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Wyrd Sisters (Discworld Novel) |
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Author:
Terry Pratchett
By Gollancz
Average Customer Rating:  
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Product Description
When King Verence of Lancre is murdered by his cousin, his baby son is rescued by three witches. They are Granny Weatherwax, whose normal state of being is one of barely controlled rage, the extremely earthy Nanny Ogg, and the downtrodden Magrat Garlick.
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Pratchett's all-time best, 2008-10-12
This book was originally published in 1988.
Terry Pratchett's bibliography marches onwards towards 40 books, but as with every author, the true classics jump out at you. While many will choose Soul Music as Pratchett's zenith, or perhaps his collaboration with Neil Gaiman, Good Omens, I put the finger on Wyrd Sisters as the penultimate Terry Pratchett novel. It's the only book every fan can agree on, and has made countless Pratchett fans out of first-time readers.
Broadly a parody of Shakespeare's MacBeth, Wyrd Sisters is the 6th Discworld novel, and Pratchett's 15th overall. It's the 2nd book in the broadly loved "Witches' Stories" begun by "Equal Rites". Pratchett starts with its main protagonist, Esmerelda "Granny" Weatherwax, and sticks her with two other witches from her home, the mountainous state of Lancre, hubward from the great city of Ankh-Morpork. Gytha "Nanny" Ogg is the mother of all mothers, the matriarch of the burgeoning Ogg clan, whose sharp wit and sharper eye for vice is a treasure trove of belly laughs. Magrat Garlick is the reluctant maiden of the coven, naive and earnest to a fault, and given to expecting form to accompany function. That makes Granny Weatherwax the cr--...no, she'd give me the Evil Eye if I said the word. She's just old, cantankerous, knows a lot of real stuff about life, and brooks no fools.
When the King of Lancre is murdered, his spirit appeals to the witches to avenge him and protect his heir from his scheming cousin and murderer, Duke Felmet and his vicious harpy of a wife, the Duchess, who (both described in the novel and in the wonderful animated mini-series) sports a hair-do like Princess Leia from Star Wars, but isn't beautiful and is built like a valkyrie. Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg know the secret of the king's son, and set out to ensure that things unfold as they should.
And they do so with some of the wittiest and most hysterically funny dialogue ever written in a novel. The exchanges between Granny, Nanny, and Magrat, and their conversations with others, are the stuff of comedy legend. Because it's a story with Nanny Ogg in it, a lot of the humor is sexual in nature but in the "nudge nudge wink wink" vein of things, which makes Granny Weatherwax annoyingly uncomfortable (after all, just for the inevitability of someone saying 'we're all naked under our clothes', she wears clothes under her clothes) and most of it sails gaily over Magrat's head. Such as in their discussion of some of the former king's propensities:
"And then there was that great hairy thing of his," said Nanny Ogg.
There was a perceptible change in the atmosphere. It became warmer, darker, filled at the corners with shadows of unspoken conspiracy.
"Ah," said Granny Weatherwax distantly. "His droit de siegneur."
"Needed a lot of exercise," said Nanny Ogg, staring at the fire.
"But next day he'd send his housekeeper round with a bag of silver and a hamper of stuff for the wedding," said Granny. "Many a couple got a proper start in life thanks to that."
"Ah," agreed Nanny. "One or two individuals, too."
"Every inch a king," said Granny.
"What are you talking about," said Magrat suspiciously. "Did he keep pets?"
And these kinds of exchanges keep turning up continually, all the time, nearly every page with two or three. And somehow Pratchett keeps it up the whole book *and* manages to thread a sharp plot through the whole thing.
It's difficult to underestimate this book. It establishes so many cherished ideas about the Discworld -- about the role of witches in its culture, the echo of our own European legacy, for example. It fixes into the Discworld pantheon Nanny Ogg's cat, Greebo, as a boot-faced ball of casual malevolence even as Nanny dismissed him as "just an old softie". (Pratchett is obviously a cat lover.) More fans of Terry Pratchett and Discworld can likely trace their fandom back to this book more than any other.
Being the 2nd book in the story arc, Pratchett truly fleshes out his characters, sketches out his mythology, and hits his literary stride with Wyrd Sisters. Just as the middling Mort launched the classic "Death's Family" novels Reaper Man and Soul Music; and the middling Guards! Guards! launched the classic "Night Watch" novel Men at Arms, Wyrd Sisters adds every crucial element that was missing from Equal Rites, and provides a perfect launchpad for the classic witch books to follow, "Witches Abroad" and "Lords and Ladies". (And if ever there was a paragraph that could serve as a Pratchett Reading List for the Uninitiated, there it is right there.)
Wyrd Sisters isn't just a good book. It isn't just a funny book. It's a fan creator. Come witness Terry Pratchett at the beginning of the finest phase of his writing career.
The Discworld Spins Onwards, 2008-01-02
Terry Pratchett has become one of the most popular authors alive today and his popularity is richly deserved. But not even with his fertile mind could ever have envisaged the heights to which his Discworld series would rise. This book was first published in 1988 and is number six in the Discworld novels.
You would think that a fantasy world full of trolls, zombies, witches, vampires would be an alien concept to most readers. Werewolves and dwarves in the Ank Morpork city watch. Wizards running a university. All this born in the mind of one of the funniest minds writing today. Surely this style of writing would have a limited readership? But no the books are loved by anybody and everybody and are read by people who would not normally allow fantasy fiction anywhere near their book shelves. This is the Discworld of Terry Pratchett.
In this episode Granny Weatherwax and her fellow coven members are meddling in politics, the royal kind, which Granny Weatherwax thinks is the worst kind of all. The Wyrd sisters as they are known battle to put the right king on the right throne, at least that's the general idea. After all what are witches for . . .
 Wyrd Sisters; Weird Book, but what did you expect?, 2007-12-10
First let me say that, as with all Terry Pratchett's other books that I read, I liked this one, but not as much as I liked Guards! Guards! I am sure that Wyrd Sisters had, at some level, a deeper meaning than was obvious to me. I don't view the Discworld stories as satires, although they may be, I just want some time to escape from Earth. And this book filled the bill. The main characters were well developed and the book was overall a very good read. I look forward to reading many more of his stories, although I am not calling my travel agent to book a visit to Ankh Morpork.
a mixed cauldron of goodies and disappointment, 2007-11-05
I almost gave this 4 stars, but the more I thought about it, the less satisfying it became.
Wyrd Sisters is a mildly amusing parody of Macbeth, with shades of Hamlet tossed in as well. I was actually reminded of "Rosenkrantz and Gildestern are dead" by Stoppard, which tells the story of Hamlet through two very minor characters wandering around the background during key scenes and soliloquies. Sadly, Wyrd Sisters wasn't as inventive.
The story has some good chuckles, but none of the laugh-out-loud moments that pepper Pratchett's other works. Also missing are cameos from the vast pantheon of enjoyable minor charcters in the Discworld milieu. My major problem, though, involves a...
***MINOR SPOILER***
About half way through, it becomes necessary to age one of the central characters (the rightful heir to the throne) by 15 years so he can return and claim his birthright. Pratchett's method for this was wholely unconvincing, and even he seemed embarrased by the awkwardness of it all, based on some comments that appear after the fact. I realize it needed to be done, but it just didn't sit right with me.
***END MINOR SPOILERS***
If you like Pratchett, and especially the Lancre Witches arc of his writing, then you'll probably enjoy Wyrd Sisters. Personally, I don't think it's one of his better efforts, though I'm glad I read it from a "completionist" standpoint.
Wyrd doesn't have to mean bad!, 2007-10-20
Meet Granny, Nanny, and Margrat, the three witches of the Ramtop Mountains. They meet on a rainy night and are saddled with an infant prince and a Shakespearean drama of the highest magnitude. Pratchett takes his three magical ladies out for their first real spin and sets his sights on MacBeth. Grand satire and fantastic characters that leave one grinning as the pages turn. Let Nanny summon a demon using old soap flakes and a wooden spoon, or Granny to use "headology", or Magrat to make the tea and fall in love and the world will be a scary, but funny place indeed.
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Binding: Hardcover
Dewey Decimal Number: 813
EAN: 9780575064119
ISBN: 0575064110
Label: Gollancz
Manufacturer: Gollancz
Number Of Pages: 256
Publication Date: 1996-11-14
Publisher: Gollancz
Studio: Gollancz |
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