Low Fantasy

Review: Equal Rites

Jay
Cover of Equal Rites, featuring a purple wizard hat with light purple designs surrounded by a ring of stars and the female symbol (a circle with a cross sticking out of the bottom)

Title: Equal Rites

Series: Discworld #3

Author: Terry Pratchett

Genre: Low Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Misogyny

Spoiler Warning: This book is third in a series, but since I haven’t read any of the previous books any spoilers are completely accidental.

Back Cover:

On Discworld, a dying wizard tries to pass on his powers to an eighth son of an eighth son, who is just at that moment being born. The fact that the son is actually a daughter is discovered just a little too late. The town witch insists on turning the baby into a perfectly normal witch, thus mending the magical damage of the wizard’s mistake. But now the young girl will be forced to penetrate the inner sanctum of the Unseen University–and attempt to save the world with one well-placed kick in some enchanted shins!

Review:

This is not technically my first foray into Terry Pratchett’s work, as I read Wintersmith in middle school, but literally the only thing I remember about that book is that the main character’s name was Tiffany, so I count this as my first Discworld experience.

And oh boy was it an adventure.

The two main characters are Esk and Granny Weatherwax. Esk is the girl who accidentally got wizard powers. She’s eight years old in most of the story, but except for a few moments of childish petulance/impulsiveness, she seems a lot older. She’s very intelligent and naturally good at a lot of things (probably the wizard power, but still), and I frequently forgot she was so young. She was the kind of “everybody underestimates me but I still come out on top” character that I love to read about.

Granny Weatherwax is the town witch. She knows a lot of stuff about herbs and magic and such, but her magic is just as much convincing people she’s magical (muttering nonsense “charms” and such) as actually doing magic. She very much has an air of being Too Old For This Nonsense but at the same time an attitude of Everything Will Bend To My Will Or I Will Make It Do So. And she can be very intimidating.

When you write it out, the plot is very simple. Esk gets wizard powers as a baby, Granny Weatherwax tries to turn her into a witch, but when the wizard powers get too much they decide to take her to the wizard school and convince them to take on their first female student so Esk can learn to be a wizard. But it’s the adventures along the way and the fascinating side characters that make it interesting.

For one thing, Esk and Granny Weatherwax keep getting separated. Esk is busy making her own way towards the Unseen University, wizard magic helping her along, and Granny Weatherwax spends a lot of the book annoyedly trying to find her. They both encounter interesting people and have unique takes on everything.

And while I’m on the subject of unique takes – this book has some of the best turns of phrase I’ve ever read. They’re creative ways of describing things and often don’t fit into the magical Discworld at all. Such as “a light that would make Stephen Spielberg reach for his copyright lawyer.” There’s a lot of lines like that, and a lot of really creative descriptions, and it’s overall delightful to read.

In short, I thoroughly enjoyed this foray into the Discworld, and I intend to return to it again. Maybe not with the next book in the series, since I’ve heard the Discworld books can pretty much be read in any order, but I’m sure my local library will have a few of these books that I could get my hands on.

The Discworld series:

  1. The Colour of Magic
  2. The Light Fantastic
  3. Equal Rites
  4. Mort
  5. Sourcery
  6. Wyrd Sisters
  7. Pyramids
  8. Guards! Guards!
  9. Eric
  10. Moving Pictures
  11. Reaper Man
  12. Witches Abroad
  13. Small Gods
  14. Lords and Ladies
  15. Men at Arms
  16. Soul Music
  17. Interesting Times
  18. Maskerade
  19. Feet of Clay
  20. Hogfather
  21. Jingo
  22. The Last Continent
  23. Carpe Jugulum
  24. The Fifth Elephant
  25. The Truth
  26. Thief of Time
  27. The Last Hero
  28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
  29. Night Watch
  30. The Wee Free Men
  31. Monstrous Regiment
  32. A Hat Full of Sky
  33. Going Postal
  34. Thud!
  35. Wintersmith
  36. Making Money
  37. Unseen Academicals
  38. I Shall Wear Midnight
  39. Snuff
  40. Raising Steam
  41. The Shepherd’s Crown