8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Never Argue With Food You Find Under a Rock..., November 9, 2005
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.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
No Worries, January 13, 1999
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?
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4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
The mysteries of the universe solved here!, January 9, 2005
At last!
Finally a plausible explanation for so many mysterious phenomena we've all pondered with futility:
Have you ever wondered how God ever arrived at sex as a means of creatures reproducing themselves? The answer's here in this book.
Have you ever wondered what the duckbill platypus? Yeah. What the duckbill platypus? Well, the answer's not precisely here, but if you wondered why, instead, you'll be fulfilled.
Kangaroos? Why budgies say the thing about pretty boys?
What it is that's missing in Oz, and why?
You'll get it all here in this, the best, the most amusing book yet by Terry Pratchett.
Unfortunately, you mustn't read it until you've read all the other Rincewind sequence books.
Then you can reward yourself with a laugh on every page and a newly found metaphysical awareness.
A handshake and friendly, "Howdy!" with god.
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