Moving PicturesWritten by Terry Prachett
Read by Tony Robinson
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...
I’ve struggled for ages to write this review as there are parts of this audio book I really enjoyed and parts that jarred. The story is a parody of Hollywood and there are some great comic situations that riff on expected stereotypes (My favourite is the image of a giant woman climbing the tower with an ape in her hands!). The best part of the audio book is Tony Robinson’s reading though – he is comic in the right places, straight where it’s needed and the all voices he creates are fantastic. I could listen to him all day.
However there is so much going on, so many characters and subplots that it becomes obvious that this is an abridgement. The situation changes rapidly and often doesn’t flow. There are some sharp transitions which jerk you out of the story as you wonder what happened there. Luckily I’ve read the book so I was able to fill in the gaps most of time. Overall, if this hadn’t been an abridge version of the book I would rated it highly as the story and the reading was excellent. As it is, it feels a little like a cheese salad sandwich without the salad – the basic ingredients are all there but just missing something to make it stand out.
Recommended for fans of Ian Ranklin and Douglas Adams. 6 out of 10
Cheese salad sandwich? I'm actually curious about that. lol
ReplyDeleteI'm not a fan of abridged books. Hopefully the full book is much better. I still think this is a great review. Can't believe you struggled with it at all!
Interesting. I've started the disc world, well a while ago. But I enjoyed the first book. :) And I want to get back to the series. But this is always interesting to here. Thanks!
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