In the thirteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0The Last Continent<\/i>, Ponder discovers his destiny; the wizards escape; Rincewind does a lot of gross things. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n
So. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m now more than 60% of the way through\u00c2\u00a0The Last Continent<\/i>, and I still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s happening. That sounds like an exaggeration when I read it, and I want to be careful to make sure this doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t sound like I hate it. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of fun to read out loud; the book is more like a collection of humorous vignettes than the rest of the\u00c2\u00a0Discworld<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0books. At the same time, I feel impatient while reading\u00c2\u00a0The Last Continent<\/i>. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a strange thing to admit because\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 well, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s my fault I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m reading this in 20-page spurts, you know? I CAN\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T BLAME ANYONE BUT MYSELF.<\/p>\n
I worried that this might just be a Rincewind problem, but you know what? As much as I disliked\u00c2\u00a0Interesting Times<\/i>, at least there WAS a gradually building plot within it. Here, the wizards are now barely away from Mono Island and, as I predicted, Pratchett found a way to get Ponder Stibbons back with the rest of the wizards, eliminating any real, lasting change for this character. (Again: for now. I will take this back if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s leading to something else.) I feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve been stuck on this island or with Rincewind suffering in the desert for a long, long time, and there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s nothing in the text yet to give me a hint how this is all going to come together.<\/p>\n
Usually, Pratchett drops hints along the way. He pushes his characters from one dramatic scene to another and demonstrates how they\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d react to it. Here, though, I get the sense that both Rincewind and the wizards are moving from one joke to another, not one plot point to another. Granted, I have no interest in the wizards obsessing over Mrs. Whitlow. Unless it was from her perspective, I just wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t going to be entertained by that. I was amused by the gag where Rincewind made a sheep-stealer take off in terror while he was searching for water, but what does this all mean? Is this his means into Bugarup?<\/p>\n
Probably. But I still have no clue what anyone is supposed to be doing. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a part of me that wonders if this is the whole parody element: what if Rincewind is forced on a quest without knowing his purpose until the very end? That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s amusing, I suppose, but as the reader, I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m getting frustrated that\u00c2\u00a0I<\/i>\u00c2\u00a0still don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Rincewind is supposed to do, why it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s truly important, and how the wizards end up imprinted through time. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a lot of information to keep from the reader for this long, you know?<\/p>\n
I want to believe that this will all come together by the finale, and I also have to accept that the nature of Mark Reads means that sometimes, I will be reading books in a way that breaks them up oddly. Still, I will admit to appreciating that the God of Evolution\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s most perfect creature is a cockroach. I should have seen that one coming.<\/p>\n
vid<\/p>\n
Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n
– I am now on Patreon<\/a>! There are various levels of support, from $1 up to whatever you want! You’ll get to read a private blog, extra reviews, and other such rewards. I POST A LOT OF CUTE PHOTOS, OKAY. Think of it like a private Tumblr blog that only SPECIAL PEOPLE get to read.<\/b> In the thirteenth part of\u00c2\u00a0The Last Continent, Ponder discovers his destiny; the wizards escape; Rincewind does a lot of gross things. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read\u00c2\u00a0Discworld.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[463,248,522],"class_list":["post-4066","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-the-last-continent"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4066"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4066\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4066"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4066"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4066"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\n– I have updated my list of conventions and events for the remainder of the year and much of next year.\u00c2\u00a0\u00c2\u00a0Check the full list of events on my Tour Dates \/ Appearances page.<\/a>
\n– My Master Schedule<\/a> is updated for the near and distant future for most projects, so please check it often.\u00c2\u00a0My next Double Features for Mark Watches have been announced here.<\/a>
\n<\/b>-\u00c2\u00a0Mark Does Stuff is on Facebook!<\/a>\u00c2\u00a0I’ve got a community page up that I’m running. Guaranteed shenanigans!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"