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The Last Continent
Cover	[[Image:|thumb|center|200px|{{{1}}}]]
Published	May 1998
Publisher	Doubleday
ISBN	0552146145
Pages	416
Series	Rincewind Series
Main characters	Rincewind, Mrs. Whitlow
Annotations	Annotations for The Last Continent
Notes
All data relates to the UK hardback edition.

Blurb

This is the Discworld's last continent, a completely separate creation.

It's hot. It's dry... very dry. There was this thing once called The Wet, which no one now believes in. Practically everything that's not poisonous is venomous. But it's the best bloody place in the world, all right?

And it'll die in a few days. except...

Who is this hero striding across the red desert? Champion sheep shearer, horse rider, road warrior, beer drinker, bush ranger and someone who'll even eat a Meat Pie Floater when he's sober? A man in a hat, whose Luggage follows him on little legs, who's about to change history by preventing a swagman stealing a jumbuck by a billabong?

Yes... all this place has between itself and wind-blown doom is Rincewind, the inept wizard who can't even spell wizard. He's the only hero left.

Still... no worries, eh?

Characters

Main characters

• Rincewind
• Mustrum Ridcully
• The Librarian
• The Senior Wrangler
• The Dean
• The Bursar
• The Chair of Indefinite Studies
• The Lecturer in Recent Runes
• Ponder Stibbons
• Mrs. Whitlow
• Creator of XXXX
• God of Evolution
• Trickster, also known as Scrappy and Snowy

Minor characters

• Strewth, a miner whose name is the Australian expression for "God's truth"
• Hex
• Death
• Mad, a dwarf
• Crocodile Crocodile, a barman aka Dongo
• The Luggage
• Petunia the Desert Princess, transvestite group, consisting of:
  • Letitia
  • Darleen, who sings Prancing Queen, a parody of ABBA's Dancing Queen
  • Neilette, an actual woman
  • Noelene, Neilette's brother, who dropped out after trying to surf in a ball gown
• Bill Rincewind, Archchancellor of Bugarup University
• B. Smoth, Dean of Bugarup University

Cameos and People Mentioned

• McAbre, the head bledlow
• Doughnut Jimmy (mentioned)
• Swallett, wizard who led expedition to find Lost Reading Room
• Professor of Recondite Architecture and Origami Map Folding
• Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography (mentioned), a title later held by Rincewind
• Wally Sluwer, a wizard who gave lectures post-mortem (no one noticed)
• Lecturer in Creative Uncertainty, the Discworld equivalent of quantum mechanics
• Sir Roderick Purdeigh, explorer who searched for XXXX and claimed it didn't exist (but also once got lost in his own bedroom...)
• Death of Rats
• Albert
• Bewdley, former Archchancellor with a magic hole in his boots
• Medley, a medical kleptomaniac (mentioned)
• Hoki, god (mentioned)
• Creator of the Disc (mentioned)
• Ossory (mentioned in an expression)
• Hollowlog Joe, drinker in bar
• Queen Zazumba of Sumtri (mentioned)
• Daggy, sheep shearer
• Remorse, a man who owns a fast colt and purchases Snowy
• Clancy, a stock man who works for Remorse and helps invent XXXX-ian slang
• Tinhead Ned (mentioned), famous escape artist, parodying Ned Kelly
• Fair Go Dibbler
• Duncan, friend of Fair Go's, who explains "Duncan's me mate", from the Slim Dusty song Duncan
• Greg and Vince, troll-like gaolers
• Larrikin Larry, criminal whose head flew off like a cork when he was hanged
• "Dicky" Bird (mentioned), wizard particularly sensitive to high magical fields
• Dibblers around the Disc (mentioned; most of these do not appear in any other book)
  • Cut-Me-Own-Throat Dibbler (several books)
  • Disembowel-Meself-Honourably Dibhala (from Interesting Times)
  • Al-Jiblah
  • May-I-Never-Achieve-Enlightenment Dhiblang
  • Dib Diblossonson
  • May-I-Be-Kicked-In-My-Own-Ice-Hole Dibooki
  • Swallow-Me-Own-Blowdart Dlang-Dlang
• Ly Tin Wheedle (mentioned)
• Charley, a cook depressed at the concept of naming a dessert after famed opera singer Dame Nellie Butt, especially since his father created the Orange Ormulu in honor of Dame Janine Ormulu
• Nunco, who invented the Strawberry Sackville for Dame Wendy Sackville
• Imposo, who created the Apple Glazier for Dame Margyreen Glazier
• Lisa Delight, retired opera singer
• Ron and Sid, opera house chefs
• Ronald Pants aka "Really" Pants (mentioned)
• Farter Carter (mentioned; probably not his real name)
• Trusset, a wizard with good hair, contemporary of Ponder Stibbons
• "Rubber" Houser, wizard who invented the Graphical Device
• Cartwright, an XXXX-ian wizard
• Salid, an artist (possibly a wizard artist?)
• Clive, Shirl, and Gerleen, XXXX-ers who wish to emigrate to Ankh-Morpork
• Germaine Trifle, opera singer
• Bluey, XXXX-ian watchman

Locations

• Ankh-Morpork
  • The Unseen University
    • Museum of Quite Unusual Things (mentioned)
    • High Energy Magic Building (mentioned)
    • Library
      • Lost Reading Room (mentioned)
    • Room 5b (mentioned)
  • Moon Pond Lane (mentioned), Librarian's birth street
  • Opera House (mentioned; when stranded on a deserted island, the Dean wishes to listen to the music there), not to be confused with the Bugarup Opera House mentioned below

• XXXX
  • Dijabringabeeralong
    • Semaphore Hill (mentioned)
  • Bugarup
    • Bugarup Gaol
    • Berk Street (mentioned)
    • Bludgeree (mentioned), area of town(?) where Fair Go Dibbler was born
      • Treacle Street (mentioned), Fair Go Dibbler's birth street
    • Opera House
    • Grurt Street (mentioned)
    • Bugarup University
  • Pastoral Hotel (mentioned)
  • Cangoolie (mentioned), parodies Kalgoorlie
  • Worralorrasurfa, Neilette's home town

• Mono Island, an island near XXXX similar to New Zealand

• Slakki and Purdee Island, nudist islands

• Quirm (mentioned)
  • Kiddling Street (mentioned)

• Klatch (mentioned)

• Omnia (mentioned)

• NoThingfjord (mentioned), Mad's home town

• Sumtri (mentioned)

• Bhangbhangduc (mentioned), a place whose name parodies "bang! bang! duck" (ie, telling someone to duck after bullets have been shot)

• Quint, city destroyed by God of Evolution

Concepts, Items, Events

• slood (mentioned)
• Ceremony of the Keys, parodying the Roundworld events with the same name.
• L-Space
• Weezencake's Unreliable Algorithm
• How to Dynamically Manage People for Dynamic Results in a Caring Empowering Way in Quite a Short Time Dynamically, a truly hideous book from another universe
• droit de mortis, killing senior wizards to speed promotion
• Old Tom, university's tongueless clock
• Wasport's Lives of the Very Dull People, a book
• Wrencher's Snakes of All Nations, a book
• Dangerous Mammals, Reptiles, Amphibians, Birds, Fish, Jellyfish, Insects, Spiders, Crustaceans, Grasses, Trees, Mosses, and Lichens of Terror Incognita, an encyclopedia with at least 29 volumes (probably many more, as the volumes are further broken down by letter and number, eg, "29c, part 3")
• drop-bears
• Principles of Thaumic Propagation, a studious book that turns into The Omega Conspiracy, a frivolous book
• Theoretical frivolous books
  • The Gamma Imperative
  • The Delta Season
  • The Alpha Project
  • The Mu Kappa Pi Caper
• dwarf bread
• the Triangle, a constellation
• The Small Boring Group of Faint Stars, a constellation
• thunder lizard, animal that killed Egregious Professor of Cruel and Unusual Geography, but later turned into a chicken
• Roo Beer, a light sparkly (but still quite alcoholic) beer
• Sapu tree, a carnivorous plant
• Sledgehammer Plant of Bhangbhangduc, a carnivorous plant
• Pyramid Strangler Vine, a normally vegetarian plant
• Two Up, game, parodying the Roundworld game of the same name
• Tie My Kangaroo Up, a song parodying Tie Me Kangaroo Down, Sport
• squid, unit of currency (probably parodies 'quid', slang term for British pound)
• Mugroop's Syndrome, symptom of high magical field
• meat pie floater, XXXX specialty cuisine
• Peach Nellie, a dessert
• The Galah, celebration of alternative lifestyles, parodying the Sydney Gay and Lesbian Mardi Gras, Australia's largest gay/lesbian event
• Funnelweb, a type of beer, parodying Redback Beer (both named after spiders)
• Maxwell's Impressive Separator and Bonza Charlie's Beaut Sieve, two similar spells that can separate two things (eg, salt and water from saltwater)
• HW chromosome, something wizards lack (HW = housework?)

Annotations

• This is one of the few times someone gets away with calling the Librarian a "monkey".

• Death confirms that Rincewind will escape Bugarup prison. Earlier in the book, Death has no idea when Rincewind will die. So how does know Rincewind will escape? (maybe he sees that Rincewind has enough sand for at least a few more days of life?)

• The Chair of Indefinite Studies refers to the Librarian (in book form) as "The Story of Ook", parodying the Roundworld The Story of O

• Rincewind asks Scrappy about a magic sword, probably forgetting the terrible experience he had with Kring

• In Bugarup, Rincewind seems surprised that XXXX has wizards, but the road gang he meets earlier is familiar with wizards, and the chefs at the opera house also mention wizards.

• The "Small Boring Group of Faint Stars" is fairly bright when the wizards travel back in time. If the ancients named it, why did they call it faint and boring (did they know it would become so in several thousand years?)

• Rincewind introduces the concept of parrots to XXXX. They already exist outside XXXX as we see in Moving Pictures and Eric

• "Gods turning themselves into bulls ... [s]wans ... [s]howers of gold". Zeus did all these things, in pursuit of Europa, Leda, and Danae respectively.

• "You know, I've often wondered about that one [showers of gold]". "Golden shower" is slang for urinating on someone for mutual sexual pleasure. In Pyramids, the expression "golden shower" is used explicitly, a more direct version of this joke.

• Baboon's behinds are mentioned in this book, Moving Pictures, and Interesting Times.

• The concept of "if you were marooned on a desert island... what kind of music would you like to listen to" is fairly old, but may be a parody of Desert Island Discs.

• "Dame Nellie Butt". If XXXX doesn't have royalty (and it doesn't appear to), how did Nellie get to be a Dame? On Roundworld, Australia recognizes English royalty, but XXXX appears to be cutoff from any known Discworld royalty. Does Dame just mean "opera singer" on XXXX?

• Rincewind laments that he "never had a relative before", apparently forgetting about Lavaeolus

• Ridcully refers to XXXX as a "colony", parodying the way British people look down on British colonies. Of course, there's no evidence that XXXX is a colony of Ankh-Morpork.

• "Can you hear that thunder? ... We'd better take cover..." are lines from the song Down Under

• A footnote mentions that books on holiday turn into books "with a name containing at least one Greek word or letter", even though Greece doesn't exist on the Discworld. Not necessarily an error: perhaps this transformation is cross-dimensional.

Things Parodied and Referenced

Roundworld literature/etc parodied (excluding those already mentioned above):

• Mad Max, movie

• Crocodile Dundee, movie

• Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, movie

• Australia, nation-continent (explicitly acknowledged by author)

• Sydney Opera House, building

• Grandfather paradox, concept

• Natural selection, concept

• Peach Melba, dessert named after Australian opera singer

External Links

• APF page for this book

• Discworld geography (WikiPedia)