"I know the Rincewind books aren't every Discworld fan's favorite (he has the unfortunate distinction of carrying the first installment, The Color of Magic, which every hardcore fan loves to adamantly warn new readers away from), but I love this little guy. As far as the Rincewind adventures go, this is one is super fun and functions almost like a direct sequel to The Light Fantastic, so yes you do have to read that one before you try this.

The story kicks off with Rincewind once again unwilling finding himself in Situations he wants absolutely no part of. In this case, it's the Agatean Empire, and the Situation is a brewing revolution against the emperor.

Fair warning: Pratchett has based his setting on Imperial China (or sometimes Imperial Japan, if he thinks it'll be funnier) and overall it...has not aged well. This is a solid Rincewind adventure, with some great callbacks to the very first Discworld book, and I enjoyed myself the entire time I was reading it, don't get me wrong. But there are definitely some jokes that didn't land, and I was disappointed that Pratchett went that direction because he's usually so good at zigging where other fantasy authors zag, and it was a bummer to see him lean fully into lazy stereotypes and not do anything new with them."