The Last Hero Discussion *Spoilers*

[Jan Van Quirm]

Bloody impossible to read in bed too!

Also I forgot the bloody thing was in the conservatory bookcase and so the spine and last inch of the dustjacket covers are 'slighty' foxed - they've turned blue in fact!

[Tonyblack]

It's impossible to read on a bus as well. I took it to London last week thinking I'd read it on the bus. There just wasn't the room yo open it properly.

[pip]

Thats why i have the hardback and much smaller and manageable paperback which is bed and bus friendly.

[mystmoon]

? I can read mine in bed, I just prop it on the pillow and lie on my front

[DaveC]

I only have the small paperback. I only read it at home as even that was too big to take to work.

[pip]

No audio version of this book then

[DaveC]

No audio version of this book then

[The Mad Collector]

No audio version of this book then

There is actually. The full version read by Stephen Briggs is either 4 or 5 CDs long rather than the usual 10 to 12, I've got it somewhere

[pip]

post comment i went and checked as well. Crazy stuff mad.

[Tonyblack]

Ok - what are your favourite illustrations?

[Doughnut Jimmy]

Sorry Tony, although the illustrations are ok I don't remember any clearly enough to have a favourite.

The fact that it's very short isn't really a problem as it's a fable not a novel but the "motto" at the end - "No one remembers the singer. The song remains" isn't really the one I'd expected, it seems only tangentially connected to the main theme of humanity defying fate/the gods.

I also felt the whole plotline with the plan to save the world by stopping the silver horde was rather weak.

[Tonyblack]

Actually, I see this one as a sort of transition book in the series. We have seen Discworld and, in particular, Ankh-Morpork, develop through the series. We gone from Medieval to Regency to Industrial Revolution and Victorian. Cohen and co. are part of an outdated era on Discworld.

They don't fit into the books any more so this is Terry's way of letting them, literally, go out with a bang. I think the books have moved even further into a more modern era since this book.

Which takes me back to favourite illustrations. Mine is actually two - it's sort of the Before and After pictures of the minstrel. That picture of him in rags sitting on the rock playing his homemade lyre is excellent in my opinion.

[mystmoon]

I love the one of Cohen and the Horde flying off on the Valkyries horses!

[The Mad Collector]

That picture of him in rags sitting on the rock playing his homemade lyre is excellent in my opinion.

Yes I really like that one as well, but it is the parodies of da Vinci's sketchbooks done as Leonard of Quirms notebook that make the book for me and why I don't think it could work without the pictures.

[Tonyblack]

Where it really wouldn't work without the pictures is at the end when Leonard is painting the temple of Small Gods. If you took the picture away it would simply be: "He's finished it already!"

I noticed for the first time on this read that his helicopter is dragon powered - and apparently they are Moon dragons.

And I love the fryingpan stuck to Rincewind's back in that picture.

Did anyone spot the reference to The Truth in one of the pictures? I laughed out loud when I spotted it.