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Book Review: Equal Rites June 13, 2008
Note: This is book #27 of my 52 Books in 52 Weeks challenge for 2008.
I liked Terry Pratchett's first two Diskworld books so much that I drove forward into the awaiting pile of his subsequent writings with great relish. Unfortunately Equal Rites didn't impress me nearly as much, mainly for its lack of the funny for the first half of the book.
For those of you in need of a refresher, Pratchett's shtick is that he lampoons the high fantasy genre (wizards, barbarians, dragons, all that) without having his books drown in their own mockery. He's also very funny, even apart from the whole satire angle. Equal Rites focuses on not only the fantasy conventions of wizards, witches, and the apprenticeship thereof, but also on more contemporary issues like gender equality and women in the workplace. The main character, Esk, is a young girl who displays talent at the traditionally male craft of wizarding. When nobody else will have anything to do with her, she's taken on as an apprentice by a witch named Granny Weatherwax, a practitioner of the female half of the magic yin-yang. Granny, who is old, proud, insular, set in her ways, and distrustful of the world outside her cottage, makes it her quest to escort Esk from the country to the big city where she will enroll at Unseen University as the Disk's first female wizard. Hilarity ensues.
Well, hilarity eventually ensues. My main beef with Equal Rites is that it's really slow to get to the funny. The first half of the book preoccupies itself with Esk's coming of age as a sort of wizard/witch hybrid and her apprenticeship to Granny Weatherwax. They spend a fair amount of time stomping around in the wilderness learning about herbs and communing with animals, and other kinds of witchcraft. Pratchett strikes me as the kind of writer who can make anything funny, but it's like he's purposely holding back or too ill at ease with the whole scene to break out and be himself beyond the occasional wise crack. It's not until Esk and Granny arrive at Unseen University that Pratchett seems to find his groove and remind me so much why I enjoyed his previous two books. Maybe that's the reason why Esk has never reappeared to date in any other Diskworld novel (though I understand Granny Weatherwax becomes a major character in her own way).
So, while Equal Rites isn't a bad little comic relief, it's not as good as the other 5 Diskworld books I've read to date. And it's short, so it shouldn't distract you for long on your way to the better stuff.
Others doing the 52-in-52 thing this week:
- Jeremy reviews Candy Girl by Diablo Cody
- Heliologue reviews His Excellency: George Washington by Joseph Ellis
- Kevin reviews His Majesty's Dragon by Naomi Novik
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