Bookstooge's Reviews On the Road: Discworld

Showing posts with label Discworld. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 19, 2024

Mort (Discworld #4) 4Stars

Title: Mort
Series: Discworld #4
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 265
Words: 73K

This was my 3^rd time reading this. And I once again bumped it up half a star. So another 8 years and I suspect I’ll be bumping it up again, hahahahaa :-)

In this, we are introduced to yet another sub-series (or set of characters) in the Discworld. This time it is Death. Death takes on an apprentice who royally messes things up and in the end Death fixes it all.

Death is a jolly good fellow. Definitely shows what Pratchett’s thoughts on THAT matter were (if his suicide wasn’t enough to convince you). It works for a light and fluffy fantasy series. Which is all this is. Except it isn’t. Does that make sense? Pratchett is not trying to have his cake and eat it too with the Discworld series, he IS having his eat and eating it. He gets to tell funny stories AND he gets to spout off his own personal philosophies. It doesn’t get much better than that for an author.

Thankfully, as a reader, I too can pick and choose whether I want to read this lightly or seriously. If I had been in grumpy mood I would have read this seriously and taken Pratchett’s points about death apart one by one, showing that his ideas were nothing but an illogical mishmash of every other religions’ ideas on death and how he contradicted himself at every turn. But I was in a good mood so I just ignored all that and enjoyed Mort making a complete hash out of being Death’s apprentice.

Hash can be good, especially with beets. That’s called Red Flannel Hash here in New England. A can of corned beef hash, a can of purple beets, a frying pan and voila, a delicious meal that is healthy because obviously the beets are vegetables and so that outweighs all the fat from the corn beef hash.

In ending, you should read this book if for no other reason than I said so and that it will be the literary equivalent of adding some beets to your corn beef hash reading diet.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia.org

As a teenager, Mort has a personality and temperament that makes him unsuited to the family farming business. Mort's father Lezek takes him to a local hiring fair in the hope that Mort will land an apprenticeship; not only would this provide a job for his son, but it would also make his son's propensity for thinking someone else's problem. Just before the last stroke of midnight, Death arrives and takes Mort on as an apprentice (though his father thinks he has been apprenticed to an undertaker). Death takes Mort to his domain, where he meets Death's elderly manservant Albert, and his adopted daughter Ysabell. Mort later accompanies Death as he travels to collect the soul of the King of Sto Lat, who is due to be assassinated by the scheming Duke of Sto Helit. After Mort unsuccessfully tries to prevent the assassination, Death warns him that all deaths are predetermined, and that he cannot interfere with fate.

Later on, Death assigns Mort to collect the soul of Princess Keli, daughter of the murdered king, but he instead kills the assassin the Duke had sent after her. Keli lives, but shortly after the assassin's death people begin acting as if something had happened without knowing why, namely what would be funeral preparations and acts of mourning. She soon finds that the rest of the world no longer acknowledges her existence at all unless she confronts them and even then only in a confused manner which is forgotten immediately after. She subsequently employs the wizard Igneous Cutwell, who is able to see her as he is trained to see things that are invisible to normal people (like death) to make her existence clear to the public. Mort eventually discovers that his actions have created an alternate reality in which Keli lives, but he also learns that it is being overridden by the original reality and will eventually cease to exist, killing Keli. While consulting Cutwell, Mort sees a picture of Unseen University's founder, Alberto Malich, noting that he bears a resemblance to Albert.

Mort and Ysabell travel into the Stack, a library in Death's domain that holds the biographies of everyone who has ever lived, in order to investigate Albert, eventually discovering that he is indeed Malich. They further learn that Malich had feared monsters waiting for him in the afterlife, and performed a reversed version of the Rite of AshkEnte in the hope of keeping Death away from him. However, the spell backfired and sent him to Death's side, where he has remained in order to put off his demise. During this time, Death, yearning to relish what being human is like, travels to Ankh-Morpork to indulge in new experiences, including getting drunk, dancing, gambling and finding a job. Mort in turn starts to become more like Death, adopting his mannerisms and aspects of his personality, while his own is slowly overridden.

Death's absence forces Mort to collect the next two souls, who are both located on separate parts of the Disc (in the Agatean Empire and Tsort, respectively), and due to die on the same night that the alternate reality will be destroyed. Before he and Ysabell leave to collect the souls, Mort uses the part of Death within him to force Albert to provide a spell that will slow down the alternate reality's destruction. After Mort and Ysabell leave, Albert returns to Unseen University, under the identity of Malich. His eagerness to live on the Disc is reinvigorated during this time, and he has the wizards perform the Rite of AshkEnte in the hope of finally escaping Death's grasp. The ritual summons both Death and the part of Death that had been taking Mort over, restoring him to normal. Unaware of Albert's treachery, Death takes him back into his service, the Librarian preventing the wizard's escape.

Mort and Ysabell travel to Keli's palace, where the princess and Cutwell have organised a hasty coronation ceremony in the hope that Keli can be crowned queen before the alternate reality is destroyed. With the reality now too small for Albert's spell, Mort and Ysabell save Keli and Cutwell from being destroyed with the alternate reality. They return to Death's domain to find a furious Death waiting for them, the latter having learned of Mort's actions from Albert. Death dismisses Mort and attempts to take the souls of Keli and Cutwell, but Mort challenges him to a duel for them. Though Death eventually wins the duel, he spares Mort's life and sends him back to the Disc.

Death convinces the gods to change the original reality so that Keli rules in place of the Duke, who was inadvertently killed during Death and Mort's duel due to the destruction of his lifetimer. Mort and Ysabell – who have fallen in love over the course of the story – get married, and are made Duke and Duchess of Sto Helit by Keli, while Cutwell is made the Master of the Queen's Bedchamber. Death attends Mort and Ysabell's wedding reception, where he warns Mort that he will have to make sure that the original Duke's destiny is fulfilled, and presents him with the alternate reality he created, now shrunk to the size of a large pearl, before the two part on amicable terms.

Tuesday, January 30, 2024

Equal Rites (Discworld #3) 4Stars

Title: Equal Rites
Series: Discworld #3
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 162
Words: 67K

When I first read this in 2007, I was fresh off the Rincewind books and was expecting more of the same. Equal Rites is the first of the Witches sub-series and as such, while humorous, IS different and I wasn’t ready for that difference back then. Instead of the insane, zany and just plain ridiculous humor that typifies Rincewind, The Witches series is much more sardonic and relies on the humor inherent in opposites. All of that was just to say that I enjoyed my read this time much more than I did 16 years ago.

I also did this as a buddy-read with Dave. He had a lot of other stuff going on at the time, so there wasn’t a lot of back and forth on the book as we read along. I’ll be linking to his review after the star rating and before the synopsis.

I enjoyed this on a completely different level from the previous two books. Granny Weatherwax (the main character despite this being about the little girl Esk) isn’t silly and stupid but she’s also not some omniscient Paragon of Everything. Pratchett is definitely poking fun at the genders (male and female) and Granny isn’t a bra burning feminazi. She’s crotchety, gets things mixed up, makes bad decisions but ultimately has the good of Esk in mind. She’s a wonderful character in fact. I loved reading about her. It is almost scary to me how 16 years of life experience can make that kind of change in me. I still like Rincewind and the complete chaos that he is, but I now appreciate Granny much more than I could have back then. That’s good. We should change as we mature and get older.

I have talked about this before (Why I Re-Read from ‘18) but that change in perspective is the EXACT reason why I am such a re-reader. What I experienced reading Equal Rites this time around I simply could not have back in ‘07. And if I had never re-read it now, I would be stuck with that ‘07 memory of it. Which isn’t bad, but it’s not as full and rich as my memories of the book now. As a serious reader, growing is important. A reader should be a tree, ever growing, not a karesansui garden (one of those japanese gravel gardens) which stays static unless an outside force acts upon it. A reader’s growth should be from within, affecting the outside, not the outside affecting the growth within. It is the difference between an oak tree and a bonsai tree. One acts upon the landscape while the other is acted upon.

So to end. I am VERY happy I re-read this. I enjoyed it more than I originally did and I am thankful I have a better memory of the book now.

★★★★☆

Dave’s Review

From Wikipedia.org

The wizard Drum Billet knows that he will soon die and travels to a place where an eighth son of an eighth son is about to be born. This signifies that the child is destined to become a wizard; on the Discworld, the number eight has many of the magical properties that are sometimes ascribed to seven in other mythologies. Billet wants to pass his wizard's staff on to his successor.

However, the newborn child is actually a girl, Esk (full name Eskarina Smith). Since Billet notices his mistake too late, the staff passes on to her. As Esk grows up, it becomes apparent that she has uncontrollable powers, and the local witch Granny Weatherwax decides to travel with her to Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork to help her gain the knowledge required to properly manage her powers.

But a female wizard is something completely unheard of on the Discworld. Esk is unsuccessful in her first, direct, attempt to gain entry to the University, but Granny Weatherwax finds another way in; as a servant. While there, Esk witnesses the progress of an apprentice wizard named Simon, whom she had met earlier, on her way to Ankh-Morpork. Simon is a natural talent who invents a whole new way of looking at the universe that reduces it to component numbers.

Simon's magic causes a hole to be opened into the Dungeon Dimensions while he is in Esk's presence. The staff, acting to protect Esk, strikes Simon on the head, closing the hole but trapping his mind in the Dungeon Dimensions. Esk throws the staff away, believing that it attacked Simon. While attempting to rescue him, Esk ends up in the Dungeon Dimensions. The extreme cold there causes the staff, now washed out to sea, to create a huge ice sheet, causing a storm that floods the university as well as the surrounding city.

Esk and Simon discover the weakness of the creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions—if you can use magic, but don't, they become scared and weakened. With the help of Granny Weatherwax and Archchancellor Cutangle, who have retrieved the staff, they both manage to transport themselves back into the Discworld. Esk and Simon go on to develop a new kind of magic, based on the notion that the greatest power is the ability not to use all the others.

Saturday, December 16, 2023

The Light Fantastic (Discworld #2) 4.5Stars

Title: The Light Fantastic
Series: Discworld #2
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 4.5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 118
Words: 46K

I really enjoyed this. Considering that this and The Colour of Magic are really one book split into two parts and that I gave my re-read of CoM the coveted 5star rating, it shouldn’t surprise anyone, myself included, that I enjoyed this so much.

However, there was one thing that made me bump this down a half star. There are some really wicked weird time skips. One chapter Rincewind will be in a forest with Two Flowers and the next thing Cohen the Barbarian is rescuing them from wizards. There was nothing in between. That kind of thing happened 2 or 3 times and it was very disconcerting. I actually had to check to make sure I didn’t have a bad ebook with bits missing, it was that jarring. But nope, this was the real deal. I guess Pratchett had to make some cuts because 118 pages was pushing things back in the 80’s (oh, I’d kill for that mindset in publishers today. I’d even kill a real person for that to happen). So that’s the only reason this didn’t get 5stars from me.

If I was going to compare this duology to a food item, I think I’d have to call this a soft oatmeal raisin cookie. Yummy, sweet, delicious, with just enough texture to make your mouth stay interested in taking another bite but by no means a main course, even though you “could” gorge yourself and then suffer the consequences. So don’t be stupid, don’t gorge yourself on Discworld. Read it in appropriate amounts at the right time. You’ll thank me and so will your carpet (which you won’t be throwing up on if you listen to me)

★★★★✬

From Wikipedia.org

The book begins shortly after the ending of The Colour of Magic, with wizard Rincewind, Twoflower and the Luggage falling from the Discworld. They are saved when the Octavo, the most powerful book of magic on the Discworld, readjusts reality to prevent the loss of one of its eight spells, which has resided in Rincewind's head since his expulsion from Unseen University: Rincewind, Twoflower and the Luggage end up in the Forest of Skund. Meanwhile, the wizards of Ankh-Morpork use the Rite of Ashk-Ente to summon Death to find an explanation for the Octavo's actions. Death warns them that the Discworld will soon be destroyed by a huge red star unless the eight spells of the Octavo are read.

Several orders of wizards travel to the forest of Skund to try and capture Rincewind, who is currently staying with Twoflower and the Luggage in a gingerbread house in the forest. In the subsequent chaos, Rincewind and Twoflower escape on an old witch's broom, while the Archchancellor of Unseen University is killed when his attempt to obtain the spell accidentally summons the Luggage on top of him, crushing him to death. His apprentice, Ymper Trymon, uses the opportunity to advance his own power, intending to obtain the eight spells for himself.

Rincewind and Twoflower run into a group of druids who have assembled a "computer" formed from large standing stones, and learn of the approaching red star. As Twoflower attempts to stop the druids from sacrificing a young woman named Bethan, Cohen the Barbarian, an octogenarian parody of Conan, attacks the druids. Twoflower is poisoned in the battle, forcing Rincewind to travel to Death's Domain to rescue him. The pair narrowly avoid being killed by Ysabell, Death's adopted daughter, and as they escape Death's Domain, Rincewind learns from the Octavo itself that it had arranged for its eighth spell to escape into his head, to ensure the spells would not be used before the right time.

Rincewind and Twoflower travel with Cohen and Bethan to a nearby town, where the toothless Cohen leaves to have some dentures made for him, having learned of them from Twoflower. While he is gone, Rincewind, Twoflower and Bethan are attacked by a mob of people who believe the star is coming to destroy the Discworld in response to the presence of magic. The trio escape into one of many shops that sell strange and sinister goods and inexplicably vanish the next time a customer tries to find them. The existence of these shops is explained as being a curse by a sorcerer upon the shopkeeper for not having something in stock. They are able to return to Ankh-Morpork via the shop.

As the star comes nearer and the magic on the Discworld becomes weaker, Trymon tries to put the seven spells still in the Octavo into his mind, in an attempt to save the world and gain ultimate power. However, the spells prove too strong for him and his mind becomes a door into the "Dungeon Dimensions", home to all manner of eldritch creatures. Rincewind and Twoflower manage to kill the now-mutated Trymon, and Rincewind reads all eight of the Octavo's spells aloud. This causes eight moons of the red star to crack open and reveal eight tiny world-turtles that follow their parent A'Tuin on a course away from the star. The Octavo then falls and is eaten by the Luggage.

Twoflower and Rincewind part company as Twoflower decides to return home, leaving the Luggage with Rincewind as a parting gift. Cohen and Bethan also leave to get married. Rincewind decides to re-enroll in the university, believing that with the spell out of his head, he will finally be able to learn magic.

All of My “Discworld” Reviews

Thursday, October 19, 2023

The Colour of Magic (Discworld #1) 4Stars

Title: The Colour of Magic
Series: Discworld #1
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 4 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 270
Words: 89K

This is the 3^rd time “officially” that I’ve read this. And I still really enjoy it. The humor is right up my alley and it tickles my funny bone. Definitely not for everyone. Rincewind the Wizzard isn’t everyone else’s favorite Discworld character, but he makes me laugh my head off.

This wasn’t so much one singular story as a series of adventures by Rincewind and Two Flowers, a tourist from the Counter-Weight Continent. They burn down Ankh-Morpork and then proceed across the land landing into trouble everywhere they go. It’s insane, crazy, discombobulated and you can tell Pratchett was writing for the pure joy of being silly. I loved it!

I was apprehensive about doing this re-read of Discworld, but this wonderful start has put my mind at ease and while I know I’m not going to enjoy every single book, I do think I am going to enjoy the series as a whole.

★★★★☆

From Wikipedia.org

The story begins in Ankh-Morpork, the biggest city on the Discworld. The main character is an incompetent and cynical wizard named Rincewind, who is hired as a guide to naive Twoflower, an insurance clerk from the Agatean Empire who has come to visit Ankh-Morpork. Thanks to the abundance of gold in his homeland, Twoflower, though only a clerk, is immensely rich compared to inhabitants of Ankh-Morpork. Initially attempting to flee with his advance payment for agreeing to be Twoflower's guide, Rincewind is captured by the Patrician of Ankh-Morpork, who forces him to protect Twoflower, lest the tourist's death provoke the Agatean Emperor into invading Ankh-Morpork. After Twoflower is kidnapped by a gang of thieves and taken to the Broken Drum tavern, Rincewind stages a rescue alongside the Luggage, an indestructible, enchanted and sentient chest belonging to Twoflower. Before this, Twoflower convinces the Broken Drum's landlord to take out a fire insurance policy; the landlord subsequently attempts to burn down the tavern to claim the money, but ends up causing a fire that destroys the whole of Ankh-Morpork. Rincewind and Twoflower escape in the chaos.

Rincewind and Twoflower travel towards the city of Quirm, unaware that their adventures on this journey are actually the subject of a boardgame played by the Gods of the Discworld. The pair are separated when they are attacked by a mountain troll summoned by Offler the Crocodile God. The ignorant Twoflower ends up being led to the Temple of Bel-Shamharoth, a being said to be the opposite of both good and evil, while Rincewind ends up imprisoned in a dryad-inhabited tree in the woods, where he watches the events in Bel Shamharoth's temple through a magical portal. The pair are reunited when Rincewind escapes into the temple through the portal, and they encounter Hrun the Barbarian, a parody of heroes in the Swords and Sorcery genre. The trio are attacked and nearly killed by Bel-Shamharoth, but escape when Rincewind accidentally blinds the creature with Twoflower's magical picture box. Hrun agrees to travel with and protect Twoflower and Rincewind in exchange for heroic pictures of him from the picture box.

The trio visit the Wyrmberg, an upside-down mountain which is home to dragon-riders who summon their dragons by imagining them, and are separated when the riders attack them. Rincewind escapes capture but is forced by Kring, Hrun's sentient magical sword, to attempt to rescue his friends. Twoflower is imprisoned within the Wyrmberg, and because of his fascination with dragons, is able to summon one greater than those of the Wyrmberg riders, who he names Ninereeds, allowing him to escape captivity and save Rincewind from being killed in a duel with one of the three heirs of the Wyrmburg. Twoflower, Rincewind and Ninereeds snatch Hrun, but as they attempt to escape into the skies, Twoflower passes out from the lack of oxygen, causing Ninereeds to disappear. Hrun is saved by Liessa, but Rincewind and Twoflower find themselves falling to their deaths. In desperation, Rincewind manages to use the Wyrmberg's power to temporarily summon a passenger jet from the real world, before he and Twoflower fall into the ocean.

The two of them are taken to the edge of the Discworld by the ocean currents and nearly carried over, but they are caught by the Circumfence, a huge net built by the nation of Krull to catch sea life and flotsam washed in from the rest of the Discworld. They are rescued by Tethis the sea troll, a being composed of water who had fallen off the edge of his own world and onto the Discworld, where he was subsequently enslaved by the Krullians. Rincewind and Twoflower are then taken by the Krullians to their capital, where they learn that the Krullians intend to discover the sex of Great A'Tuin by launching a space capsule over the edge of the Disc, and plan to sacrifice Rincewind and Twoflower to get the god Fate to smile on the voyage, Fate insisting on their sacrifice after they caused him to lose the earlier game. Rincewind and Twoflower attempt to escape, but end up stealing the capsule, which is launched with Twoflower inside, the tourist wishing to see the other worlds of the universe. Rincewind is unable to get into the capsule in time, and falls off the Disc alongside it, the Luggage following them soon after.

The story segues into the beginning of The Light Fantastic

Friday, December 28, 2018

Hogfather (Discworld) ★★★★★

This review is written with a GPL 4.0 license and the rights contained therein shall supersede all TOS by any and all websites in regards to copying and sharing without proper authorization and permissions. Crossposted at WordPress, Blogspot & Librarything by Bookstooge’s Exalted Permission
Title: Hogfather
Series: Discworld
Author: Terry Pratchett
Rating: 5 of 5 Stars
Genre: Fantasy
Pages: 304
Format: Digital Edition

Synopsis:

It is Hogwatch Night and the Hogfather is flying across the world in his red suit and white beard and 4 jolly boars delivering gifts to all the children. However, this Hogwatch Night the Hogfather is looking a little different. He's a bit bony in the face, he has to stuff a pillow up the suit to give him that jolly fat look and his ho ho ho's are more like HO, HO, HO! Yes, Death has taken over being the Hogfather for the night.

Now, where did this all start? The Auditors. Of Reality. They hired the Assassin's Guild to kill the Hogfather. The head of the Guild, thinking it an impossible job, assigns it to Mr Teatime, an assassin who has been causing problems lately with how much he's been killing. He's got no style, you know? So the HAG (Head of the Assassins Guild) gives the job to Teatime. Either he'll succeed and the Guild will get a cavern of gold or Teatime will fail and they can let him go and be done with him. Teatime has thought about just this kind of situation and he has answers.

And that is why Death is pretending to be the Hogfather. He can't interfere with the Auditors directly but he sets his granddaughter Susan on the case. She tracks down Teatime, who has used the power of the Tooth Fairy make children NOT believe in the Hogfather. She and the newly created god of Hangovers, with the help from a tooth fairy helper, take down the insane assassin.

It is revealed that if the Hogfather doesn't exist, the sun won't rise. This will destroy all life on Discworld and THAT is the final goal of the Auditors. Life is messy and doesn't really fit into neat check boxes, so they want to get rid of it. All of it.

Can Death, Susan and sundry others Save the Most Magical Night of the Year? Of course! Not even Pratchett was so full of bilious hatred and vitriol against Christmas that he'd write otherwise. But he gets his revenge on the readers by getting all metaphysical for at least 3 solid pages. What a rotter.

My Thoughts:

My goodness, it has been a bloody decade since I last read this! Still 5stars, still a favorite and still just as good as last time.

This time around I concentrated on the character of Teatime. And you know what? He takes up a VERY small portion of the book even while being a main villain and the killer of the Hogfather. It is like he casts a huge shadow over the whole book while only being a skinny little twig. He has such presence though that I “remembered” him having a much larger role. I think it does say something for Pratchett's skill that he can make a such a small used character be so big. Of course, him facing down Death himself right at the end does show he had some pretty big cojones.

Death gets a great bit of action and I just laughed and laughed. When Corporal Nobbs, the most venal member of the Watch, gets a super duper assault crossbow from the big red sack and he goes nutso with excitement, I just about died. It also made me remember H.P's review of the lamest Robin Hood movie ever, complete with “assault crossbows”. Maybe it would have been a good movie if Knobby Nobbs had showed up, hahahahaa. Anyway, I did a lot of laughing.

Susan plays a huge part but unlike Teatime she was so exasperated all the time that she couldn't be “normal” that it wore a little thin. We get it, she doesn't want to be Death's granddaughter. Honey, get over it. You don't really get to pick your relatives. She started out funny with beating the crap out of monsters under the bed with a poker but became almost grating by the end.

The Unseen Academy and the Wizards are involved, as is HEX the thinking machine. HEX going insane and taking digital frog pills to cure itself was just about the highlight for me.

The only downside to this book was the few pages of metaphysics that Pratchett throws in. All crap about Justice and Mercy and Hope being nothing but lies. Then he took it do a bad place where you can't believe those things if you don't believe other lies, like the Tooth Fairy. What a hopeless and utterly futile way to live. He just couldn't resist allowing his bitter hatred against God, or even the idea of God to peek on through. Thankfully, it wasn't enough to spoil the whole book. However, I tend to think I'll have to wait another decade before I try this again.

★★★★★

Hogfather (2008 Review)