Reviews with content warning for Fire/Fire injury - Moving Pictures

" You know what the greatest tragedy is in the whole world?... It's all the people who never find out what it is they really want to do or what it is they're really good at. It's all the sons who become blacksmiths because their fathers were blacksmiths. It's all the people who could be really fantastic flute players who grow old and die without ever seeing a musical instrument, so they become bad plowmen instead. It's all the people with talents who never even find out. Maybe they are never even born in a time when it's even possible to find out. It's all the people who never get to know what it is that they can really be. It's all the wasted chances. "

I always enjoy Pratchett's books that are clearly set in a Discworld equivalent of a real Earth place. In this case, Hollywood. People and animals alike ae being drawn out into the desert and don't know why until they get there - get to Holy Wood. The alchemists discovered how to make moving pictures and moved out there to get away from the ever judgmental wizards (although one of them ends u becoming one of their biggest stars). I enjoyed all the references to popular classic movies and the commentary on the movie making process. With all of Pratchett's signature chaos, randomness and puns of course. I loved all the cut throat competition, crazy ideas and general weirdness of it all. With the mysterious darkness lurking underneath. And I loved seeing more of Cut Me Own Throat Dibbler and his manipulativeness. I loved getting to see his ambition and how his mind works a bit after so many appearances in previous books. And of course the ever present flawed reasoning and somehow exceptionally functional some of the time reasoning of the wizards in the background.

If you like movies, movie humour or just a crazy weird ride of the book this is definitely worth a read or listen. This is a standalone book in the Discworld series. While we do see previous characters, you can enjoy this book without knowing anything about them.

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woweewhoa's review against another edition

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adventurous funny fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Loveable characters? Yes

4.25

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bluejayreads's review against another edition

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adventurous funny

Strong character development? It's complicated

4.0

Reading this book made me realize that I definitely should have been reading the Discworld series in order all along. Moving Pictures has Ponder Stibbons as a student and the origins of Mustrum Ridcully as Unseen University Archchancellor. Also, after following just one character for so long, I’m still not enjoying having multiple protagonists quite as much.

The protagonists in this case are Victor, an Unseen University student who hears the call to Holy Wood and goes off to become an actor, and Ginger, who becomes Victor’s co-star. Ginger I found mostly obnoxious – she’s bratty and demanding, but I got the feeling that the book wanted me to like her anyway (I did not). Victor, though, had potential. I can’t say I connected with him very strongly, but I enjoyed him and can see him going far. (I’m wondering if he’s the protagonist of the Industrial Revolution subseries.)

I enjoyed following Victor around through the story. I also enjoyed the trolls, the Bursar from Unseen University, and getting to see more of Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler (though he started to get annoying by the end). Sadly, though, I wasn’t a huge fan of the talking dog. It’s really hard to like someone who is constantly rude, mean, sarcastic, and whiny, even if that someone is a dog.

Part of my problem with the characters in general is that the characterization is inconsistent. And I can’t tell how much of that is actual inconsistent characterization and how much of that is Holy Wood magic affecting the characters. The power of Holy Wood can make people do things they wouldn’t want to do otherwise, and it can even take over and control people at times, and it’s not always clear (to me or the characters themselves) if what’s happening is an issue with the writing or Holy Wood affecting them.

Even though I had some issues with the characters, Moving Pictures is one of the funnier Discworld books that I’ve read so far. It’s full of Sir Terry’s signature witticisms, plus several moments of legitimate out-loud laughter. It also had some interesting thoughts on the nature of reality and how Hollywood’s presentations of reality affect our perceptions of it. (Interestingly, this is the second time a force other than magic has been magical – technically the first since Unseen Academicals is later in the series, but second in my reading order.)

My biggest criticism is that the ending felt very unresolved. Will whatever just happened happen again? What is Victor going to do now? Was that character growth Victor went through actual growth or just Holy Wood magic? But the story itself was a ton of fun, and I’d be happy if the next Industrial Revolution book followed Victor and answered these questions. It does have its problems, but this is still a solid entry in the Discworld canon.

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