Equal Rites by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


I've been reading the Discworld novels again, in no particular order, and there are many of them I hadn't read before. This is one of them.

I was surprised by how funny and inventive I found THE COLOUR OF MAGIC and THE LIGHT FANTASTIC, having only read them once nearly 20 years ago, but also disappointed by their weak narrative structure. They're basically just series of set pieces, not all of them equally successful. The Discworld books clearly got better later on.

I'd heard that EQUAL RITES is the first book in the series to evidence some of the elegant plotting of the later titles, being not only a series of jokes but actually coming off as a novel.

I was disappointed. While clearly an improvement on the two earlier titles, EQUAL RITES still struggles with carrying its characters through an engaging storyline. The ingredients are there, but the result doesn't come off - not to my taste, at least. The middle section where Esk runs away does not, as far as I can tell, add anything to the proceedings, and the final set piece lacks suspense and purpose.

On the other hand, some of the new characters are very promising, and the budding relationship between Granny Weatherwax and the Archchancellor of Unseen University is one of the best elements in the entire book.

The best thing about the title remains the title itself - a truly wonderful pun.



View all my reviews