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Rincewind
Rincewind is a fictional character appearing in several of the ''Discworld'' novels by Terry Pratchett. He is a failed student at the Unseen University for wizards in Ankh-Morpork, and is often described by scholars as "the magical equivalent to the number zero". He spends most of his time running away from bands of people who want to kill him for various reasons. The fact that he's still alive and running is explained in that, although he was born with a wizard's spirit, he has the body of a long-distance sprinter. Rincewind is also renowned for being able to solve minor problems by turning them into major disasters. His unique "skill" is implied to be due to being the chosen one of "The Lady", the anthropomorphic personification of luck (both good and bad). Rincewind was portrayed by David Jason in the film adaption of ''The Colour of Magic'' and Pratchett said in an interview that he unwittingly took Rincewind's name from " Churm Rincewind", a fictitious person referred to in e ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Colour Of Magic (film)
''Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic'' is a fantasy-comedy two-part television adaptation of the bestselling novels ''The Colour of Magic'' (1983) and ''The Light Fantastic'' (1986) by Terry Pratchett. The fantasy film was produced for Sky1 by The Mob, a small British studio, starring David Jason, Sean Astin, Tim Curry, and Christopher Lee as the voice of Death. Vadim Jean both adapted the screenplay from Pratchett's original novels, and served as director. ''Terry Pratchett's The Colour of Magic'' was broadcast on Sky One, and in high definition on Sky 1 HD, on Easter Sunday (23 March) and 24 March 2008. The first part drew audiences of 1.5 million, with the second part attracting up to 1.1 million viewers. The film was well received by fans, but drew mixed reviews from critics, who generally praised the acting talent of the all-star cast, but criticised the film's script and direction. The production is the second adaptation of Pratchett's novels as a live-action ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Eric (novel)
''Eric'', stylized as '' Eric'', is the ninth ''Discworld'' novel by Terry Pratchett. It was originally published in 1990 as a "''Discworld'' story", in a larger format than the other novels and illustrated by Josh Kirby. It was later reissued as a normal paperback without any illustrations, and in some cases, with the title given on the cover and title pages simply as ''Eric''. (The page headers, however, continued to alternate between ' and ''Eric''.) Plot summary The story is a parody of the tale of Faust, and follows the events of '' Sourcery'' in which the Wizard Rincewind was trapped in the Dungeon Dimensions. The Discworld version of Hell or Pandemonium exists simply because some people believe that it exists for them. In other Discworld stories, such as '' Small Gods'', the afterlife is different or non-existent according to personal belief rather than divine judgement. After magical disturbances occur throughout Ankh-Morpork, the wizards of Unseen University perf ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Interesting Times
''Interesting Times'' is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the seventeenth book in the ''Discworld'' series, set in the Aurient (a fictional analogue of the Orient). The title refers to the common myth that there exists a Chinese curse " may you live in interesting times". Plot Two gods, Fate and the Lady, oppose each other in a game over the outcome of the struggle for the throne of the Agatean Empire on the Counterweight Continent. The Patrician of Ankh-Morpork receives a demand that the "Great Wizzard" be sent to the distant Agatean Empire, and he orders Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully of Unseen University to comply. As the spelling, "Wizzard," matches that on Rincewind's hat, the faculty decide to send him. Using the machine Hex, which has seemingly been augmenting its own infrastructure, they teleport him to the University from a desert island where he has been living since the events of '' Eric''. They offer him the right to call himself a Wiza ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discworld (video Game)
''Discworld'' is a point-and-click adventure game, developed by Teeny Weeny Games and Perfect 10 Productions, and based upon Terry Pratchett's novels of the same name. Players assume the role of Rincewind the "wizzard", voiced by Eric Idle, as he becomes involved in exploring the Discworld for the means to prevent a dragon terrorising the city of Ankh-Morpork. The game's story borrows elements from several ''Discworld'' novels, with its central plot loosely based on the events in ''Guards! Guards!'' Pratchett was originally reluctant to grant a licence for a game based on his novels, after the commercial failure of a video game adaptation of '' The Colour of Magic'' in 1986. Gregg Barnett, the game's designer, managed to persuade the writer through offering, alongside an initial design concept, to faithfully recreate elements from the novels. As part of his desire for a large adventure for CD-based computer systems and opening up a new potential market for similar video game ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Colour Of Magic
''The Colour of Magic'' is a 1983 fantasy comedy novel by Terry Pratchett, and is the first book of the ''Discworld'' series. The first printing of the British edition consisted of only 506 copies. Pratchett has described it as "an attempt to do for the classical fantasy universe what ''Blazing Saddles'' did for Westerns." Plot summary Setting The story takes place on the Discworld, a planet-sized flat disc carried through space on the backs of four gargantuan elephants – Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon and Jerakeen – who themselves stand on the shell of Great A'Tuin, a gigantic star turtle. The surface of the disc contains oceans and continents, and with them, civilizations, cities, forests and mountains. Summary The story begins in Ankh-Morpork, the biggest city on the Discworld. The main character is an incompetent and cynical wizard named Rincewind, who is hired as a guide to naive Twoflower, an insurance clerk from the Agatean Empire who has come to visit Ankh-Morpor ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Sourcery
''Sourcery'' is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the fifth book in his '' Discworld'' series, published in 1988. On the Discworld, sourcerers – wizards who are sources of magic, and thus immensely more powerful than normal wizards – were the main cause of the great mage wars that left areas of the disc uninhabitable. As eight is a powerful magical number on Discworld, men born as the eighth son of an eighth son are commonly wizards. Since sourcerers are born the eighth son of an eighth son ''of an eighth son'', they are wizards squared. To prevent the creation of sourcerers, therefore, wizards are not allowed to marry or have children. The first few pages of the novel deal with a sourcerer's father who cheats death by making a prophecy that Death must honour; the alternative is to risk destroying the Discworld. The rest of the novel deals with the sourcerer's plan to have wizards rule the Discworld, and the efforts of a small group&nb ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Light Fantastic
''The Light Fantastic'' is a comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett, the second of the ''Discworld'' series. It was published on 2 June 1986, the first printing being of 1,034 copies. The title, taken from a poem by John Milton, in which it refers to dancing lightly with extravagance. The events of the novel are a direct continuation of those in the preceding book, '' The Colour of Magic''. Plot summary The book begins shortly after the ending of '' The Colour of Magic'', with wizard Rincewind, Twoflower and the Luggage falling from the Discworld. They are saved when the Octavo, the most powerful book of magic on the Discworld, readjusts reality to prevent the loss of one of its eight spells, which has resided in Rincewind's head since his expulsion from Unseen University: Rincewind, Twoflower and the Luggage end up in the Forest of Skund. Meanwhile, the wizards of Ankh-Morpork use the Rite of Ashk-Ente to summon Death to find an explanation for the Octavo's actions. Death ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Discworld
''Discworld'' is a comic fantasy"Humorous Fantasy" in David Pringle, ed., ''The Ultimate Encyclopedia of Fantasy'' (pp.31-33). London, Carlton,2006. book series written by the English author Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld, a flat planet balanced on the backs of four elephants which in turn stand on the back of a giant turtle. The series began in 1983 with '' The Colour of Magic'' and continued until the final novel '' The Shepherd's Crown'', which was published in 2015, following Pratchett's death. The books frequently parody or take inspiration from classic works, usually fantasy or science fiction, as well as mythology, folklore and fairy tales, and often use them for satirical parallels with cultural, political and scientific issues. Forty-one ''Discworld'' novels were published. Apart from the first novel in the series, '' The Colour of Magic'', the original British editions of the first 26 novels, up to '' Thief of Time'' (2001), had cover art by Josh Kirby. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Unseen University
The Unseen University (UU) is a school of wizardry in Terry Pratchett's ''Discworld'' series of Fantasy literature, fantasy novels. Located in the fictional city of Ankh-Morpork, the UU is staffed by a faculty composed of mostly indolent and inept old wizards. The university's name is a pun on the Invisible College, and many aspects of the university are references to Oxford University, Oxford and Cambridge University. The exploits of the head wizards of the Unseen University are one of the main plot threads in the long-running fantasy series, and have played a central role in 13 novels to date, as well as the four supplementary ''Science of Discworld'' novels and the short story, ''A Collegiate Casting-Out of Devilish Devices''. Motto and Coat of Arms The official motto of Unseen University is "Nunc Id Vides, Nunc Ne Vides", loosely translated as "Now you see it, now you don't". The unofficial motto is "η β π", or "Eta Beta Pi" ("Eat a Bit of Pie" or "Eat a Better Pie" (ac ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
The Last Continent
''The Last Continent'' is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the twenty-second book in his ''Discworld'' series. First published in 1998, it mocks the aspects of time travel such as the grandfather paradox and the Ray Bradbury short story " A Sound of Thunder". It also parodies Australian people and aspects of Australian culture, such as the ''Crocodile Dundee'', '' The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert'' and '' Mad Max'' movies, the Australian beer XXXX, Vegemite, thongs, cork hats, the Peach Melba, '' Skippy the Bush Kangaroo'', the Henley-on-Todd Regatta, and the popular Australian songs "Waltzing Matilda", " Down Under", and " The Man From Snowy River". Plot summary The story opens weeks after the events of '' Interesting Times'', in which Rincewind is magically transported to the continent of XXXX, where he meets the magical kangaroo Scrappy. Scrappy explains to Rincewind that he is fated to bring back meaning the rain, and end the eons-lon ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Death (Discworld)
Death is a fictional character in Terry Pratchett's ''Discworld'' series and a parody of several other Death (personification), personifications of death. Like most Grim Reapers, he is a black-robed skeleton who usually carries a scythe. His jurisdiction is specifically the Discworld itself; he is only a part, or minion, of Azrael: the universal Death. He has been generally used by Pratchett to explore the problems of human existence, and has become more sympathetic throughout the series. Works Death has appeared in every Discworld novel, with the exception of ''The Wee Free Men'' and ''Snuff (Pratchett novel), Snuff'', and had a possible cameo at the end of ''Johnny and the Dead'' (the character was not identified, but spoke in unquoted small caps as Death does in the rest of the series). The Discworld books in which Death is a leading character, starting with ''Mort'' in 1987, are: *''Mort'' – 1987 *''Reaper Man'' – 1991 *''Soul Music (novel), Soul Music'' – 1994 *''Hogfat ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Counterweight Continent
The Discworld is the fictional setting for all of Terry Pratchett's ''Discworld'' fantasy novels. It consists of a large disc (complete with edge-of-the-world drop-off and consequent waterfall) resting on the backs of four huge elephants which are in turn standing on the back of an enormous turtle, named Great A'Tuin (similar to Chukwa or Akupara from Hindu mythology) as it slowly swims through space. The Disc has been shown to be heavily influenced by magic and, while Pratchett gave it certain similarities to planet Earth, he also created his own system of physics for it. Pratchett first explored the idea of a disc-shaped world in the novel ''Strata'' (1981). Great A'Tuin Great A'Tuin is the Giant Star Turtle (of the fictional species ''Chelys galactica'') who travels through the Discworld universe's space, carrying four giant elephants (named Berilia, Tubul, Great T'Phon, and Jerakeen) who in turn carry the Discworld. The narration has described A'Tuin as "the only turtle ev ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
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