Great A’Tuin, with eyes like ancient seas and a brain the size of a continent through which thoughts moved like little glittering glaciers. Great A’Tuin the star turtle, shell frosted with frozen methane, pitted with meteor craters, and scoured with asteroidal dust. His name-or Her name, according to another school of thought-was Great A’Tuin he-or, as it might be, she-will not take a central role in what follows but it is vital to an understanding of the Disc that he-or she-is there, down below the mines and sea ooze and fake fossil bones put there by a Creator with nothing better to do than upset archaeologists and give them silly ideas. Of course, no other world was carried through the starry infinity on the backs of four giant elephants, who were themselves perched on the shell of a giant turtle. It was a sight to be seen on no other world.

When it reached Cori Celesti, the ten-mile spire of gray stone and green ice that marked the hub of the Disc and was the home of its gods, it built up in heaps until it finally crashed in great lazy tsunami as silent as velvet, across the dark landscape beyond. And on the Discworld the magic was embarrassingly strong, which meant that the soft yellow light of dawn flowed over the sleeping landscape like the caress of a gentle lover or, as some would have it, like golden syrup. When light encounters a strong magical field it loses all sense of urgency. The sun rose slowly, as if it wasn’t sure it was worth all the effort.Īnother Disc day dawned, but very gradually, and this is why. The Discworld novels can be read in any order but The Light Fantastic is the second book in the Wizards series. Sharp, sardonic, and brilliantly funny, Pratchett once again earns his master satirist reputation, with witty wordplay and irreverent storytelling that fans are sure to love. Unfortunately, that hero happens to be the singularly inept wizard Rincewind. Fortunately, there is one individual who can save Discworld from total destruction. (Not that he currently has much choice in the matter.) But with a monstrous red star on a direct collision course, the future for the residents of this flat planet carried by four elephants riding on the shell of a giant turtle swimming through space appears uncertain at best. It's just one of those days when nothing seems to go right-a most inopportune time for the first tourist ever to set foot (and carnivorous Luggage) on the Discworld to be extending his already eventful vacation. The side-splitting sequel to The Color of Magic, The Light Fantastic by New York Times bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett takes readers on an offbeat journey with bumbling wizard Rincewind-last seen falling off the edge of Discworld-and hapless tourist Twoflower.

Pratchett's Discworld books are filled with humor and with magic, but they're rooted in-of all things-real life and cold, hard reason.' - Chicago Tribune

The light fantastic by terry pratchett