(Book Review)

It’s a road trip through different eras with a demon magician and a slightly lustful 13-year-old boy who has a slightly wrong idea about life. Here we will see the Stone Age and antiquity, the creation of the world and life after death, the Devil and the Creator.

I would like to talk about hell separately. In Discworld, hell has been modernized, and now it’s a mixture of an office and a hotel with all the most boring things about both of them. Despite the fact that my boyfriend and I had a discussion about why Pratchett shouldn’t be screened, I would have watched him in such a setting.

So, what do we have? Pratchett’s trademark good-humored ironic humor that warms the soul even when there is no heating; a bunch of adventures that never leave poor Rhyswind, even in a place that was created to be boring on purpose; some templates from well-known works or legends, filigree woven into the plot; charismatic characters. That is, the standard set of any Pratchett work that has made me fall in love with it from the first book.

You may also find the small size of the book an advantage. If you don’t count the short stories, this is the smallest work by the author I’ve ever read, with only 300 phone pages. Personally, I read 2/3 of the book in one day.

So, do I recommend reading this book? Definitely! Just note that this is not the first book in the series. There are references to events and places from other books in the series about wizards and heroes, and if you read at least one previous book in the series, you will understand why Ryswind is so surprised when he is lucky. But in general, ‘Erik’ is perceived as a full-fledged self-sufficient work, and the author’s style in this book is much more than in ‘The Color of Magic,’ which is quite logical, because ‘The Color of Magic’ is the first book from the Discworld. So, if you want to get acquainted with the author and are not sure whether you will like it – feel free to pick it up.

My assessment: 11 empty non-Trojan horses out of 10 lucky Devils with the title of President of Hell.