Discworld Tour: Equal Rites

 Welcome back, readers.

It's once again time to journey into the wonderful world of the Disc on our next stop in the Discworld Tour.

It's possible I made a graphic for the tour. You know, just for spice.

Our destination today is Equal Rites. This little guy was originally published in 1987 with a much different cover. I'm using the Ben Perrini cover (as I have been for the past few books) in part because I like them and because these are the covers as I own them. Although Josh Kirby's original cover art is sure something, reader.

Behold!

It sure is something. I do have at least one edition with a Kirby cover but that's a little later down the line.

On with the tour, reader. Equal Rites is a little longer than its predecessors, with 264 pages. It is, in my opinion, the novel where Pratchett really starts to hone in on what the tone for Discworld novels will be. 

We start the story off with a thesis statement and a wizard. Exciting stuff. It's also accurate in broad strokes: this book is about magic on the Disc, where it comes from, and what its rules are. These rules form the basis of a few recurring storylines. The first is Rincewind and the University, naturally enough. The second are the Tiffany Aching books which we will get to later on our tour. Last are the books featuring the witches like Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg. Granny plays a pretty big role in this story, and we'll certainly be seeing her later.

But, there was a wizard, wasn't there reader. A wizard who's traveled all the way to the Ramtops in search of the eighth son of an eighth son. Eight, you might recall, is the powerful magical number on the Disc. Interesting, then, that this eighth son's eighth son is a daughter. The wizard's staff is given to her, much to the chagrin of those involved, namely the wizard himself and Granny Weatherwax who is midwifing. Thus is Eskarina Smith given a wizard's staff.

And thus, I derail this summary to talk about magic. On the Disc magic is split into wizard magic and witch magic, which the book goes into. Think of the classic divide between treating magic like a science and treating magic like an art. Disc wizards seek to quantify and complicate and Disc witches draw their power from the land around them. Esk puts it best: wizards find the place where there is balance and give it a push, witches make sure things stay put. There are all kinds of ways to describe it, reader. And the inherently gendered nature of all this will be addressed, worry not. 

So we have our first female wizard, Esk. Granny tries to teach her to be a witch, starting with the most important magic lesson: don't use an ace when a two will do. In other words, you don't need to cast Fireball to start your campfire. You have flint and tinder for a reason. This theme carries through the rest of the book as well as through other Discworld novels that deal with magic. Especially with witches. 

Esk doesn't take to witch magic at all, so Granny takes her to the Unseen University so she can learn to be a wizard. I'll skip the particulars of the journey. Most important is we meet Simon, who's a young apprentice with a stutter heading to the University as well, and Esk is told girls can't be wizards. It simply isn't done. An upsetting thing for a nine year old to hear. Especially a highly magical one.

We've visited the University before, but this time we'll be spending a lot of time in it. The University is just Oxbridge with magic, complete with all the classism and sexism that comes along with that. This Esk and Granny find out very quickly. Esk's plan to just apply doesn't work, so Granny sneaks her in as a maid and she listens in on lectures when and where she can. She also keeps an eye on Simon who is trying to reduce magic to its component parts.

This, it turns out, is a very powerful and very bad idea. It starts to open up a portal to the Dungeon Dimension, which we've seen before in The Light Fantastic. As this starts to happen Esk's staff gives Simon a good whack on the head and Esk throws it into the river for its trouble. Simon meanwhile has gone Borrowing, something that only witches can do. Early in the story we see Granny doing it, where she tags along in the mind of an animal to keep an eye on things. 

Naturally, Esk sets out to save Simon, who's she's grown attached to, from being taken over by the Dungeon Dimension creatures. The day is saved by the most important thing of all: not using magic, even when you could. Esk and Simon leave to create a new type of magic that I believe won't come back again until I Shall Wear Midnight. And reader, that stop is a while down the road.

Thus ends Equal Rites. My thoughts on it as a starting point are: it's perfectly fine. Especially if you want a neat explanation for any of the wizard or witch centered storylines that come after. Granny, the Librarian, and Esk are the only characters who really come back later in the novels. Esk only appears again in I Shall Wear Midnight. On the whole, reader, it's a fine early book to jump into.

The next stop on our Tour will be Mort, the book I started with, and a lovely introduction to the character who is in every Discworld novel: Death.

Until next time, reader🎃