The Light Fantastic by: Terry Pratchett

The Light Fantastic is an interesting novel if you are coming to the Discworld with no prior experience to the series like I am.  It is first and foremost a direct sequel to The Color of Magic, but it demonstrates a real improvement in the writing style as Pratchett, while not doing a satire on anything more than fantasy tropes as was with The Color of Magic, has improved at telling a story and sticking to that story.  The format of The Color of Magic as four short stories which allows for Pratchett to tell two great ones and two average ones, but The Light Fantastic is first and foremost a character piece.  This character piece is based on that of our incompetent wizard Rincewind, who only knows one spell from the Octavo which jumped into his head and has been waiting for the right moment to jump out.  The problem with this one is that Rincewind isn’t exactly a deep character.  Sure he’s extremely enjoyable to follow, but he doesn’t really have much growth or development beyond being a coward and being manipulated into doing the Octavo’s bidding.

The more interesting character of this novel is Trymon, the kniving wizard who becomes the Archchancellor of the Unseen University after an accident with the Luggage kills the old one who was trying to summon the final spell of the Octavo.  Trymon is one of those villains with one character trait and a lust for power, coming straight out of a hammy B-movie, he invites the audience into his thoughts in a series of schemes before his eventual defeat.  There’s a reason that Tim Curry plays him in the television adaptation of the novel as there’s nobody else who could really play Trymon.  He could do without the tentacles at the end though.

While the format of the novel was indeed improved upon, there is still a very episodic nature to the events.  The plot is tied together with a shooting star signaling the time that all eight spells of the Octavo are to be read before the end of the world.  Of course it is up to Rincewind and Twoflower to stop this, even if they end up reading the spells and the Disc continues to be except the Great A’Tuin gives birth to eight baby space turtles.  The plot is tied up very loosely and Terry Pratchett has gone on record saying he didn’t really know where he wanted the book to go at points and it shows.  There are some amazing scenes: Cohen the Barbarian and Bethan have a great relationship, the eating of the gingerbread house abandoned by a witch because of those horrible children, Twoflower teaching the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse how to play bridge and Death becoming addicted to it, and Death’s daughter Ysabell are all highlights of the novel, but the whole is still not the sum of its parts.  The book is extremely enjoyable overall, but feels like it’s a first draft with no endgoal in mind.  7/10.