CBR Bingo: School (Sourcery is set at the Unseen University, a college for wizards (although not much actual learning goes on))
CBR Bingo: Arts (I’m counting theatre as being artsy, a key component to Wyrd Sisters are actors and plays, and how they can impact public perception of events)
I’d recently read the first three books in the Discworld series, and have decided to keep going in publication order, rather than breaking it up by sub-series. Sort of. I’ve read the Death novels too recently to want to re-read them at this point in time, but not recently enough to write an actual review for any of them, so we’re going to skip over those for the time being. After Equal Rites (and Mort), the next two books are Sourcery and Wyrd Sisters.
Sourcery is the third book in the Wizards subseries, and we once again join Rincewind (possibly the Disc’s worst wizard) as he goes on an adventure with his terrifying, semi-sentient suitcase. The eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son (a sourcerer) has shown up at the Unseen University and thrown the wizarding world into chaos. It’s up to Rincewind (and some collected allies) to find the Archchancellor’s hat and put things back to normal.
I liked this one a lot more than the first two books about the wizards. The characters felt fully realized, there was an actual plot, and the jokes felt a lot tighter. Definitely not my favourite book of the series so far, but it was a solid, enjoyable read.
Wyrd Sisters continues the story of the witches. We met Granny Weatherwax back in Equal Rites, and she was an absolute delight, and here she is joined by two more witches (because witches have to come in threes, obviously). There’s Nanny Ogg, an elderly woman with too many children and grandchildren to count, and newcomer witch Magrat Garlick, who takes a bit of a hippie-ish approach to witchery. The plot is sort of Macbethy and focuses on the witches’ interference (or non-interference) after the murder of a king.
This one might actually be my favourite one so far. The dynamics between the witches are great, there’s tons of funny one-liners, and my inner Shakespearean nerd loved all of the references hidden throughout the book.
Each book that I read seems to be a step up in quality, so I’m going to keep going in publication order until I get bored. Next up, Pyramids!