Book Review: Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

Once again I’m talking Terry Pratchett.

New to Terry Pratchett? List of how to read Discworld with links to my reviews.

• Review: Moving Pictures
• Series: Discworld #10
• Author: Terry Pratchett
• No of Pages: 396
• Release Date: July 4th 2005
• Rating: 4/5

Synopsis:

Book Review: Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

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 ingénue 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!– Google Books

What’s happening:

Here we meet Victor. A student at the Unseen University. But he has a small problem. His family left him a fortune to not become a wizard, if he becomes a wizard he will lose but if he fails at UU he will also lose the money. So Victor is the most intelligent student at the University, the guy that other students go to for information but he’s also the guy that never aces nor fails his tests. Not knowing about the money, the wizards at UU are starting to catch on to his 83% test scores and decide that the next test Victor takes will be a one question test, one where he can either pass or fail. Instead of taking the final Victor finds himself, like many others compelled to go to The Holly Wood.

Gaspode the not so friendly, very scruffy, talking dog tries to help Victor even when everyone pushes him away for the overly loving and overly cute Laddie who steals the show every time. Nobody gives Gaspode the time of day.

Cut my own throat Dibbler is in charge and he is seeing stars, in the form of money! Lots and lots of money. He comes up with hilarious and crazy ideas for each new flick to outdo the last. As they get longer and longer people get more drawn to them.

How to make Banged Grains by Alchemist Peavie:

What you do is, you take some corn, and you put it in, say, a Number 3 crucuble, with some cooking oil, you see, and then you put a plate or something on top of it, and when you heat it up it goes bang, I mean, not seriously bang, and when it’s stopped banging you take the plate off and it’s metamorphosed into there, er, things… You can eat it, if you put butter and salt on it, it tastes like salty butter.

My thoughts:

Once again, this is a hilarious book. We see Death quite often sometimes in the most unlikely places. We meet a few new characters for the discworld, Detrirus and CMOT Dibbler are in almost all of The Watch books. This is hilarious, easy to read. The book thrives on classic movie cliches but they don’t hold the story back at all. For instance, have you followed a yellow, sick toad lately?

The plot flows and takes us through yet another Discworld that is bound to please any Terry Pratchett fan and probably convert those that are not. I was one of the converted after my hubby MADE me read one of Terry Pratchett’s books a few years back. I haven’t read one book I don’t like of his. And fantasy isn’t even really my genre.

Terry Pratchett just has a way of bringing laughter to his writing. I always find myself laughing out loud and Moving Pictures, although somewhat serious in parts, was just as funny as his others.

Want a good laugh? This one is for you.

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Tags: Ankh-Morpork, Book review, Death (Discworld), Discworld characters, Moving Pictures (novel), moving pictures by terry pratchett, Unseen University