Eric - Terry Pratchett

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62 of 62 Ciao users found the following review helpful

seagulls-lost-horizon

Late Night Addiction 12/09/2001

User recommends the product

Advantages Very entertaining and you can’t go wrong
Disadvantages none what-so-ever

There are books you read because they’ve been recommended, ones that are well know classics, ones by your favourite author and ones that are about stuff your interested in. But if you want a good light hearted read then Terry Pratchett’s your man. Its only been the last couple of years that I started to read Terry Pratchett, I’d heard plenty about him, the Discworld and such, but never actually read any of his books and like a lot of author’s/books that have been suggested I read I never got round to it, until one day......... I was going home in a taxi when I noticed a ... more
37 of 37 Ciao users found the following review helpful

CaptainDisaster

Begone, foul Demon!!! Oh... it's YOU.... 12/10/2005

User recommends the product

Advantages Funny, light reading...
Disadvantages ... lacks subtlety, not one of the best Discworld novels

Eric is one of the earlier Discworld novels (8th in the sequence, in fact), and deals with the trials and tribulations of an adolescent Demonologist. He tries to perform a tricky demon-summoning rite and ends up with... well, not exactly a demon as such... For those uninitiated into the world of Discworld, it's Terry Pratchett's comedic fantasy fiction creation, inhabited by Wiazards, Witches, trolls, dwarves, zombies, and all manner of fantastical creatures. Oh and humans of course. The characters on the disc try to make sense of what's going on around them, managing (usually quite by ... more
12 of 12 Ciao users found the following review helpful

katisthebest

A good re-telling of everyone's favourite story 15/10/2004

User recommends the product

Advantages A humorous take on a story that otherwise may have been lost to many
Disadvantages May require some prior familiarity with the Discworld series

Eric is, quite simply, a re-telling of the famous Faust story. However, that doesn't necessarily make it bad. Rather, it brings the story to a new generation of readers, a new set of people who may otherwise have never heard of it. Terry Pratchett often parodys real-world situations, cliches and conventions in his Discworld series. The world itself is a mish-mash of some of the more unusual beliefs abotu our own that have cropped up through history-a giant spinning disc, supported on the backs of four elephants, who in turn stand on the shell of an enormous turtle, steadily swimming through ... more
5 of 6 Ciao users found the following review helpful

yhwman

Short but sweet 10/08/2000

User recommends the product

Advantages Good story
Disadvantages But it's short

While without a doubt, the shortest Discworld book ever it’s also one of the funniest. The story is based around Rincewind and the Luggage (Who along with Death are my favourite characters) as well as a teenage Demonologist known as, Eric. It all begins with Rincewind being mistaken for a Demon by Eric (Assisted by the appearance of the Luggage) and continues with all three of them going on a series of more and more unlikely adventures, including a trip to hell. Only hell isn’t quite hell as you would expect, it’s how Crowley from Good Omens would want it run. Memo’s, board meetings and so on ... more
6 of 6 Ciao users found the following review helpful

andrewsi

A strange idea 17/04/2001

User recommends the product

Advantages It's Pratchett. It involves Rincewind....
Disadvantages ... but there's not that much of it, without the great Kirby pictures

At its simplest, Eric is simply a Discworld-flavoured rewrite of Faust. A young man sells his soul to the Devil in return for, well, the sorts of thing the young man would generally sell his soul for. But this is a Discworld novel. Instead of an all-powerful demon, the poor young Eric conjures Rincewind, whose magical ability is very limited, and who would long ago have passed away were it not for his companion, the psychotic Luggage. The book follows the misadventures of the three travellers through space and time, with plenty of laughs along the way. Now for the wierd part. The original ... more
8 of 9 Ciao users found the following review helpful

bbrown116

Classic Pratchett; a delight to read 06/06/2006

User recommends the product

Advantages Entertaining, witty and descriptive; Pratchett at his best
Disadvantages One of his shorter books

"No enemies had ever taken Ankh-Morpock. Well technically they had, quite often; the city welcomed free-spending barbarian invaders, but somehow the puzzled raiders found, after a few days, that they didn't own their horses any more, and within a couple of months they were just another minority group with its own graffiti and food shops." (Eric) Another excellent episode in the ever-popular Diskworld collection, suitable for reading by both Diskworld converts and those still uninitiated into Pratchett's brilliantly-written bestselling series. The story follow's the (spectacularly unsuccessful) ... more
4 of 5 Ciao users found the following review helpful

TimothyC

Faust of many 16/07/2000

User recommends the product

Advantages Full of excellent illustrations and a good story
Disadvantages Not his best

I could write so much about the work of this man as I have been following his career for many years and I have bought ever one of his books in paperback and I acquired Eric as soon as it came out. This is the only Pratchett book that includes a lot of illustrations from Josh Kirby. Yes I know that there are normally cover pictures, but the version of Eric I have has full colour pictures throughout. The story, based on Faust, is about Eric who conjures up himself a demon from the pit, but it is not any old demon it is poor old Rincewind the wizard, who found himself in the dungeon dimensions at ... more
1 of 3 Ciao users found the following review helpful

super_jimbo

size isn't everything 15/12/2000

User recommends the product

Advantages A great book
Disadvantages none

This is the shortest of the discworld novels and, in my opinion, one of the strangest. Although we still have Rincewind, And an appearance from death and the other Wizards, it still seems as though this book doesn’t quite fit in with the rest of the discworld series. Although in saying that it is still a great book and a must read for any Pratchett fan. Eric is the last of the demonologists on the disc, and fortunately for the demons he’s still very young. Unfortunately for them when Eric achieves his first summoning it isn’t a demon that goes through the entrance, it’s Rincewind, who by some ... more
9 of 16 Ciao users found the following review helpful

greatunknown1

Good but not devillishly so 29/03/2004

User recommends the product

Advantages Funny, Discworld, Easy to pick up
Disadvantages Short, not as good as some terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett has become one of my favourite authors and this work is in his usual style of a blundering hero in a world gone mad. The book centres around a young boy called Eric (based on Faust) who summons a demon. However instead of a demon he gets Rincewind a failed wizard who has starred in many of Pratchett's works. This is due to a complex series of events that resulted in Rincewind being thrown into various dimensions and finally hell. However it seems that for once Rincewind has some powers bestowed on him by his new demonic status. As fans of the Discworld series will know with ... more
4 of 9 Ciao users found the following review helpful

Xanti

Not up to scratch for the Discworld series 06/09/2003

User doesn't recommend the product

Advantages Excellent and familiar characters, not too expensive, funny!
Disadvantages Plot, length, ending isn't very good

Pratchett's imagination and humour has always amused me, and in my attempt to buy all Discworld novels I came across "Eric". It goes without saying that the book is at least as funny as every other, the characters are just as interesting. The plot is one of Pratchett's usual parodies, with its odd little quirks. The twists and turns will have you on the edge of your armchair for almost all of it - even I couldn't put it down, and I am easily bored. And it is enjoyable. But one thing that I cannot fail to mention is the ending. It's possibly the most boring ending to a book I've ever read! You ... more