The twenty-second Discworld book focuses on our hapless 'wizzard' Rincewind, the staff at Unseen University, and as the title suggests, a hitherto mostly conjectural land mass, although not to the people that actually live there.
The librarian has contracted a magical illness that keeps changing his shape and the staff of UU are at a loss to cure him by normal means, so they plan to go the magical cure route, which requires use of his name from when he was human long ago. They realize that one person might know, and that one person is Rincewind, since he was the assistant librarian for some time in the past, and who they're pretty sure is on the mostly unknown continent known as XXXX, or Fourecks, or Ecksecksecksecks, thanks to the events at the end of Interesting Times.
Of course, their attempt to get there doesn't go as planned. They find a window to an island in the office of the Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography, who they were visiting to ascertain the whereabouts of XXXX. They go through said window, and Mrs. Whitlow, the head housekeeper, ends up on the tiny island with the staff and the Librarian who changes shape every time he sneezes. They then find out that the island they're visiting isn't quite what they thought it was. Things here evolve into useful things and at an astonishing rate, to the point that they find bushes that grow spoons, trees that grow fried eggs, and even cigarette plants. This is all very odd, but it only gets stranger when they find out why this is going on like this in the first place.
While the staff is trying to solve their predicament, Rincewind runs into a lot of Australian jokes during his journey on XXXX, and I mean a lot. These include both real and fictional encounters, up to such movies as Mad Max and Crocodile Dundee, song references from Men at Work's "Down Under," more classical Australian songs such as "Tie Me Kangaroo Down Sport," the invention of vegemite and those corks on strings on the brims of their hats, and Aboriginal legends and tales that end up being the most important of all. One of the first people Rincewind meets is a dwarf called just Mad, and Mad drives a cart armored with all kinds of cast-off bits and bobs, which is one of the more recognizable references in the book, but far from the only one.
Rincewind spends most of his part of the book being made into a hero he doesn't want to be. He learns that the wells that XXXX relies on for water are all running dry. We find out quite early on that it never rains on this continent, something that Rincewind asks about, although most people he mentions the word rain to think he's crazy or become violent with him about it. He likes the beer but finds it mad that they serve it in tins. He's so used to always running away, that he's rather shocked to find himself becoming the hero of the indigenous people's legend that will save their land from its lack of water. But he also tries his best to make sure that he doesn't do anything too exciting, even if the writers trying to create tales and songs around his exploits are practically begging him to do so. "Final stands are great for ballads, mate."
The two halves of the book culminate in an amusing but not exactly compelling wrap up of the situations. One second, we're meeting the staff at XXXX's main magical college in their capital city, Bugarup, and the next we're bringing the UU staff into the present time via a cavern under a haunted brewery that had been there for thousands of years but also was just there a few seconds ago. It's amusing to be sure but also feels rushed. We know why the wizards show up, but not exactly how they end up where they are, and we go from dealing with multiple crises to resolving them all in a very short amount of time. The last few passages of the book are genuinely moving, though, despite the frenetic pace of what comes directly before it, which is a nice way to wrap it up.
This book was fun, but while I know some of these references, as I've always been a big fan of Australia, I don't have knowledge of them all, so some of the ideas it brings into play don't resonate with me as well as they would had I known more of the material. Reading other readers' thoughts on the web, this is a common critique on this book, with the Australian Pratchett fans really loving this volume, since the references are more well-known to them. It's enjoyable, and better than most of his very early volumes, but not as solid as his best works, although if you're Australian you'll justifiably rate this higher. You just can't go wrong with Discworld, so it's worth a read, as they all are.
3.5 vegemite sandwiches out of 4.
Some fun quotes:
"But we're a university! We have to have a library!" said Ridcully. "It adds tone. What sort of people would we be if we didn't go into the library?"
"Students," said Senior Wrangler morosely."
Unfortunately, like many people who are instinctively bad at something, the Archchancellor prided himself on how good at it he was. Ridcully was to management what King Herod was to the Bethlehem Playgroup Association. His mental approach to it could be visualized as a sort of business flowchart with, at the top, a circle entitled "Me, who does the telling" and, connected below it by a line, a large circle entitled "Everyone else."
He hated weapons, and not just because they'd so often been aimed at him. You got into more trouble if you had a weapon. People shot you instantly if they thought you were going to shoot them.
Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.
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