Genre: Comedy, Fantasy
Rating: B+
Lords and Ladies, the
fourteenth Discworld novel and 4th
Witches story, picks up a bit after where Witches
Abroad left off, with Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick having
just returned to Lancre from their previous journey. There Magrat finds that everything is all
ready for her wedding – despite the fact that Verence II never actually
proposed, instead simply assuming that she would in fact marry him – while Granny
discovers that a new, young coven has been performing magic at the Dancers, a
circle of stones which guards the gateway between the Discworld and the land of
the Elves. Meanwhile in Ankh-Morpork the
wizards of the Unseen University have received an invitation to the wedding of
the King of Lancre, and Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully decides to take him up
on it, full of fond memories of a witch that he once knew in Lancre. He is joined by the neurotic Bursar, the Reader
in Invisible Writing Ponder Stibbs, and everyone’s favourite Librarian – none of
which embark upon this journey in an entirely voluntary manner. Chaos (and hilarity) ensues as the wedding
approaches and the Queen of the Elves threatens to invade the Discworld.
This novel is a marked return to the style of writing that I have come
to know and expect from Terry Pratchett.
The story is at points simply chaotic, but that is part of the joy of
reading Pratchett – the Discworld is a world of chaos, where something with a
million-to-one chance in success will, of course, succeed nine out of ten
times. The allusions are awesome, with
this book having been clearly inspired by Shakespeare’s A Midsummer’s Night Dream.
The jokes are also great, with a good number of running jokes, both
specific to this novel and to the series as a whole, particularly the Librarian’s
old green robe, monkeys, Greebo, Wizard’s staffs (and their knobs), the Stick
and Bucket Dance, and of course dried frog pills. Nanny and Granny are in their prime and Magrat
finally comes into her own, although it being Magrat one would doubt that she’ll
remain there. In addition to a new side
of Magrat being shown, there are also new sides to Nanny and Granny. For the first time in the series Granny is
shown as something more than a grumpy old hag who does good in a rather malevolent
way – she is good not because she is good but because she has to be good – but also
as a woman. She opens up in a way that
we’ve never seen before, although she’d be the first to deny such a thing. In contrast to this, Nanny reveals that she’s
capable of as much as Granny is, and can be as scary and threatening. You really get an idea of just how much you
do not want to threaten Nanny Ogg’s family – and in her mind, all of Lancre is
her family. With the way word seems to get around on the Discworld, it amazes me that there are still beings who would go up against this trio, although a face off between then and the Librarian would be interesting....
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