Pratchett, Terry
EQUAL RITES
Terry Pratchett
HarperTorch 1987
Pb 213 pages
ISBN # 0-06-102069-9
Do you need a good laugh? If you like sci-fi/fantasy novels and need a good laugh, I heartily recommend Terry Pratchett. A friend of
mine has been trying to get me to read his stuff and I've just now gotten around to it and am now wishing I'd been reading it for a long
time now.
Equal Rites was a book I couldn't put down. I have the idea from what I've heard, any book by this author is almost a guarantee for
good entertainment.
Equal Rites is one of Pratchett's Discworld stories; Discworld being the magical place where Pratchett's imagination is the most
fertile. In this story a dying wizard visits a smithy in the little hill-town of Bad Ass where he has been informed (by magic?) that the
eighth son of an eighth son is just about to be born. In a big hurry, the wizard quickly passes on his magic staff to the new babe just as
Death catches up to him. Too late ... everyone finds out that the new son is a daughter. Ooops. So the two witnesses--the girl's father and
the midwife (a witch named Granny)--keep this secret, hoping nothing will come of the matter. The problem, you see, is that NO WOMEN ARE
ALLOWED TO BE wizards!
Of course the magic finds a way to make itself known. Nine years later, the little girl Esk travels to the big city of Ankh-Morpork with
Granny on a broomstick that doesn't work well. Nothing goes right and, in fact things get worse when that magical staff tries to kill somebody.
I couldn't stop laughing. This book is a definite winner.
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