Mass Market Paperback, 241 pages
English language
Published Feb. 29, 2000 by HarperTorch.
THE LIGHT FANTASTIC is a comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, the second of the Discworld series. It was published on 2 June 1986, the first printing being of 1,034 copies. The title, taken from a poem by John Milton, in which it refers to dancing lightly with extravagance. The events of the novel are a direct continuation of those in the preceding book, The Colour of Magic.
I think the Disc world books don't fully get going until they move away from the Wizards focused boos. This one is a fun read and a good conclusion to the first book.
This is a very good ending to The Colour of Magic, injecting some plot and a lot of energy. I feel focusing the parody of other fantasy novels on the character of Cohen the Barbarian gives this second part a lot more focus and I'm tempted to rate it a little higher. It's a solid book and good fun but you do have to trek through some of the less exciting bits of The Colour of Magic and this book to get there.
I love this opening quote:
The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort.
This was a brilliant read. Really enjoyed it.
Where I felt the first one to be perhaps a little disjointed - lots of fun little scenes but maybe a bit less in the way of compelling overall narrative - this one is so much better.
I'm aware that Sir Terry recommended people ignore the first two books in the reading order, and whilst I can see why he may have said that about the first one, this one is very much worth reading.
It's funny, heartwarming, interesting; the main story is compelling and well-paced; there's plenty of sharp observations on humanity. His talent only develops upwards from here, of course, but the improvement between the first and second books is remarkable.
It's also got some incredible punes in it.
I love this opening quote:
The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort.
This was a brilliant read. Really enjoyed it.
Where I felt the first one to be perhaps a little disjointed - lots of fun little scenes but maybe a bit less in the way of compelling overall narrative - this one is so much better.
I'm aware that Sir Terry recommended people ignore the first two books in the reading order, and whilst I can see why he may have said that about the first one, this one is very much worth reading.
It's funny, heartwarming, interesting; the main story is compelling and well-paced; there's plenty of sharp observations on humanity. His talent only develops upwards from here, of course, but the improvement between the first and second books is remarkable.
It's also got some incredible punes in it.
This feels coherent and raises the serious topics such as that one of fascism and fanaticism which are so often treated by Pratchett. Lovely parting with Twoflower and amazing outro. Hooked me hard on the wizards stories.
Hunting around for something for the kid to read and found the Pratchett's that I own. Time to revisit for a thoroughly enjoyable lighthearted romp
An improvement on "The Colour of Magic", but still not what I would come to expect from the series. The climax falls a little flat to me. A fun adventure nonetheless.
Druhý díl je skutečně lepší jak ten první. Příběh už není rozkouskovaný a konečně začíná získávat směr. Ačkoliv mám pocit, že to nejlepší není až tak příběh samotný jako vykreslení jednotlivých postav. A to až do takové šířky, že člověk miluje i tu nejposlednější nejvedlejší postavu, o kterou hrdina jen zavadil okem.
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.
This was an absolute blast to read after The Colour of Magic. It's still nuts and kind of all over the place. But I was prepared for that and damn was it fun.
Wonderful written
The early Discworld stuff I enjoy less than the later, but it's still darn good.
Quite a lot of fun, and this one I hadn't read before!
More focused than the previous book, but still pretty slapdash. Some of the jokes were overly on-the-nose, but the overall experience was fun.
Complete non-sense, extremely hilarious
Of the two I've read so far of this series, they are giving The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy a very good run for its money (although I must say I am partial to Hitchhiker's a TINY bit more, but this is certainly VERY close).
