The Last Continent (Mass Market Paperback)

~ (Author) "Against the stars a turtle passes, carrying four elephants on its shell..." (more)
Key Phrases: senior wizards, last continent, bare naked lady, Senior Wrangler, Chair of Indefinite Studies, Recent Runes (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Terry Pratchett's 22nd Discworld novel, The Last Continent, is a lighthearted tour of the fantasy land of Fourecks, a very Australian sort of place, with brief courses in theoretical physics and evolution thrown in for good measure. Pratchett returns to his first Discworld protagonist, the inept and cowardly wizard Rincewind, who habitually runs into trouble as fast as he flees. Rincewind's arrival in Fourecks has distorted the space-time continuum, and he has to sort it out before the whole place dries up and blows away. The situation is complicated because the actual problem is located 30,000 years in the past--just where the Faculty of the Unseen University currently are. Pretty frightening, given "the true wizard's instinct to amble aimlessly into dangerous places," and then "stop and argue ... about exactly what kind of danger it [is]."

If you're baffled by all this, no worries, mate. You needn't have read Pratchett before--not even the five previous Discworld novels starring Rincewind (The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric, and Interesting Times)--to enjoy this latest romp. Nor to have visited Australia. When you finish, however, you'll likely want to rush out and do both. --Nona Vero --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Review

"Consistently, inventively mad...wild and wonderful!" -- -- Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine

"If I were making my list of Best Books of the Twentieth Century, Terry Pratchett's would be ost of them" -- -- Elizabeth Peters

"Superb popular entertainment" -- -- Washingtom Post Book World

"Unadulterated fun... witty, frequently hilarious.... Pratchett parodies everything in sight." -- San Francisco Chronicle

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (October 26, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0061059072
• ISBN-13: 978-0061059070
• Product Dimensions: 6.7 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 4.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (105 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #38,960 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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• This is item 22 in The Discworld Series.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

5 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Never Argue With Food You Find Under a Rock..., November 10, 2005

By	Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

Against the stars a turtle passes...

And so begins another of Terry Pratchett's tales of the Unseen University, a place where wizards go to study, kill each other, and, in their spare time, eat a lot. This time Archchancellor Ridcully has a serious problem. The Librarian has come down with magician's flu and with every sneeze the University's favorite orangutan changed into something else. A carpet, a red-headed grimoire, aven a deck chair. To make matters worse, the books in the library are in revolt. Now the worst hangs in the offing, the only hope is to bring Rincewind, the Unseen University's most inept graduate back to pacify the library, which they try to cure the Librarian. Only no one is quite positive where Rincewind is. After all, only an hour ago, no one ever wanted to see him again.

Rumor has it that Rincewind was dumped on the continent of Fourecks, a place where most people consider rain an offensive legend, after his last misadventure. The magician's primary talent is surviving disasters only to find himself in worse trouble. With this information, the faculty of the Unseen University troops into the office of The Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography and, by virtue of peering through a window that shouldn't be there find themselves precisely where they shouldn't be - in Fourecks, but a few thousand years too soon.

While Rincewind tries to avoid murder, torture, and irritated citizens on modern Fourecks, which has run out of water, the Archchancellor and his companions discover themselves present for the continent's creation by a God who was, well..., a little bit too thorough. And the Librarian is still sneezing. And somewhere, the many-footed luggage struggles to find its master.

In many ways, The Last Continent is a tour de force. One long, hysterical mockery of pompous academics, time paradoxes, science gone absurd, and the temerity of radical deities. One can't help but admire a man who really believes that humans exist because nature abhors a vacuum and that taking things seriously is a sure way to wind up taking orders from a very pushy kangaroo. Even Death stops in for a moment to see what Rincewind is up to. One can't help but applaud.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars No Worries, January 13, 1999

By	Matthijs Philip -> [e-mail] (Holland, Amsterdam.) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Last Continent (Hardcover)

It probably is strange to see how some people only give the book 2 stars and find it a big disappointment, while others say it is his best one yet... Terry writes far more than 1 book-a-year which sometimes shows in his work. If you are a die-hard Discworld fan, you can't help noticing that Pratchett is getting less original all the time. But he has to repeat things, because non-Discworld fans have to be able to read the books as well. It is pretty weird to assume everone knows about a world standing on the back of a turtle; these things need to be explained over and over again. BUT in this book Mr. Pratchett doesn't write about most of his 'clichees', but about an entire new continent (XXXX for the fans) and still people (Discworld-fans!!) complain. A bit australianish as the cover says, but still very nice to read.

Still no worries eh?

3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Disappointed, August 26, 2006

By	M. Vladanoviæ "Shipwreck" (Zagreb, Croatia) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I fail to see the point of reviewing Discoworld book, especially one that comes this late in the series. By now, you are a hardcore fan, or you just didn't like Pratchett's style.

For my part, I can say that I adored Discworld from the moment that I have read Color of Magic, though it is not my favorite book in the series. Then again, I never grew fond of Rincewind, much more to my liking were numerous side characters that were so jovial and so life-like that you just had to love them.
So that being said I'll just fly shortly over this book.

Last Continent is divided in two parts. The very poor one, staring Rincewind and Luggage finding themselves on a strange continent that resembles Australia, is variation on a theme already exploited in Witches Abroad in a way that surpasses this one immensely. Second part (as often is the case in Discworld, these two parts do not follow one another, rather they make "intercourse") stars Unseen University staff including Archchancellor, Dean, Librarian, Ponder Stibbon, some other that I cannot remember right now, and most importantly Mrs Whitlow, cleaning lady.

This second part keeps entire novel entertaining enough and on a very high satiric level combined with sharp intelligence, something that Pratchett's very good at. And all began when wizards tried to restore Librarian back to it's normal shape...You can possibly visualise what kind of trouble this caused.

But as I have said, if you don't know already who are the characters that I mentiond here, you should probably avoid this book and if you are interested in Discworld you should consider starting from the beginning of the series. For the rest of you out there, this is, though for moments hillarious, rather dull, long, and less than average Discworld book.