Terry Pratchett's Discworld - Moving Pictures

So time to go to the movies ahem the clicks with the ninth Discworld novel – Moving Pictures. First published in 1990. The best decade ever…ahem…showing my age. This sees the resignation of Thatcher, the freedom of Mandela, the arrival of Twin Peaks and the launch of the Hubble Telescope. I am 14 and feeling a bit settled with a group of friend s many of whom I still see to this day. I’ve a soft spot for the decade to come. Looks like my copy was bought in 1991 and I think that chimes with when I started getting to Pratchett. But my first ever Discworld is next week (I cdo like to tease)

My copy

Publisher – Corgi

Price - £3.99

The alchemists of the Discworld have discovered the magic of the silver screen. But what is the dark secret of Holy Wood hill? Its 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…

My copy of this book is as they say well-loved. I remember reading this a lot over the nineties (the modems were slow back then) but one issue with a re-read is you can come back to a story thirty years later and it may not quite be what you remember. I think Moving Pictures is completely in love with its source material, but I just perhaps think it’s not quite got much more than that to say. But I do think it starts to sign-post the way the Discworld will develop here on in.

A high priest dies with no successor and this releases a strange power to the disc. One that inspires the alchemists to create moving pictures – the clicks. What starts as a chance to show historical stories to people gets into the hands of Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler and we see a hive of industry created pulling all sorts of people to the coast and the strange place known as Holy Wood. A young ex-wizard student – Victor – and an ex waitress Theda become the two stars of the movies. But they realise this new attraction is attracting dangerous forces from outside. Can they stop the movies getting too real?

If you enjoy classic movies from the say 1920s to 1960s there is a lot here to love for first timers. Pratchett very skilfully interweaves the history of the movies with its creation on the Disc. You can spot many parodies, skits and in jokes from King Kong to Lassie with various nods to the stars. But can I be honest thirty years on that was all I spotted. There is a brief look at stardom destroying people especially as Dibbler becomes a maniacal studio mogul, but I think about halfway the story becomes very mechanical although we do get the librarian doing a Fay Wray impression. I don’t find Victor or Theda that interesting as leads. After Vimes and Granny they feel a callback to the format of books like Sourcery used to progress the plot and little else. But a bit like some of the movies of the period that are loved it’s the rest of the cast I find more fascinating. I think we start to see the next phase of the Discworld about to begin.

In this book we get more of Dibbler, Detritus, the arrival of the wizards we come to know in future stories from Ridcully etc and something we hadn’t seen too much of in previous books the races of the Discworld are mixing much more broadly and moving beyond their set roles. The other element which gets used to a much greater extent is the idea of technology entering the Disc. In this novel (and the next) it seems to be the modern world is an intrusion and by the end we return to a form of default. Pratchett for now is reluctant to actually change the world too much….

So, a slightly smaller review for a book I enjoyed but, on this re-read, didn’t feel too much else was going on – its’s a decent funny read. Moving Pictures has a lot of great rewards in pure comedy but for me is a bit lacking compared to the novels I’ve recently read but points towards changes on the horizon. That’s all folks

Next Time - The novel that got me into Pratchett – Reaper Man