From one "Last" Discworld book to another! While most of the books I'm reading are re-reads, this is my first time reading this one. It's a funny one. It's another illustrated Discworld book. I've got the text-only version of Eric, so in some ways I didn't know what to expect with this mixture of art and text. This was also a transition from Josh Kirby to Paul Kidby supplying the art. I sometimes wonder how much is in the similar surnames!
Anyway, I guess I'll start with the illustrations, as the biggest thing to take some adjustment to. It's tricky, because the Discworld novels are very visual to start with, and everyone builds up their personal models of what the characters look like. Seeing an artist depict theirs can be quite disconcerting.
In the end, my approach was "don't worry". Everyone can have their own view of what the characters look like, and that's ok. If you're sensible, this sounds like a straightforward and obvious approach, but for me it took some work!
At the start I felt the illustrations were maybe a minor irritation, but as the book went along I started to enjoy them rather more, and by the end it almost felt like the text was an excuse to create the charming visuals. Kidby's artistic style is much less intense than Kirby's, and I felt I enjoyed his imagination more than the specific interpretation, if that makes any sense.
Making up drawing for Leonardo da Quirm's notebooks gave a good excuse to add some fun supplementary text. In other places, the artworks are pastiches of other famous artworks. In many ways, the artist's sense of fun and joy in referencing seems to complement Terry Pratchett's similar style in the text.
While I expected the art to be a little alien to me, the text turned out to be almost more so. It's a short book, mostly taken up with pictures, so the volume of text is not great. It feels weirdly like Discworld fan fiction, except written by Terry!
Despite being a short story, it was quite a good one. It claims to be a Discworld fable, and I guess that's fair. Cohen and co. get one last run after Interesting Times, and it's actually a better send-off for him than becoming emperor of a continent, which is the kind of thing you can see him getting bored of. Mild themes run throughout the book.
Vetinari is present, feeling a little under-developed at this stage in the canon. Rincewind is also here, but it is late Discworld Rincewind - no longer always trying to run away, but inured to the adventures he goes on, and self-aware enough to realise that he hates them but inevitably survives, and has hope for a (mostly) quiet and boring future. Carrot is present, and it's more ambiguous than usual as to whether he's heroically dumb or quietly ironic. Ponder Stibbons takes his place, unusually acting as a foil to Vetinari.
The whole short story nature of it allows a fairly decent amount of stuff to go on while keeping it light. While it was clear there would be Cohen adventuring in this book, I was surprised to find Leonardo da Quirm leading a Discworld space mission, yet the structure of an illustrated book allow it to be carried off as a fun little jaunt. It provides a fun way to get some big ideas down on paper without having to take them too seriously.
In short, I enjoyed this a lot more than I expected to. It stands alone well - reading all the novels that follow, I never felt them lean on this volume. It's almost like Discworld apocrypha, but it feels too well in keeping with the rest to make that a fair designation. It treats the characters involved well. It's almost like a little holiday for the Discworld. By the end I was charmed.
Posted 2023-12-14.