The Last Hero

2010-Feb-10 Wednesday 16:50 CET

This is the first illustrated Terry Pratchett's novel that I read. According to the legend, the first Hero stole the fire from gods. Now the Silver Horde - a bunch of elderly, but nonetheless lethal, heroes - is committed to bring back the fire to gods with interests - the Discworld equivalent of an atomic bomb.
Unfortunately the detonation on the god citadel would cause the dispersion of all the magic bringing Discworld to death.
All the discworld nations ask Ank-Morpork to save the world. So the patrician assigns this mission to Captain Carrot, Rincewind the Wizard and the inventor Leonard of Quirm.
I found Rincewind and Leonard very fit in their part, while I had more surprise with the parts played by Carrot and by the Patrician. I can't imagine capt Carrot joining the terror hymn that goes like "Aaaaaarrrrrggggghhhhh". Carrot character has always given the impression of blind faith in the system. Thus he should have a wonderful faith in what the system has produced to save the world. The patrician is a fine connoisseur of human minds, I feel uneasy when he fails to understand Ponder Stibbons. Also very far of the image I have of this character that he propose so plainly to kill the Librarian to save the mission. The patrician is subtle, manipulating, not plain, nor direct. And the story, at a given point, cites a B plan, that is very Patrician, but the topic is not evolved... it seems more of a device to talk briefly about the attempt of ecumenism on Discworld. Also Death, who usually is very attentive to the fate of Discworld was a bit lacking, he just takes a look at the hourglass of the giant A'Tuine (the turtle that floats in the space void carrying four elefants that, in turn, carry the Discworld.
So... this is not one of the best book by Terry Pratchett - it is better than Erik, but worse of the other books. Nonetheless the drawings are gorgeous and the story is entertaining.

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