Hello, it's Reviewsday Tuesday and it's time for new episode of Discworld Discourses.
Today I am going to be reviewing The Last Continent.
This book is the 22nd book in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett first published in 1998.
In it Rincewind has been magically transported to the solitary island of XXXX
After the events of Interesting Times.
In the meantime the Wizards of Unseen University also find themselves on a mysterious island
But their island is thousands of years in the past and they need to find a way home.
This is the Rincewind novel that comes straight after Interesting Times
And to be honest I was a bit worried going into this book
Because as I said in my review of Interesting Times, I didn't get on very well with that book.
The Last Continent is also parodic like Interesting Times.
In this case it's a parody of Australia, Interesting Times was a parody of Asia.
So I was worried that I was going to have a similar experience with The Last Continent.
But I'm happy to say that that was not the case.
I feel like the parody was better handled in The Last Continent.
There were a lot of Australian stereotypes to be found in the book
But it felt more along the lines of Soul Music or Moving Pictures in terms of its style of parody.
It just felt more positive and empathetic and fun to me.
I was relieved. The Last Continent and Interesting Times do have some similarities
But I much preferred The Last Continent.
Having said that, I found The Last Continent to be one of the weaker books to me
In this reread of the Discworld series.
There are three main reasons why I didn't get on quite so well with this book as I did with some of the others.
The first is that I never particularly got involved with the plot, I just never found it particularly engrossing.
And also I felt like the two parallel stories didn't mesh particularly.
We have Rincewind in the present and we have the wizards in the past
But the stories were only very tenuously linked until right at the end.
And also I don't think we ever found out why there was an island in that professor's room.
I felt like there were some unanswered questions.
Secondly, although the Discworld series generally has far fewer female characters to male characters,
The female characters tend to be pretty great.
In The Last Continent there were both not that many female characters
And the ones that there were, it didn't feel like there was much point to them
Whcih made the lack of them more obvious.
And the final thing, I promise I'm going to stop complaining soon,
When I first read the Discworld series I got on less well
With Unseen University and the Wizards than with other characters and stories.
This time round with this reread I have been really happy
Because I have got on so much better with Unseen University
And I think I've mentioned this a few times in Discworld Discourses, I get on better with the wizards this time.
And this book reminded me a bit, unfortunately,
Of the things that I didn't use to like very much about the Wizards.
It reminded me of how I used to get frustrated often
By the roundabout way they communicate.
You know, the Wizards are talking and they get distracted by a relatively unimportant detail
And they end up going off on a tangent, or a couple of them go down a couple of different tangents.
And then there are misunderstandings and talking at cross-purposes.
That joke is used quite a few times in The Last Continent.
And because we're mainly seeing the Wizards through the eyes of Ponder Stibbons in this book,
And he also finds it annoying, and them annoying generally,
I found myself getting annoyed by them as well.
And it hasn't been bothering me at all so far in this reread.
To be honest I was struggling to remember what it was specifically about the Wizards
That meant that I just didn't get on as well with that series of books in the Discworld.
But I remember now. I mean it's a relatively small thing and I'm sure other people won't find it annoying at all.
Anyway, this review feels like it's been a bit negative so sorry about that,
I just wanted to get that bit out of the way,
Because thereare plenty of positive things about The Last Continent.
As I touched on earlier, I feel like the Rincewind series has got back on track with this book
After me not getting on so well with Interesting Times.
I found the book to be a pretty easy read generally.
There's plenty of humour and pace, it didn't feel like a chore.
Death is very much a minor character in this book but I loved all the Death bits in this book.
And he has some great lines. There are some fantastic lines in this book.
I also enjoyed the Librarian here, and Rincewind and the Luggage.
And also Ponder Stibbons, I think this is the most we have got to know Ponder Stibbons,
And I enjoyed that, even though as I say I did get a bit too involved in his frustrations.
And there are a lot of fun references, this book is chock full of references,
As you would expect from the Discworld series generally, and also from a book which is very parodic.
It's very recognizably got the tone and the style of the Discworld series.
I would probably recommend this book not being the first Discworld book that somebody read.
Not just because we've already met so many of the characters before the start of this book,
But also because I think there are far better examples in the Discworld series
Of the things that The Last Continent does really well.
But I still definitely recommend reading The Last Continent, it's got plenty to enjoy in it,
It's not my favourite Discworld book but I wouldn't say that I don't like it,
I wouldn't say that it's a bad Discworld book, I'd just say that I like it less than many of the others.
I will give The Last Continent 3.6 out of 5.
I'd really love to know what you think about this book. Do you feel similarly to me?
Do you disagree completely? Maybe you loved it. Maybe it was your first Discworld book.
Maybe you're like "Mouse, what are you talking about?" All is fine.
So, some facts about The Last Continent.
The continent XXXX, or Fourecks, is named after an Australian beer.
There are references in this book to Skippy the Bush Kangaroo, Priscilla Queen of the Desert,
Vegemite, the film The Man from the Snowy River, Crocodile Dundee, Mad Max,
And the songs Waltzing Matilda and Down Under, among others.
If you liked The Last Continent what should you read next?
The next Rincewind story is The Last Hero so you could maybe try that.
Or if you want to get away from the Wizards maybe Soul Music or Moving Pictures,
Just because they have a similar feel to me, you know, they they lean heavily into parody.
If you didn't like The Last Continent so much then the next Discworld book is Carpe Jugulum
So you could maybe try that or maybe move along to the next City Watch book, which is The Fifth Elephant.
That's it for today, as I said earlier I'd love to know your thoughts on The Last Continent if you have read it.
My next Discworld Discourses will be on 17th December and I will be reviewing Carpe Jugulum.
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