It’s true I’ve only read five Discworld (I say only because Terry Pratchett’s either close to or
already has written over 40 novels in the series) but only five volumes into
the series I know that I’ll enjoy each new book I pick up. There are things I
know will happen once I pick up a Discworld
novel off the shelf. I will 1) laugh out loud (which doesn’t happen often with
books), 2) snicker while Pratchett makes fun of a fantasy trope I love while simultaneously
loving that very same fantasy trope all the more, and 3) learn something interesting
and be sent off into deep thought over a brilliant line or paragraph. While Sourcery isn’t as thought-inducing as say
Equal Rites, it’s still a damn good
book because it’s hilarious. Let’s be honest, the primary reason anyone has for
reading a Discworld novel isn’t that
it will make you think, that’s just an added bonus, the real reason is that it’ll
make you laugh ‘til your abs hurt and your face muscles are tired. In that
respect, Sourcery is a success.
The fifth Discworld
novel, Sourcery brings us back to the
famous character of the first two books, Rincewind the wizard and the Luggage.
Most of the humour and the story in this book works because of the characters.
It’s a character centric novel and the plot, the little bit that exist, was
probably a better and tighter plot but Pratchett had to go throw some magic in
there and everything started to fall apart. To this day, he still pretends he
had a firm grasp on where this novel was going before it decided to head into
another direction all on its own. Please be warned, Pratchett is a professional
liar, he writes books for a living. I won’t get into the details of the plot
because there isn’t a whole lot of it and it’s much more fun if you discover it
on your own. What the story really comes down to is people running around
Discworld trying to avoid the nasty effects of the coming of a sourcerer to the
flat planet. What made the novel work for me was Pratchett redefining Rincewind
as a character and introducing new ones.
Oh, what’s a sourcerer? It’s quite simple really. See, a
wizard is the eight son of an eight son (eight being a magical number on
Discworld). Something happens with genetics that makes them susceptible to
being able to absorb and channel some of the magic of Discworld. As it turns
out, the eight son of an eight son of an eight son, or a wizard squared, is
something altogether different. They’re not just able to channel magic, they’re
a source of magic and none of the rules apply to them.
As I said above, the best thing about this book is the
characters: who they are, what they do and how they interact with each other. The
main characters of the story are made up of:
Rincewind: a terrible wizard
who’s not very courageous but somehow manages to regularly do courageous things
and save the world.
Conina: a warrior who live in
the shadow of her father, Cohen the Barbarian. All she really wants to do is
become a hairdresser but quests keep getting in the way.
Nijel: a barbarian-in-the-making.
He’s out on his first quest. It’s almost been a week and he’s doing pretty
well. Probably because he’s using his guide book, Inne Juste Seven Dayes I Wile Mayke you a Barberian Hero, written
by Cohen the Barbarian.
Luggage: a chest made of
sapient pearwood. It runs around on hundreds of tiny legs and gets into all
sorts of mischief. It’s also adorable and tougher than nails.
It’s interesting to note that I don’t really consider
Coin, the sourcerer of the story, a main character. He’s kind of just there to
provide conflict for the others. I’m not sure if that was the intent or if
Pratchett just never got around to it because he was busy writing about the
aprocralypse and flying carpets.
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| Look at all that chaos and energy Josh Kirby paints. I love his covers. Too bad mine is an edited (ahem, incomplete) cover. |
Pratchett makes fun of wizards a plenty. If they’re so
powerful why do they just sit around and not do much of anything? That’s
because they’re not all that powerful, they’re only wizards after all not
sourcerers who are the ones with real power. He also has quite a bit of fun
poking fun at barbarian heroes of the sword and sorcery sub-genre. Conina is
funny because she’s a female barbarian but we quickly stop laughing once we
found out just how effective she is. She’s reluctantly following in her father’s
footsteps. Just imagine how much questing she could do if she put her mind to
it? In case you’re too lazy to imagine it, she’s Genghis Khan all of Discworld.
It’d be pretty terrifying, I guarantee it. Out of all the characters in the
book, Nijel wins the prize for being the most ridiculous. He’s the embodiment
of a table-top role-playing nerd taking to its extreme conclusion. With the
help of his manual he heads off on a journey to actually become a barbarian
hero. Nijel is a skinny young man who weighs less than his trusty guidebook and
does nothing without first consulting his book. He also gets over silly
arguments when the rules mentioned in Cohen’s book are broken. How he survived
his time alone before meeting Rincewind and Conina is one of the great
mysteries in all of Discworld (at
least those five novels I’ve actually read).
Terry Pratchett, or Sir Terry like some have become found
of calling him, is a special kind of writer. He’s not just a satirist or a
comedian or a post-modern philosopher, he’s all of these combined into some
sort of super writer*. I might not as much to say about Sourcery as I have for previous Discworld
novels but that doesn’t mean there’s anything wrong or bad about this volume.
It just focused on different aspects of Pratchett’s writing than some of the
other books. There were more jokes and less philosophy. Either way, it’s a
great novel to read especially for readers of fantasy literature who also have
a fondness for British type humour.
*I haven’t check but Sir Terry is probably the eight son
of an eight son (of an eight son?) which is why his word fu is so strong. Nobody cracks a joke like he does because
nobody has that genetically developed magic manipulation of words. It’s all
very scientific and I haven’t really done my research, but I’m convinced he has
an advantage no other writers have and that’s what makes him so good. I’m also
pretty certain that he has more than one pair of arms because he sure writes a lot.
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