Author Terry Pratchett is relatively unknown in America outside of fantasy and sci-fi circles. In his native Great Britain, it\’s a whole different story. Terry Pratchett sold more books in the UK than any other author during the 1990\’s, and has only been outsold by J. K. Rowling since the year 2000. The Light Fantastic is the classic second novel in Pratchett\’s Discworld series.

While the events of Pratchett\’s novels take place on an imaginary Discworld, they are really parodies on various cultural phenomena from our own world. The Light Fantastic makes delightful fun of the religious fanaticism that can arise from the belief that the world is coming to an end. Book burning bonfires abound, lynch mobs chase after the unconverted, and frightened hordes flee the cities like rats off a sinking ship.

The main character throughout the book is an aspiring but totally inept wizard named Rincewind, whose main talent is survival-by-running-away from anything that seems even remotely threatening, which includes just about everything.

That is to say, everything except what has everybody else running scared: The new Red Star that has recently appeared in the sky, and which keeps growing brighter and hotter by the minute. Rincewind\’s travel companion Twoflower takes comfort in his friend\’s lack of panic because knowing Rincewind, \”If there was anything at all to be frightened about, he\’d be frightened. But he\’s not. The star is just about the only thing I\’ve ever seen him not frightened of. If he\’s not worried, then take if it from me, there\’s nothing to worry about.\”

And naturally, Twoflower is correct in his assessment of the fate of the world by way of observing Rincewind, the Discworld\’s foremost expert on when to panic.

The adventures of Rincewind and Twoflower take them through a forest of talking trees, a visit with predominantly friendly rock trolls, travelling through the universe in a magic gift shop and through the skies on a druid-levitated rock, narrowly escaping Death after visiting the netherworlds, and saving a sacrificial virgin against her most ardent insistence: Things that are possible on the Discworld and nowhere else.

In the end, it\’s really all about a powerful magic spell that has lodged itself in Rincewind\’s brain, waiting for the Red Star to appear before reuniting with seven other spells to be read at the appointed time in order to turn the path of Great A\’Tuin away from his (or her) collision course with the Red Star.

Great A\’Tuin, of course, is the great sea turtle swimming through the cosmos with four elephants on its back, who in turn hold up the Discworld. Just as a clarification for those of you who still cling to the belief that all worlds in the Universe are spherical and revolve around stars by way of gravity.

The Light Fantastic may be a 23 year old classic but it is still an unsurpassed parody on cultural phenomena that are, if anything, even more relevant today than they were in 1987. It is highly recommended and can be read as a standalone or as part of Terry Pratchett\’s Discworld series.

Britt Hellman lives in North Carolina with her husband and three sons. A professional copywriter, she writes and publishes book reviews as a hobby. In the late 1980\’s, her husband introduced her to the books by Terry Pratchett. Visit her website The Light Fantastic for a complete list of Discworld novels by Terry Pratchett, from The Color of Magic (1983) to Unseen Academicals (2009).

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