Sourcery: (Discworld Novel 5) (Discworld Novels)

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Scorned wizard instills a sense of revenge into his genius baby boy, who subsequently sets out to conquer the world.

First, all of you who've been giving the Rincewind subseries a wide berth (my past self, included) should know that you're missing out! This book is surprisingly good, especially the scenes featuring Rincewind himself. Yes, it once again dumps a whole lot of philosophical treatise on us, but at least there's a marked effort in making it all focus on a single topic, rather than mixing in everything but the kitchen sink.In the end, I can say that it's a clear improvement over the two prequels, but there's still a bit of awkwardness left with "serious business" and comical action-adventure sequences neatly divided for most of the story. There's a lot of good to be found amongst the rubble of this Disc disaster, the developing of the Librarian as a character for example, the great Pratchett critical eye reflecting humanity like a fun house mirror, the best part for me though is the destruction of the wizard hierarchy whilst restoring the partially destroyed world with the Big Red Button trope, allowing Pratchett to actually develop real characters with his replacement wizards in later novels. Oh how I long to read about Ridcully and the Bursar and Stibbons and Hex once more.

Some new characters were welcome additions. Conina wants to be a hairdresser but is compelled to engage in barbarianism because of, as explained to her by an unnamed old witch, "herrydeterry" (and if you can't figure out who that old witch was for yourself, then you seriously need to read more Discworld). Nijel "the Destroyer", a barbarian for all of three days when we meet him, is a gas. On the Discworld, "sourcerers"—wizards who are sources of magic, and thus immensely more powerful than normal wizards—were the main cause of the Great Mage Wars that left areas of the Disc uninhabitable. As eight is a powerful magical number on Discworld, men born as the eighth son of an eighth son are commonly wizards. Since sourcerers are born the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son, they are "wizards squared". To prevent the creation of sourcerers, therefore, wizards are not allowed to marry or have children. The overwhelming majority of citizens being defined in this case as everyone not currently hanging upside down over a scorpion pit. Born Terence David John Pratchett, Sir Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was thirteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe.Once again the cowardly wizard must embark on a quest: to deliver a precious artefact - the very embodiment of magic itself - halfway across the Disc to safety. If he doesn't make it, the death of all wizardry is at hand.

There are some good bones. The strongest element is Rincewind's dependence on his identity as a wizard and his reactions when this is challenged. This helped endear a character to me that I have previously had a hard time connecting with. This occurs in the setting of a discal struggle to define the role of magic and wizards overall.

Honorary Doctorate

Unseen University, the most magical establishment on the Discworld , has finally got its wish: the emergence of a wizard more powerful than they’ve ever seen. You’d think the smartest men on the Disc would have been a little more careful what they wished for.