Eric - Terry Pratchett
First published 1990.
It's been a while since I finished a book, which feels strange! I know why though! In the background I have been reading Moby Dick, which is taking a long time to get through. I've also traded my shorter audiobooks (like Thursday Murder Club and its sequels) for The Institutes of Christian Religion by John Calvin, and that is gonna take a long time to finish! Finally, I've also been reading a few books to do with recent or upcoming sermons, and neither Fear and Trembling by Søren Kierkegaard or Jesus and Jews by Zola Levitt are quick reads.
Anyway, all this to say that I picked up Eric from the school library on a whim the other day, and was happy to read something I could finish quickly.
This is the 9th Discworld novel chronologically and 4th involving the wizard Rincewind, although the first Rincewind novel that I have reviewed here - previously only having reviewed the 31st Discworld novel Monstrous Regiment and the 28th novel The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents (both of which are more-or-less standalones), the 20th novel Hogfather (which is the 4th book in the Death sub-series) and the 29th novel Night Watch (which is book 6 in the City Watch sub-series).
All pretty straightforward, right?
Fortunately, each Discworld novel is able more-or-less to stand on its own terms, so even though it is obvious that Rincewind has had previous adventures (he begins this one trapped in the Dungeon Dimensions, which I'm guessing probably happened at the end of Sourcery?), the most important aspect - that he is a hopeless wizard trying his best to escape from danger - comes through quickly and clearly.
Many editions of Eric contain the title Faust crossed out and replaced with the current title, and this is done intentionally, as the story of Eric is a riff on that previous legend. The titular Faust made a literal deal with the devil, and the titular Eric in turn wishes to make a deal with a demon to gain control of the kingdoms of the world, to have the world's most beautiful woman, and to live forever. Unfortunately for Eric (who, by the way, is a 14-year old boy in over his head), his summoning spell goes wrong and he ends up summoning Rincewind. Eric is convinced that Rincewind must therefore be a demon pretending not to be, and tries to get Rincewind to gain his requests.
For some mysterious reason, that the story eventually reveals, Rincewind does seem to be able to inadvertently gain these wishes, though each one of them is answered in a very devious manner, including such things as time travel and a trip to literal hell!
Pratchett is great at satire, though at times a little bit too cynical, and with this book taking the time to properly satirize hell, I found myself enjoying it far less than most of his other works. Poking fun at the ways of the world is fun, but tying his cynicism into a parody of a spiritual realm which I do believe exists gave me a little bit of a funny taste at times.
The story also has a few more loose threads than most Discworld books, especially as the story is set up through the lens of the character Death as well as the wizards of the Unseen University, both of whom quickly disappear from the rest of the book.
Still, even a lesser Pratchett work contains fun moments and social commentary. One of my favourites in this book came near the beginning, when Pratchett narrates: "No enemies had ever taken Anhk-Morpork. Well, technically they had, quite often; the city welcomed free-spending barbarian invaders, but somehow the puzzled raiders always found, after a few days, that they didn't own their own horses anymore, and within a couple of months they were just another minority group with its own graffiti and food shops." (pages 3-4)
Probably not one I'll read again in a hurry, though.
Completed 21 June 2025.
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