CBR Bingo: Green (also my very first Cannonball, yay?)
After reading (and reviewing) the first two books in Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series (The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic), I decided to keep going in chronological order. I’ve read (and loved) many of the series’ novels previously, but I’ve done it in a rather piecemeal fashion (I’ve completed the Death and City Watch subseries, as well as a smattering of other books). The third (overall) book in the series is Equal Rites, and is the first book to focus on the Witches of the Disc. I actually read this book when I was around sixteen or so, but I basically remember nothing at all about it.
A dying wizard searches for an appropriate baby to bestow upon the source of his power (his staff)—ideally the eighth son of an eighth son. When he finds a family where the father (who has seven older brothers) has seven sons and has just welcomed his eighth child, he immediately grants the staff to the baby and dies shortly thereafter. Unfortunately, the child happens to be a girl named Eskarina, and there are no female wizards on the Disc (Why? It’s something to do with the plumbing). Once Esk gets a little bit older, she is apprenticed to the local witch, Granny Weatherwax, who teaches her about witchery, and tries to help her figure out her growing wizardly powers.
For a book written in 1987 about gender roles, this was surprisingly non-offensive and was actually a really cute story. Esk is portrayed as somewhat precocious, but not overly annoying, and (mostly) behaved and thought how I’d imagine a nine-year old girl would act (although I don’t have a lot of experience with children, so take my opinions with a grain of salt!). It’s not quite at the level of greatness as the later Discworld novels, but it was enjoyable and a much better indication of the overall tone and quality than the first two books in the series.