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5 comments about Interesting Times (ISIS Large Print).

1. Rincewind the non-magical wizard is a stock character in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. Rincewind (one knows he is a wizard because it says so on his pointy hat) specializes in cowardice and running away. He is the complete anti-hero, the ultimate pawn of Fate and whatever god is having a bad day in Discworld's home of the gods, Dun Manifestin. Any book with Rincewind in it is sure to be fine satire.
   
   Rincewind began his career in a double novel story THE COLOR OF MAGIC and THE LIGHT FANTASTIC at the end of which he is presented with the Luggage. I always picture the Luggage as an old fashioned steamer trunk with a lot of little feet along the bottom edge. The Luggage is vicious. Anyone who has ever wrestled with a suitcase will understand.
   
   In INTERESTING TIMES, Rincewind is summoned to the Discworld's equivalent to the Orient. Terry Pratchett seems to have consumed a whole series of "samurai" novels combined with a course on Chinese history and regurgitated it back up as this very funny tale of how the five noble families of the Counterweight Continent contend for the Empire: the Hongs, the Sungs, the Tangs, the McSweeneys and the Fangs.
   
   Yes, you heard me right. The McSweeneys. In this fine satiric fantasy the reader can learn about the Art of War and also how Luggage gets made. This is wicked fun for literate readers!



2. Of the eight Discworld novels I've read so far, this is the best. It reminds me of Monty Python, but produces Pythonesque absurdity while keeping the characters a good deal more realistic than Monty Python.



3. I Love Rincewind and Cohen, and Here they are.
   This one is based on and in Asia.
   So, Funny!



4. This is the second book I've read featuring Rincewind (the other being "The Last Hero"). Admittedly, I could be wrong, but I strongly suspect a formula here: Rincewind is always in the wrong place at the wrong time, does everything wrong yet comes out ahead (thanks to outside help) despite himself. Something like that would get old REAL FAST, but fortunately, not all Discworld books are based on that pattern. Plus, I'm early enough in my reading that I haven't surpassed my threshhold for "Rincewind-Ex-Machina."
   
   I called this book a "guilty pleasure" and stick by it. I suspect if a different author had written something like this (without the rich flavor of Discworld to spice it up) I would have been a bit harsher in my review. However, it's Pratchett, who is always a pleasure to read: insightful AND funny. If you like the series as a whole, you'll most likely enjoy "Interesting Times."



5. Rincewind, a notably unsuccessful wizard but a very successful survivor (nearly always by running away at top speed), was the protagonist of the first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, and has appeared in several more books since. I can't say he's my favorite character, but this one is pretty good anyway. Lord Hong, a schemer after power in the Agatean Empire (pictured as a mixture of Chinese and Japanese culture) that makes up the Counterweight Continent, has sent to Ankh-Morpork for "The Great Wizzard" (yes, with two Z's), a figure in ancient legends. It's all part of his convoluted plan to become emperor when the current one dies (with Lord Hong's help). As it happens, Rincewind, who acted as guide to Twoflower, an Agatean tourist in his first outing, is the likeliest candidate for Great Wizzard and off he goes to the Empire. Where, of course, because of his pre-emptive karma, he quickly becomes caught up in the power struggle, gets saddled with a not very convincing cadre of underage revolutionaries, loses The Luggage, and crosses the path of the Silver Horde. The latter is a group of six geriatric barbarians led by Cohen the Barbarian (a/k/a Genghiz Cohen), an occasional character in several other Discworld books. Here, Pratchett uses the very straightforward barbarians -- who have gotten to be very old precisely because they're very good at what they do -- as a balance to the scheming, underhanded, poison-preferring, untrustworthy Agateans. And Twoflower reappears, too. Not a great book, but perfectly readable.

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