The Last Hero - author Terry Pratchett

                      Reviewed by Sue

Many years ago, the first hero stole something from the gods.
Fire. What would any of us do without it? But now, a very old hero
and his friends, the Horde, are about to give the same gift back
to the gods - with interest.

The fire will be used to ignite a 50 pound of Agatean thunder clay
and Cohen is taking it to Cori Celesti, the mountain at the centre
of the world where the home of the gods, Dunmanifestin, is. But 
when the keg explodes, the wizard Ponder Stibbons explains, it 
will disrupt the world's magic field. Within a fraction of a 
second this will destroy the Discworld which is, literally, built 
on magic.

There's only one thing to do - try to stop Cohen, Truckle the
Uncivil, Boy Willie, Mad Hamish and Caleb the Ripper - before they
can make their 'gift'. Lord Vetinari sets his best men to work.
Leonard of Quirm designs and makes a craft which will be able to
travel fast enough to get Vetinari's team to Cori Celesti in time
to prevent the destruction of the Discworld. His 'ship' flies
through the air powered by swamp dragons and he sets off with
Carrot and Rincewind on a voyage of a lifetime.

Meanwhile Cohen and the Horde are teaching a minstrel who they
have kidnapped how to write a saga about their adventure.  They
have also been joined by Vena the Raven-Haired, an elderly
adventuress who turns knitting needles into deadly weapons, and
Evil Harry Dread, a Dark Lord who they know from w-a-y back. But
will Leonard's ship, the Kite, get Rincewind and co there in time?
Or is this the end of the Discworld?

I only heard about The Last Hero just before it was released.
Unlike most of Terry's other books, it is a large format book
liberally illustrated by drawings. These have been done by Paul
Kidby. Sadly Josh Kirby who used to do Terry's illustrations died
in October. But Paul's style is very similar. The story is
excellent. I loved these old men and their arguments about the
past. The introduction of Evil Harry Dread is a masterpiece and
many of the comments made about him reminded me of the Evil
Overlord articles I printed in SynTax some issues ago, such as
when he said how he always played fair, leaving a back entrance
into his Mountain of Dread, and employed really stupid guards.

Some sections of the book are set in Dunmanifestin itself where
the gods watch the heroes heading towards the mountain. A fair
proportion is inside the Kite. Others parts follow Ponder Stibbons
and the other wizards as they try to communicate with Rincewind
and co via a device called the omniscope.

I worried that the ending might let the rest of the book down. As
I was reading I thought - how will Terry resolve this? Of course
he does it in brilliant fashion, and the ending is very
satisfying.



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