Elves Are Terrific (Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett)

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Product:	Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Date:	06/10/01 (183 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Laughs, adventure and hey-nonny-nonny

Disadvantages: None

"Only one queen in a hive! Slash! Stab!" If the kingdom of Lancre is the hive, then Going-to-be-Queen Magrat must contend with the Queen of the Elves for the royal jelly. It's all great fun so long as you don't get in the way. However, a little background reading is essential to a full understanding of the novel.

Background
==========

Pratchett fans will know that this is the 14th novel in the Discworld series and, more importantly, they've probably read all the preceding novels. Normally this isn't necessary as you can read each novel in any order you like but 'Lords and Ladies' is different. It is, for those in the know, another witch novel featuring the infamous Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax and Magrat Garlick. Those of you drawing a blank will have to refer to novels 3, 6 and 12 - 'Equal Rites', 'Wyrd Sisters' and 'Witches Abroad'.

'Equal Rites' first introduced readers to Granny Weatherwax. Her initial incarnation was of a common country witch - a sort of old biddy - who did a few spells, distrusted 'city' folks and pottered uncertainly through life.

'Wyrd Sisters' widened the 'coven' of witches and transformed Granny Weatherwax into a force to be reckoned with. She became the supremely confident, powerful witch that readers know and love. Granny was also established as the most respected leader of all the local witches. Her sidekicks, if fans will excuse the expression, were Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick. Nanny is a many times married and wickedly earthy matriarch of a huge family. Magrat on the other hand is a soppy, young witch who nurses baby birds and cries when they die. 'Wyrd Sisters' was basically a parody of Shakespeare's 'MacBeth' - with a bit of confusion over the actual heir to the throne. There was the guy who murdered the king, the actual heir and some guy called Verence who, after a bit of fast dealin
g by the witches, ended up as the new king.

'Witches Abroad' saw Granny, Nanny and Magrat travelling to Genua to stop a servant girl from marrying the prince. With the aid of a magic wand attuned to the miraculous production of pumpkins and nothing else. Needless to say all stories must have an ending - except when you're dealing with life, which just goes on. After all, the witches had to return home to Lancre at some point ...

Lords and Ladies
================

After their huge success in Genua, Granny, Nanny and Magrat are ready to settle back into the familiar routine of daily life in Lancre. Since they'd been away, though, some of the local girls decided to fill the void and play at 'witching'. That's not a big issue for the witches; especially Magrat, who's rather more preoccupied with discovering King Verence has made the wedding arrangements without asking the bride-to-be i.e. her.

To add a bit of confusion, it's circle time and one of the pretend witches actually has the power. Before you can blink, circles are opening up everywhere - in the crops, on flannels and on heads (but perhaps that's just baldness). The Lords and Ladies could be coming back - "The Fair Folk. The Gentry. The Shining Ones. The Star People. You know." Well, if you don't know, it's the elves.

Although Magrat was a bit put out with the wedding arrangements, she does actually love Verence so she's happy to let things go on until she discovers Granny's note. Granny being somewhat older and wiser realised that Verence and Magrat had a lot in common such as the inability to talk to the opposite sex, the inability to get past the first date, a lack of understanding about 'the birds and the bees' and the inability to organise a drink in a brewery. This being the way things stood, she decided to make a few decisions for them. So the wedding was off ... but sort of on ... bu
t really off. (I've been to a wedding like this.)

Fortunately, the elves are on hand to stir things up. "Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder ... Elves are glamorous. They project glamour ... Elves are terrific. They beget terror." A bit of a blow to anyone who still believes in kindly flower fairies. That's the whole problem; "No-one ever said elves are nice. Elves are bad." They're mean and they're nasty and they want a piece of the action: they want Lancre. Magrat probably wouldn't have noticed, amidst her pre-wedding nerves, were it not for the fact that the Queen of the Elves also wants Verence - "There's more to being king than wearing a crown. The king and the land are one. The king and the queen are one."

So, on to battle stations: Magrat must challenge the Queen of the Elves, if she wants to hang on to her bridegroom. Ordinarily, she wouldn't stand a chance but as every statistician knows, there's always one result that won't fit in the charts. Of course, it helps if there's a lot of other people on your side - as long as you're winning, there's no need to worry that one of them is an orang-utan.

Conclusion
==========

There's a lot of action to pack into this novel and, as usual, I've left most of it out because I'd end up writing 382 pages and there's no need to spoil the story. The main story thread follows Magrat en route to her wedding with several unexpected detours. However, there's lots of secondary threads that bring in favourite characters like Ridcully, Casanunda and the Librarian.

Although Pratchett has included a rare foreword in this novel, advising readers of the background (see above), I think this novel can be read on its own provided you realise Magrat and Verence have a tenuous 'understanding' which is yet to come to fruition. Anything else is just to add fans in gleeful heart-hug
ging I've-spotted-so-and-so mode.

'Lords and Ladies' is humorous and entertaining and thoroughly packed with adventure. I'd recommend this novel to anyone who enjoys the odd smirk and a jolly good read. Being a Pratchett fan or a sci-fi/fantasy buff is strictly optional.

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