The Light Fantastic

By: Terry Pratchett

Narrated by: Nigel Planer

Length: 6 hrs and 54 mins

Publisher's Summary

The Great A'Tuin, the heroic turtle who supports the weight of the entire Discworld, not to mention four giant elephants, swims through the galaxy day and night with the burden of being the only creature who knows exactly where the universe is going. Philosophers have long debated where this is, and are due to find out in about 2 months. Shall they worry? Well, they are on a collision course with a malevolent red star and only one person can save Discworld. Unfortunately, it's the cowardly wizard, Rincewind, who was last seen falling off the edge of the planet. This is the second book in the Discworld series.

Browse more novels of Discworld.

(P) ISIS Publishing Ltd, 1995; Copyright © Terry Pratchett, 1986; Cover Illustration © Josh Kirby

Critic Reviews

"Planner is confronted by a variety of eccentric characters and with brilliant flair he brings them off well. Great stuff." (AudioFile)

audio quality

The story is good but the audio changes quality on different chapters. The audio doesn't make it too bad just distracting.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

Good reading performance, good story

The reading and story were very well done, though the sound quality and recording quality was... crusty and uneven.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Wonderfully read

This narrator is really cool! Love the range of accents and vocal tones. Pratchett, of course, awesome.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Rincewind is back with a vengeance

The Story that began with the first Discworld novel, the Colour of Magic has its epilogue in the second one, the Light Fantastic. Download them both, listen to them one after the other. The cover image is mistaken again, like in the colour of magic, and low resolution too. this is why they get 4 stars and not 5. Reader, Nigel IS THE READER, the one and only, perfect! He embodies the spirit od the Disc characters that Pratchett created, never boring and always perfect being Death, Rincewind or even the Luggage or any othe character! Pratchett himself confirms yet again that you can have an Epic fantasy ...even with onions!

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

horrible sound quality

amazing story and performance, but the sound quality is abysmal. they didn't even take the time to properly EQ their recordings so the sound shifts heavily between chapters.

Good reading. Old recording.

it was an excellent reading. I wish it could be remastered to remove the fuzz.

Great A'Tuin is pleased.

This sequel is excellent. The first book is good, but this is brilliant. Terry Pratchett really comes into his own.

Hilarious and wonderful!

Loved it! A few times the sound seemed a bit far away, but never more than a couple sentences. I thought it was amazing all the same.

The start of the legendary series...

While the Light Fanastic isn't the best of the Discworld novels it's certainly more humorous than the previous title 'the Colour of Magic', you can see the start of the writing style that made Pratchett's series so well loved.

The storyline continues directly from the end of the Colour of Magic and serves as a much more epic storyline than the previous novels now Rincewind and Twoflower are established, as well as introducing future Discworld star Cohen as well as the Wizards. It involves the miraculous saving of Rincewind and Twoflower and the threat of a Red star heading towards the Discworld.

There are a few places where the narrative feels a bit long winded in the middle but overall it is a well paced book that in conjunction with the previous novel form an excellent story.

I'd recommend it, if best served back to back with 'The Colour of Magic'

15 of 15 people found this review helpful

Loved it! Poor download quality though

The book is great! But sound quality is poor. Nigel Planner is really good and really adds to the book and story.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Save your ears

Two stars because the audio quality of this, even on 4 and enhanced, dreadful. There's a background hiss and it sounds tinny. I wish I'd sampled it first. Get the abridged version -- it's shorter, obviously, but the sound quality is much better and it costs less.

6 of 7 people found this review helpful

Same stuff love it

The voice of Neil makes it for me and the sheer variety of voices he can muster brings it to life

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Just Fantasytic.

Dear Terry Pratchett. One of the sorrows of my life is that I wasted a lot of years, thinking I didn't need to read about Discworld. A mistake I have repeated, several times elsewhere. Still, looking on the bright side, they're all still there, waiting to be enjoyed.
I was a bit puzzled by this, because, my introduction to Discworld came via the film made of 'The Colour of Magic', which I enjoyed, enormously. When I got to The Light Fantastic, I suddenly realised that the film contained a lot of this book too, which, I have to say, was a bit of a disappointment. Add the alterations, and adjustments made with any film, and it all becomes a bit overdone. I loved it, and the characters, and have plotted out the rest of the list. Long Live Sir Terry.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

A lightness of touch, but don't start here!

I love the Discworld series, and this is an important part of it.
However, in this - the 2nd in the series - the style that we know and love from Terry Pratchett is still establishing itself. I"d recommend this to anyone who already loves his writing. To anyone new to Discworld I'd say start later in the series and come back to this one once you've fallen in love with it.

the sound quality isn't brilliant, but don't let it put you off - it's worth battling through!

Definitely recommended

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Excellent book

Brilliant as ever Mr Pratchett, my only problem with this is that the recording is very 'shushy' in places. On several occasions I thought there was some intrusive traffic noise, turned off the recording to find out what the problem was, only to discover that the 'traffic noise' was on the recording.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Loved every minute

Terry Prachetts style is so cleverly descriptive and greatly amusing and this book is no exception. Brilliantly read by Nigel Planer who has just the perfect voice for a Prachett novel. Well worth every penny, I highly recommend it and guarantee you will not be dissapointed.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Shockingly bad audio quality

What would have made The Light Fantastic better?

If it had been recorded by professionals. Not amateurs using equipment they found in a bin.

What was one of the most memorable moments of The Light Fantastic?

Rincewind's realisation of a certain inevitability regarding the spell in his head.

What didn’t you like about Nigel Planer’s performance?

It was fairly difficult to hear and understand most of the time due to the appalling audio quality.

Any additional comments?

I won't bother buying any more discworld. From the first two books it's obvious they're all going to be this shoddy. Going to move on to something else now.

2 of 3 people found this review helpful

Who does not love Terry Prachet

I loved the story. I love Terry Pratchetts sense of humour. Not sure about the narrator not bad but not great either. I will give another few books a go and he might grow on me.