Discworld Tour: The Light Fantastic

 Welcome back, reader.

Welcome to the next stop on my Discworld Tour: The Light Fantastic!

So this book, reader, is a direct sequel to The Color of Magic, picking up with Rincewind and Twoflower falling off the side of the Disc. Oops. Worry not, reader, for these two lovable fools are saved at the last second by the spell in Rincewind's head because it doesn't want to die with him.

Of course, this is just the beginning of the story which reads a little more like the other Discworld books than The Color of Magic does. It's also written in his typical style; no chapters. It's another short book, but it introduces several characters and concepts that come back in the other books making it feel more like a part of the Discworld series.

First are the druids, who use monolithic rocks as computers. They don't feature heavily, but they're mentioned from time to time and this is their first appearance. It's a short joke, but one that comes back, especially in Soul Music which we shall get too much later in this tour. 

This is also the introduction of Cohen the Barbarian, who features multiple times in Rincewind's stories. Cohen is an send up of Conan the Barbarian, but old. He's also got shades of Ghengis Khan, since he's every barbarian in pulp fantasy everywhere. Except now he's an octogenarian and still in the pillaging game. Every time he features in a story he gets better, and his first appearance is pretty great.

Last are the horrors that lurk in the Dungeon Dimension. They have more screen time in Pratchett's earlier books that deal in magic, but the idea of a pocket dimension of eldritch beings gets mentioned from time to time in later instalments. This is the first time they get to bust into the mortal world, which is no good.

Back to the summary!

The wizards working at the Unseen University summon Death--Good Lord, I forgot to talk about Death!

So Death is a character that pops up in every Discworld book, sometimes as a main character and sometimes as a cameo. He's a Grim Reaper with a heart of gold, is fascinated by but doesn't understand humans, and speaks in ALL CAPS. He's also got an adopted daughter named Ysabell who will come back in a later book.

I can't believe I forgot about Death, reader. I'm leaving my realization here for posterity as proof that I am, in fact, a clown.

Anyway, the wizards summon Death to ask what's up with their highly magical spell book, the Octavo. Death informs them that the little red star that's visible in the daytime is going to destroy the Disc. Chill news that they take well.

I'm just kidding, they immediately start hunting down Rincewind in order to return the last spell to the Octavo so they can read it and save the world. Through murder. This does not go down well with Rincewind, naturally, who runs away. He and Twoflower get up to Stuff, meet Cohen, get poisoned, and travel to Death's Domain in order to become unpoisoned and almost get killed by Death's adopted daughter. Meanwhile the star is getting closer, magic is starting to fail which is real bad for the Disc since it runs on magic, and people start panicking and forming doomsday cults. As one does.

Rincewind and Twoflower manage to get back to the Unseen University just in time for one of the wizards to read seven of the eight spells and turn himself into a portal that leads to the Dungeon Dimension, which is Really Bad. Will Rincewind be able to save the world? One can assume yes, since there are quite a lot of books that follow this one.

If you're dead set on reading Discworld from the beginning, this is where the series really starts to pick up. It's still very high fantasy trope focused, but its folded into a pretty straightforward save the world plot. I think that makes it a little easier to follow, reader. It sets up a lot of characters that come back again and also fleshes out more of the Discworld as it will be in the following novels. It's the book where Pratchett finds the voice for the rest of the books.

While I couldn't really recommend The Color of Magic as a good starting place because its tone doesn't reflect the other books, The Light Fantastic would be an okay jumping off point. Is it the best? Probably not, reader, but if you like cowardly wizards doing their Best(tm) and getting roped into saving the world because they read the wrong book that one time several years ago then I think you'll like this. It's short and goes pretty fast, so even if you end up not liking this particular Discworld book, you won't have sunk a lot of time into it. Not that I think you'll regret these books, but I am biased heavily in their favor. Even the ones that are not up my particular alley.

It also has a miniseries with Tim Curry, if that sweetens the deal.

 Our next stop on the tour will be Equal Rites, another short book about magic. Among other things.

Until next time, reader 🎃