A Midsummer's Nightmare (Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett)

Member Name: wyrdsister

Product:	Lords and Ladies - Terry Pratchett
Date:	11/10/02 (157 review reads)
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You may not know this, but the world actually is flat. This is Discworld, Terry Pratchett’s Discworld to be precise. The Disc, as it is more commonly referred to, is in fact supported by four giant elephants (Berilia, Tubul, Great T’phon and Jerakeen) which stand on the back of the star turtle, the Great A’Tuin. The seas endlessly flow into space at the rim and at its hub stands Cori Celesti, a ten miles high spire, on top of which the Disc’s assorted deities reside. The Discworld exists on the edge of reality and is entirely held together by its strong magical field. The Disc is an unlikely place, which is probably why so many unlikely creatures and occurrences form part of the daily routine.

Not everyone will be familiar with Pratchett, or indeed like his style or humour. The fans will, however, know that barring a few exceptions there are four types of Discworld novels. Depending on your mood, you can either read about Rincewind the wizard, the Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Death or the Lancre Witches. “Lords and Ladies” isn’t, as the title might suggest, about the Disc’s Aristocracy, well not exactly. It’s about memories, legends and iron. It’s about circle time. The fairies are back, and they’re not as cute as they’re cracked up to be. Granny Weatherwax, doyenne of all witches, is about to face her deadliest battle yet, and she’s determined to win if it’s the last thing she does.

Granny, Nanny Ogg and Magrat, the little witches’ coven first encountered in Wyrd Sisters, are returning home after an eight months leave of absence. They had been called away on some godmothering business that had turned out to be a little more complicated that some fairy tales would have you believe. But that is another story. All that needs to be said is that they left young Verence in charge of the little kingdom of Lancre. Verence, having had no previous experience as King, is
getting a lot of progressive ideas from books. He tends to be smiled at and ignored a lot, but at least he tries. There’s also the small matter of the Royal Wedding on midsummer’s day. The small matter, that is, of Magrat getting over being told she was getting married in two weeks.

Granny, on the other hand, has bigger fish to fry: it’s circle time. And this year it’s really bad: crop circles are showing up all over the place. Crop circles on the Disc aren’t really a mystery; they are merely signs of the weakening of the fabric of reality, a potential opening, if you will, to another universe. If one were to open inside the Dancers… “They” might come back. As stone circles go, the Dancers are pretty unimpressive really, just some rocks arranged in the shape of a ring. But “The Dancers” is no ordinary circle; reality seems warped within its boundary, more dangerous, because “They” live on the other side. Still, no one comes near the Dancers, people know better. At least, they used to.

It seems a good deal has gone amiss while the witches were abroad. There’s a challenger to Granny’s power. Her name is Diamanta (not really, but it goes with the black lace and the make up), leader of a group of teenage wannabe witches. Diamanta’s got power and she didn’t get it by accident. She got it from Them: The Lords and Ladies, the Fair Folks…the Elves. If Granny knows anything, it is that folk tales, like memory, can be unreliable: Elves are beautiful, graceful and magical, they’re also deadly, cruel and amoral. Now, they have a way in and it’s up to the wyrd sisters to stop them.

The story of Lord and Ladies is quite complex and Pratchett introduces a quite a few subplots to keep the readers interested and slightly perplexed as to how they will eventually unfold. It would really spoil the enjoyment of the book if more to be revealed her
e. Suffices to say that the birds and the bees are vaguely mentioned, several of the Unseen University’s top wizards turn up, together with their Librarian (who happens to be a big ape) and a legendary Dwarf of eclectic talents and ardent repute. Oh, and the Lancre Morris Men, of course.
As the author himself acknowledges in a foreword, most Discworld novels have hitherto been more or less independent from their predecessors. He suggests that, though reading them in some order could prove helpful, it is not necessary to appreciate the series to do so. With Lords and Ladies, it would be advisable to have some prior understanding of the witches’ history so far. Thankfully, Pratchett offers a brief overview of their past trials and tribulations so as facilitate the reader’s introduction to this piece.

As usual with Pratchett is the fact that the characters have depth, their individual personalities and peculiarities being thoroughly explored and developed. King Verence, for instance, is presented as a very different man than in Wyrd Sisters. His evolution is well thought out, even if he remains a supporting character. The Ogg boys (Shawn and Jason) also get a bigger input in the story, sometimes becoming the focus of some great and eerie moments. The witches all complement each other in their differences. Granny is a woman whose vocabulary doesn’t include the word losing. Being a traditionalist, her power comes from headology (Granny’s own brand of psychology), the firm knowledge that she is always right and borrowing (entering another creature’s mind). Nanny Ogg, on the other hand, has a mind and soul full of innuendoes and rude songs and is related to half the kingdom’s population (by blood or marriage). Nanny hardly does any magic at all, preferring gossip to witchcraft. Last but not least is Magrat. The youngest of the three, she is a hopeless romantic, and a wet hen. She likes candles, occult jewellery and
pastel colours, but she’s quite good with herbs.

These differences also provide some of the humour that is expected from a Pratchett’s Discworld story. To sustain the comedy, Pratchett tends to draw from his characters’ differences and interactions as well as the impossible situations they are expected to deal with. Pratchett also likes to include references to modern concepts, which, combined with a Discworld mentality, can be quite entertaining. The wizards, whose entire attitude to life is laughable to say the least, provide some of the comedy. So do the witches, who nevertheless retain credibility and never entirely descend into the realm of the grotesque.

With Lords and Ladies, as with the first witches’ story proper, Pratchett skilfully draws from English folk memory, and medieval concepts of the paranormal, adding a zest of Discworld. He also brings back the Shakespeare’s references, but he does so in a much more subtle and effective way than with Wyrd Sisters. Pratchett also offers here a more elaborate storyline. Over the years, Discworld novels have grown more complex and their ambience darker while retaining a healthy dose of fun. Humour is subjective and Pratchett’s own brand is probably not for everyone’s taste: it is sometimes clever, occasionally silly and farcical at times. But Pratchett is not just about the funny side of things; his books are also moving and gripping in turn. There is a nice balance of all these aspects in this book that, added to the more mystic and folkloric qualities of the witches’ stories, make Lords and Ladies a great read.

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