Discworld – Equal Rites

Third book in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites follows the story of Esk a young girl who grows up to discover she has great power.

The eighth son of an eighth son are born to be wizards but a mistake at birth mean Esk is given the staff of a wizard before they realise she’s a girl.

Growing up she is helped by local witch Granny Weatherwax and together they head to Ankh-Morpork so that Esk can go to the wizarding university.

However things don’t go so well as wizarding is considered a male only profession and Esk finds it difficult to get in.

I personally didn’t enjoy this book as much as the first two, mainly because I enjoyed Rincewind and the luggage as more interesting characters.  Its still a good read and Granny Weatherwax is a good character and the wizards are great, especially the older ones who are so lazy and useless. I’m defiantly enjoying reading these books and its great that there are so many to get through, feels like there will always be something new to read.

7/10

Discworld Books – The Light Fantastic

The Light Fantastic is the concluding part of the story started in the first Discworld  book, The Colour of Magic. Rincewind the wizard and his tourist companion Twoflower, fresh from surviving falling off the edge of the world are on a quest to save the world. The Discworld, sitting on the back of a giant space turtle is heading directly into a giant red sun and only the power of the 8 great spells can save it.

Because of this, Rincewind has suddenly become very popular with a lot of people who want to kill him in order to retrieve one of the great spells hiding in his head.

The story is as imaginative as the last but not, in my opinion, as enjoyable. It lacks what the other Discworld novels have in that it is not a self contained story and it isn’t about something new and even more bizarre than before. However its still got loads of interesting stuff in it, and it does conclude the story ready for something new.

The highlight of the book was the luggage. Turing a travel accessory into such a fascinating and kinda scary character is genius. I certainly wouldn’t mind owning some luggage like that myself.

I enjoyed reading this and give it a high 7 out of 10 because I know that there is better to come from this series and need to leave room to rate them higher.

7/10

Discworld Books – The Colour of Magic

Recently I have started reading the Discworld novels with the insane aim of reading them all from start to finish. If your not sure about how big a task that is check out http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Discworld.

Well thats a total of 36 books to get through, and as of now its 1 down 35 to go! I finished the first book The Colour of Magic.

I’m glad I have got round to reading these books because they are very enjoyable, I remember reading a couple when I was younger and enjoying them. Its a very unique world that Terry Pratchett has invented, a Discworld that sits on the back of 4 giant elephants, standing on the shell of a massive turtle drifting though the endless infinity of space.

The first book centers around Rincewind the failed Wizard. He meets hapless tourist Twoflower and they set of on a sort of adventure around the Discworld trying endlessly to avoid getting themselves killed. Now this is easier said than done when everyone seems to be out to get you and your traveling with a tourist who has no understanding on the term danger and insists on selling everyone insurance.

I love the character of Rincewind as I grew familiar with him when playing the Discworld game for PC several years back. Its a great character, generally useless but very adapt at getting into trouble and quickly escaping. A failed wizard because his head is occupied by a single great spell thats been hiding in his mind and scares all other spells away so he can never learn any new magic.

The story in this book actually continues into the second book, The Light Fantastic which I’ll read soon enough. The story is left on a cliff hanger so to speak that I’d like to know the conclusion to.

Anyway The Colour of Magic gets a full 10 out of 10 for being a great introduction to the Discworld universe I recommend you read it if you get the chance.

10/10