Book Report: Sourcery, by Terry Pratchett
I love Terry Pratchett's books. He's probably the funniest writer going right now, in the tradition of Douglas Adams and P.G. Wodehouse. Not only does he create funny situations and characters and dialogue, but just the way he uses language is wonderful. Every page has some tired cliché turned inside out and hysterically apt. Besides the humor, he often waylays you with something so moving and true that it can bring tears to your eyes. Add to this an amazing inventiveness of plot and situation and you have a complete package.
This story takes place on DiscWorld, which is like our world, except that it's flat and circular, like a phonograph record, and rests on the back of four immense elephants, who stand on the back of a very large turtle. Once again, the main characters are Rincewind, surely the most inept and cowardly wizard ever, and The Luggage, a kind of footlocker with legs that behaves like a vicious guard dog around whoever is its current owner.
The plot has to do with a young boy, Coin (Pratchett seems to make a point of coming up with the most absurd non-names possible), who is so powerful a wizard that he's actually a *source* of magic: he's a sourcerer. He can turn any whim into reality, and the other way around. The humdrum world of wizards is turned upside down by his arrival, with many siding with him solely to gain their own ends.
Pratchett is cleverly satirizing something here, but whether it's religion, academia, finance, computers, or science, I couldn't tell you. One of the many things I like about Pratchett is that, while he may be writing fantasy, that doesn't mean anything goes. Magic has its limits and rules, just like anything else. You don't just use hocus pocus and everything turns out right. You have to use the right kind of hocus pocus, at the right time, probably while being attacked by marauders, dangling from a cliff, with bolts of lightning aimed at your neck.
Along for the ride are several new characters. Conina is a young woman so skilled at hand-to-hand combat and thievery that she can't say no to it, even to achieve her dream of becoming a hairdresser. Nijel the Destroyer is learning how to be a fantasy hero from a book that has helpful illustrations. Creosote (!) is a sort-of-Arabian sort-of-sultan who uses his immense wealth not to help his starving people, but to support his hobby as an Omar Khayyam wannabe: he's always looking for a good rhyme for "thou" or a new Shaherazade to add to his harem.
Death and three of his Horseman buddies also appear. Death talks in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, like some emailers, and is not actually evil, just very good at what he does.
Somehow, the fate of the entire world comes to rest on Rincewind's shoulders, and somehow the world survives anyway.
It's a lot of fun. If you like fantasy or adventure or just plain funny stories, you'll like this book. On to the next one!
I love Terry Pratchett's books. He's probably the funniest writer going right now, in the tradition of Douglas Adams and P.G. Wodehouse. Not only does he create funny situations and characters and dialogue, but just the way he uses language is wonderful. Every page has some tired cliché turned inside out and hysterically apt. Besides the humor, he often waylays you with something so moving and true that it can bring tears to your eyes. Add to this an amazing inventiveness of plot and situation and you have a complete package.
This story takes place on DiscWorld, which is like our world, except that it's flat and circular, like a phonograph record, and rests on the back of four immense elephants, who stand on the back of a very large turtle. Once again, the main characters are Rincewind, surely the most inept and cowardly wizard ever, and The Luggage, a kind of footlocker with legs that behaves like a vicious guard dog around whoever is its current owner.
The plot has to do with a young boy, Coin (Pratchett seems to make a point of coming up with the most absurd non-names possible), who is so powerful a wizard that he's actually a *source* of magic: he's a sourcerer. He can turn any whim into reality, and the other way around. The humdrum world of wizards is turned upside down by his arrival, with many siding with him solely to gain their own ends.
Pratchett is cleverly satirizing something here, but whether it's religion, academia, finance, computers, or science, I couldn't tell you. One of the many things I like about Pratchett is that, while he may be writing fantasy, that doesn't mean anything goes. Magic has its limits and rules, just like anything else. You don't just use hocus pocus and everything turns out right. You have to use the right kind of hocus pocus, at the right time, probably while being attacked by marauders, dangling from a cliff, with bolts of lightning aimed at your neck.
Along for the ride are several new characters. Conina is a young woman so skilled at hand-to-hand combat and thievery that she can't say no to it, even to achieve her dream of becoming a hairdresser. Nijel the Destroyer is learning how to be a fantasy hero from a book that has helpful illustrations. Creosote (!) is a sort-of-Arabian sort-of-sultan who uses his immense wealth not to help his starving people, but to support his hobby as an Omar Khayyam wannabe: he's always looking for a good rhyme for "thou" or a new Shaherazade to add to his harem.
Death and three of his Horseman buddies also appear. Death talks in ALL CAPITAL LETTERS, like some emailers, and is not actually evil, just very good at what he does.
Somehow, the fate of the entire world comes to rest on Rincewind's shoulders, and somehow the world survives anyway.
It's a lot of fun. If you like fantasy or adventure or just plain funny stories, you'll like this book. On to the next one!
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