Consider this: Jump on a time machine,
travel to the past and kill your parents before they met, does that mean you would
have never existed? But if that is the case, then how could you step
into the time machine at the first place? Since you exist, it follows
logically that the past cannot be changed.
But what if someone else also step into
the past, and set the event to the way it is? That is possible, but
it still means an event has to somehow be the way IT IS, so it
remains that the past cannot be changed.
Ok ok, but what if anything you do has
been history all along, so after you killed your parents in the past,
you somehow emerge back in the future and prevent yourself from
entering the time machine, thus creating a self existing loop? That
is also possible, but without your parents, how did you come to exist
at the first place? The paradox remains!
Is your brain hurting yet? There are,
perhaps more complex proposals to solve the time traveling paradox;
but it suffices to say, writing a story about time travel must be
very hard! Under this light, I believe the best way to appreciate a
time travel story, is to NOT think about it too hard. Instead, just
enjoy the story for what it is and see what the author is trying to
tell you.
Well, I lied. There is another way to
appreciate the aspect of time travel in a story – That is, Sir
Terry's way, the Discworld
way, where everything is a parody designed to tickle your funny bone.
Indeed, in The Last Continent, the 22nd Discworld
novel, readers reunite with the cowardly wizzard Rincewind (spelt
with double Zs), and his eccentric colleagues from the Unseen
University. This round, we set foot on a time travel adventure in a
continent called XXXX that bears a shocking resemblance to my home,
Australia.
Synopsis:
What would be the impact to the future,
if someone travels to the past and somehow influenced a turning point
in evolution? Let the academics from the Unseen University
demonstrate to you, the full weight of consequence and causality.
This is what happened:
Rincewind is missing in action. He was
last seen on Counterweight continent aiding a political uprising.
Where is he now? On a continent called XXXX, drinking its famous beer
and making friend with a dwarf called Mad. Back at home in Ankh
Morpork, however, Rincewind is needed urgently. So his eccentric,
wizardly colleagues set out on a quest to recover him, by magical
transportation of course!
But traveling by magic is unreliable.
After a mishap, instead of emerging on XXXX, the Rincewind-retrieval
team arrived at a time billions of years in the past, and they met a
deity who was in the process of creating things.... you get the
picture? But hey, I tell you what? No worries!
My thoughts about this book:
The Last Continent divides its
story into two parts. The first part follows the adventure of
Rincwind on Continent XXXX (or, Australia). The second part tracks
the misadventures of Unseen University academics, in the past. This
book is very funny, from Mad Max to the Australian beer XXXX,
this installment of Discworld made a festival of humor by
parodying the popular culture related to Australia.
Furthermore, The Last Continent
also poked fun at the Grandfather paradox, and I particularly enjoyed
this humor. I don't think it is meant to be taken seriously, but to
my mind though, it does raise a few very interesting questions: If
there is a creator who exists outside of time, and the world runs
according to the creator's design and plan, then did the creator
always have these ideas? If so, then did the creator have the power
to choose alternative options? On the contrary, if these ideas came
to into existence, then when did it happen and where did it come
from? Gentle readers, I leave these questions for you to explore, as
food for thought.
Anyway, philosophical musing aside, The
Last Continent is one of the funniest installments in Discworld.
I was chuckling along from the first page to the last. But in my
opinion, this book just doesn't shine as brightly when it is sitting
next to the best Discworld novels, such as Small Gods,
and any of the books from the City Watch and Death
series. Why? Because the plot in The Last Continent doesn't
make sense. As I mentioned earlier, this book divides itself into
two, major story lines. But these two stories didn't connect properly
to drive a cohesive narration. While these two story threads did come
together in the final act, but the mash felt forced and rough. When I
closed this book, I was left slightly confused about what happened at
the end of the book. I guess the major theme in all Rincewind
books is its randomness, because Rincewind represents uncertainty.
But maybe The Last Continent just took it one step too far.
The result? As a reader, I struggled to make sense of the plot.
All this goes to say, while the humors
in this book did tickle my funny bone and I found it an entertaining
read, but by Discworld standard, this one is average and the
story was a bit confusing. Fans of Discworld would want to
check it out anyway, because on any given day, Rincewind's adventure
in Australia... hmm... I mean, XXXX, is likely to make you smile
toothy grins. But you just need to step into this story and be
prepared to deal with a little bit of randomness and abstraction.
Until the next time, happy reading!
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