A sorcerer is born - a wizard so powerful that by comparison all other magic is just mucking about in pointy hats - and his very existence brings the Discworld to the very verge of the all-out thaumaturgical war(a bad thing). All that stands in the way is Rincewind, the failed magician, who wants to save the world, or at least that part of it which contains him. More new characters join the Discworld adventure: Conina the barbarian hairdresser, Nijel the destroyer, and possibly the first yuppie genie, who's into lamps as a growth area. This time the adventure goes east, or hubwards, or whatever. It doesn't simply draw heavily on Omar Khayyam, Raiders of the Lost Ark, the 1001 Nights and every Arabian B-movie ever made, it scribbles on them as well.