A Wizard or A Witch? (Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett)

Member Name: Azurel

Product:	Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett
Date:	07/06/02 (125 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Enjoyable read

Disadvantages: Not as good as the later Witches books

This is the third book in the Discworld series, the Discworld is, as its name suggests a flat disk. An idea thought up by the creator when he was in a more imaginative mood than usual. The disc is carried on the back of four elephants that stand on the back of an astrochelonian (giant space turtle to you and me:). It has a strong magical field which holds it together and as a result of this it has many strange features and odd inhabitants, though the oddest inhabitants have to be the wizards.

This book begins when a wizard starts getting sloppy about checking the sex of his successor, which just so happens to be a girl. The blacksmith is an eighth son and the child who is now being born is his eighth child and everyone knows what that means (the eighth son of an eighth son is always a wizard).

Drum Billet thinks he has been clever and managed to pass his staff on to the blacksmith "son" before Death catches up with him, but unfortunately for him, and every other wizard, he didn?t bother to check if he blacksmiths child really was a son. This mistake leads to the first ever female sorcerer and the problems at the Unseen University have only just started.

The name of the child is Eskarina (Esk) and as she has the staff she also has the power of the previous owner. As Esk grows up everything seems fine but suddenly she finds that she can do things that her brothers cannot, on one unfortunate occasion turning one of her many brothers into a pig. It is after this that the blacksmith and his family decide that Esk should live with Granny Weatherwax, the local Witch and learn Witchcraft from her.

In the beginning everything goes well, Esk is an eager pupil and wishes to learn witchcraft, however after a while she becomes impatient and wants to learn more than Headology. After a bad experience "borrowing" the body of a bird Granny decides that Esk is definitely more of a Wizard than a Witch and so Granny and Esk star
t their journey to the big city of Ankh-Morpork. How ever even when they have reached the Unseen University their troubles are only just beginning because the University doesn't think a female wizard is possible and so refuses to teach her.

I really enjoyed reading this book it's one of the early ones but is much better than the first though not as good as the later Witch books. The story is inventive and entertaining and expands on the character of Granny Weatherwax a great deal she even has a spectacular magic dule with a wizard. In my opinion this can only be good because she is such a funny character (though she would never admit it), she is even disappointed that she has not managed to cultivate a proper wart. The Unseen University Wizards also feature in this book and their incompetence stands out a mile, something which Granny is quick to notice. This book is very easy to get into and the pace doesn't drag at all. You are guaranteed a good laugh from beginning to end. If it's possible that you're a fan of the discworld series and you haven't read this book then you definitely should, however there is no need to have read any other discworld books in order for this one to make sense and it will really make you chuckle:D

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