I think Pterry may have just run out of inspiration with Rincewind.
How many variations of “Travel to exotic places, meet interesting people, and run from them” could he possibly pull out of his bag of tricks?
Rincewind is useful for reacting. Whenever he needs a new country to be explored, Terry sends Rincewind there to dash through it to meet its inhabitants (who inevitably will want him dead). That way we get to see a new culture, and Terry has some new fodder for future books. There aren’t many countries that have been spoken of that haven’t already been visited, though like in Monstrous Regiment he can easily create more out of whole cloth if needs be.
Pratchett has at least one more story in mind for Rincewind, so he says, so when he feels the need he’s sure to bring him out and have him bolt through a new environment for us to visit.
It appears Terry’s next book isn’t even a Discworld novel, so it may be some time before we see Rincewind return.
Oh, good. I like his writing, but the Discworld is getting a little stale. A brand new setting, lets hope that it will be fresh.
do we know anything about it yet?
OOh! OOh! A Johnny Maxwell book?
No, it’s an alternative history novel called Nation and will be set around sea-going and a shipwreck, or something like that. It will still be comedic, I believe.
Maybe it’s just because I visited Australia for a couple of weeks when I was younger (and had a blast on the trip), but I’ve always had a special place in my heart for TLC (as an aside: is there a phrase that means “a special place in my heart” but which doesn’t sound so utterly ridiculous?). I can take Rincewind or leave him, but there was something about the blend of excellent dialogue/ jokes (arguing over the technicolor yawn) and mysticism (multi-layered rock paintings) that I just love.
I read them in order, and this book really made me think twice about that. It’s like Pratchett also was sick of the Discworld, so he wrote a book that really had no need to be in the series. These Rincewind books are definitely the low point of the series… I’m very glad he hasn’t felt the need to do “Rincewind visits country X” lately.