What don’t I like about Moving Pictures? In my hazy memory of binging every Discworld book, it didn’t leave a good impression. Knowing that my opinions have changed multiple times in this rereading process, I hoped to find myself understanding the appeal of this book in a way that I hadn’t before. Sadly, this time I feel mostly the same. Moving Pictures can take the place of my least favorite Discworld book, unless something changes in the future.

Realistically, one of the earliest books in the series should win this prize, but there’s a difference there that has to do with expectations. The Colour of Magic is barely a proper Discworld book at all, but it’s funny for what it is, and I enjoy seeing Terry in the process of working it out. Similarly for Equal Rites, the execution isn’t quite there but the spirit is very much intact. Moving Pictures, on the other hand, comes after books like Wyrd Sisters and Guards! Guards! that show how much higher a Discworld novel can reach, and its lack of ambition is comparatively disappointing.

Essentially, Moving Pictures has one idea. What if there were movies on Discworld? It serves mainly as a satire of the film industry (Classic Hollywood in particular) and it’s filled up with puns and references to real movies and movie stars. A lot of these jokes are funny, but Terry doesn’t seem to have much more on his mind than that. The central premise is that Holy Wood (he really stretched for that one) has an inexplicable pull on people that may have less to do with the allure of fame and more to do with Lovecraftian monsters from another dimension. This is the film industry as a fake place full of fake people that nonetheless is capable of real magic. It’s an accurate observation but not an original one. Put simply, this doesn’t feel like a concept that only Terry could handle.

Moving Pictures has some more satisfying elements. Gaspode the Wonder Dog is a great character and brings life to the story whenever he’s in it, and the gaggle of assorted animals that follow him are also quite entertaining (and provide some interesting foreshadowing for the events of Reaper Man). The wizards of Unseen University really come together as a group here, and fulfill their ultimate destiny of being the funniest subplot in a story that isn’t really about them. Detritus the troll has a pretty big role here and is as entertaining as he will be in future installments. But most of these are examples of elements that would be even better later. On its own, Moving Pictures doesn’t have a lot of exciting characters. Fair enough, three Pratchett books came out in 1990. They can’t all be winners. Luckily for me, this is when it really gets good.