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Eric: A Discworld Novel
 
 
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Eric: A Discworld Novel (Paperback)

by Terry Pratchett (Author) "The bees of Death are big and black, they buzz low and sombre, they keep their honey in combs of wax as white as altar..." (more)
3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
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Product details

  • Paperback: 155 pages
  • Publisher: Gollancz; New Ed edition (11 May 2000)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 1857989546
  • ISBN-13: 978-1857989540
  • Product Dimensions: 17.4 x 11 x 1.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (31 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 3,283 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #17 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > P > Pratchett, Terry > Graphic Novels
    #17 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > P > Complete List
    #17 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > P > Pratchett, Terry > Childrens Books

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Product Description

Product Description
Eric is the Discworld's only demonology hacker. The trouble is, he's not very good at it. All he wants is the usual three wishes: to be immortal, rule the world and have the most beautiful woman fall madly in love with him. The usual stuff. But what he gets is Rincewind, and Rincewind's Luggage into the bargain. Terry Pratchett's hilarious take on the Faust legend stars many of the Discworld's'most popular characters in an outrageous adventure that will leave Eric wishing once more - this time, quite fervently, that he'd never been born . . .

From the Back Cover
Eric is Discworld's only demonology hacker.

Pity he's not very good at it.

All he wants is his three wishes granted. Nothing fancy - to be immortal, rule the world, have the most beautiful woman in the world fall madly in love with him. The usual stuff.

But instead of a tractable demon, he calls up Rincewind, probably the most incompetent wizard in the universe, and the extremely intractable and hostile form of travel known as the Luggage.

With them on his side, Eric's in for a ride through space and time that is bound to make him wish (quite fervently) again - this time - that he'd never been born. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

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The bees of Death are big and black, they buzz low and sombre, they keep their honey in combs of wax as white as altar candles. Read the first page
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Eric: A Discworld Novel
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Customer Reviews

31 Reviews
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 (11)
4 star:
 (11)
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 (6)
2 star:
 (1)
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Average Customer Review
3.9 out of 5 stars (31 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars What? This is excellent!, 2 April 2001
By l.w.thomas@talk21.co.uk (Liverpool Uni, UK) - See all my reviews
It has really really shocked me that so many reviewers don't appreciate this book! 'Too short', 'too childish' you say. Sorry!? Maybe the humorous parodying of the Trojan war was lost on you or the parodying of creation, in fact this book is a fine example of brilliant parodying by a very clever author. In my opinion this ranks easily alongside some of Pratchett's best. It's a nice easy to read short story, with the excellent sardonic wit of Rincewind shining through once again. This is a book i will read again and again when I want a good laugh. Keep going Terry......
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12 of 13 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars The devil may hath power, 15 Sep 2005
By Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Washington, D.C.) - See all my reviews
(TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)      
to assume a pleasing shape according to Hamlet but only on Discworld could the devil or any demon assume the shape of Rincewind. But that is exactly what Terry Pratchett calls up in "Eric", Pratchett's Discworld homage to Faust.

Eric, the protagonist, is a teenaged `demonologist' from Pseuodopolis. Eric is also a spoiled brat according to Eric's parrot. Eric is first seen trying to summon a demon in order to have the demon grant Eric's wish for power, women, and eternal life. Instead, through a series of Discworldian circumstances Eric calls up Rincewind, last seen locked in the Dungeon Dimensions (Sourcery).

What follows is a Discworld version of a Hope and Crosby Road movie that parallels Faust. Eric and Rincewind travel to the ends of time (actually the beginning of time among other places) and Rincewind faces adversity and the threat of death in his own inimitable fashion (feet don't fail me now).

There are some great set pieces in Eric. DEATH makes two brief, but very funny appearances. First, when the Wizards determine something strange is going on they summon DEATH and demand answer. Of course, they realize quickly that perhaps they should speak to him in the same manner that people in Ankh Morpork speak to the Patrician. Later in the book, DEATH patiently awaits the moment for life to begin is priceless Pratchett fashion. Having the universe start with a paper clip and not a big bang was a very appealing concept.

Similarly hilarious is Rincewind's trip to the new and improved version of hell. Physical torture has been replaced by endless viewings of someone else's holiday slides, elevator music, and the recitation of thousands of pages of regulations only a hellish bureaucrat could construct. Interestingly, Rincewind's conversation with a creator of universes who takes special pride in the creation of trees had a nice resemblance to Slartibartfast from Douglas Adams Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy who award for creating the jigsaw like coastline of the fjords of Norway.

Despite these typically brilliant bits Eric lacked some of the cohesion found in most of the other Discworld books I have read. Apparently, Eric was originally published as a graphic novel and the illustrations went a long way towards fleshing out the story line. In a sense this version seems to be akin to reading a comic (a very good comic book) without the comic art. There does seem to be something a bit lacking.

However, even if Eric is not Pratchett's finest Discworld book it is still very much worth reading. There is an old cliché that a bad day of fishing is better than the best day of work. In this instance I think it fair to say that a good but the best Discworld book is better than the best that many other authors can put out. I recommend this book to any Discworld fan. I would not recommend this to anyone new to Discworld. Eric works best once one has got to know a bit about Discworld generally and Rincewind specifically.

Eric, despite any flaws, is still very much worth reading.

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13 of 15 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Pratchett's version of Faust, 4 Oct 2003
By Robert Holm (at home behind my keyboard) - See all my reviews
Eric is a little bit of a letdown, compared to the other Discworld novels. It’s number nine in the series, and by far the shortest (155 pages). This is because the paperback version lacks the illustrations that the hardcover version has (that one is a graphic novel in the same vein as The Last Hero), which explains some of its shortcomings, since it now seems a bit stunted indeed.
The story concerns the teenage demonologist Eric (the Discworld equivalent of a young computer hacker, complete with glasses and acne), who tries to conjure up a demon to grant him three wishes (those wishes having mostly to so with beautiful women and power over the world, Eric being a young teenage boy, after all). The powers in Hell see this as a great opportunity, but just as they are about to send one of their minions to appear before Eric, an “unusual conjunction of circumstances” occur, enabling Rincewind (and the Luggage) to escape from the Dungeon Dimensions (where Rincewind had ended up as his reward for having saved the Discworld in Sourcery) into Eric’s room in Pseudopolis (Hell, by the way, is a distinct place from the Dungeon Dimensions). Eric is convinced that Rincewind is a demon, and wants him to grant the three wishes. And to Rincewind’s extreme surprise, things start to happen when he snaps his fingers. But, of course, Eric’s wishes do not quite turn out as he had hoped, as he’s taken on an eventful journey (during which, among other things, life gets started on the Disc when Rincewind drops a sandwich) through time and space, making him wish (again) that he had never been born.
The main problem with Eric is that the story is too short. The promised ordeals for Eric (who, by the way, is a very annoying character) never really materialize, and the whole thing has a half-finished feel to it. There are too many grand possibilities (a meeting with the Creator, time travel, a visit to Hell, and so on) crammed into far too little space, and much more could have been done with all these ideas and concepts. But it’s not at all a bad book.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars By far the least enjoyable of the Discworld series
Well, I am a huge fan of Terry Pratchett, and have been since the original publication of The Colour of Magic. However, I cannot in all fairness recommend this book. Read more
Published 1 month ago by The Crusader

4.0 out of 5 stars Funnier than Faust
When Eric dabbles in the arcane arts and tries to summon a demon he gets the worst result possible: Rincewind, the bumbling magician and the Luggage arrive. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Blackhorse47

4.0 out of 5 stars Faust with zits and teenage dreams
The one where a teenage demonologist tries to make a demon grant him three wishes, but summons up Rincewind the deeply incompetent wizard (last seen disappearing into the Dungeon... Read more
Published 6 months ago by Jeremy Bevan

5.0 out of 5 stars Another Hilarious Romp on the Discworld

Terry Pratchett has become one of the most popular authors alive today and his popularity is richly deserved. Read more
Published 17 months ago by J. Chippindale

5.0 out of 5 stars brilliant!
Eric is a hilarious novel by Terry Pratchett. It begins in Ankh- Morpork, where the University wizards are performing the Rite of AshKente, which summons Death, when they find out... Read more
Published on 8 Oct 2006 by Laevalus

5.0 out of 5 stars Good as ever
There is little in this world as dependable as Pratchett. Though one of his shortest, and with a story line unashamedly borrowed (riped of in technical speak) it's a joy to read... Read more
Published on 15 Sep 2006 by Mr. J. J. Percival

5.0 out of 5 stars Eric review.
Eric is an intriguing classic.In Eric,an amateur demonologist inadvertently thinks that he has summoned a powerful demon but instead he has summoned Rincewind,the Disc's most... Read more
Published on 19 Feb 2006

4.0 out of 5 stars Not Quite Faust
The edition I read was the original "Discworld story" illustrated by Josh Kirby, only published in Great Britain (I purchased it on-line). Read more
Published on 6 Nov 2005 by Matt Graubner

5.0 out of 5 stars Laugh-out-loud funny!
This is the ninth book in Terry Pratchett's series on the Discworld - a flat world, supported on the backs of four massive elephants riding on the back of a planet-sized turtle... Read more
Published on 10 Jun 2005 by Kurt A. Johnson

3.0 out of 5 stars Half the story
At the end of Sourcery Rincewind was left stranded in the Dungeon Dimensions, but he is summoned back to the Discworld in this novel by Eric, a very young demonologist, who... Read more
Published on 21 April 2005 by dogbarkssome

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