A Wizard Squared = The Apocralypse (Sourcery - Terry Pratchett)

Member Name: sandemp

Product:	Sourcery - Terry Pratchett
Date:	05/07/05 (213 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: More than a little bit amusing | Re - readable to the nth degree

Disadvantages: Need to read several times to find all the jokes

A giant turtle is slowly makes it's way across the expanse of space, and on his (or her) meteor pocked shell stand four rather large elephants, who in turn carry the flat, circular, and highly magical Discworld. Discworld is world of heroes, heroines, witches and wizards, where magic is a very real part of life and DEATH may just come to collect your soul in person (well in bones anyway).

There's a very good reason why the wizards of Discworld are celibate, and in this book, Sourcery, we are about to discover just what that reason is…..

As the eighth son, of an eighth son, Ipslore the Red was, of course, destined to become a powerful, if not particularly wise, wizard. If only he had followed the lore, and kept away from women that would have been the end of the story. But in Pratchett's fantasy world, nothing is ever so simple, and Ipslore left the Unseen University (where wizards are taught to be, well, wizards) fell in love and had seven sons. Again if he'd stopped there (or even learnt about birth control) Discworld would still have been relatively safe, but he couldn't control himself and managed to produce an eight son, a wizard squared, that is a sorcerer.

There was a time when there were many sorcerers, not a good time (just so you understand), but a time when you could never be quite sure which room (or even shape) you would wake up in. Discworld is now just too old and set in it's ways to survive all the raw magic that's floating around, and the apocralypse is nigh…..and once more the burden of saving the world falls on the wizard, Rincewind's (we know he's a wizard it says so on his hat) shoulders.

And so begins the fifth book in the surprisingly successful Discworld series, I'm afraid I won't be telling you anymore about how the story actually continues, because then it wouldn't be worth you actually reading the book and you would miss all the laughs and shrewd observation that resides within the cover.

I will however tell you a little bit about some of the characters you will meet, including of course our hero, Rincewind. And what a hero he is, or rather is not, magic certainly isn't his forte. In fact he's only ever managed to successfully perform one spell (well that performed itself really), but deep in his heart he knows he's a wizard, he's got the robe and the hat to prove it. As far as I'm concerned the only thing that Rincewind is good at is the one thing that his life really depends on, that is surviving…

For all his faults (or perhaps because of them), Rincewind is a likeable character, and it's very easy to find yourself hoping and praying that he survives against all the odds. To assist Rincewind in this quest to save the world we meet as unlikely a pair of characters as you can imagine, in the form of Conina, the would-be hairdresser, who finds that her genes keep getting in the way of her career. (Well with a father like Cohan the barbarian what can you expect). The second of the pair is Nijel, the barbarian hero in training, whose got all the leather gear (shame about the woolly vest) and a training manual. Both of these characters are excellent parodies of stereotypical characters, and give an interesting and somehow unromantic love interest to the story.

Oh I nearly forgot the final member of Rincewind's supporting cast, that is The Luggage, which has to be the most enigmatic and vicious character ever imagined. At first glance you might think The Luggage was a regular trunk, but with your second glance, you might just notice the hundreds of tiny legs, or the way it seems to be glaring at you (as if it's wondering whether you're worth eating). For all it's faults, you really couldn't find a more loyal or dogged companion, and it'll follow Rincewind to the ends of the earth, or did until it fell in love….

Now you may be asking, who exactly are these heroes up against, and the answer is….a mere child, Coin, the wizard squared, who is guided (and guarded) by his staff. Although at first glance, Coin is a power mad child, it soon becomes obvious that his destiny is not his own and he perhaps is not that happy at the ultimate power he wields.

From the bright cartoon characters on the cover to the characters and story inside, this book is a sheer brilliance. From the very first page, I found myself immersed in and entranced by the story, there are just so many layers within the pages, from the simplicity of the main story, to the many parodies and in jokes. The final layer to the storyline is held within the many footnotes, that adds so many extra little details to the story.

I can honestly say there was not a single page (or even paragraph) that I was tempted to skip, and I finished the book within two sittings, with the only break being enforced by the need for sleep. But, this is not a book that you can only read the once, in fact if you do only read it one time you will be loosing out, as many of the jokes are not always obvious during the first read. I have actually read the book twice in the last month and about four times altogether and still managed to discover some subtle jokes I had missed previously.

While this may not be the perfect place to begin your adventures on Discworld (if you haven't read the previous books you may miss some of the jokes) it is definitely one of the better in the series. Am I recommending this book? You bet, at a very respectable four stars out of five (a perfect book is almost impossible to find) this is an amusing, entertaining and at times side-splitting fantasy book that will delight any fan of the genre, young or old.


--Technical Bits--

ISBN: 0552131075
Publisher: Corgi Adult
Paperback: 269 pages

Price : £5.59 from Amazon (UK)

Summary: Brilliant fifth book in the Discworld series.....