Illustrated Eric

This is the ninth book in Terry Pratchett's series on the Discworld - a flat world, supported on the backs of four massive elephants riding on the back of a planet-sized turtle. Anything hilarious can happen here, and eventually does. This book picks up after Sourcery, with poor Rincewind trapped in the Dungeon Dimensions. But, when he is inadvertently summoned by a teenage demonologist in training, he finds himself cast in the role of Mephistopheles to Eric's Faust. They make quite a match - Eric is a poor demonologist and Rincewind makes a poor demon. But there is more going on than meets the eye, the new King of the Demons wants to know who this Rincewind is and how he got there, and he's not happy. This is another great Discworld book, one of my favorites. As always, especially with the early books, Terry Pratchett does an excellent job of spinning a yarn that is a wonderful parody of something (Goethe's Faust in this case) and is also laugh-out-loud funny! This is a great book, one that I highly recommend!

Rincewind's career as a demon is far more successful than his life as a wizzard (sic). Just by clicking his fingers, he grants the traditional three wishes of adolescent demonist hacker Eric. The satire in this book, however, is not directed at the traditions of Faust or Aladdin - Pratchett seems to have real affection for these potentially soft targets. Rather, he describes the politics of Hell: a savage reflection of modern corporate politics. The Demon King's devastating insight is that, for a demon to incite a whole nation to conquer, slaughter, torture and sacrifice their neighbours is, in the long run, far less damaging than telling them 'to labour day and night to improve the lot of their fellow man.' Among the book's strengths are its brevity, pace and its oblique insight into the implications of some of our traditional ideas. Nearly all Discworld novels are brilliant, but this one stands out as the masterpiece.

Funny as a goose in a dryer. Gotta read it for a laugh or two

Pratchett is very funny with his repartee and inside humour. The story of Eric is full of puns aplenty and situations running into the comical extreme. One of Pratchett's best! The Discworld series is the best fantasy series I have ever read

One of my favorite books of all time, it's right up there with Rainmaker and Nine princes in Amber ! Get it as SOON as possible. Maybe magician:apprentice should be there too :