The second book in the cycle of stories about Rincewind—the most unlucky wizard in the Discworld. He hanged over the abysses, ran from the evil gods, and fell from the edge of the Flat World. But nothing can destroy the glorious Rincewind, the most inept and timid wizard on the Disc. Also featured: Twoflower (a tourist), Octavo (a magical book of spells), the Chest (a chest), Cohen (a barbarian), druids, heroes, and other inhabitants of the Disc.
According to statistics, Terry Pratchett is—throughout the 1990s—the most widely read author in the UK; his hardcover books sold more copies than any other living writer.
The narration is steeped in sparkling English humor—no wonder Pratchett is a fellow countryman of Jerome K. Jerome and P. G. Wodehouse. Just imagine the dialogues between a wizard and Death, who is constantly hunting him! Death in the Discworld is masculine—he’s a drunk philosopher and is sad only because people don’t appreciate his actions. Pratchett makes him pity people who only complicate their own lives. Here’s what’s on the mind of one of Pratchett’s most philosophical characters: “The death of a warrior, of an old man, or of an infant I understand. I end pain and put a stop to suffering. But death of the mind—I have never understood.”