Who is Rincewind?

Be prepared to meet the Discworld's most cowardly wizard... whose only talent is getting into trouble - or maybe that should be, running away from trouble.  For wherever Rincewind goes, trouble follows behind.  On hundreds of little legs.  Oh, wait - that's just the Luggage.  Everyone wants luggage that can't get lost, or eats potential thieves and rough baggage handlers.  Well, Rincewind wants his money back.  It just causes too much trouble. But the Luggage is only the start of Rincewind's problems;  it would seem that he suffers from pre-emptive karma:  every time something nice appears to be about to happen to him, something nasty occurs, and carries on occurring right through where the nice bits should be.  Rincewind figures there must be some ultra-blessed person somewhere in the universe (or maybe multiverse, as he sees it) to whom all his nice things always happen, and when Rincewind finds this happy opposite, he feels there should be a reckoning.  Preferably with a big stick... (see Interesting Times).

Examine Rincewind, as he peers around the sullen shelves. There are eight levels of wizardry on the Disc; after sixteen years Rincewind has failed to achieve even level one. In fact it is the considered opinion of some of his tutors that he is incapable even of achieving level zero, which most normal people are born at; to put it another way, it has been suggested that when Rincewind dies the average occult ability of the human race will actually go up by a fraction.

He is tall and thin and has the scrubby kind of beard that looks like the kind of beard worn by people who weren't cut out by nature to be beard wearers. He is dressed in a dark red robe that has seen better days, possibly better decades. But you can tell he's a wizard, because he's got a pointy hat with a floppy brim. It's got the word "Wizzard" embroidered on it in big silver letters, by someone whose needlework is even worse than their spelling. There's a star on top. It has lost most of its sequins.

There is no-one else in existence, after all, who has saved the world so many times - by accident.  No matter what the occasion, Rincewind will fail to rise to it.  He really has never caught on to magic - although he's been caught up in it frequently;  he does his best to live up to what is emblazoned on his hat ("Wizzard" in tatty sequins), but he has never actually cast a spell (although he has provided many "services of benefit to magic") and has never passed a single exam at Unseen University.  All in all, the most outstanding anti-hero ever invented.  If that is possible.

And on top of the wardrobe, wrapped in scraps of yellowing paper and old dust sheets, was a large brass-bound chest. It went by the name of the Luggage. Why it consented to be owned by Rincewind was something only the Luggage knew, and it wasn't telling, but probably no other item in the entire chronicle of travel accessories had quite such a history of mystery and grievous bodily harm. It had been described as half suitcase, half homicidal maniac. It had many unusual qualities which may or may not become apparent soon, but currently there was that set it apart from any other brass-bound chest. It was snoring, with a sound like someone very slowly sawing a log.

The Luggage might be magical. It might be terrible, But in its enigmatic soul it was kin to every other piece of luggage throughout the multiverse, and preferred to spend its winters hibernating on top of a wardrobe.

The Colour of Magic, The Light Fantastic
Sourcery
Eric
Interesting Times
The Last Continent
The Last Hero

The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic make a pair;  they form a continuing narrative concerning Rincewind and his relationship with the Discworld's first tourist, Twoflower, and how Twoflower's happy, innocent view of life causes havoc wherever he goes.  That and the fact that he's an insurance salesman, and fires and floodings and mayhem tend to occur whenever he's just sold a policy.  "In-sewer-ants" has become a sort of home industry in Ankh-Morpork since Twoflower's advent.  I also seem to remember some sort of extreme danger to the fabric of reality, but as I find the books very dark, I haven't really read them lately...

Sourcery is one of the earliest discworld books, and the wizard characters are consequently not as developed; there is a discrepancy between the early books and the later ones (a small niggle I know) in that the head of UU is first a Chancellor and then an Archchancellor. I seem to think that the 'Arch' bit first popped up either in Equal Rites or Guards! Guards!. In any case, the seventh son of the seventh son of a wizard is a sourcerer, a 'source' of magic. The kind of person who can really wreck a planet. (This is really why wizards aren't allowed children).

Eric I haven't managed to get my hands on yet, although I saw a blurb recently stating that it's a take on Marlowe's Dr Faustus, or most of the other Fausts and Faustuses, and involves someone with sorcerous ambitions trying to summon Death or some horrible demonic creature, but who ends up summoning Rincewind - and his Luggage.  Which is almost a personification of death in its own right...

Interesting Times is set in the Agatean Empire, from whence Twoflower came, and Rincewind finds himself expected to save the world - again.  It's so unfair.  And that dratted quantum butterfly has been flapping its wings and causing all sorts of havoc.

The Last Continent, also known as XXXX, or Fourecks, is in turmoil. (No, it's not about Australia - just a place on the Discworld that is very similar. 'Strewth, mate...) And Rincewind has landed in the middle of it again. And this time the Luggage is nowhere in sight.

All quotations taken from Sourcery, Terry Pratchett (1996) 6th edition, Victor Gollancz, Bury St Edmunds, Suffolk.