"The Light Fantastic" by Terry Pratchett

Plot summary: The Discworld is going to end because it's on a collision course with a star. To alleviate this, the eight spells of the Octavo must be said in sequence, which is tough for the Discworld because Rincewind has one of them and he's just fallen off the edge of the world.

Terry Pratchett mostly spoofs different things in this one than he did in The Color of Magic: as far as I can tell, it's tourists (again), Conan the Barbarian, computer science, eschatological cults, and Bridge. (The tourist, Twoflower, teaches Death to play bridge. Death is astounded that humans spend so much of their limited lifespans figuring out how to play this absurdly complicated game.)

 

If you want to read this one, you should probably read The Color of Magic first, since this one picks up pretty much right where that one left off.

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T15+ for crude humor and swearing. It's linear enough and has enough of a sole main character that it could probably get the RPG format (that's role-playing game, not rocket-propelled grenade), although a text adventure (like the one they made of The Color of Magic) would probably work just as well if not better.

3 stars.

Favorite lines:

    "...What is it that a man may call the greatest things in life?"

    The warriors leaned closer. This should be worth hearing.

    The guest thought long and hard and then said, with deliberation: "Hot water, good dentishtry and shoft lavatory paper."

    Page 42. This is said by Cohen the Barbarian, who is the Discworld's spoof of Conan the Barbarian. I always imagine him being played by Sean Connery.

    ...if the gods had wanted men to fly they'd have given them an airline ticket.

    Page 95.

    [the sunset] poured like molten gold* across the sleeping landscape...

    *Not precisely, of course. Trees didn't burst into flame, people didn't suddenly become very rich and extremely dead, and the seas didn't flash into steam. A better simile, in fact, would be "not like molten gold."

    Page 160.

Appearances of Death count: 24.

 

(Endnote: At the end of this one, a bunch of |baby Discworlds with their own baby world-elephants and world-turtles| show up. As far as I can tell none of these are ever mentioned again.)