The fifth Discworld novel brings things back to Rincewind (the star of the first two books) after changing focus in Equal Rites and Mort. Nonetheless, while there are very vague allusions to his previous adventures, it’s essentially a standalone novel that could be enjoyed without having read any of the others. Having said that, I wouldn’t recommend it as a first Discworld novel, because it’s been my least favourite so far.
It being my least favourite doesn’t mean it’s bad though. In fact, I’d say that the opening of the novel, where Death comes to collect an old wizard, is one of the most beautifully written things that I’ve ever read. If the entire book had been like this, it’d have been a contender for being a 10/10 book for me. Unfortunately, the rest of the book, was much less enticing.
The story is about the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son, who grows up to become a “Sourcerer” which means that he is someone who is a source of magic in the world. This character, named Coin, of course has the power go to his head, which prompts him to take over Discworld’s Unseen University for wizards and attempt to introduce a new magic order.
Rincewind, meanwhile, running away from all this, finds himself once again in the position of an unlikely hero after being swept up in an adventure by a woman named Conina. Ultimately, of course, they end up opposing Coin – and along the way there are a lot of laughs, and a lot of fun over the top actions sequences. I was decently entertained throughout, but I felt it lacked anything really profound and didn’t really have anything meaningful to say in the same way that Mort, Equal Rites, and even The Light Fantastic did.
The ending was pretty cool though, and quite a bit more serious than I was expecting it to be (which was a refreshing surprise). I just can’t say anything about it without spoiling it – but I will say that I liked getting more of an insight into the history of Discworld. The rest just mostly felt like fairly light entertainment – not bad, or boring, by any means at all, it’s a good book, I’ve just read a lot of better ones.
Rating: 6.9/10
