Clara’s Verdict
Interesting Times is the seventeenth Discworld novel, and it earns its title. It sends Rincewind, the Disc’s most dedicated coward, to the far-off Counterweight Continent, where an ancient empire is teetering on the edge of revolution and someone has decided that a Great Wizard is exactly what the moment requires. That the someone in question has the wrong Rincewind, and that Rincewind wants nothing to do with any of it, is the whole delicious joke.
By this point in the series Pratchett has his machinery humming, and it shows. The satire, on empire, on revolution, on the tidy slogans people die for, is sharper and better aimed than in the early Rincewind books, and the comedy is tighter for it. Rincewind remains a wonderful anti-hero: give him a heroic role and his only plan is to survive it.
It is a busy, brisk, very funny book, and among the highest rated in this batch for good reason. If you have followed Rincewind this far, it is one of his best outings.
About the Audiobook
The seventeenth Discworld novel and the fifth in the Rincewind, or Wizards, thread, Interesting Times opens on a curse: may you live in interesting times, which is the worst thing you can wish on a citizen of the Disc, and especially on the magically challenged Rincewind, who has already had far more excitement than any coward could want. Naturally, when a request for a Great Wizzard arrives from the distant Counterweight Continent, it is Rincewind who is sent, if only because he is the one who spells the word that way.
Thrown headfirst into danger once again, Rincewind lands in the oldest empire on the Disc, a place in turmoil where chaos, and Chaos, is building. Revolution stirs, slogans harden into weapons, and for reasons nobody can quite explain, a great many people have become convinced that this reluctant wizard has a vital part to play in the coming war. It is Pratchett turning his eye on power and upheaval, and finding the absurdity threaded all the way through.
The Narration
Colin Morgan narrates, and across eleven hours and twelve minutes he is once again an ideal match for Rincewind. Morgan has the character’s frantic self-preservation down to a fine art, and he keeps the sprawling cast of the Counterweight Continent clear and distinct as the plot gathers pace. The Penguin production values are in full effect, with Bill Nighy on footnote duty and Peter Serafinowicz as the voice of Death, giving even the asides a sense of event.
What impresses most is Morgan’s control of pace. Interesting Times builds towards genuine mayhem, and he rides that acceleration without ever garbling the jokes, letting Pratchett’s precise comic phrasing carry the momentum. It is a confident, thoroughly entertaining reading.
What Readers Say
With a 4.7 from 6 reviews, this is the highest rated title in the batch, and the enthusiasm is unguarded. Kindle Customer calls it Pratchett at his best and cheers the return of the loveable anti-hero, forever running from trouble only to run straight into it. Another keeps it simple, a very good read from an author he clearly relishes, while a third names it one of his outright favourites and praises Pratchett’s gift for carrying a reader from hilarity to pathos and back.
The more analytical voices are just as fond. George marks it as something of a turning point, the moment when Discworld grows more polished and the wider universe begins to take shape, even as Rincewind hands off a little of the spotlight. And paul offers the purest recommendation of all: if you like Pratchett and have not read this yet, why on earth not? The consensus is emphatic, a classic entry in the series.
Who Should Listen?
This is for readers who love their comic fantasy with a satirical edge, for Rincewind’s many admirers, and for anyone who enjoys watching a determined coward be handed the fate of an empire. Newcomers can follow it comfortably, but it will mean most to listeners who have travelled a few books with Rincewind already and know exactly how badly he wants to be somewhere else.
If a sharp, fast and very funny Discworld adventure is what you are after, this top-rated outing is the one to choose. Listen to Interesting Times on Audible
