Discworld #10 - Moving Pictures
I'm reading all of the Discworld novels. Use the tags to find those posts.
I've got this marked down as having previously read it, and I'm almost certain I have, but as with many of the other Discworld novels I read as a kid/young adult I didn't really remember any of it. Having now reread it I think the reason for that is that nothing particularly memorable really happens in it.
This feels like the other Unseen University books, the ones that normally feature Rincewind as a protagonist, in that it's a fairly high concept largely concerned with the intrusion of creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions into the Discworld. It's all plot and not much character, and it's the small character moments that I find most memorable about Discworld.
I'm a huge film lover and on paper this should be right up my alley. I definitely enjoyed some of the references to classic films and the weird inversions of them in the Discworld. But ultimately it just didn't land for me - which has often been the case when the humour in these books relies on references to the real world. It also suffers from a similar problem to Pyramids, where the opening section promises a book that I really wanted to read before pivoting into something else (though it's much better than Pyramids ever is).
I've remarked a few times about how Pratchett takes multiple runs at similar ideas throughout his work. This feels a little like a proto-Soul Music (or, at least, what I remember of Soul Music) and also feels like the first steps in what will later become the Moist Von Lipwig books. I'm interested to see how much of this actually shows up in those later books.
I didn't dislike this but it wasn't among my favourites and I think I'll have largely forgotten it quite soon.