troll bridge

Not what I expected from a story called Troll Bridge but a quite welcome welcome take. As the story starts out our hero is old, cold decrepit and I was starting to wonder if he was really a hero after all. but much to my surprise this was an interesting take on the mark of industrialized society. I think its funny that the author decided to tell the tale this way, that the land was running out of hero's and legends and haunted creepy forests had been cut down killing off the things that had once scared the daylights out of  everyone. trolls and heros alike could no longer make an honest living doing what they did because industrialized society had driven up the cost of living and driven away the usual means of bread winning. The discussion that comes into play between Cohen the Barbarian and Mica the troll & family is really what makes this story. I find it funny that the troll was so willing to die by the hand of Cohen simply on the grounds that since times had changed the best thing going for him was death by a proper hero in front of his family. failure to modernize had left the troll and his family impoverished while relatives thrived in the lumber business and had swankier bridges while failure to put away for retirement also left our hero Cohen impoverished as well. I really enjoyed this short story and will read more works by Terry Pratchett in the future