Madi Van Houten &
Moving Pictures by Terry Pratchett

The second book of Discworld I've read, and luckily, it's also a stand-alone, like Small Gods. Although I still liked Small Gods better, Moving Pictures had the enough magic to pull me in into wanting to read more of Discworld. In this one, Pratchett pokes fun at so many common tropes the film industry uses, in hilarious and subtle (and some not-so-subtle) ways, but still framed very well in the medieval-like society of Ankh-Morpork. The brilliant and comedic writing is aided by the characters, all of whom seem so alive. Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler reminds me so much of Omnia's Cut-Me-Own-Hand-Off Dhblah, although this being a previous book, and Ankh-Morpork seemingly being the main place where Discworld stories take place, perhaps it's supposed to be the other way round. As a foil to Dibbler, his more sensible and long suffering nephew Soll served very well. About foils and long suffering characters, the scenes of Ridcully and the Bursar are also a marvel to read, I'm hoping they appear in further stories. Of course, my favorite pair of characters were Victor and Gaspode, the Wonder Dog. Victor, for proving he was Genre Savvy enough at the end, and his dedicated laziness, and Gaspode for being THE Deadpan Snarker of the book. I'm really glad that [spoiler] he lived at the end, thanks god for the trolls [/spoiler]. I'm really looking forward to reading the rest of this series, now I think I'll start by the actual beginning, The Color of Magic.

It has some funny moments but it's certainly not Pratchett's best. As crazy and sometimes corrupt Hollywood is it's not the sort of industry where Cthulu would be comfortable. The combination just doesn't make sense. And then there's the talking dog. On about every fifth page Pratchett stops the plot (what little of one there is) to do yet another talking dog joke!

This has all the ingredients of a perfect Discworld novel. Death, Gaspode, wizards, what more could you ask for?

Bit messy, not yet the masterful pastiche of Maskerade, Soul Music, Night Watch. It is called the first book of Pratchett's 'Industrial Revolution' series. But that really came much earlier: Equal Rites (book 3) or, better, Sourcery which is the beginning of the Disc's disenchantment, and so of Vetinari's market reforms.

Me da pena ponerle solo dos estrellas a un libro de Mundodisco, pero debo decir que me ha costado acabarlo. Aburrido; se salva el personaje de Gaspode y poco más...