Maskerade - Terry Pratchett

During the mid-90s, Terry Pratchett, already well-established with his Discworld series, hit a rich seam which, for me, yielded some of his best novels. Maskerade is one of the best of the best! Set mostly in the Ankh Morpork Opera House, it sees those two meddlesome old witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg trying to recruit Agnes Nitt as the third witch in their coven, whilst also uncovering the mystery of The Phantom of the Opera. And there, straight away, you can see the basic plot of the book. As with many other of his stories, Pratchett has taken a well known story, and done what he does best – turned it upside down and approached it from ...

Readers either love or hate Pratchett, as he romps through the World of Literature creating fantastical parodies whenever he writes. Maskerade is an obvious send up of the famous Phantom Of The Opera so if this sort of thing makes your blood boil, then now's the time to make a soothing cup of tea and work off your rage by beating a pillow to death. The main characters are Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Agnes Nitt a.k.a. Perdita X. From Granny and Nanny's point of view, the entire novel is about their need for a replacement third witch to take over the tea making, order taking and general dogsbody duties that were abandoned by Magrat Garlick in the 14th ...

Imagine a small kingdom near the mountains, where country ways are still accepted. Now a small, well rather large girl, by the name of Agnes Nit doesn't want to end up being a country girl so she runs away to the city of Ank Morpork where she joins the opera and calls herself Perdita X. At the same time a witch by the name of Nanny Ogg gets a book published called 'the joy of snack', which is full of recipes with a 'few' anecdotes. The book has sold a great deal, but Nanny has not received any payment, at the same time a new witch is needed (Magrat has got married) and Agnes fits the bill, so off they the witches troop to the city, and wonder into a ...