Steve's Reviews > The Last Hero: A Discworld Fable

It's been some time since (on the one hand, Sir Terry Pratchett passed and) I read my way through pretty much everything Pratchett wrote (which, as I recall, was more than 40 novels, including his sublime collaboration with Neil Gaiman and more than a handful of young adult and even kids books), all of which I appreciated and enjoyed, often for wildly different reasons. And, frankly, with the exception of the very first Discworld book (in which, to my mind, he hadn't hit his stride yet), Pratchett never disappointed.

But I never bothered with this one because it was, to my mind, neither fish nor fowl, not a novel, not a graphic novel, not a picture book, but ... and, frankly, I don't really understand why that was the case, because I've read plenty of prose and art (primarily fiction, typically fantasy) books over the years. As best I can recall, I think my thinking was that the characters that animated Pratchett's world-building could run amok in my brain, and I could make anyone and anyplace look (and feels and sound and, yes, smell) pretty much however I wanted in my mind's eye, and I didn't really want to be biased or steered or guided by an artist's rendition. And, frankly, I think that's consistent with my general experience that, for example, I much prefer a superhero saga novelization to a comic book or graphic novel run (with very, very few exceptions).

Well, I finally got around to it and, well, it was a different, but I can't say it resonated. Sure, I enjoyed it, but the prose and art combination didn't really create anything particularly magical for me, although it was entertaining enough.

Ultimately, I'm glad I read it. I've invested too much of my reading resources (time, attention, money) over the years to Pratchett to not have, I guess, belatedly completed the Discworld cycle.

My money says that, putting my idiosyncratic quirks aside, most Pratchett readers would enjoy the experience.