Terry Pratchett has written a classic tale of heroes on a quest to save the world. Just kidding! It’s Terry Pratchett and Discworld and there is nothing traditional about any of it. The pace is mad cap, the language is full of puns, the heroes are unlikely, the settings and sidekicks are even more unlikely, and the fun is nonstop. It should be impossible to write such pure nonsense that ends up making great sense. Once again, Terry Pratchett demonstrates how he is the master of a fantasy sub-genre that probably belongs to him alone. Clever, witty, rapid-fire. The Discworld novels fall into different categories: Tiffany Aching, Rincewind, the three witches, Sam Vines and the guards, and Death. This book is a novel of Rincewind. Each book focuses on one of them, although they cross over and pop up in each others' books all the time. It is best if you start from the beginning of a grouping and work your way through, otherwise you'll miss a lot of inside jokes, references, etc. There are charts on the internet that will show you the groupings. Having said that, I read Wee Free Men first, and it made me a fan. You can trust Terry Pratchett to not be too linear and to not be very predictable. Terry Pratchett does a wonderful job of maintaining the integrity of his absurd world and his characters while keeping everything fresh and creative. The humor is wrapped around serious themes. The characters have fantasy aspects, but they illustrate many universal truths of human nature. I cannot read too many of them in a row, but when I need something different, a Discworld novel is the perfect metaphorical palate refresher. Life on Discworld is threatened and extraordinary efforts by an eccentric unmatched team is required to restore balance. Rincewind is an extraordinarily inept wizard whose greatest talent is saving his own skin. He is assisted by the traveler Twoflower, the Luggage, Cohen the Barbarian, Bethan the Sacrificial Virgin, and others along the way. Like all the Discworld books, the tone is satirical and clever. This book did not make me laugh aloud as frequently as Wee Free Men, but it had its moments. Had to love the throw-away line about the luters! These books do not contain any scenes, language, or images that would rate even a PG-13 rating at the movies. If a reader does not have sufficient maturity, much of the book will be wasted, because you won’t get the jokes or understand the satire. I count myself lucky to still have so many novels of Discworld ahead of me.

The Light Fantastic does a great job of finishing what Pratchett began in The Color of Magic. Like that book, this one is mostly episodic, meaning that the main characters arrive in a new locale, get into trouble, resolve the situation (or watch as someone else resolves it), and move on to the next location.

One of the things that I appreciate most about Pratchett’s writing is that it’s rigorously streamlined. Like Chekhov, he avoids excessive detail, giving us just the important bits. So, if he shows you a gun (or a book or a piece of luggage) in the first act, you can bet that it’s going to play an important role before the story is through. The book is like a series of satisfying payoffs.

And despite Pratchett’s passion for puns and dad jokes, The Light Fantastic shows that he’s not afraid to set aside the yuks now and then to speak more directly—and pithily—to the reader. His satire offers plenty of commentary on contemporary civilization, but his straightforward critiques are just as on-point.

That said, the plot of The Light Fantastic—particularly in the first half of the book—felt a little random to me. That might be my fault, since I had to put this book aside a couple of times to focus on other things, but generally, I think that the jumps from one episode to the next were explained better in The Color of Magic.

Then again, it’s fantasy, and ridiculous fantasy at that. Maybe Pratchett doesn’t have to provide the characters with powerful motivations at every turn.

Whatever the case, the bottom line is: I loved reading the book, and I look forward to picking up the next 38 (!!!) in the series.

This book lives up to the fantastic part of its title. Terry Pratchett managed to write a satisfying sequel to The Color of Magic, retaining all of the wacky characters, colorful locations, and general silliness of the first installment of the Discworld. I would say that the most exceptional thing about this book is the large cast of fleshed out characters. Despite the fact that the book itself isn't very long, it introduced many new characters, each interesting in his or her own right, and gave each enough background and screen time that by the end of the volume, the reader feels that they know (and hopefully love) each well. The Discworld has grown with the cast, and the new history and set of locations will not disappoint. The addition of a stronger central plot has also done nothing to diminish the book's considerable charm. The red star (which gamers may find remarkably similar to the ominous moon of Majora's Mask) only acts as a catalyst for more craziness. Truly, fans of the first book will not be disappointed.

Although The Light Fantastic is a wonderful book overall, there are some notable differences that may put off fans of the first book. First of all, there are no chapters in this. Everything is a block of text, lacking even the bulky chapters/short tales of the first volume. It can be difficult to find one's place without a bookmark. Secondly, this is where the Discworld really starts to take on its own flavor. While it is a stunning setting and a wonderful world, sword and sorcery fans may be disappointed to see that it has distanced itself from S&S. No longer are there such blatant parodies as Bravd and the Weasel. Alas! Finally, there is much less of Death in this volume. This may not matter much to you, but Death was one of my favorite characters and it saddened me to see so little of him.

Overall, I have no real complaints of this book. The things in the second paragraph are more differences than complaints. I highly recommend this book to anyone who enjoyed The Color of Magic, or to any latecomers who read more recent volumes first. This is one of the most enjoyable pieces of fantasy that I've read in a long time, and is a refreshing change from lengthy and serious works like A Song of Ice and Fire.

I can't believe that it's taken me this long to discover Terry Pratchett's Discworld series (I just turned fifty and have been an avid reader of all sorts of genres, including sci-fi and fantasy, my entire reading life)!

The second in the series, this book continues the adventures of Rincewind, Twoflowers, and the Luggage. It's very fun, action-packed, and silly, written beautifully and with a fabulous sense of humor.

If you love Monty Python, the books of Christopher Moore, or the Hitchhiker's Guide books, you will probably love this series. Further, if you love words and wordplay, these are REALLY the books for you. They're definitely crafted for the more literate reader. This is not to say that the average reader, who may like plot more than style, won't enjoy them, but if you have a literature background or, at the very least, can appreciate a more deft style of writing than is found in typical James Patterson and Stephenie Meyers novels, you will experience whole new layers of appreciation for books as well-crafted as these.

However, be warned. Years ago, I read my first Pratchett book (Good Omens, in collaboration with Neil Gaiman) and I was underwhelmed. To be honest with you, however, I think that my reading readiness was not up to the task at that point.I think I was expecting a Serious Novel and the joyful silliness of the format put me off a bit. But I have come around and now I see that the lighthearted format and general hilarity of these pieces also are formed with more serious, thoughtful issues at their heart. Much like Dickens' funniest works, Pratchett's have a core of biting satire that makes them all the more enjoyable. I am now a convert and have all the Discworld books on my reading list!

Started reading Terry Pratchett's Disc world series because my other couple of authors didn't have anything new out at the time and I needed something to read while plodding on an elliptical at the gym lol!! This is a great series of books, though it took a while to be able to visualize Pratchett's dystopian world.... the friend that recommended the series told me to picture London in the Elizabethan period :) albeit while being contained on a planet that sits on the back of a HUGE turtle, that sits on the backs of HUGE elephants.....yep, wrap your head around that one!!! With that said it is a very good and funny series of books that can be read as stand alones or in order, though in order would be better if you plan on reading more than a couple! This has been my favorite up to this point, but the others before it were really great too, his twist on words and spellings will have you LOLing constantly!! I've read 6 of the 20 something, and they're all truly good reads!! I'll be reviewing the other books in the series I've read so far and will be doing a copy and paste of this into those reviews!! Have turned a few fellow readers on to this series and will again I'm sure!

This is well-crafted absurdity, that reads like non-sense but in the end makes sense in the 2nd half of the introduction to the DiscWorld you can feel the multi-dimensional universe evolve. We continue from the Color of Magic with our main characters arriving in a new locale, get into trouble, resolve the situation (or rather watch as someone else resolves it), and stumble onto the next location.

In the first half of the adventure the story seemed random and ridiculous. As we start The Light Fantastic, we join the continuing journey of the unwilling wizard Rincewind and his travel companion and tourist, Twoflowers (along with his luggage) on a dizzying adventure with demonic possession, human sacrifice, lynch mobs, barbarian heros, trolls, world domination and the apocalypse.

If you strip away the puns, weird settings and the unlikely heros, Pratchett basically wrote a classic tale of heroes on a quest to save the world except it was anything but classic or traditional. I also appreciate that the magic and fantasy was not stereotypical. There is lively dialogue, interesting characters and a good story, and of course, very funny in a Dad joke kind of way.

Once you read a couple of pages you are hooked. It’s a great read and very original. I can’t wait to continue the magical craziness and reading Equal Rites.

I'm a huge fan of Terry Pratchett's writing, in particular his Discworld series. I've re-read many of the books multiple times and I've decided to listen to them as audiobooks for the first time. The first one up is The Light Fantastic, which follows the adventures of Rincewind, the Wizard, and Twoflower, the tourist, in Ankh-Morpork. Part of this adventure starts in The Color Magic and continues on in The Light Fantastic. It's high adventure for Rincewind, as he has a history of running away from trouble, but it seems trouble is chasing him!

There is so much to love about the Discworld, and especially the first two books in this series. I love Twoflower for many reasons. One is that my career is the same as his - he sells insurance (or in-sewer-ants as he describes it to Rincewind). He's definitely a glass-is-half-full kind of guy and a perfect match for Rincewind, who is sure the glass is pretty empty. It's fun when these two get together, especially with their invincible Luggage along for the ride, and Conan the Barbarian, who is almost reaching 90!

I really enjoyed this on audio. I have only listened to one other Discworld on audio (Raising Steam) and I'm glad that Nigel Planer's narration lived up to my expectation. His voice for Death is just perfect, as was the scene where Twoflower teaches Death and several gods to play cards! After imagining all these voices in my head for the last two decades of reading these novels, I'm glad to discover that the audiobooks are just as fantastic. I plan to listen to more on audio.

Light. Charming. Droll. But a step short of fantastic.

“The Light Fantastic” is good fantasy. It delivers in the departments of humor, escapism and sheer entertainment. It also has the singular misfortune of being the sequel to one of the best works of comic fantasy ever written. Pratchett was well-known for his ability to craft stories that could be likened to catching lightning in a bottle. Not even a master such as he could always do that back to back, however.

A venerable hero. A horny virgin sacrifice. An errant spell. These characters and more join the existing ensemble of failed wizard, optimistic tourist and surly luggage. Together, they may just save the world. Or not. Either way, just another day on the Disc.

7/10, one thumb up. “The Light Fantastic” will not disappoint, but it is a victim of it’s predecessors success. Of note: this edition (for Kindle) contains no chapter markers, either in the body of text or in the table of contents. There are occasional spaces that function as chapter breaks, but none of them are labelled or otherwise noted as such.

“Death shrugged. It was a gesture he was particularly well built for.”

“It wasn’t that he was bloodthirsty, power-hungry or especially wicked. These things were not necessarily drawbacks in a wizard. The wizards were, on the whole, no more wicked than, say, the committee of the average Rotary Club, and each had risen to preeminence in his chosen profession not so much by skill at magic but by never neglecting to capitalize on the weaknesses of opponents.”

“The Disc, being flat, has no real horizon. Any adventurous sailors who got funny ideas from staring at eggs and oranges for too long and set out for the antipodes soon learned that the reason why distant ships sometimes looked as though they were disappearing over the edge of the world was that they were disappearing over the edge of the world.”

“There was a loud snap as Rincewind shut the book. He stood up, and looked around.

What happened next was this:

Nothing.”

Great book!

Amazing follow up to the first book of the series. In this book Pratchett gives us a better insight about the wizards university.

Damaged cover

I received this in excellent condition, using amazon prime for the first time. Next day delivery is nice.

I'm reading this series in order and this one is definatly funnier than the 1st one. You really get to know the characters personalities and more history of Rincewind. Death is awesome!

Great book, quickly delivered. Funny, imaginative, a classic book from a classic series written by a great author who has gone too soon.

Every page is a delight, the characters, the humour & the plot are excellent.

This is the at least the fourth time I've read this book and each time I've found something new and enjoyed it as much as the last. Sir Terry was a master at his craft and though many books claim to be as funny none are any where near to Sir Terry's level.