What is the author's style in Interesting Times by Terry Pratchett?

Although Pratchett's novel is a fantasy, one crucial technique he uses is that of comedy in an Aristotelian sense. Characters are made farcical, thus rendering them inferior to readers and thereby distancing these readers from the serious undertone of the book. Deformities are made ridiculous—such as Cohen's diamond dwarf teeth—and minor faults are magnified—as with Rincewind's practiced art of running away. Distancing the characters in these ways allows the reader to enjoy the tale and the author to discuss serious social concerns such as oppression of the masses.

Pratchett also uses deus ex machina, but with a twist. Instead of introducing the idea of the gods at the end of the tale to quickly rescue his characters, the author introduces the gods at the beginning of the tale, plainly setting up Fate and Lady Luck to interfere in events whenever Pratchett may deem it necessary. Several times the Quantum Weather Butterfly affects the action in the story, most notably at the end to rescue Rincewind from certain death. However, the outcome is never quite so neat and tidy as one might expect. Although Rincewind is detoured from Unseen University where he would have died landing, he is sent to the XXXX Continent, where it seems he will once again become involved in "interesting times." By making the deus ex machina device ridiculous through overuse, Pratchett weaves the technique into the comedy fabric itself.