Rating: 
Summary: Heroes at Last
Review: It's not so easy to assess The Last Hero. Terry Pratchett gets top billing as the storyteller, but the book is largely the work of illustrator Paul Kidby. Not that the tale (a chronicle of the heroic attempts of Rincewind and his colleagues to prevent the destruction of Discworld as Cohen the Barbarian seeks, with the rest of the Silver Horde, to go out in a blaze of epic glory) is dull. Yet, the small-ish amount of space given over to yarn spinning does not allow for the virtuosic narrative sweep (and dust mopping) typical of Pratchett's full-length works. On the other hand, the drawings of Kidby, who usually gets a cover credit at best, are witty and artistically astounding (although readers who wish to form their own visualizations of Rincewind, Leonard da Quirm, and other Discworld regulars are advised to avoid The Last Hero), replete with their own versions of Pratchett-style puns, references, and inside jokes. Discworld fans will find plenty of allusional nuggets, including Apollo 13, The Right Stuff, Casablanca, The Ring, arras work, Michelangelo, famous gladiatorial phrases, The Last Flight of the...something--Icarus, maybe--and a whole lot more. Overall, The Last Hero is a worthy addition to the library of any Discworld aficionado, or at least to his coffee table.
Rating: 
Summary: Amazing illustrations, highly enjoyable story
Review: This is a wonderful book full of amazing illustrations. Leonardo da Quirm's sketches are amazingly detailed and the characters appeared just as I imagined them to be. Any one who has read 'The Pratchett Portfolio', also illustrated by Kidby, will be delighted to _see_ the charaters in action. The story, while shorter then most of Pratchett's novels, is still highly enjoyable. I love it when characters from different novels have a chance to meet with each other, and the interactions between Rincewind, Captain Carrot, Leonard and Cohen are great. A must have for every Pratchett fan :)
Rating:
Summary: You won't be disappointed
Review: If you like Terry Pratchett this book is a must have. Period. The story is excelent, but the art is amazing. There is a picture on almost every page as well; the characters appear just as I've always imagined them. The story itself is a bit short, it only took me about five hours to read the book through, but the art makes it a worthwhile buy.
Rating:
Summary: Short... but good.
Review: The end of the Discworld is near, as the geriatric Silver Horde, lead by Cohen the Barbarian, are on their way to Dunmanifestin with the firm intention of blowing up the Gods. They've even kidnapped a minstrel to write the story of their heroic lives. Someone has to stop them, and quickly! So to save the world from total destruction, the Wizards of Unseen University and the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari, have no choice but to call Leonard da Quirm to the rescue. Soon the inventor, along with the very literal Captain Carrot of the City Watch and Rincewind the chicken-hearted WiZZard, embark on a perilous journey aboard the Kite, a bird-shaped flying device powered by Swamp Dragons. According to his calculations, if the Kite goes over the rim at great speed, it'll come back around and rocket right towards the hub, where lies Dunmanifestin, just in time to stop Cohen and his gang. Even though The Last Hero might seems a little bit short, comparatively, of course it has the genuine, punful, Pratchett style that we've all come to love so much. The good side of it is that it's read in no time, eh! And Paul Kidby's lavish illustrations are just astounding. Would do a wonderful gift idea, wouldn't it?
Rating:
Summary: Fabulous illustrations
Review: If you are a Pratchett fan, you must own this for the Kidby illustrations. I spent most of my time looking over Leonard de Quirm's notes and plans which were simply wonderful. The fable line is a bit too fable-y for me and I read hoping it would have more of the usual Pratchett humor and interest. It doesn't quite make it in that regard. It is still a good tale and worth the purchase. It is sort of an artistic hissy fit spit about the nature of life and its end, heroes and artists and the singer and the song. All well and good and have been addressed elsewhere but this will do in a pinch. While I found the minstrel's last couple of pages moving (including the song remains ) the story itself never actually got me there- it was sort of an outside recognition of Pratchett and the nature of narrative. But still a good read, the illustrations are fabulous and it's a nice building stone in the Pratchett world. I would start with another Discworld tale if you are new to the series, but this one deserves its place among the rest once you have read a few.
Rating: 
Summary: wonderful illustrations, mediocre story
Review: Terry Pratchett was not at his best when he wrote this. I've enjoyed the other Discworld books I've read. Pratchett's sense of humor is wonderful and I love the parallels between the Discworld and our world. However, even though I thought the premise sounded good when I picked this up, this book limps along and manages to be not very funny at all. Pratchett mainly alternates between scenes involving Cohen the Barbarian and his Silver Horde and scenes involving those trying to stop the heroes from reaching the gods. The transitions between those scenes aren't very good; it's often like he decided to just stop one scene and start another. Also, it gets easy to lose track of what the point of all of this is. Rincewind, Captain Carrot, and Leonard are supposed to stop Cohen and the others from destroying the gods, but the book gets so caught up in building the machinery to get to the mountain and then actually using that machinery that it gets easy to forget why they are doing all of that. The best part of this book is the artwork. I love Paul Kidby's illustrations. His interpretation of Rincewind is excellent - Rincewind's expression of sheer misery is perfect. I think Kidby is the same person who did the artwork for the Discworld calender, which I also loved. I would recommend this book only to a die hard Discworld fan - if you're one such person, you'll probably enjoy the artwork (it's really beautiful stuff), and there are some nice Discworld details (all the varieties of swamp dragon, plus a little about each one, an illustration of a few of the Discworld gods, including their names and what they are gods of, as well as some of Leonard's notes about the inventions involved in this whole adventure). The story, however, will be a disappointment.
Rating:
Summary: The Last Hero - John Deakins for ABSOLUTE MAGNITUDE
Review: ...Pratchett books are too short. This (sigh!) is the
shortest of the lot. Other than that, of course, it's
marvelous.
We last met Cohen the Barbarian and his antique
superheroes when they conquered the Counterweight Continent
in _Interesting Times_. With nothing left to conquer, they
give up the easy life that has already taken one of their
number. They are going to climb Cori Celesti, the impossibly
high central spire of Discworld, and return fire to the gods
- in the form of a barrel of gunpowder. The resulting
explosion in Dunmanifestin, the godly city, will destabilize
the entire world.
To stop them, Unseen University is launching an
experimental ship, powered by belching mini-dragons, off the
edge of the Disc. Designed by Leonard of Quirm, its orbital
path should land it on the mountain in time to stop the
attack.
Once again, Pratchett takes the ridiculous and raises it
to the sublime. Truckle the Uncivil, Boy Willie, and Mad
Hamish (in his wheelchair) can't take on the gods! But when
they do, we'll learn something about how to remember real
heroism. The terrified minstrel dragged along behind Caleb
the Ripper and grandmotherly war-maiden Vena the Raven-haired
learns how to write a song remembered forever. Leonard of
Quirm, the innocent super-genius, can design an possible
flying machine in his head, but stands in awe, painting the
grandeur he views from space.
There is clearly some Pratchett soul in Leonard, and
Rincewind the Wizzard, and even in Evil Harry Dread (the last
Dark Lord). Likwise, Paul Kidby has contributed part of his
being to everything from group shots of the gods, to the
masterful turtle-elephants-Disc views, to the dozens of
(Leonardo de Vinci) fantasy/technical drawings of dragon-
powered aircraft and self-filling ink quills.
This is a marvelous book to the very last page - Kidby
gives us rubies sprouting flowers in the snow. Pratchett
gives us an immortal saga on a lyre made from a skull and
broken wires, about five heroes who weren't sure they were
dead. (Well, if you're not sure, steal the flying horses of
the Valkyries who come for you and head for other worlds.)
"No one remembers the singer. The song remains."
Rating:
Summary: The Great Gerontological Journey!
Review: This book is awesome, fabulous, funny, and gorgeous! The illustrations are as amazing as Pratchett's best writing (which, OK...Carrot in Space may not be a shining moment...). I especially love the picture of Death With Kitten, and comparing the first picture of the bard with the successive ones. The jokes are fantastic, and the problems presented are, as always, multi-universal. If you've never read a Pratchett novel, this probably isnt the best one to start with, but its so pretty, you should buy it just to have it.
Rating:
Summary: Terry Trying Too Hard.
Review: In "The Last Hero", Terry Pratchett takes the reader to the Discworld... a place where anything can happen and most of it does. A world where million to one chances happen nine times out of ten. A planet that is flat and carried around on the back of a turtle. Oh yeah, and that is where he takes you in all the Discworld novels. Read one of the others first. "The Last Hero" is the story of Cohen the Barbarian and his quest to "Return what the First Hero stole'" It has just about every major character that has appeared in any Diskworld novel to date. To those of you who are familiar with the novels, picture Carrot, Rincewind, the Librarian and Leonard of Quirm in the same place, shudder, then put your mouse down. I thought that this book was a rather entertaining "Candy Bar for the Mind" but it was not it did not contain the high wit or the highly contagous writing that I have come to expect from Terry. The biggest problem with this book is that Pratchett set the bar too high with his previous work. I gave this book 4 stars for the simple reason that I love the art by Paul Kidby and Terry will always be my fave.
Rating:
Summary: 2 stars for the story, five for the illustrations
Review: It's not Pratchett at his best, or even at his averagest... In places, it's almost not Pratchett at all. The story limps along like a wounded dinosaur, sometimes struggling to remind the reader what's going on. I admit to dozing off several times - unlike other Terry Pratchett stuff, which usually has me howling on the floor. In recompense, Paul Kidby's illustrations are superb and they alone make this book worth buying. As one reviewer pointed out, there's a rapport between Discworld readers and the characters and, even allowing for a less-well-told story, that rapport is guarded by the visual descriptions. Grat pictures... pity about the plot.
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