Equal Rites
Ratings465
Average rating3.9
4 stars, Metaphorosis reviews
Summary
Esk is the eighth son of an eighth son and so destined to be a wizard. Except, wait, she's a daughter, and girls can't be wizards. Undeterred, she and the witch who has been training her set out for the Unseen University to convince wizards their rules are, so to speak, old hat.
Review
In this third Discworld novel, Pratchett is finally fully settled in. It's got a solid plot, interesting characters, and an arc that works at the length. Sure, there are bits that get glossed over, but by and large it reads much more effectively than its two predecessors.
Pratchett's tackling a serious subject here – gender equity – but with a light touch, a good amount of humor, and fair dose of magical smoothing; Esk never really faces much in the way of obstacles. Through the magic of ... magic, everything just pretty much goes her way. Despite that, she and Granny make a pretty fun and engaging team, and equity wins in the end without gender-bashing. It's a nice, light story, not a societal critique.
Read aloud with my partner. You never truly realise how complicated words an author uses until you have to say them out loud! Even my British native partner had a hard time with some of the ones used in this.
Everyone needs a Granny Weatherwax in their life!
Witty, wonderful, and love the new audiobooks from Penguin. Highly recommended to listen to audio version.
Definitely reminds me that it's an early Pratchett. Doesn't quite shine as much as later Discworld
This was so close to being great but the entire first half was way too slow
I liked the distinction between witches and wizards. Although it really only started kicking off near the very end so the middle of the book was slightly boring. I do really enjoy Pratchett's writing very much.
This is a short, very witty, pretty silly and overall delightful book about a wizards and witches in the Discworld universe. The first of the “Witches” sub-series introduces you to one of my favorite witches of all time and the tale hosts a bit of adventure, questioning paradigms and of course magic.
Slightly worse than the usual fare, likely because of my dislike of Granny or small children, but still very enjoyable.
Reread October 2022, because I just needed to. This is early Pratchett, so he's still developing his voice.
It has been quite some time since I've read a Discworld novel and I'd forgotten how wonderfully enjoyable they are! Terry Pratchett's wit is both funny and wise and never fails to make me giggle and laugh out loud, while at the same time contemplate life, people and the ‘bigger picture' as it were. This third volume in the series is a delight and filled with the kind of absurd imagination that I love about the Discworld series and other like-minded books who don't feel the need to make the fantasy ‘realistic' and instead embrace the weird, whimsical and absurd ness of the genre, while at the same time kind of poking fun of it. This volume almost felt like it could have been. Ghibli film. I liked all of the characters, but really loved the character of Granny Weatherwax the best. Esk's journey to become the first female wizard is both a fun and wild ride as well as being an interesting look at gender roles - especially in fantasy. As always, though Discworld novels are labelled a comic fantasy - and yes there is a lot of comedy - it also has something profound to say, it's just not bogged down by preaching and is a much more fun way to ruminate about deeper issues, and Equal Rites is no exception to that tradition in Terry Pratchett's writing.
A shift in storytelling method compared to the first two Discworlds made this book fresh and enjoyable.
Full review on The Bent Bookworm![b:Equal Rites 34507 Equal Rites (Discworld, #3; Witches #1) Terry Pratchett https://d2arxad8u2l0g7.cloudfront.net/books/1407706800s/34507.jpg 583611] is the third Discworld book, but the first Witches sub-series book (the first two books were in the Rincewind sub-series). I was immediately hooked by the mildly hysterical battle of the sexes that takes place within the first few pages – a dying wizard tries to bequeath his powers (and staff!) to the 8th son of an 8th son...who turns out to be a daughter. Said daughter – Esk – absorbs magic in a slightly different but no less powerful way than a son might have done, resulting in a family and community that really has no idea what to do with her. A boy would have been sent off to Unseen University, but a girl...”Girls can't be wizards,” everyone tells her. Thankfully, she has Granny Weatherwax for a guardian. Despite Granny's slight misconceptions of children, they soon get along quite well.Granny, in fact, was at a loss, but she knew she had to do something. “Didda nasty wolfie fwiten us, den?” she hazarded.For quite the wrong reasons, this seemed to work. From the depths of the ball a muffled voice said: “I am eight you know.”I'm quite sure only Granny would be capable of dealing with a small child with such interesting abilities and ways of dealing with seven annoying older brothers.“Turning people into pigs is not allowed,” she hissed. “Even brothers.”I don't even have GIFs for this book. Call me a fangirl, but Pratchett's prose is both so pointed and poignant that it really speaks best just by itself. I love Esk, and I love Granny, and watching them tear through Discworld was just a rollicking, fun ride (complete with flying broomsticks that have to be kickstarted). While Granny at first tries to insist that Esk study the traditional female magic, she soon realizes that Esk's gifts are quite different and she needs alternate methods of instruction. Esk and Granny share the stage and despite the multi-generation gap between them, make a great team. Of course, like any good guardian, Granny spends a good deal of her time chasing or getting Esk out of trouble, but Esk's independent little self does fantastic on her own, most of the time. Her sometimes unwitting (maybe?) use of magic creates a variety of reactions from the people she meets, especially as they travel closer to Ankh-Morpork, the large capitol city.Esk, in fact, moved through the fair more like an arsonist moves through a hay hayfield or a neutron bounces through a reactor, poets notwithstanding.Needless to say, they create QUITE the stir at Unseen University, break all sorts of rules, cause all sorts of upsets and feelings. But every insular world needs shaken up now and then, and I think Unseen University will definitely be the better for it.
A story about the first female Wizard in the Disc World, where women are usually enchantress or witches
My overall impression of Pratchett is this
- tries to squeeze some sort of joke or pun into every sentence
- gives an absurd meaning to an otherwise well established but somewhat unusual concept
- I don't like most of those, and so all is left is the characters, the plot and his fantasy world
- I don't like those either
This is the third book in the Diskworld series and it feels like Pratchett was finally getting into his stride with this one. The first two books are a bit too episodic and incoherent, but this one is much more clearly plotted. Some people have complained about a lack of humour ("lack" being a relative term where Pratchett is concerned) however, personally, I would rather sacrifice some of the scattergun jokes for a better plot.
The first two books had me a little concerned that my rose tinted glasses were a little wonky, but this has left me much more confident about continuing on with the series.
Executive Summary: Not as funny or as quotable as [b:The Light Fantastic 34506 The Light Fantastic (Discworld, #2; Rincewind #2) Terry Pratchett https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389554927s/34506.jpg 592532], but very enjoyable for other reasons.Full ReviewI had to double check the year this was written. This book still feels very relevant today.Wizards can only be men. Witches can only be women. Their magic is different and shouldn't be mixed. A women has no place learning to be a wizard. Witches “have their place”. Does any of this sound familiar?As someone who works in a field that is far too lacking in women the idea that certain disciplines are more suited for men or women is still a stigma we seem to be fighting today.That isn't to say this book is preachy or in your face about it. It simply that the satire is definitely more directed at real world issues than fantasy tropes like the first two books. It sounds like this sort of thing is more common in later books, so I find it interesting that he changed up the style so early on in the series.And while it wasn't quite as funny to me as [b:The Light Fantastic 34506 The Light Fantastic (Discworld, #2; Rincewind #2) Terry Pratchett https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389554927s/34506.jpg 592532], there were more than a few laugh out loud moments and quotes that I highlighted for later.Plus, Granny Weatherwax is a great character. I've read that she changes quite a bit in the [b:Wyrd Sisters 34504 Wyrd Sisters (Discworld, #6; Witches #2) Terry Pratchett https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1275974472s/34504.jpg 1494222] and beyond, but I'm glad I can see how she started out before I jump into that.Overall this book had to do something right, because I pretty much tore through it in a weekend, which despite it's short length is still rather fast for me.I already jumped right into [b:Mort 386372 Mort (Discworld, #4; Death, #1) Terry Pratchett https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1388181166s/386372.jpg 1857065] as Discworld seems to have its hooks into me right now.
On the surface of it I should love Discworld novels, but for some reason I've never been able to get into them. But I think I've worked out why .... Many years ago I was stuck in an airport waiting for hours and hours for a flight and out of desperation I bought a book almost at random. That book was The Colour of Magic. To be truthful, I didn't think all that much of it probably because I was rather annoyed and upset at having to waste the best part of a day.
So, unfortunately that was as far as I got with Discworld books. But following on from the sad news of Pratchett's death I thought I'd give them another go. This time starting off on a different thread of stories beginning with Equal Rites (1987). Equal Rites was Pratchett's third novel but his first Witches story
I'm not going to run through the plot, suffice to say that the clue is in the title: a wordplay on the phrase “Equal Rights”. The premise is rather original and fresh; why shouldn't a girl become a wizard despite the misogynistic cultural expectations that she shouldn't?
The main protagonist, Esk is only eight years old. I'm not quite sure why Pratchett chose someone so young? Did he want the book to appeal to an adolescent audience? I'm not sure, but Esk acts more like a young adult. I suppose the charm of the tale lies in the fact Esk is rather innocent which leads to all manner of sticky situations. The main problem here is that Esk manages to overcome most of these by using the magic staff. Sometimes not having an obvious means of escape from certain situations is more enjoyable for the reader as the author has to become inventive instead of lazily using supernatural means.
The other main protagonist, Granny Weatherwax, while being a witch tends not to use magic all that often rather she uses a version of psychology called headology which I thought was a neat twist and a clever idea.
I felt that the characters were more developed than what I'd expect and Equal Rites seemed to have a structure to it: a start, middle and end. I felt that the one book I'd read before was just a series of amusing events which kind of blended into some sort of narrative. By the end of the book I'd worked out that Pratchett's characterizations are perhaps more important that the story? I'm not sure if other readers would agree with me or not?
But saying that the book, as you would expect, is full of humour and insights into human weaknesses and faults. I guess at the time of writing this Pratchett was still finding his feet as an author, but you wouldn't know as it's a polished effort which is entertaining throughout.
Pratchett plays around with feminine and masculine expectations and highlights gender gaps in simple but effective ways. While he makes hazy generalisations which may be a little too broad for some he's especially critical of the stuffy kind of academic elitism which exists within certain male dominated institutions.
So in summary, I'm pleased that I decided to pick up a Pratchett book again. Equal Rites was a quick and easy read which was a lot of fun. The characters were especially interesting and well developed and I'd be happy to recommend Equal Rites as a jumping off point for anyone who wants to try to get into Pratchett's work for the first time.
More genius from Pratchett, although I didn't enjoy this as much as the previous two, it seemed to sag in the middle, where not much happened. But I am very much looking forward to more Granny Weatherwax in the future! What a character!