The third book of the Discworld series takes the focus off Rincewind and to a new character, a new location too.
In Equal Rites, a wizard, near to death passes on his staff to an 8th son of an 8th son - which on Discworld, due to the magical power of 8 means he is destined to become a wizard.
Unfortunately in this case, the Wizard (Drum Billet) failed to check the sex of the newborn before passing on the staff. Eskarina recieves the staff, and despite the best efforts of mentor Esmerelda Weatherwax or Granny Weatherwax as she likes to be called - she begins to have trouble controlling her powers.
Eskarina journeys with Granny Weatherwax to Unseen University to learn the ways of Wizarding, but the Wizards have no concept of the idea of a female Wizard and instead, Eskarina is forced to enter the University as a servant.
She meets a young Wizard called Simon, and together they end up battling 'things' from the Dungeon Dimensions and also inventing a new conceptual form of magic for battling Dungeon Dimension creatures - a sort of wierd 'un-magic'.
In some respects this is a more serious book than the first two. More time is spent on character development and the structure is more cohesive, rather than string of loosely connected radically different scenes put together.
The ending isn't Pratchett's strongest, but the plight of Eskarina, trying to make her way into a career that is very male dominated is well written and enjoyable to read. It probably refelcts the time of writing a little, the late eighties.
It also introduces one of the Discworlds most interesting Characters - Granny Esmerelda Weatherwax, who becomes a character who returns again and again, stronger every time.
Equal Rites works well as a stand-alone story and no previous knowledge of the Discworld is required to enjoy it.
It's been a loong time since I read Equal Rites. Can't even be 100% sure that I went back to reading it a second time after the very first occasion when I was probably about 11, so it's a little hazy and I don't know how it'd hold up to my current expectations for writing.
ReplyDeleteMy main remembrances are that it was very different from the first 2 in tone and feel. A bit more thoughtful and reflective, being that you were reading Eskarina's thoughts a lot of the time I think. I do remember the ending being a bit of a blur though and not because of the passage of time - maybe my younger mind is to blame for not comprehending what was going on in that final sequence but it was all a bit of a mess and hard to grasp on to what was actually going on. I kind of feel that Terry Pratchett often tried to sidestep this issue in later books by effectively writing an AAR (after action report) that I was always quite fond of as long as it wasn't overused.
And yes, Granny Weatherwax becomes an amazingly fleshed out character, 2nd only to Vimes in the Discworld universe, and I'd say Carpe Jugulum is her pinnacle, which really digs into her character and tests her. A character with lots of depth.
I agree, once you've read everything, Granny Weatherwax's character is more fleshed than many. I find it interesting that really Rincewind, the series initial protagonist never really gets that deeply explored. I think it's because he's actually a bit two dimensional and the narrative is more important than the characters in at least the first two Rincewind books and probably Faust (Eric) but Sourcery is more about Conina and Nijel the Destroyer (Son of Harebut the Greengrocer)
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