with a new and unique situation, was to look through their libraries and see if it had ever happened before. This was, Lord Vetinari reflected, a good survival trait. In meant that in times of danger you spent the day sitting quietly in a building with very thick walls.
He looked again at the piece of paper in his hand. Why were people so stupid? One sentence caught his eye: 'He says the last hero ought to return what the first hero stole.'
And of course, everyone knew what the first hero stole."
It turns out that all is not well in Ankh-Morpork. The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari, has received communications that Cohen the Barbarian and his feared Silver Horde are making for Dunmanifestin on the mountain of Corus Celesti, the abode of the gods. What's more, he's got a sinister mission in mind. Cohen aims to immortalize his fame as the last hero of the Discworld by returning what the first hero of the Discworld stole... with interest. Now the best and brightest minds of Ankh-Morpork (such as they are) must figure a way to stop him before the hub of the world collapses, taking all the magic with it and possibly the Discworld as well.
The Good Stuff
What I love about a Pratchett novel is that it's so darn funny. Pratchett has a weird sense of humor, ranging from silly word plays and puns to truly staggering and sharp ridicule of everything from religion to English cuisine. Many compare him to Douglas Adams... I'll risk being labeled a blasphemer and say I enjoy Pratchett even more. The Discworld is a mad, wonderful creation and this book fleshes it out a tiny bit more with illustrations and focus on some of the lesser-known characters.
Cohen the Barbarian is one of my favorite Discworld characters, although really, it's hard to choose when there's so many hilarious ones. It was nice to see him and the Silver Horde featured prominently in this tale. Even funnier was the too-brief appearance of an aged adventuress that will surely provoke giggles with her resemblance to...well, I won't say more for fear of spoiling the surprise. Kidby's portrayal of this character and the Horde in general is not to be missed for its hilarity.
I also enjoyed seeing more of Leonard da Quirm (another minor character) in action. An inventor extraordinare, he's a gentle soul with a surprising talent for creating the most vicious bits of machinery known to man. His innovation is stunning, but unfortunately, things don't always work in real life as they do on paper... Other notable appearances include some of the Discworld's gods and goddesses, used with a bit of the brilliant commentary about religion and belief as Pratchett covered in Small Gods and Hogfather.
Not-so-Good Stuff
I usually have mixed feelings when it comes to illustrating beloved literary works. It invariably clashes in some way with my own ideas of what stuff should look like, and no matter how good the artist, it can often fall short of what your imagination is capable of painting. For example, I rather like the portrayal of the Discworld, its four elephants and the massive turtle swimming through the universe. The portrait of Death with a kitten put me in stitches, as did Mad Hamish's battle wheelchair. But I was less thrilled by a fairly bland picture of Ankh-Morpork, which looked disappointingly (and I thought, improbably) uniform and bland compared to Pratchett's colorful description and numerous quips about its culture, or lack thereof.
For the most part, I found it interesting to see an artist's view of the Discworld, even if it didn't always mesh with mine. If you're a fan, you'll probably be able to tell who is who just from their picture... which is good, because they're not always labeled. Kidby's work is attractively detailed with rich colors and his subjects retain a great deal of expression from snarling Truckle the Uncivil to a startled-looking Ponder Stibbons (who greatly resembles an older, slightly chubby Harry Potter) to a rather mournful Rincewind the Wizard. His website (http://www.paulkidby.com) carries more examples of his artwork, including Hogswatch cards and t-shirts with Greebo and Death...which tempt me unbearably, except that so few of my acquaintances would get the joke.
The other main drawback to The Last Hero was its brevity. A good Pratchett novel--like any work of genius-- can't be rushed. His usual style is to introduce one mind-boggling plot thread after another, weaving them masterfully together over the course of a novel until the finish is nothing short of brilliant and you can't believe you didn't see it coming. Since this book is shorter, that has to happen a lot faster. While I don't think the length spoiled the tale, I think that a longer text could only have improved it by giving the story more time to develop.
Recommendations
Ordinarily, I'd say that you can read just about any Discworld novel in just about any order. In this case, Pratchett's had less time to describe his characters and re-establish who they are. Unless you're already pretty familiar with the Discworld, the whole book may read like a giant inside joke you're not getting. I recommend starting elsewhere first, particularly with The Light Fantastic and Interesting Times since they go into greater detail and background about Cohen the Barbarian and the Silver Horde. Likewise, books on the Watch (like Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms, Feet of Clay and Jingo) will give a first-time reader more clues about Captain Carrot Ironfounderrson and how he came to be a six-foot dwarf as well as a valuable addition to the Watch.
I've been saying for a while now that Pratchett has to be one of the most consistently excellent authors out there in or out of the fantasy genre. He never fails to make me laugh, and this book is no different. Discworld fans won't want to miss out on The Last Hero!
Recommended:
Yes
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arianej
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Member: Ariane
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