Rincewind is desperately aware of the fact that he does not possess the magic he should and he is desperately aware of what he might do with it, if only he had it. I also think that this quote is very important to understanding Rincewind’s character and is perhaps the most important one of all: “But most of all he was angry with Trymon, standing there full of the magic Rincewind had always wanted but had never achieved, and doing nothing worthwhile with it.” In many ways, in the way he thinks and the way he behaves to other people, he reminds me a lot of Sam Vimes (who is my number one, all-time favourite Discworld character) a little bit tired of everything and everyone, a little bit smarter than everyone else if only he stops and thinks about it for a while, and actually pretty funny. He is a much more likeable character than I remember him being. I feel like this book, more than the last one, is particularly Rincewind orientated.
As far as I remember, this is the book in which (s)he has an important role – namely, being the only one who remembers what has happened before and the only one who knows what will happen in the future – and although (s)he might never be quite so important again, this book has made sure that the reader knows just how central Great A’Tuin is.Īnd this is the first appearance of Cohen the Barbarian, which deserves a mention just because it is Cohen. Similarly clever storytelling is to make Great A’Tuin, the turtle on whose back the Disc rests, a real character in this early book. I’m not saying that they do not develop as characters in the later novels, because I think they do, but they kind of almost don’t need to and I think that’s terribly clever storytelling. They have the feel of an institution that has been there forever – after the first encounter, you know exactly who they are and what their priorities are. As a whole, they seem as though they sprang fully formed from Pratchett’s mind. This is the first time we meet the wizards of Unseen University and I was not disappointed. The first thing I like about TLF is, of course, that it opens up a little and allows for some new characters.
This makes sense, of course Pratchett was bound to feel more comfortable after having already had one go at Discworld. TLF feels much more familiar, more similar to the later Discworld novels. I remember liking ‘ The Light Fantastic ’ more than ‘The Colour of Magic’ the first time I read them, and nothing has changed about that this time around (although I enjoyed TCOM more this time too).
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