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The Light Fantastic

Discworld, Book 2

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The Light Fantastic

By: Terry Pratchett
Narrated by: Colin Morgan, Peter Serafinowicz, Bill Nighy
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Summary

Brought to you by Penguin.

Over 1 million Discworld audiobooks sold – discover the extraordinary universe of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld like never before

The audiobook of The Light Fantastic is read by Colin Morgan (Merlin; Testament of Youth; Belfast). BAFTA and Golden Globe award-winning actor Bill Nighy (Love Actually; Pirates of the Caribbean; Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows) reads the footnotes, and Peter Serafinowicz (Star Wars: Episode I - The Phantom Menace; Shaun of the Dead) stars as the voice of Death. Featuring a new theme tune composed by James Hannigan.

'Darkness isn't the opposite of light, it is simply its absence . . . what was radiating from the book was the light that lies on the far side of darkness, the light fantastic.'

The Discworld is in danger, heading towards a seemingly inevitable collision with a malevolent red star, its magic fading. It needs a hero, and fast.

What it doesn't need is Rincewind, an inept and cowardly wizard who is still recovering from the trauma of falling off the edge of the world. Or Twoflower, the well-meaning tourist whose luggage has a mind (and legs) of its own.

Which is a shame, because that's all there is . . .

The Light Fantastic is the second book in the Wizards series, but you can listen to the Discworld novels in any order.

The first book in the Discworld series - The Colour of Magic - was published in 1983. Some elements of the Discworld universe may reflect this.

'Incredibly funny, compulsively readable' The Times

© Terry Pratchett 1986 (P) Penguin Audio 2022

 Action & Adventure Epic Epic Fantasy Fantasy Humorous Literature & Fiction Satire Fiction Magic Comedy Magic Users Funny Wizardry Witty
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Critic reviews

'He is a satirist of enormous talent..Incredibly funny, compulsively readable'
'He would be amusing in any form and his spectacular inventiveness makes the Discworld series one of the perennial joys of modern fiction'
'Pure fantastic delight'
'A true original among contemporary writers'
All stars
Most relevant
This is the fourth of the new Discworld audiobooks I have read. All really good. Colin Morgan is outstanding as a narrator. The Discworld novels are populated with an incredible array of characters, all flowing from the mind of a truly great writer. These are captured here with a truly astounding range of voices. Outstanding.

Outstanding.

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Having enjoyed book one, I picked this audio book up straight away after finishing it. I was curious if my issues with the first book (that it was just a bit all over the place and that it seemed like Pratchett was trying to showcase his entire world in one book) would simmer down and give a feeling that this book was a tad more grounded.

The Light Fantastic, in my opinion, outshone The Colour of Magic considerably. 

Admittedly, Colour of Magic did all the heavy lifting as far as setting the scene/world went and establishing our main characters for this book. But it went about it in a very of a round about way. This book, however, felt like it stayed far more true to a coherent storyline and didn't meander off at the author's whim quite so much.

It had all of the good parts of book one but left the less than great bits behind and just felt like such a complete read/listen because of this. One thing that really helped was the maturation of the characters. Rincewind grew so much in this book and his character actually developed quite a lot of ... well ... character. Whereas before he was a bit of a Flashman/Ciaphas Cain style character that got himself into all sorts of dangerous trouble despite trying to avoid it, this time his growth as a person had him thinking of other people rather than just himself.

Which in no way helped him avoid danger, but certainly made him look all the better as a human being when he ended up in it. His relationship with Twoflower and the chest of luggage was expertly written and added a great deal of emotion/gravitas to the final chapter/s. 

Pratchett explored a bit more of the Disc here and there, but never at the detriment of the storyline. This book gave me glimpses of what else lurked out there in Pratchett's creation and had me keen to discover at a later date. So applause all round for the author on that.

One character I look forward to discovering more of is Death. I see there are books in his story arc a little later in the series. So I can't wait to get stuck into those.

Colin Morgan as the narrator is a sublime choice. His vocal work was absolutely stunning. This man could read me a washing machine instruction manual and I'd listen with eagerness. I'll also, when reading these books rather than listening, never be able to read Death's voice without doing so in Peter Serafinowicz's voice. Absolutely perfect fit.

Even better than book one

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Thoroughly enjoyed this as I have the first book too, going to go in order through the whole Discworld series!

Fabulous Version

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I love the Rinsewind and Twoflower comedy act, sci-fi Morecambe and Wise. Great story

Hilarious

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Brilliant sense of humor..,and hard to folow story. Especially if you have a lot of work to do while listening. Brilliant performance!

Brilliant sense of humor!

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