Customer Reviews

EQUAL RITES

5 star:		(52)
4 star:		(52)
3 star:		(18)
2 star:		(6)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

This is the third book in Pratchett's "Discworld" series and the first one I read more than ten years ago. Since then, Pratchett has gotten steadily better as a writer; his work, generally speaking, has gotten tighter and funnier at the same time that it shows more depth. Those of you who first encountered the Discworld later in the series will probably view Equal Rites as a less impressive effort. It is, after all, difficult to go back to the earlier work of an author whose recent books have given us such high expectations.

This is a shame, because unlike the first two books in the series, Equal Rites holds up fairly well on a second reading. The plot moves a little slowly in places, but the characterizations are rich and the story enjoyable. Gently (and sometimes not-so-gently) lampooning the trappings of Fantasy novels, Pratchett gives us a humorous and touching adventure that I found quite satisfying.

Though all of the books in the series can pretty much stand on their own with regards to both plot and character, there is something to be said for reading them in order. The reader gets to follow along with the author as an entire fictitious world materializes in his mind. I can't help but feel that the best time to meet a character is the first time he's presented to the reader, as is Granny Weatherwax in this book. Encountering her again in Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad is only that much more enjoyable.

I heartily recommend Equal Rites as an introduction to the Discworld. Then, I suggest you waste no time in finding Mort for an encore.

OK, I'm not used to reviewing novels, so you'll pardon me if my literary style is not up to scratch. This book was given to me by a friend who decided I had to read it. This is the third book in Pratchett's "Discworld" series. I haven't read any of the others and it was not necessary to do so in order to thoroughly enjoy this book.

In a different reality from ours, where the world is a flat disc supported on the back of a giant tortoise, lives a little girl named Esk who is mistakenly appointed a wizard in a world where females can't be wizards (it's against the lore). Granny tries to raise Esk in the way of witches instead, but finds she can't fight the fait accompli. Like it or not, Esk is meant to be a wizard.

The message of equal opportunity does not hit the reader over the head, although the message was probably more blatant a decade ago. Esk needs to go to wizard university in order to control her powers, but the university is just for males. Granny, the prim traditionalist, is against Esk doing all these "unnatural" things, but turns out in the end to be the biggest "feminist" of them all.

Along the way, there are fun, good humour, smiles, ethereal monsters, flying books and orang-utan librarians.

Equal Rites is the third Discworld novel, and in it Pratchett begins to reveal just how diverse a place it is. The inept wizard Rincewind is not to be found in these pages, nor are Twoflower the Tourist and his Luggage. Discworld is home to an incredible number of fascinating characters, and in this novel we are introduced to one of the most remarkable and unforgettable ones--the witch Granny Weatherwax. We also get a closer look at Unseen University and the wizards who call it home. The eighth son of an eighth son is always a wizard, as everyone knows. Unfortunately, the novel's eighth son of an eighth son turns out to be a girl, which is a fact Granny Weatherwax points out immediately. Granny is a traditional witch; she doesn't hold with living in towns and selling love potions and other sundry matters. She teaches young Esk witchcraft, but it eventually becomes apparent that the child is a born wizard. Getting the child to Ankh-Morpork and Unseen University is not easy, but the hardest part of the mission is getting her accepted as a female. There's also a small matter of the terrible beings from Beyond trying to break through to this side.

I enjoyed this novel, but it didn't seem to have the magical aura of most Pratchett books. Young Esk was too willful and erratic, and I never understood why she kept wandering away from Granny Weatherwax on the journey to Ankh-Morpork since Granny was trying to fulfill her dream of becoming a wizard. I also thought the character of Simon, a stuttering but brilliant young wizard, should have been developed more fully; he formed an important part of the story, but I never knew him well enough to strongly like him or dislike him. Esk's frustration and anger at being rejected as a girl are understandable, but some of her reactions seemed a little too childish to me. Toward the end, I sometimes got the impression that I was reading a piece of juvenile fiction--there's nothing wrong with that, and Pratchett has written some excellent novels for a younger audience, but it left me feeling a little empty and let-down. Even Granny Weatherwax, one of my favorite Discworld characters, seemed only a shadow of the Granny I have come to know in later novels. This novel also has some sexual innuendo material in the background, which is something I found a little disconcerting and atypical of Pratchett. It does add to some of the humor, though, especially in the scenes featuring Granny and ArchChancellor Cutangle. Weirdest of all was a direct reference to Steven Spielberg--when I read Pratchett, I am in his world, and I felt as if he kicked me out of his universe momentarily for no good reason.

The humor is the real strength of this novel. Pratchett's ever-present comical metaphors are particularly strong in places, and he is able to exploit cliches in ways no other author can. The descriptions of Granny having to get long running starts in order to get her broom off the ground and of the head wizards getting all excited about increasing their knowledge by increasing their ignorance of brand new concepts are especially hilarious. Comedy saves this particular novel. I would have liked to see much more character development; as it is, Esk and Simon are pretty forgettable characters, and the charm of Granny Weatherwax is really not realized here. I did enjoy getting a closer view inside Unseen University, but the wizards in the book seemed shallow and sort of stereotypical. I saw a lot, but I didn't learn a lot. In the end, though, this is a Discworld novel, so it is definitely better than most anything else you can find on the shelves, but I think it is one of Pratchett's weakest efforts.

When Eskarina was born she was bestowed with a dying wizard's magic staff and his powers because the wizard mistakenly thought she was the eighth son of an eighth son. Granny Weatherwax, the town witch who delivered young Esk, knows that the girl must now learn to control the extraordinary powers she has been bequeathed before they start to control her. She takes Esk under her wing and begins to teach her about witchcraft and magic. After Esk has had several years of apprenticeship, Granny decides to enroll Esk in Unseen University, the training ground for wizards. The two of them set off for Ankh-Morpork, the home of the famous wizard school. But everyone in Discworld knows that wizardry is the bastion of men and that a woman can never become a wizard... or can she?

In "Equal Rites," Terry Pratchett parodies gender stereotyping and discrimination as Esk is confronted with society's view of the differences between witchcraft, a traditionally feminine profession, and wizardry, an exclusively male domain. As Granny sees it, wizardry is high magic composed of science, "jommetry" and power, while witchcraft is a magic grounded in nature, herbs and "headology." Esk feels she can handle either type of magic and she turns wizardry on its ear as she proceeds to demonstrate what she can accomplish. Before reading this book, I thought that Rincewind was the most bumbling of wizards. I now realize that Unseen University is full of them!

This book is not as wickedly funny as the two books that precede it, but it does contain several humorous scenes such as the magic conjuring duel between Granny and the Archchancellor of the university. Although Pratchettisms are sprinkled here and there throughout the book, the story line takes precedence over the satire. Sometimes the metaphorical descriptions of the landscape and sunlight of Discworld go a bit overboard. As a result I give the book only four stars instead of the five I gave the previous books in the series. I did enjoy the story, however, especially the characterization of strong-minded and wise Granny, who is depicted as a non-stereotypical witch who abhors flying on broomsticks and who looks down upon the traditional fortune telling and parlor tricks favored by so many other witches. I look forward to reading the other Discworld witch books.

Eileen Rieback

Pratchett seems to love the character dynamic between the Curmudgeon and the Innocent, when both are working together towards the same goals. He used this to great effect with Rincewind and Twoflower in the first two books of his Discworld series, and it pops up again here.

Granny Weatherwax (the curmudgeon) is a witch. She is charged with steering 8-year old Esk towards wizardry. Only Esk is a girl, and as we all know, girls can't be wizards. She was supposed to be the eighth son of an eighth son, but somebody messed up the paperwork. It is this conflict that is central to the book. Pratchett does a nice job lampooning the (perceived) differences between men and women (i.e., practical vs. intuitive knowledge; book study vs. study of nature, etc.) that exist in our world, transporting them to his own imagined landscape. That's to be expected from a book punnishly titled "Equal Rites". On top of that, we get a cunning parody of institutes of higher learning. Unseen University (where boys go to become wizards) and its hierarchy of learned scholars knocks the stuffing out of scholastic life.

All the Pratchett devices are back for another run through the ringer. Along with the above mentioned character types, we also have some silly humour (a group of marzipan ducks magically anthropomorphize, only to melt when they take to the river; "that's natural selection for you," comments the cheeky narrator). And another inanimate object without a face inexplicably manages to make facial expressions. Twoflower's Luggage has an heir apparent in Esk's magic staff. Some comments I've read state that Pratchett relies too heavily on these devices in later books. Well, it's only three books into the series, and I still find them fresh and interesting. Time will tell, though.

While not as laugh-out-loud funny as its predecessors, "Equal Rites" moves along its narrative with much more force. Which still makes it an entertaining read. Still, here's hoping that Pratchett managed to combine the two in equal proportions as the series went along.

This another book by T. Pratchett in the Discworld Series. In fact, the third one in order. The first thing that you will have to get used to is that the main character is not Rincewind. It is a small girl called Esk. She is the eighth daughter of the eighth son. There is a tradition that when the eighth son of the eighth son is born, he will become a mage. An old mage didn't notice that she was a girl and gave her his wand. Now, when she is nine years old, she decides to join the Unseen University, where no girl ever studied... The book is written in the same style like the previous ones. This means that it is readable and highly entertaining and funny. It contains some new ideas and characters, that will appear again in T. Pratchett's later books (e.g. Wyred Sisters). It's not that funny like "The Light Fantastic", but if liked "The Colour of Magic" and "The Light Fantastic", you'll love this book too. I recommend it to all Pratchett fans and to those who would to start reading high quality fantasy books.

In this, the thrid book of Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, a young girl is given a wizard's powers. Well everyone knows that a girl can't be a wizard! Girls are witches, and that's that.

Esk is the eighth son of an eighth son... or at least she was supposed to be. The wizard that bestowed his staff and powers upon her died the second she was born and didn't know that the eighth son *wasn't* a son at all. As Esk grows she is taken as an apprentice witch by Granny Weatherwax, a wonderful, humorous old woman that doesn't take any nonsense, especially from that wizard's staff that has a mind of its own. But soon Granny discovers that the wizardly powers just won't stay out of it and that Esk must be taken to Unseen University for training. The only problem is that the Unseen University doesn't allow women, after all, wizardy is a man's world. Join Esk and Granny on their way to Ankh-Morpork and see what happens in this wonderful book.

Equal Rites is the third book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series. I had to stop and think after reading this book. Why didn't I like it that much? Was it my mood at the time? No, I don't think so, because I wasn't in the best mood when I read Reaper Man and Lords & Ladies either, yet I loved them. Finally, I decided that, unusually for Pratchett, it just didn't do anything for me.

Drum Billet is a wizard who's dying. Before Death comes for him, though, he wants to pass on his wizard staff and power. This is done by finding the eighth son of an eighth son. Drum Billet thinks he's found the perfect one and hurriedly does the deed before he finally expires. One thing, though: he didn't wait long enough to make sure of the sex of the new-born baby.

Granny Weatherwax is determined to see that Esk (the baby in question) grows up to be a witch, rather than a wizard. Esk will never get into the wizards' university because women can't be wizards. It just isn't done. However, Esk starts manifesting power that's beyond being a witch and beyond Granny's ability to teach. Esk really wants to become a wizard and seems to be losing control of her power, so Granny decides to take her there and see what will happen.

What follows is an adventure that takes them to the city of Ankh-Morpork, to the university, with a side-trip to the Dungeon Dimensions to ensure that the monsters that live there don't come into our reality. And maybe, just maybe, some wizards will start to change their attitude to the "fairer sex." And sometimes, a staff is just a staff.

It really hurts to say this about a Terry Pratchett Discworld book, but I just didn't think it was very good. It is the third in the series, and I wasn't a big fan of the first two, so perhaps he just hadn't hit his stride yet (I think he hit it with Mort, personally). First of all, the book just isn't that funny. None of the situations are exceptionally humorous. Instead, most of the humour comes from Pratchett's narration. Even that, though, is not up to his later power. He makes some wry comments about gender issues, especially the prejudice against women in the workplace. However, they just lie there, doing nothing and taking up space.

The characters aren't that interesting. I was looking forward to the introduction of Granny Weatherwax (first read by me in Wyrd Sisters), but even that was a disappointment. She doesn't have the same feel in this one as she does when she's with her coven. You can see signs of it in her characterization (she's irascible and set in her ways), but she's not quite as tart as the Weatherwax I know. It's almost like she needs somebody to play off to be "right."

Esk suffers from being rather dull. Is it because Pratchett can't write an 8 year old character? I don't know. I do know that she's rather flat and I didn't care about her situation. I'm all for equal rights, but Esk's situation didn't push me any further along that path. She's just there on the page with nothing to really hook you into caring about her.

One thing I shouldn't really hold against this book, though I feel I should mention it, is the wizard characters. The main wizards (Archchancellor, Dean, etc) are different characters in this book than in subsequent books. Unfortunately, since I've read many books containing the "new" characters, I found the original characters extremely wanting. They weren't funny at all. What I can hold against them, however, is that they were boring. Archchancellor Cutangle is the most developed of them, and even he's not very well done. He's there more to represent the unmovable force of male domination, and to show what happens when it meets the irresistible force of female determination.

I can say a couple of positive things about this book, however. The beginning is probably the funniest part of the book, where the mix-up happens. This part has Death in it, which already brings it up to a certain level. Death is always ready to chime in with an interesting comment or two. Secondly, Pratchett's descriptions of things are on the ball as always. He has a wonderful narrative voice. While the witty asides in this one aren't as good as some others, he still is an interesting read when he gets on a roll. Unfortunately, when the characters come back onto the stage, the story grinds to a halt again.

I really hate to give a Pratchett book 2 stars. Hopefully, it will be the only one that I have to do that to. Save your money and buy Reaper Man instead. You'll be glad you did.

Equal Rites is the third phenomenal novel in the Discworld series from Terry Pratchett. It is an intriguing twist between fantasy and adventure, and with hundreds of stifling moments, Terry Pratchett will bring your mind into the mysterious Discworld. Terry Pratchett has a astounding imagination, not many people could dream up a giant disc-shaped world, poised on the back of four elephants, which are standing on the 'Great Au Tuin', who just happens to be a gigantic turtle! There are many stimulating characters situated in the Discworld, but my favourite would have to be Granny Weatherwax. Granny Weatherwax is a very prim and proper lady, who has never had any kind of relationships with men, she sees them as extra baggage, an interferance with her work. She works as a witch and you will be stuck to the page reading about her gripping experiments. From 'borrowing' which is taking the mind of an animal and using it for travel or exploration to herbalry, which is making medicines and potions. I would recommend this book to any first time Pratchett readers, as an introduction to the strange world and zany characters. I would also reccomend this book to regular Pratchett readers and maybe science fiction readers like myself, for a refreshing change. Overall it's a fabulous book with plenty of humour and a great test for the imagination.

I was surprised to discover that this book, the third in Pratchett's famous fantasy-parody series "Discworld", has received such mixed reviews. I have been introduced to Pratchett 10 years ago when I casually picked up "The Colour of Magic" (it had an interesting cover). I found it, however, rather disappointing; it was somewhat dull and humorless, with a convoluted plot and unmemorable characters (Rincewind remains to this date the one Discworld character that I utterly loath). But, I thought, there WAS something there, in the style of the author... so I picked up "Equal Rites". Imagine my delight when I discovered it to be a tight-paced, funny book, with memorable characters and an interesting plot. The plot is good: the eight son of an eight son is always a wizard, but in this case, Esk is born a girl, Discworld's first female wizard. Complications follow as the characters around her first seek to deny, then resolve this situation. Granny Weatherwax, Lancre's most famous witch, is introduced for the first time, and she remains one of my favorite characters. Esk, which some title as 'boring', is actually very cute and nicely-written: Pratchett is one of the few authors I know who doesn't use children for a cloying sort of cuteness or sentimentalism, and instead he writes her as her own person, with a distinctive and believable character. In consequence, she is much more endearing than many children characters. Her crush on Simon is, additionally, rather cute. Last but not least is the Staff, one of Pratchett's takes on Tolkien's Ring in creating an object with its own mind and presence; and it works; the Staff's protection of Esk is interesting, and its silent but determined conflict with Granny is hilarious. Except for the ending, which is a little vague, the book is consistently funny and interesting, and holds well on subsequent re-reading, which is more than I could say for "The Light Fantastic", the second book in the series, which is good on first reading but rather dull afterwards. All in all, this is the first great Discworld books, one of my favorites in the series, and I highly recommend it.