Interesting Times: Discworld #17 Audiobook (Unabridged)

Interesting Times, the seventeenth novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, finds the planet's oldest empire in the midst of bitter turmoil after the publication of the revolutionary treatise What I Did on My Holidays. Workers, with nothing to lose but their water buffaloes, are joining forces against old warlords, spreading violence throughout Discworld's ancient cities. All that stands in the way of total destruction are 3 decidedly non-heroic creatures: Rincewind, the world's dumbest wizard; Cohen the Barbarian, who stands 5 feet tall in his surgical sandals; and a very special butterfly.

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"INTERESTING TIMES by Terry Pratchett has got to be one of the most fun I've had reading since someon gave me the first two books of THE HITCHHIKER'S GUIDE TRILOGY in 1980. It is such a welcome wild ride into intelligently written insanity that it was difficult to put it down. This is the first Discworld novel I have actually read, and I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to sit down with a good book and enjoy the fun. INTERESTING TIMES is not my introduction to Discworld. I found the COLOR OF MAGIC two-part miniseries on Netflix a couple of weeks ago (I have since learned that it condenses the first two Discworld novels into a very entertaining and impressive movie). Before that, I avoided the books because of a bad recommendation from a friend way back when. Truthfully, it was abad recommendation and a fed-upness with the fantasy genre in general. All I can say after reading INTERESTING TIMES is that it certainly delivers on its promise and has made me want to read all the other Discworld novels in a way those truly magical authors are wont to do to unsuspecting readers. I'm not going to go into the plot since the absurd complexity of it is better experienced while reading. I will say that it successfully turns the whole fantasy cliche of an ancient prophecy and of a hero foretold on its ear. I would think that most people fed up with fantasy in general like me will appreciate what Terry Pratchett does in his chapterless tale and want to experience more of such innovation in a field that is fairly entrenched in standard and predictable fair in its stories. Pratchett has a way of skewering nearly everything with a deftness I have not experienced as a reader since first being introduced to Douglas Adams. It is intelligent parody, something I don't feel exists often enough in fantasy (I think it takes itself far too seriously to be taken seriously). INTERESTING TIMES takes the reader from a tropical island to the middle of fate, chance, opportunity and bewilderment on behalf of its main character, Rincewind (a fairly useless wizard who is more than a little bit cowardly). Believe me, that's a summation anyone can live with that doesn't ruin the story for anyone wanting to give it a chance. Like most well-written literature, the summation hardly scratches the surface of what it truly can offer the reader...and I will leave the discovery of those treasures to those wanting to read it. I rate this novel very highly on my recommendation scale. From 1 - 10, INTERESTING TIMES gets a 12 from me. Very satisfying and very, very fun."

— Edward (5 out of 5 stars)