Interesting Times (Paperback)

First off, the settings of Ankh-Morpork and the Counterweight Continent are both well done. Pratchett taps into the same vein of humor underrunning the image of Imperial China that Barry Hughart did in "Bridge of Birds". He also introduces a very interesting linguistic idea, playing off the use of tone in spoken Chinese to create a language with few words but many, many different pronunciations. The other plot ideas, such as the Mandelbrot Butterfly etc., are well done, but the language was such a well-thought yet off-the-wall idea that it beat everything else.

The characters are well done also. Old barbarians are a comic image, but Pratchett is able to really use his old barbarians to advance the plot rather than having them hang around solely for laughs. The Gods play off each other well, and Rincewind's cowardice and fleeing make the places he lands in all the more interesting. The ending wraps everything up well without being too perfect, and Death is funnier than ever.

Hitting nary a wrong note, this book is worth getting out of the library, or buying if you are a Discworld fan. I would recommend it to anyone who likes fantasy, and also "Thief of Time", by the same author.

One reason is that the character of Rincewind had almost exhausted his potential by this time. Successful and likeable an anti-hero though he is, there is only so much a writer can do with one highly eccentric literary character, and (sorry, fans, you can vote against this review all you like) there seems a touch of desperation in putting the running joke of a cowardly, non-magical wizard through his paces once again.

Secondly, TP has not been quite faithful to his own creations. Twoflower, the innocent and bumbling tourist from "The Color of Magic" and "The Light Fantastic" was (please correct me if I'm wrong) the affectionate parody of all those wealthy and gullible American tourists who came to Europe in the '50's and '60's with superior spending power and technology but a dangerous innocence about the way they were being relieved of their cash. It is surely an artistic error to suddenly redefine him as a parody of the supposedly inscrutable Chinese simply because the plot demands a familiar foil for Rincewind.

Don't let me knock this too hard - it's good clean fun as usual - but it's not Pratchett's best.

Interesting Times follows the character of Rincewind on a journey through the Counterweight Continent, the discworld version of the Orient. Rincewind is an interesting character and Pratchett plays him well as a rather powerless wizard who just happens to get by through a sheer amount of luck, and the quickness of his fleeing legs. A pessimistic character, I liked him through the beginning of the book, though by the end his uneagerness to help anyone grew a bit tiresome (though unconciously he tends to help out a great deal.) Rincewind shares the stage, however, with a group of aging barbarians called the Silver Horde who steal the show really. The best bits of the book are the ones involving the Horde. Their lessons on how to be civilized and inability to change their habits.

While I can't rate this in comparison to other Discworld books, I found it highly entertaining, and though, probably not the best place to start the series off. Read some other Pratchett books to aquaint yourself with the world, and work your way up to Interesting Times. It's worth the time.