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    The Last Continent: A Discworld Novel
    Unavailable
    The Last Continent: A Discworld Novel
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    The Last Continent: A Discworld Novel
    Ebook416 pages6 hours

    The Last Continent: A Discworld Novel

    By Terry Pratchett

    4/5

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    Currently unavailable

    About this ebook

    "If you are unfamiliar with Pratchett’s unique blend of philosophical badinage interspersed with slapstick, you are on the threshold of a mind-expanding opportunity.” —Financial Times

    Chaos ensues when Discworld’s deliciously hapless wizard Rincewind goes walking about in the Down Under in this wonderfully witty satire from legendary internationally bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett.

    There’s big trouble at the Unseen University, Ankh-Morpork’s prestigious and only institute of higher learning. A professor is missing—and the one person who can find him is not only the most bumbling magician the school ever produced, he’s currently stranded in Fourecks, Discworld’s last (and unfinished) continent. The down-under is hot (so hot) and it’s dry (so dry)—though it’s rumored there was once this thing called The Wet, but no one believes that. Practically everything here that’s not poisonous is venomous.

    Discworld’s most inept wizard and his companion, Luggage, are eager to get home—but first Rincewind has to survive a pushy mystical kangaroo trickster named Scrappy and a mob of Fourecks hooligans determined to hang him. All his problems would be solved if he could just make it rain . . . for (maybe) the first time ever. And if the time-traveling professors from UU working on rescuing him can get to the right millennium . . .

    The Discworld books can be read in any order, but The Last Continent is the sixth book in the Wizards collection (and the 22nd Discworld book). The other books in the Wizards collection include:

    • The Color of Magic
    • The Light Fantastic
    • Sourcery
    • Eric
    • Interesting Times
    • Unseen Academicals
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061806636
    Unavailable
    The Last Continent: A Discworld Novel
    Author

    Terry Pratchett

    Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.

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    Reviews for The Last Continent

    4/5

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    • 3/5
       At the end of Interesting Times, the wizards of the Unseen university return the barking dog to the Agetean empire, but, by some strange perchance, Rincewind is not reutned in it's place. instead, he gets moved to a thrid point on the disc, while something from there is moved onto the UU. Rincewind has been transported to the land of XXXX, the last continent. it is strange place, where the rain doesn't come and kangeroos roam the red desert. Rincewind survives by finding plates of sandwiches under rocks and generally being looked after by some deity while he invents vegemite drinks beer and inspires a very Australian folk tune.



      Meanwhile, the wizards are looking for a fellow professor, who should know all about the continent of XXXX, but he appears to be missing. Instead, they find a wormhole to a desert island where a mysterious God works wonders with tiny tools, but has yet to discovere how sex can aid reproduction. Due to an unfortunate accident, the wormhole closes and they travel to the continent of XXXX, which is still in the process of formation. they meet to local creator and, well, lets just say they cause havoc with a great many things.



      An interesting tale of culture shock that is not really set in Australia it just looks a lot like Oz does to us Poms.
    • 3/5
      The Last Continent is - like all of Terry Pratchett's books - rich in humorous observations and wisecracking footnotes. However, it's also remarkably thin on plot. I feel like it was put together as more of a way to work in as many Australian references as possible, and then before the print run someone realized that nothing really happened in the whole book and they slapped an ending on and called it a day. It's still a good read, of course; Pratchett could easily make the phone book into a laugh out loud knee-slapper and I'd enjoy every second of reading it, but it doesn't flow as easily as his more well-structured works.
    • 4/5
      On Discworld's last continent, practically everything that isn't poisonous is venomous. Striding across the red desert comes a hero?champion sheep shearer, road warrior, beer drinker, bush ranger and someone who'll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he's sober? It's a man in a hat, whose Luggage follows him on little legs, who's about to change history...it's Rincewind, the inept "Wizzard." Now all he has to do is figure out what the creator of this continent needs from him before the continent falls apart under him.
    • 4/5
      Rincewind and the wizards of Unseen University share this weird tale, one having to deal with a kangaroo that’s sometimes not a kangaroo, the others a bug-obsessed god (blame him for cockroaches).While the Last Continent, known as XXXX, is a land that has never ever seen rain (or water-filled rivers for that matter), it is hard to push aside the similarities to Earth’s own Down Under.Even so, I found the 50 or so pages just before the ending rather repetitive in its jokes and the interaction between the wizards was rather lacklustre.I still love the luggage though. Hard not to.
    • 4/5
      Another giggle-worthy instalment in the Discworld series, set on a continent resembling Australia, in which the jokes come thick and fast. Plenty of playful concepts (a Trickster kangaroo, a crocodile bartender, desert-travelling drag queens, sheep-shearing, and lots and LOTS of beer), cheekily inventive names (the cities of Buggerup and Didjabringthebeer spring to mind), and the wizards of the Unseen University bumbling around as only they can make this a solid, swift read. Not the best Pratchett I've ever read, but no worries - even a lesser Pratchett is still heaps of fun and packed with laugh-out-loud jokes (and New Zealanders always enjoy jokes about Australia, after all ;-).
    • 3/5
      Still reading these books through in order and this is not one of the besst in my opinion. Lacking plot it doesn't really go anywhere and if you find the whole Australia/evolution thing not that funny early on it can be a struggle to get through this one. There are enough entertaining set pieces though to keep you going and one or two interesting philosophical thoughts. Glad I didn't choose this as the first one I read though. - Must have been going through a bit of a dry patch at the end of the 90s eh?
    • 4/5
      Rincewind was never my favourite Discworld character, but this book has made him a lot more likeable in my eyes. I had fun reading another one of Pratchetts discworld novels. And I don't really know why, but after reading it I had this sudden urge to visit Australia! ;)
    • 3/5
      'Well, she knew the risks when she got the job,' said the Dean.'What?' said the Senior Wrangler. 'Are you saying that before you apply for the job of housekeeper of a university you should seriously consider being eaten by sharks on the shores of some mysterious continent thousands of years before you are born?''She didn't ask many questions at the interview, I know that.'Another book featuring Rincewind and the senior faculty members of the Unseen University, and set in EcksEcksEcksEcks (the Disc World equivalent of Australia). Rincewind meets a Trickster kangaroo who sends him on a quest, invents brown sticky stuff to spread on bread while trying to make beer and vegetable soup, and finds that the useful Ecksian phrase "No Worries" will see him through in almost any circumstance. Meanwhile, the wizards find themselves trapped after climbing through a portal in a bathroom, meet a god with rather strange ideas about creation, and see a new side to the university's formidable housekeeper, Mrs Whitlow.As usual there were a lot of funny moments and silly puns, and I liked the paradox of the last continent to be created also being the most ancient, but the story was slow to get started and just didn't flow for me. Not one of my favourite Pratchetts.
    • 4/5
      Admittedly, I never get all of Pratchett's jokes and references, but I get most of them here somehow. The funniest Discworld novel I've read yet.
    • 5/5
      A book with the archchancellor the dean Ponder Rincewind a woman and an island can't be anything but incredible.
    • 4/5
      Pratchett addresses himself to the task of satirising everything Australian within the pages of a single book. Bonzer!
    • 4/5
      When the wizards climb through a window into another dimension (the one where creation is happening) and accidentally close the window behind them, and Rincewind gets stranded in drought-stricken FourEcks, all sorts of chaos ensues. Not my favourite Discworld book (nowhere near the best, in my opinion, and doesn't say as much about society as some of the others) but nonetheless passably entertaining and readable.
    • 3/5
      Great satire riff on Australia, with lots of humour and silliness. I do want to try the pea soup with a meat pie floating in it, topped with tomato sauce, it sounds like the perfect 2 am drinking food!
    • 5/5
      Loved Pratchett's take on Australian culture.
    • 4/5
      Not my favourite Discworld novel. There is huge part in the middle where you really do not know where the story is going. The wizards and the God of Evolution are wonderful.
    • 3/5
      A rare 'thumbs-down' on this one. It is packed with Aussie jokes which seem to have been crowbarred into the Discworld just to maintain the theme. The secondary plot, with the wizards of the Unseen University marooned in the Discworld's distant past, is better but can't really compensate for what feels like a distinct lack of originality.
    • 4/5
      Rincewind has arrived in the land down under, a place where time doesn't really play fair. The faculty of Unseen University need Rincewind back and set out to find him though the Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography, who turns out to be not at home, but he left his window open. Through the window the wizards find a desert island, and find themselves on the other side of the disc, and many years ago. We switch between Rincewind as he struggles through the Outback and the wizards, who find out more about evolution than they really want to, and learn to surf. Lots of great running gags, especially Aussie and Pom jokes, and plenty of gentle satire. I enjoyed this one, no worries.
    • 3/5
      We find out what happens to Rincewind when he is returned suddenly from the counterweight continent. Apparently, disaster follows him in the shape of the senior wizards of Unseen University. Some good laughs, but not as good as the novels published from 1991-7 in my opinion.
    • 4/5
      This is probably my least favorite book out of the Discworld series of books. It features the wizards, but character development is pretty lacking. The plot also seems pretty lacking, as it never feels like the story develops very much. The wizards explore the Discworld equivalent of Australia, and that is about it. There is another storyline regarding the creation of the world, but it is hard to follow and if anything, seems too preachy. So while the book is about average, when held to the standards of the Discworld series, it's well under par from what I expect from Terry Pratchett.
    • 4/5
      Bwah-hah-hah-hah-hah-hah! More Discworld silliness, this time with an Australian flavor. It's funny. Read it.--J.
    • 5/5
      Oh gosh, this Discworld has lots of academia jokes, which I love."I shall endeavor to make study of any primitive grass-skirted peoples hereabouts," added the Dean, with a lawnmower look in his eyes.I've decided that Rincewind, the missing wizard, is another favorite character. He reminds me so much of Bill Bryson, author of In a Sunburned Country and many other wonderful books.Ponder Stibbons, another of my favorite Discworld characters because he is so logical and reasonable and reminds me of one of my favorite real life people, is trying to explain to other wizards why they can't willy-nilly mess with the past;"You might...tread on an ant now and it might entirely prevent someone from being born in the future!" "Really?" said Ridcully. "Yes, sir!" Ridcully brightened up. "That's not a bad wheeze. There's one or two people history could do without. Any idea how we can find the right ants?" "No, sir!" Ponder struggled to find a crack in his Archchancellor's brain into which he could insert the crowbar of understanding, and for a few vain seconds thought he'd found one."Because...the ant you step on might be your own, sir!" "You mean...I might tread on an ant and this'd affect history and I wouldn't be born?" "Yes! Yes!" That's it! That's right, sir!" "How?" Ridcully looked puzzled. "I'm not descended from ants."And the passage goes on to all sorts of tangents which so remind me of life in academia. And how much I miss it. I also found another euphemism for someone not quite with it;The bursar was, as he would probably be the first to admit, not the most mentally stable of people. He would probably be the first to admit that he was a tea-strainer.More quotes for my collection;Regarding a book from Ponder's childhood, one that is separated into three sections so you could make many, many creatures by changing the head, torso and leg pages. "The cover promised 'hours of fun' although, after the first three minutes you couldn't help wondering what kind of person could make that kind of fun last hours, and whether suffocating him as kindly as possible now would save the Serial Crimes Squad a lot of trouble in years to come. Ponder, however, had hours of fun."A footnote toward the end of the book about meat pie floaters, one of the "indigenous delights" on the Last Continent, goes on and on about how perfectly good food gets mangled by insistence on favoring food that is awful for unknown perverse reasons and Prachett notes "It's as if Machiavelli had written a cookery book." I love that analogy.The Last Continent ranks right up at the top of my favorite Discworld books, though it might be a bit too "inside" in parts so that someone who had limited knowledge of Australian culture would miss the joke. The kangaroo that appears out of nowhere confused the hell out of me and I still don't get its meaning. Could have done with a few less "no worries," too.
    • 3/5
      I don't like the Rincewind books. Of the major characters in the series, he's the one that I like the least. He's really very one-note, and the hero that just runs and runs as a character really ran out of steam for me around the first Rincewind book I read.Still, the rest of the Faculty can be fun, and this one wasn't really all that different in that regard, although I think they've had better runs in other books. The main thread they're on is that they want to find Rincewind so they can heal the Librarian, who has a cold that causes him to turn into a wide variety of items. Not really epic, but the characters are still fairly cute.The plot, though... this one is a parody of Australia, and I haven't been there, and I don't really find the idea all that amusing. There were parts that were good, such as the jail sequence and the god of evolution sequence, but there weren't that many. Pratchett's style is on, but it's turned to not particularly amusing ends here; I didn't laugh once. It's in the top end of the Rincewind books, but that's because the competition is very weak. This one's really just for completists, to my mind.
    • 5/5
      Terry Pratchett is a god who walks among men. The entire Discworld series is a joy and only a strange mad creature cursed by gods and man would refuse to read and love these books!One of the best Rincewind novels...find our hero on the Continent of Four Eks and admire how he forages for sandwiches under rocks and scare the antives...while his faculty peers from UU wander through time and sapce..
    • 5/5
      I really enjoyed this one. I love all the references to things Australian, I wish I knew more, because I'm sure there were some that flew over my head. I like the way Pratchett can spoof evolution and creation without being offensive to either, or, at least being as offensive to both. :) Makes you think, he does, in a very pleasant way.
    • 5/5
      I'm usually not a huge fan of the Rincewind books, but this one is hilarious!