The Light Fantastic

Property6Value
Author NamePratchett, Terry
SeriesDiscworld
Book Number2
SummaryPicking up where The Color of Magic left off, a great approaching star threatens the Disc's inhabitants, and Rincewind is compelled to be the hero he never wanted to be.
RecommendationRecommended
Date Read2025-07-08

The second book in the Diacworld series, but the first one that feels like a Discworld book.

We follow on soon after The Color of Magic with Rincewind, Twoflower, and The Luggage, and immediately this book has more energy. There's a direction, there's a feeling of a goal, and we get more of the Pratchettian non-sequiturs that drew me into the books when I first discovered them. We also meet Cohen the Barbarian and Bethan, fins some druids making a big computer, and have a ticking timebomb element.

Something though that I'm reminded of with this book is how similar comedy and horror can be. There's a mix of that here, and I wonder if some of the violence described would translate as well to a pure comedy.[1]

Where The Color of Magic felt like a collection of stories, The Light Fantastic felt connected and drove towards a satisfying conclusion.


  1. of course, I'm reminded of Deadpool, and I feel like this is a very similar vein. ↩︎