Reviews with content warning for Adult/minor relationship - The Light Fantastic

This picks up exactly where The Colour of Magic left off and continues the story, which is the most continuity I’ve found in the Discworld series so far. It’s not necessarily a bad thing, since this book does nicely wrap up all the plot threads started in the previous one, but it does mean that the things I didn’t like as much about book one were continued here.

Starting with Twoflower. At least the story acknowledges how obnoxious he is, making him a sort of commentary on tourists in general, but he was just as obnoxious. It also was very heavy on what I’ve termed Introduction to Discworld content – the kind of stuff like how the great turtle that the Discworld is on works, and how the day/night cycle works on a flat world, and a brief sampling of a lot of different places and aspects of Disc life.

There was more plot-related stuff here, too, with the spell in Rincewind’s head having a reason for being there and the whole fact that the Disc might be about to come to an end if Rincewind can’t fix it. Even though it really was a continuation of book one, the plot finally kicked into gear and it felt like more of a story and less of an Introduction to Discworld with characters doing things. Rincewind himself even got a bit of a character arc, which was nice to see.

The Light Fantastic is very much a world-focused book. And despite how difficult I find it to enjoy a book whose characters are hard to connect to and that lacks a plot I can really sink my teeth into, I did enjoy this book. Rincewind and Twoflower go all over the place, and despite mostly-flat characters and an overall lackluster plot, it’s hard to hate a book with this many cool settings and fantasy creatures to encounter. Plus this book is where the hilarious one-liners and amusing metaphors start to show up, and I adore Sir Terry’s sense of humor. This definitely isn’t my favorite Discworld book, but it’s still perfectly readable and often entertaining.

Content Warnings

booksthatburn's review against another edition

Go to review page

lighthearted tense medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

2.5

This follows the continuing adventures of Rincewind and Twoflower. Unfortunately I still can’t stand either one of them and the tone of the quips feels off. The pacing was better than THE COLOR OF MAGIC, but this one was a miss for me.

Content Warnings

More...