The Sir Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge - Eric

Apparently, I've read this book before (no wonder it felt familiar!) But since I gave a one paragraph review the last time, I'll do a proper review now :D

Ok, so Faust Eric is a parody of the book Faust. Or at least, a parody on the premises (where you exchange your soul for ___). I can't go into specifics because I've never read Faust (I feel like a huge gap in my reading life has been exposed.......). But still, Faust is such a famous book that you'll know what Terry Pratchett is referencing from the very title.

So Eric, the titular would-be Faust of the book is trying to summon a demon. Unfortunately, something goes wrong and he summons Rincewind instead. And because that's how the way things work, when every Rincewind snaps his fingers, something brings them to a place where one of Eric's three wishes is fulfilled in a very unexpected way.

As usual, Rincewind was hilarious. He's really an anti-hero, being such a coward and all. But he does make a good case for being a coward, seeing as how he's survived all these books. Plus, his cynicism is hilarious at times.

But, I didn't really like Eric. I understand that he's supposed to a teenager and all, but he came across as an uninformed brat. He's thought process and speech grated on me. I'm actually glad he got stuck with Rincewind, who's the worst person you could get if you want help (Especially if the help you want involves danger of some sort).

Other characters include Ponce de Quirm (I wonder if he's related to Leonard De Quirm?) and the demon king with the name I can't pronounce, let alone remember.

Speaking of demons, the book explores the idea of evil in a pretty humorous (but not very accurate) way. There are the usual sly jokes like how the road to hell is paved (literally in this case) with good intentions but quite a lot of the book is focused on how evil humans can be. The things devised by humans are argued to be worse than those by demons (as seen by how inspired the king is at them). This is, of course, also poking fun at paperwork.

But since the whole premise is that humans came up with these ideas on their own (as opposed to having help from demons), this theory doesn't apply in real life.

Note: I forgot to mention this earlier, but I'm having End of Term exams (starting tomorrow), so except for Saturday, where I might post my "longreads" post, the earliest my next post can be is on Tuesday.