- Library Binding: 337 pages
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1435274741
- ISBN-13: 978-1435274747
- Product Dimensions: 16.8 x 10.4 x 2.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (32 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 1,865,955 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Moving Pictures (Discworld Novels)
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Product Description
Book Description
The ninth Discworld novel.
--This text refers to the
Audio CD
edition.
Product Description
The alchemists of the Discworld have discovered the magic of the silver screen. But what is the dark secret of Holy Wood hill?
It's up to Victor Tugelbend ("Can't sing. Can't dance. Can handle a sword a little.") and Theda Withel ("I come from a little town you've probably never heard of") to find out...
Moving Pictures, the ninth Discworld novel is a gloriously funny saga set against the background of a world gone mad!
--This text refers to the Audio CD edition.
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
5 of 5 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Terry Pratchett has become one of the most popular authors alive today and his popularity is richly deserved. But not even with his fertile mind could ever have envisaged the heights to which his Discworld series would rise. This book was first published in 1990 and is number ten in the Discworld novels.
You would think that a fantasy world full of trolls, zombies, witches, vampires would be an alien concept to most readers. Werewolves and dwarves in the Ank Morpork city watch. Wizards running a university. All this born in the mind of one of the funniest minds writing today. Surely this style of writing would have a limited readership? But no the books are loved by anybody and everybody and are read by people who would not normally allow fantasy fiction anywhere near their book shelves. This is the Discworld of Terry Pratchett.
It's the turn of the alchemists to make you chortle through the pages of yet another winner from Terry Pratchett. Is it Hollywood, no, is it Bollywood, no, but it's the next best thing. Moving pictures are about to hit the silver screen on the Discworld. What this means in real terms is that the imps that used to paint really fast in the still cameras, now have to paint really really really fast. All of a sudden there is a whole new life form on the Discworld. Not vampires, werewolves, or even trolls, it is the birth of the filmstar and oh what a messy birth it is.
You would think that a fantasy world full of trolls, zombies, witches, vampires would be an alien concept to most readers. Werewolves and dwarves in the Ank Morpork city watch. Wizards running a university. All this born in the mind of one of the funniest minds writing today. Surely this style of writing would have a limited readership? But no the books are loved by anybody and everybody and are read by people who would not normally allow fantasy fiction anywhere near their book shelves. This is the Discworld of Terry Pratchett.
It's the turn of the alchemists to make you chortle through the pages of yet another winner from Terry Pratchett. Is it Hollywood, no, is it Bollywood, no, but it's the next best thing. Moving pictures are about to hit the silver screen on the Discworld. What this means in real terms is that the imps that used to paint really fast in the still cameras, now have to paint really really really fast. All of a sudden there is a whole new life form on the Discworld. Not vampires, werewolves, or even trolls, it is the birth of the filmstar and oh what a messy birth it is.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
The Guild of Alchemists have created a new form of entertainment - moving pictures! Soon Ankh-Morpork is gripped by this latest craze and everyone's trying to break into the business as more and more 'clicks' are made out at Holy Wood. The speed with which the phenomenon spreads is quite strange and soon reluctant actors Victor Tugelbend ("Can't sing, can't dance, can handle a sword a little,") and Theda Withel (aka 'Ginger') are caught up in epic events set against the backdrop of a world gone mad! With a thousand elephants! Once the order arrives, of course...
Moving Pictures is a bit of a 'fallback' Discworld novel. That is, whilst still entertaining, funny and enjoyable, there's also the feeling that Pratchett simply came up with a cool idea and let it meander around for a bit aimlessly rather than being really fired-up and inspired by the concept. His taking of a real-life phenomenon and turning it into a Discworld novel is a pretty consistent way generating stories throughout the series (he also does Discworld takes on the theatre, the post office, rock music, organised banking, Christmas, war and newspapers in future books, with football and taxation still to come), but it does feel like he hasn't put much more effort into the book than what he did with, say, police procedurals in Guards! Guards!
Of course, Pratchett on an off day is still considerably more entertaining than a lot of fantasy authors at their best, so Moving Pictures is still a decent novel. Pratchett is clearly a big movie fan and it's fun trying to find all the references to various films in this book, from Gone with the Wind and Charlie Chaplin through Laurel and Hardy to The Blues Brothers and Back to the Future, not to mention a particularly hilarious inversion of King Kong. There's also some nice prescience on Pratchett's part: the book is now twenty years old and his comments on product placement and the culture of celebrity seem more relevant today than ever before. Characterisation is also pretty good, and the regular cast continues to grow with the arrival of Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, Gaspode the Wonder Dog (don't ask) and most of the regular cast of Unseen University, led by the formidable Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully (finally ending the tendency of UU archchancellors in the series to have the lifespan of a colony of terminally depressed lemmings living near the Grand Canyon).
The book has a rather unusual problem for Pratchett, which is pacing. Pratchett usually handles pacing pretty well in his books, with a slow introduction to the story followed by rising action and a (usually) well-handled climax. Moving Pictures isn't quite like that, and stutters a few times with a start-stop feel to the action. In fact, it appears that the main problem has been solved two-thirds of the way through the book, followed by the 'real' grand climax in Ankh-Morpork which also turns out to be a fake-out before we get the final, somewhat anti-climatic, ending in Holy Wood. It's a bit all over the place, to be honest. In fact, it feels like on of those really big Hollywood action blockbusters which goes on for about half an hour too long after the movie should really have ended, which I suppose is quite appropriate.
That said, whilst Moving Pictures is not one of the stronger Discworld novels, it's still better than the earlier, less-well-written books and many of the individual characters and episodes in the book are funny and intelligently-handled, as always.
Moving Pictures (***½) is available now in the UK and USA.
Moving Pictures is a bit of a 'fallback' Discworld novel. That is, whilst still entertaining, funny and enjoyable, there's also the feeling that Pratchett simply came up with a cool idea and let it meander around for a bit aimlessly rather than being really fired-up and inspired by the concept. His taking of a real-life phenomenon and turning it into a Discworld novel is a pretty consistent way generating stories throughout the series (he also does Discworld takes on the theatre, the post office, rock music, organised banking, Christmas, war and newspapers in future books, with football and taxation still to come), but it does feel like he hasn't put much more effort into the book than what he did with, say, police procedurals in Guards! Guards!
Of course, Pratchett on an off day is still considerably more entertaining than a lot of fantasy authors at their best, so Moving Pictures is still a decent novel. Pratchett is clearly a big movie fan and it's fun trying to find all the references to various films in this book, from Gone with the Wind and Charlie Chaplin through Laurel and Hardy to The Blues Brothers and Back to the Future, not to mention a particularly hilarious inversion of King Kong. There's also some nice prescience on Pratchett's part: the book is now twenty years old and his comments on product placement and the culture of celebrity seem more relevant today than ever before. Characterisation is also pretty good, and the regular cast continues to grow with the arrival of Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler, Gaspode the Wonder Dog (don't ask) and most of the regular cast of Unseen University, led by the formidable Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully (finally ending the tendency of UU archchancellors in the series to have the lifespan of a colony of terminally depressed lemmings living near the Grand Canyon).
The book has a rather unusual problem for Pratchett, which is pacing. Pratchett usually handles pacing pretty well in his books, with a slow introduction to the story followed by rising action and a (usually) well-handled climax. Moving Pictures isn't quite like that, and stutters a few times with a start-stop feel to the action. In fact, it appears that the main problem has been solved two-thirds of the way through the book, followed by the 'real' grand climax in Ankh-Morpork which also turns out to be a fake-out before we get the final, somewhat anti-climatic, ending in Holy Wood. It's a bit all over the place, to be honest. In fact, it feels like on of those really big Hollywood action blockbusters which goes on for about half an hour too long after the movie should really have ended, which I suppose is quite appropriate.
That said, whilst Moving Pictures is not one of the stronger Discworld novels, it's still better than the earlier, less-well-written books and many of the individual characters and episodes in the book are funny and intelligently-handled, as always.
Moving Pictures (***½) is available now in the UK and USA.
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
Moving Pictures is an extremely hilarious book.In Moving Pictures the alchemists guild have invented films and now the oddest civil war film ever made is being shot in Holy Wood.However all is not well and Victor and Ginger,the stars of the film,have to save the Disc from the dungeon dimensions with a bit of help from Gaspode the wonder dog.If you like reading sci-fi and fantasy or if you simply enjoy watching films then read Moving Pictures.If you enjoy this book then try the rest of Terry Prattchett's Discworld series.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
This book grew on me more and more ...
One of the more subtle of the Discworld series, which grew on me more and more as I read it. A parody of Hollywood and fame, Terry Pratchett skillfully weaves the absurdities of... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Stano
Moving Pictures (Paperback) by Terry Pratchett
Thank you so much indeed for a novel that opens your mind to a land where they are making this delightful story. Thank yo also for the speedy delivery
Published 4 months ago by CINDY
Awesome
Love all the discworld series, so much I'm on my third run through. The satire directed at Hollywood here is right on the money. Go for it.
Published 4 months ago by Calum Cree
Moving Pictures Review
I have not read this book yet but if it written in the same way as his other Disc World series I am sure it will provide me with good entertainment. Read more
Published 7 months ago by Mr. J. Lewis
Great book, as usual with Pratchett.
This book takes the known Disc World characters and adds some new interesting ones, with plenty of wit and twists to keep the interest. Read more
Published 9 months ago by Ingrid plk
Moving Pictures - Well worth a read.
I found this novel was a departure from Mr Pratchett's usual fayre in some ways. Oh, the comedy was great as usual but it was the enchantments of Holy Wood I only now start to... Read more
Published 10 months ago by D. Dews
Follow the Yellow Sick Toad.
"Moving Pictures" is the tenth book in Terry Pratchett's hugely popular Discworld Series and was first published in 1990. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Craobh Rua
excellent story, thought the quality the book was in was not good.
I couldn't put this book down. The story was brilliant one of my favorite discworld novels. I was a bit disappointed by the quality the book was in. Read more
Published 17 months ago by Danielle
Another Brilliant Discworld Novel !
Another Brilliant Discworld Novel ! I love Terry Pratchett books, and I gave this one has a birthday present for an American friend. Read more
Published 18 months ago by Mr. James Wood
Moving Pictures - Pratchett
It's my wife that is a TP fan and she says that she thoroughly enjoyed this version.
Published 20 months ago by L. Miller
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