Book twenty-seven is a bit of an anomaly. It’s a large book as far as its height and width, although not as thick as other Discworld books, barring Eric. It’s also lavishly illustrated by Paul Kidby, and is something of a graphic novel.
The first hero of the Disc stole fire from the gods, and Cohen the barbarian and the rest of the Silver Horde are going to return it, although not in a way that’s exactly beneficial to the health of the Disc, since they want to pay the gods back 'with interest,' which involves a huge explosive device planted at Dunmanifestin, which will destroy the world. This brings them to the attention of the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork and ends up involving several characters we’re well acquainted with.
This book does not mess about. Sir Terry usually does a lot of buildup and has some hidden bits for the reader to find, but he wastes no time here. The main plot of Cohen wanting to blow up the gods is front and center from very early on, and the counterplot of the Patrician set to stop the Silver Horde moves rapidly, so rapidly in fact that I feel it’s actually a detriment to the story. Things move so fast it’s almost bewildering at times, despite the simplicity of its tale.
Thanks to Leonard of Quirm, the genius inventor we’ve met a few times before, they build a vehicle to get to the hub at an extreme speed so they can stop Cohen’s delivery. The giant vessel, powered mostly by tuned swamp dragons, is dubbed the Kite. Leonard is of course in charge of the vessel, and he is joined by Carrot from the watch, who eagerly volunteered for the job, and Rincewind who specifically did not volunteer, so un-volunteered to go, since he knew he was going to end up going anyway.
The Silver Horde meets up with an old frenemy, when they bump into Evil Harry Dread and his various henchmen, and later meet up with an old comrade, Vena the raven-haired, who is now silver/gray-haired, but still quite capable of kicking butt, and is very much a Red Sonja analog, even down to her armor. They also have a kidnapped bard in tow to create the saga about their last heroic deed, although if they succeed, there wouldn’t be anyone left on the Disc to hear it!
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| In a variation on a classic: Cohen lets the gods know what he thinks of them! |
The book focuses mostly on the two groups: the barbarians bringing their special surprise to the home of the gods, while the Ankh-Morpork contingent works to stop them. We make some detours for the gods themselves and the priests back at the twin cities, with a very nice piece of art of Hughnon Ridcully, the Archchancellor of UU’s brother and more-or-less the ranking cleric of all the various religions of the Disc. When the crew of the Kite finally meet up with the horde and the gods, it comes to an end very rapidly.
The art is a large part of this volume’s appeal. Sir Terry has stated that Paul Kidby’s take on things is the closest to how he imagines them, and this book is bursting with his artwork. Seeing the titanic elephants from the moon, the home of the gods from high above aboard the Kite, excerpts from Leonard’s notebooks, and so many character illustrations all make it one gorgeous book to partake in.
This is a fun and beautiful book, even if the cover, which is Rincewind parodying "The Scream" by Edvard Munch, isn’t the most appealing thing I’ve ever seen, but it is also short, and the lack of build-up and largely unsatisfactory ending brings it down some for me. It was a real treat for this Discworld fan when Carrot and Leonard meet Rincewind and then they all encounter (or encounter again in the case of Rincewind) the Silver Horde, while the Patrician and the wizards support them from afar, which was fun stuff. It’s a good book, but not one that sits highly among its almost universally superior peers. It’s good for a laugh and admiring the illustrations, and for a breezy story that one can enjoy over a few short sessions.
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| From left to right: Carrot, Leonard, and Rincewind. |
3.25 torches of stolen fire out of 4.
Some fun quotes:
This man was so absent-mindedly clever that he could paint pictures that didn’t just follow you around the room but went home with you and did the washing-up.
Some people are confident because they are fools. Leonard had the look of someone who was confident because, so far, he'd never found reason not to be. He would step off a high building in the happy state of mind of someone who intended to deal with the problem of the ground when it presented itself.
On the Kite, the situation was being 'workshopped.' This is the means by which people who don't know anything get together to pool their ignorance.
Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.
It sounds like Pratchett was trying something new that didn't quite work out.
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