Light Fantastic, The

Inhoud

As it moves towards a seemingly inevitable collision with a malevolent red star, the Discworld has only one possible saviour. Unfortunately, this happens to be the singularly inept and cowardly wizard called Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of the world...

Bespreking

A fantastic sequel to The Colour of Magic

The Light Fantastic is the second novel in the brilliant Discwold series and picks up where The Colour of Magic ended.

The Wizards from the Unseen University are trying to save the world. For this they need to recite all eight spells originally written in the Octavo, a book of magic which the creator of the universe left behind - with characteristic absent-mindedness - shortly after completing his major work. One problem though: the eight spell is still imprisoned in the mind of Rincewind, one of the most clumsy and incompetent wizards ever to walk on the Discworld. And if that isn't bad enough Rincewind is currently falling off the rim of the world, together with the first-ever tourist Twoflower and his carnivorous Luggage.

Where The Colour of Magic is really humorous but lacks a good story-line, this episode is more complete. The characters are as funny and are now involved in a plot that really keeps the reader hooked. It is as though the first book only intends to introduce the main characters and the story really takes off in the second one. This does not mean that I advice you to skip the first one, because then you would miss a reasonable amount of jokes.

Knowing that the best books of the series are yet to follow these two - "Guards! Guards!" to name only one of them - the Discwold is the perfect series to start reading if you want to be amused for a very long time.