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Title:
Sourcery
Series: Discworld #5
Author:
Terry Pratchett
Rating: 3 of 5 Stars
Genre:
Fantasy
Pages: 197
Words: 79K
Unfortunately,
this is what most people think of in terms of humor when they think
of Rincewind the Wizzard. This was slightly amusing but not really
funny and almost kind of sad. I didn’t dislike this story, but I
really didn’t enjoy myself like I have with some of the previous
Discworld books. It was like Pratchett had an off week and churned
this clunker out during that time.
If
I was just a teeny bit lazier, I’d end this review and not hide the
synopis and call it a day. But I’m not quite that lazy, yet. I’m
getting there though.
It’s
been quite a while since I’ve done a food comparison for a book,
but I think I have the perfect example for this book.
The
Setting:
The Wilds of the Freest State in the United States
of America
The
Characters:
Two
manly men who have worked hard all day doing Big Important Survey
Things that you wouldn’t understand even if I explained it to you.
The
Story:
After
a hard day’s work where thousands of calories were burned doing
Very Important Survey Things, McStudley and MacManly were driving
back to the office. They were starving. In fact, if they had been
soccer players, chances are one of them would have doused the other
in bbq sauce and devoured him on the spot. Thankfully, for our story,
they drove by a Wendy’s fast food restaurant. MacManly decided to
get a Biggie Bag, because it had the word “Big” in it and his
hunger sure was big that day. It was advertised as a double
cheeseburger with bacon, fries, chicken nuggets and a drink. The
chicken nuggets weren’t crispy at all. The fries were lukewarm at
best. The icemachine wasn’t working so his diet vanilla coke was
room temperature. The bacon was limp, the burgers overcooked, the
lettuce was wilted and the bun looked like a sad clown. All in all it
was a pathetic excuse for a “meal”. But MacManly still devoured
it because he was starving.
The
Lesson:
The
ingredients can all be there but if they are not prepared right, it
doesn’t matter because I was starving and I would have read a
cereal box. Ok, so I mixed up my metaphors there, sue me. But you get
the idea.
★★★☆☆
From
Wikipedia.org
Death comes
to collect the soul of Ipslore the Red, a wizard who was banished
from Unseen University for marrying and having children.
Bitter over his exile and the death of his wife, Ipslore vows revenge
upon the wizards through his eighth son, Coin. As the eighth son of a
wizard who himself is an eighth son, Coin is born a sourcerer, a
wizard who generates new magic rather than drawing it from the world,
effectively making him the most powerful wizard on the Disc. At the
moment of his death, Ipslore transfers his spirit into his wizard's
staff, which is passed to Coin, preventing Death from collecting
Ipslore's soul (since damaging the staff to do so would kill Coin)
and allowing Ipslore to influence his son.
Eight
years later, Virrid Wayzygoose, the Archchancellor-designate of
Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork, is murdered before his
induction by Coin, who then forces his way into the university's
Great Hall. After Coin bests one of the top wizards in the
University, he is welcomed by the majority of the
wizards. Rincewind, The Luggage and the Librarian miss
Coin's arrival, having fled the University shortly beforehand after
the foreboding departure of all of its magically-influenced pest
populations. While they are at the Mended Drum, Conina, a
professional thief and a daughter of Discworld legend Cohen the
Barbarian, arrives holding a box containing the Archchancellor's hat,
which she has procured from the room of Wayzygoose, and which
possesses a kind of sentience as a result of being worn by hundreds
of Archchancellors. Under the direction of the hat, which sees Coin
as a threat to wizardry and the very world, Conina forces Rincewind
to come with her and take a boat to the city of Al Khali, where the
hat claims there is someone fit to wear it.
In
Ankh-Morpork, the wizards are made more powerful due to Coin's
presence drawing more magic into the Discworld. Under Coin's
direction, the wizards take over Ankh-Morpork—transforming it into
a pristine city and turning the Patrician, Lord Vetinari, into a
newt—and make plans to take over the world. Elsewhere, Rincewind,
Conina and the Luggage end up in the company of Creosote, the seriph
of Al Khali, and Abrim, his treacherous vizier. The trio are
eventually separated; Rincewind is thrown into the snake pit, where
he meets Nijel the Destroyer, a barbarian hero in training. Conina is
taken to Creosote's harem, where the Seriph has his concubines
tell him stories. The Luggage, having been scorned by Conina, runs
away and gets drunk, before killing and eating several creatures in
the desert.
Coin
eventually declares Unseen University and the various wizarding
orders obsolete and orders the Library to be burnt down,
claiming that Wizardry no longer requires such things. A group of
wizards then attack Al Khali, with the sheer amount of magic created
by their arrival temporarily putting Rincewind into a trance and
enabling him to use magic, allowing him and Nijel to escape the snake
pit. They join up with Creosote and Conina, the latter immediately
falling in love with Nijel, and they encounter Abrim, who had put on
the Archchancellor's hat hoping to gain power from it, only to be
possessed instead. Having the experience of many previous
Archchancellors, the hat proves an even match for Sourcery-empowered
wizards, fighting off a group of them and enlisting others to its
cause. As this takes place, Rincewind, Conina, Nijel and Creosote
find a magical flying carpet in the palace's treasury, and
use it to escape the palace as it gets destroyed by the possessed
Abrim building his own tower.
With
the orders no longer around to keep the wizards in check, wizards
across the Discworld go to war with one another, threatening to
destroy the world completely. Upon hearing Creosote express
anti-wizard sentiments, an angry and humiliated Rincewind abandons
the group, taking the flying carpet and making his way to the
University, where he learns that the Librarian has saved the library
books by hiding them in the ancient Tower of Art. The Librarian
convinces Rincewind to stop Coin, and he goes off to face the
Sourcerer with a sock containing a half-brick. Back in Al Khali,
the Luggage, blaming the Archchancellor's hat for everything it has
endured, forces its way into Abrim's tower. Distracted by the
Luggage, the possessed vizier is killed by the Ankh-Morpork wizards,
with the tower and the Archchancellor's hat getting destroyed in the
process.
Despite
his victory, Coin becomes concerned when he is told that wizards rule
under the Discworld Gods. He traps the gods in an alternate reality,
which shrinks to become a large pearl, unknowingly causing the
Ice Giants, a race of beings who had been imprisoned by the gods, to
escape their prison, whereupon they begin strolling across the
Discworld, freezing everything in their path. Rincewind confronts
Coin soon after this. The Sourcerer is amused, but unthreatened, by
Rincewind attempting to fight him, prompting Ipslore to try to force
Coin to kill him. Rincewind eventually convinces Coin to throw the
staff away, but Ipslore's power is channelled against that of his
son. The other wizards leave the tower as Rincewind rushes forward,
grabbing the child and sending both of them to the Dungeon Dimensions
while Death strikes the staff and takes Ipslore's soul. Rincewind
orders Coin to return to the University and, using his other sock
filled with sand, attacks the Creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions
as a distraction to ensure Coin's escape. The Gods are subsequently
set free, stopping the march of the Ice Giants. As the Librarian
helps Coin escape, the Luggage charges into the Dungeon Dimensions
after Rincewind.
Coin
returns the University and Ankh-Morpork to the way they were before
he came. After Conina and Nijel travel to the University looking for
Rincewind, Coin uses his magic to make them forget him and live
happily ever after together. Recognising that he is too powerful to
remain in the world, Coin steps into a dimension of his own making
and is not seen on the Discworld again. The Librarian takes
Rincewind's battered hat, which was left behind when he went into the
Dungeon Dimensions, and places it on a pedestal in the Library. The
narrator states, "A wizard...will always come back for his hat".
