★★★★☆ Rincewind's other shoe drops

Eric

Terry Pratchett

As usual when I have just finished listening to one of Terry Pratchett's Discworld books, I find myself trying to answer two questions: "Was there a plot? If so, what was it?" In the case of Eric, the original cover provides a clue: -- Eric is a Discworld version of Goethe's Faust. And yeah, now that you point it out, I do kind of see the resemblance.

But that's not what Eric is about really. To understand the purpose of Eric, you need to go back to Sourcery. In Sourcery the Discworld faced a grave danger from a Sourcerer, an immensely powerful Wizard. The Discworld was saved when Rincewind, the Discworld's most underperforming wizard, in an act of uncharacteristic self-sacrifice and courage, clobbered parts of the trouble with a sock full of sand. For his trouble he was banished to the Demon Dimension, which is the place (using the word loosely) in the Discworld where demons live.

There are eight books in the Rincewind subseries of Discworld and Sourcery was only the third, so Pratchett had to retrieve Rincewind somehow. To do that, he drafts Faust, whose Discworld incarnation is a teenage boy called Eric. Eric summons a demon (or at least, that was his intention) but ends up with Rincewind instead.

Hijinks ensue. Does Rincewind fulfill Eric's wishes? Does Rincewind escape the demon dimension? What do you think?

That is what passes for the plot of Eric. It ends up being mostly a kind of celebration of incompetence, primarily in the persons of Rincewind and Eric, but there's plenty of inability to go around. And it's short: just under four hours in audio.

Eric on Amazon

Goodreads review

Comments

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