I am sorry for the twin reviews. I had asked for this book in mouthpd a few days ago and when it did not appear for some time I modified my review and reposted it under a different book, as the review is more on the author than the book, it was an easy enough job. But now MS staff has posted the review and I have 2 reviews of the same conetent
I have been meaning to write a review on one of Terry?s work for quite some time. My only dilemma was, to choose which book should I start with? He has written about 40 books and according to me, each one of them is a masterpiece. And also he is not as popular here in India as he ought to be.
Therefore I have decided to write a general piece which reflects the character of his books and then a review on one of his books. His writings, in my opinion are the most hilarious pieces I have ever read. His work ranges from absurd to hard hitting satire. But whatever he writes, he bases his stuff on the real world and one can easily draw parallels to the real world. Almost all of his books? plots happen on an imaginary place called Discworld.
This world is flat, i.e. it is not a sphere like all our normal worlds but flat like a chapatti. One can actually fall off the edge of the world. This world is supported by 4 elephants , who in turn are on a great turtle O?Tuin, which roams around in space. As we can see the series is a fantasy one with more than a dollop of hilarity. Because the world is imaginary and totally the author?s creation, he can do anything there. The laws of physics do not matter here. What Terry does in his books is that he picks up any ongoing or famous happenings, place etc from the real world, and plays out the happenings in his discworld. In the process he brings out the humor in the things we see normally everyday.
It is not an easy job and it takes a great cynic to do that. Often the humor lies not in the plot, but in the way the character reacts in a particular situation. Often the reaction is an exaggerated form of the normal behavior one can expect from a person next door. Last, but not the least. The funniest parts in his books are the footnotes. He often writes footnotes explaining something in the most bizarre manner. I will give an example which comes to my mind. Of course, Ankh-Morpork’s citizens had always claimed that the river water was incredibly pure. Any water that had passed through so many kidneys, they reasoned, had to be very pure indeed.
(Terry Pratchett, Sourcery) One more The shortest span of time known to man is the New York second, which is defined as the time elapsed between a traffic light turning green and the cabbie behind you honking. And another The gods of the Disc have never bothered much about judging the souls of the dead, and so people only go to hell if that’s where they believe, in their deepest heart, that they deserve to go. Which they won’t do if they don’t know about it. This explains why it is so important to shoot missionaries on sight.
(Terry Pratchett, Eric) and the last one - ’’What’re quantum mechanics?’’ - ’’I don’t know. People who repair quantums, I suppose.’’ -- (Terry Pratchett, Eric) On discworld there is a major city called Ankh Morpork. There are several continents which we can relate to the continents of our world. And of course the characters. Each and every one of them is as hilarious as any. He has done spoofs on Macbeth, China, Africa, Music, Christmas, Hollywood, Dr. Faust and many many more.
I suppose he is the best humor writer I have ever read. Now, its time for the book being reviewed. It?s a curse in Chinese , ?May you live in Interesting Times? In this book we have a wizard, who is the most inept wizard of all times. He cannot cast any spell at all and is the biggest coward in the world and considers running away as his specialty. He is Rincewind (incidentally he is the hero in many of Terry?s books). The more he runs away the more he gets stuck in the dangerous matters. In this book he manages to gets himself teleported to a place which dangerously resembles Imperial China. And the majority of the action takes place there. I will not go into the details of the plot because the beauty lies not in the plot and I am sure I will scare away readers by describing it in detail.
So I will strongly suggest anyone to give any one of his books a try. I will end with another quote ( if allowed I can fill 10 reviews just with quotes). ’’Meat pies! Hot sausages! Inna bun! So fresh the pig h’an’t noticed they’re gone!’’ -- Genuine pig portion packages (Terry Pratchett, Moving Pictures)
Nikunj