Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett
My rating: 2 of 5 stars

This is my second time reading as I do my Discworld re-read. Dropped the start rating from 3 stars to 2 stars.

This one seems a slight step backwards in the progression of Discworld novels. It’s not really about any character growth and we more or less get a sitcom-like reboot at the end. It appears Pratchett had not yet decided that we wanted to continue to modernize Anhk-Morpork as he would in the later novels. We do get a few new characters. Windle Poons is introduced here and continues into the next book, Reaper Man. Our main character’s class mate later features as a grad student who does the Discworld version of particle physics research. Otherwise, it’s another story in which too much magic allows Lovecraftian monsters a way to come in from the demon dimensions. Other than that it’s almost a Flintstones-level parody of Hollywood in which you look for the Discworld equivalent of real-world things – like 20th Century Fox being Century of the Fruitbat Pictures.

I didn’t really enjoy this one the first time around and a second reading didn’t improve my opinion of the book. You can skip it if you want – it doesn’t have any real consequences to the future of Discworld. Read it for CMOT Dibbler’s shennanigans or Archchancellor Ridcully’s insistence on not bending his will to the university’s culture and how it bothers the bursar.

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