Monday 25 May 2015

Review: Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett

The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check on the new-born baby's sex . . .

Discworld Series:
The Colour of Magic (Rincewind book 1)
The Light Fantastic (Rincewind book 2)
Equal Rites (Witches book 1)
Mort (Death book 1)
Sourcery (Rincewind book 3)
Wyrd Sisters (Witches book 2)
Pyramids
Guards! Guards! (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 1)
Eric (Rincewind book 4)
Moving Pictures (Industrial Revolution book 1)
Reaper Man (Death book 2)
Witches Abroad (Witches book 3)
Small Gods
Lords and Ladies (Witches book 4)
Men at Arms (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 2)
Soul Music (Death book 3)
Interesting Times (Rincewind book 5)
Maskerade (Witches book 5)
Feet of Clay (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 3)
Hogfather (Death book 4)
Jingo (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 4)
The Last Continent (Rincewind book 6)
Carpe Jugulum (Witches book 6)
The Fifth Elephant (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 5)
The Truth (Industrial Revolution book 2)
Thief of Time (Death book 5)
The Last Hero (Rincewind book 7)
The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents
Night Watch (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 6)
The Wee Free Men (Tiffany Aching book 1)
Monstrous Regiment (Industrial Revolution book 3)
A Hat Full of Sky (Tiffany Aching book 2)
Going Postal (Moist von Lipwig book 1) (Industrial Revolution book 4)
Thud! (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 7)
Wintersmith (Tiffany Aching book 3)
Making Money (Moist von Lipwig book 2) (Industrial Revolution book 5)
Unseen Academicals (Rincewind book 8)
I Shall Wear Midnight (Tiffany Aching book 4)
Snuff (Ankh-Morpork City Watch book 8)
The World of Poo
Raising Steam (Moist von Lipwig book 3) (Industrial Revolution book 6)
The Shepherd's Crown (Tiffany Aching book 5)

Discworld Related books:
The Discworld Mapp - Terry Pratchett & Stephen Briggs
Terry Pratchett's Discworld Colouring Book - Paul Kidby
Terry Pratchett's Discworld Imaginarium - Paul Kidby

Visit Terry Pratchett's website for more information

Review:
Wizards always know when they're going to die and Drum Billet is determined to pass on his staff, and his magic, to someone worthy. He has heard that a baby is about to be born, the eighth son of an eighth son, and therefore someone who should be incredibly powerful when they come of age and he has decided that they'll make a worthy heir. Unfortunately he forgets one tiny matter - to check that the baby is actually a boy before he makes the exchange. It's a well known fact on Discworld that girls can't be wizards and boys can't be witches but Esk has been gifted a magic that she never should have had access to and now it's up to Granny Weatherwax to figure out how to train her.

I've always loved the Discworld witches and Granny Weatherwax is a firm favourite but I had forgotten how much she changes throughout this series. When we meet her in Equal Rites she is still an intelligent and powerful witch but she's never left her remote village in the mountains and hates the idea of even visiting a large town, let alone travelling the 500 miles to Ankh-Morpork. I always think of her as being rather worldy and wise so it was quite amusing to see her so nervous about leaving her home. Unfortunately for Granny Esk starts to manifest magical abilities that are beyond Granny's experience and she realises that the young girl needs proper wizard training so it's off to the Unseen University that they go.

One of the things I love about Terry Pratchett's writing is his ability to take real life issues, like equality of the sexes in this case, and present them in a way that shows how utterly ridiculous it is that these problems still occur in our day to day lives. His stories are so full of humour, he is great at poking fun of old fashioned and pointless traditions and his characters are always so much fun to read about. Equal Rites is the third book in the Discworld series but it stands the test of time and I've read it many times over the years along with all of the earlier Discworld novels. I love the world he has created and I've grown really attached to all of the characters over the years, so many of them pop up time and time again even if it's only for a minor guest appearance and although the books can be read in any order I do think that it's best to start at the beginning, especially your first time through the series.

Source: Purchased

Other Reviews:
If you have reviewed this book on your blog please leave a link to your review in the comments & I'll add the link here.

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