Terry Pratchett - The Last Continent: A Novel of Discworld

Take a vacation packed with adventure, excitement, exotic cuisine and all the other things that people crave (until they actually experience them) without the inconvenience of losing your luggage, getting sunburn and forgetting where the car has been parked all week. Simply stow-away with a wizard (they're generally so portly that no one will notice a bit of extra bulk, and besides, a wizard's pockets can and will hold anything) and step through that open window in the middle of an otherwise perfectly ordinary study to the fabulous last continent, XXXX.

Ok, so maybe XXXX (pronounced "Quadruple Ecks" or "Ecks-Ecks-Ecks-Ecks") isn't that fabulous. It's rather flat, and there's never any rain, the bears bounce and wombats have a tendency to get belligerently drunk at you. However, you didn't have to pay any airfare, so quit your complaining. What XXXX does have is beer, meat pies swimming (or at least managing to not drown) in pea soup, and Rincewind. Rincewind landed at XXXX after the faculty of Unseen University made a slight miscalculation for his return-trip from the Counterweight Continent (see Interesting Times). Rincewind may not be able to spell "wizard" properly (extra z's, for the record, do not lend credibility) and he has as much affinity for magic as a goldfish has for mountain climbing, but he does have a natural wizard's ability to get into trouble. Just follow the sound of screams, some of them aren't even his...

As books go, this is a pretty light read. Something to keep you occupied on a long plane trip (perhaps to the continent/country that Pratchett swears XXXX isn't, but then Piers Anthony says that Xanth isn't Florida with a great bloody rift in the middle of it). It may help, but is not at all compulsory, to read other Discworld novels first (specifically other Ankh Morpork/Unseen University books such as Equal Rites, Reaper Man and Interesting Times).

The Last Continent is one of the more recent Discworld novels and the characters are fully developed (not mature, especially not the wizards, just developed), and the comic timing is...well-timed. It's light and good for a laugh, but not something with which you will constantly terrorize your friends while repeating "You must read this" like some sort of commanding mantra. It's a bit like a "Three Stooges" episode written down, with kangaroos in, but you read anyway because you want to see the characters get into trouble and then out of it again (so that they can get into more trouble). I read it because I am a fan of Pratchett (he signed my copy of Feet of Clay with the inscription "A word in your head" and I'm wondering if that word wasn't "Buy"), and I like comic fantasy (Douglas Adams for example).If you've read other Discworld novels and enjoyed them, especially ones including Rincewind and/or the other wizards, then chances are you will enjoy this book as well. If not, no worries, she'll be all right.

I also recommend these Pratchett books:

The Hogfather
Interesting Times
The Fifth Elephant

Recommend this product? Yes