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+++
title = "Interesting Times (Terry Pratchett, 1995)"
author = ["Michał Sapka"]
date = 2024-02-13T21:06:00+01:00
categories = ["reviews"]
draft = false
weight = 2010
reviewSection = ["Books"]
abstract = "A very short review"
aliases = ["/blog/2024/interesting-times/", "/brain-rot/discworld/interesting-times/"]
rating = 3.75
image = "reviews/covers/pratchett-interesting-times.jpg"
+++
Cover blurp:
> Mighty Battles! Revolution! Death! War! (and his sons Terror and Panic, and daughter Clancy).
>
> The oldest and most inscrutable empire on the Discworld is in turmoil, brought about by the revolutionary treatise What I Did On My Holidays. Workers are uniting, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes. Warlords are struggling for power. War (and Clancy) are spreading through the ancient cities.
>
> And all that stands in the way of terrible doom for eveyone is:
>
> Rincewind the Wizard, who can't even spell the word 'wizard' ...
>
> Cohen the barbarian hero, five foot tall in his surgical sandals, who has had a lifetime's experience of not dying ...
>
> ...and a very special butterfly.
I am, what one could call, an old school _nerd_.
All I care about are old operating systems, ancient editors and old SCIFI[^fn:1]
Ah, and some text based game where you are a cute "@".
_Of course_ I like Pratchett.
I started reading him _years_ ago in the only way acceptable - chronological[^fn:2].
And I had a few years long pause.
Now, after a series of reading _only_ technical books I am returning to fiction.
_[Interesting Times](https://www.terrypratchettbooks.com/books/interesting-times/)_ is an ok-level Pratchett book.
It's not close to his best, it's not close to his worst[^fn:3].
This time Rincewind has to travel to Counterweight Continent and help a rebellion.
There he reconnects with old acquaintances - Twoflower, and Cohen to Barbarian.
The problem is that there is not much more.
We've got a lot of Chinese things, which is new.
But the story itself is extremely straight-forward.
Nothing memorable happens.
I finished it 2 days ago, and already I would have a problem recollecting any standing out moment.
I still remember moments from other _Discworld_ books a decade after I read them!
But Terry's writing makes me not care and just enjoy the journey.
He is able to make a boring story interesting, and his characters are always great.
I was reading the book while putting my son to sleep, and I almost gave him a heart attack with a laughter attack.
This alone makes it worth it!
Not the best place to start with __Discworld__ (the best is, of course, _Colour of Magic_) but as n-th book in the series it's very enjoyable.
I give it a `3.75/5`.
## Meta {#meta}
- Read as EPUB on Onyx Boox Note Air 2.
- Read in Polish translation
- Next up: back to Andrzej Sapkowski's with "Time of Contempt". I am not a good pole, having not read the entire saga. I promise to do it before my 40th birthday[^fn:4]
[^fn:1]: And manga&anime, but that's beside the point.
Not American comics though.
Never cared about those, and it seems I never will.
[^fn:2]: It's ok to disagree, just like it's ok to be wrong.
[^fn:3]: Being a bad Pratchett's book still means being a very good one.
Most authors would love to reach the level of one of those at least once.
[^fn:4]: Which is closer that I expected
|
