The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic, the first novels in
Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series, starred the weak-kneed, least-likely hero
Rincewind and the world’s first tourist, Twoflower. In their grand adventure around the disc,
incorrigible Cohen the Barbarian—an aged parody of the one and only Conan the Barbarian—was among the characters they ran into. Dentures, sagging flanks, and a wispy white
beard, his better years of raiding lost tombs, ravishing ladies, and defeating
mighty foes in battle were far behind him.
But only in reality. Creaky back
and all, his mind was that of a twenty-year old, still set on conquering the
world one monster and jewel at a time.
But Cohen remained a side character.
It is in The Last Hero (2001)
that Pratchett brings the old man, and all his wild ideas, to the forefront,
serving complete notice the genre has moved beyond such simplified worldviews
as the Vikings, Robert E. Howard, and others’ who contrive to drag humanity
back into the jungle with their epic fantasy male ultra-heroes.
In old
age, Cohen the Barbarian and his raider friends have decided to go out in
classic barbarian style: in a blaze of not only proverbial glory, but also
literal fire. Their goal to destroy the holy
mountain Cori Celesti, they plan to reverse Prometheus and return fire to the
gods in the form of a massive bomb.
Kidnapping a bard and dragging him along, they believe their last
campaign is one for the ages: the bard’s poetry will etch their names in the
annals of Discworld history. By chance,
Lord Vetinari has become aware of Cohen’s plan.
Problem is, the barbarian has such a head start there’s no possibility anybody
from Ankh-Morpork can catch him. In a
last ditch effort, Vetinari enlists Leonard of Quirm to design a solution to
the problem. And design de Qurim does. Utilizing the explosive power of swamp
dragons, he builds a great wooden ship that, after rising into the atmosphere,
will slingshot around the disc and, if all goes as planned, arrive at Cori
Celesti ahead of Cohen. The mad inventor
taking Captain Carrot and Rincewind with him, the race to the mountain is on. Question is, just exactly who will have their
name appear in legend?
