| $@%&! level: Low “Bedroom” level: Low Violence level: Medium-Low Back Cover: “Discworld's pesky alchemists are up to their old tricks again. This time, they've discovered how to get gold from silver—the silver screen that is. Hearing the siren call of Holy Wood is one Victor Tugelbend, a would-be wizard turned extra. He can't sing, he can't dance, but he can handle a sword (sort of), and now he wants to be a star. So does Theda Withel, an ambitious ingenue from a little town (where else?) you've probably never heard of. But the click click of moving pictures isn't just stirring up dreams inside Discworld. Holy Wood's magic is drifting out into the boundaries of the universes, where raw realities, the could-have-beens, the might-bes, the never-weres, the wild ideas are beginning to ferment into a really stinky brew. It's up to Victor and Gaspode the Wonder Dog (a star if ever one was born!) to rein in the chaos and bring order back to a starstruck Discworld. And they're definitely not ready for their close-up!” |
So, Terry Pratchett the satirist takes on the movies. It's an excellent social commentary about the way that film seems to cast a spell on society in general, how movies take on a life of their own, how easily lies are told for the sake of a good story, and how the film industry uses people up. And if you don't care about any of that, it's still just a darn good story that introduces a couple of really good recurring characters. One I already mentioned is Ponder Stibbons, but there's also Gaspode, who is the sorriest excuse for a mongrel mutt ever—except that he can talk. Or rather, he speaks human as well as dog, and sometimes even translates if he can get anyone to actually believe that a dog can talk.
There are also a lot of fun movie references in here, from Looney Tunes to King Kong, and it's a lot of fun to pick them all out.