mass market paperback, 400 pages
English language
Published by HarperTorch.
"May you live in interesting times" is the worst thing one can wish on a citizen of Discworld -- especially on the distinctly unmagical sorcerer Rincewind, who has had far too much perilous excitement in his life. But when a request for a "Great Wizzard" arrives in Ankh-Morpork via carrier albatross from the faraway Counterweight Continent, it's he who's sent as emissary. Chaos threatens to follow the impending demise of the Agatean Empire's current ruler. And, for some incomprehensible reason, someone believes Rincewind will have a mythic role in the war and wholesale bloodletting that will surely ensue. (Carnage is pretty much a given, since Cohen the Barbarian and his extremely elderly Silver Horde are busily formulating their own plan for looting, pillaging, and, er, looking wistfully at girls.) However, Rincewind firmly believes there are too many heroes already in the world, yet only one Rincewind. And he owes it …
"May you live in interesting times" is the worst thing one can wish on a citizen of Discworld -- especially on the distinctly unmagical sorcerer Rincewind, who has had far too much perilous excitement in his life. But when a request for a "Great Wizzard" arrives in Ankh-Morpork via carrier albatross from the faraway Counterweight Continent, it's he who's sent as emissary. Chaos threatens to follow the impending demise of the Agatean Empire's current ruler. And, for some incomprehensible reason, someone believes Rincewind will have a mythic role in the war and wholesale bloodletting that will surely ensue. (Carnage is pretty much a given, since Cohen the Barbarian and his extremely elderly Silver Horde are busily formulating their own plan for looting, pillaging, and, er, looking wistfully at girls.) However, Rincewind firmly believes there are too many heroes already in the world, yet only one Rincewind. And he owes it to the world to keep that one alive for as long as possible.
I probably won't be reading this one again. A rare stinker in the wonderful Discworld series. The mockery of Asian culture just falls flat in a modern society.
I probably won't be reading this one again. A rare stinker in the wonderful Discworld series. The mockery of Asian culture just falls flat in a modern society.
Of exploits of: - daring barbarians on a quest for something that no barbarian has quested before, - information autocrats, manipulating and defusing the protest, - lady Luck, world’s least wizzardly wizzard and… Butterflies.
“We sent the message,” said the visitor. “No one saw us.” [..] “I don’t understand, o lord,” said the visitor, whose name was Two Fire Herb.
“Good.”
“[..] they believe in the Great Wizzard and you want him to come here?”
“Oh, certainly. I have my…people in”—he tried the alien syllables—“Ankh-More-Pork. The one so foolishly called the Great Wizzard does exist. But, I might tell you, he is renowned for being incompetent, cowardly, and spineless. Quite proverbially so. So I think the Red Army should have their leader, don’t you? It will…raise their morale.” He smiled again. “This is politics,” he said.
“The Great Wizard will come. We …
Of exploits of: - daring barbarians on a quest for something that no barbarian has quested before, - information autocrats, manipulating and defusing the protest, - lady Luck, world’s least wizzardly wizzard and… Butterflies.
“We sent the message,” said the visitor. “No one saw us.” [..] “I don’t understand, o lord,” said the visitor, whose name was Two Fire Herb.
“Good.”
“[..] they believe in the Great Wizzard and you want him to come here?”
“Oh, certainly. I have my…people in”—he tried the alien syllables—“Ankh-More-Pork. The one so foolishly called the Great Wizzard does exist. But, I might tell you, he is renowned for being incompetent, cowardly, and spineless. Quite proverbially so. So I think the Red Army should have their leader, don’t you? It will…raise their morale.” He smiled again. “This is politics,” he said.
“The Great Wizard will come. We sent the message, at great personal risk.”
“How will we know when he arrives?”
“If he’s the Great Wizard, we’ll hear about it. And then—”
“Gently Push Over The Forces Of Repression!” they chorused.
Two Fire Herb looked at the rest of the cadre. “Exactly,” he said. “And then, comrades, we must strike at the very heart of the rottenness. We must storm the Winter Palace!”
There was silence from the cadre. Then someone said, “Excuse me, Two Fire Herb, but it is June.”
