Only You Can Save Mankind (1992) is the first novel in the Johnny Maxwell trilogy …
Nothing actually was better, probably. No-one was doing anything with a magic wand.
But the fleet had got away. Compared to that, everything else was ... well, not easy. But less like a wall and more like steps.
You might never win, but at least you could try. If not you, who else?
— Only You Can Save Mankind by Terry Pratchett (Page 172)
I think this sums up everything, basically.
And I feel immense malice from pterry on the last page. That is a threat, that is, mister.