Discworld Tour: Sourcery

 Welcome back, dear readers.

Once again, allow me to usher you through a paper doorway into the magical land of the Disc. I hope you packed an umbrella because someone's ending the world. Again.

I will be honest reader, Sourcery is not one of my favorite Discworld books. I've never been excited about Rincewind, tragically. If you, reader, like the wizards and their antics this is another installment of life before the status quo established in later books. The Unseen University hasn't really settled into its final Oxbridge form yet. I'd say it really gets there in or around Reaper Man, but I digress.

Sourcery begins with a dying wizard and his son. This is unfortunate for two reasons, one, wizards aren't suppose to have children lest they father eight sons and create a Sourcerer. The second reason is that the wizard in question refuses to die and instead transports his soul into his staff, evading Death and living on to influence his powerfully magical son. As you might have guessed from the interesting spelling, reader, a Sourcerer is a magical source. They don't just cast magic, they create it. Fast forward eight years and a boy named Coin shows up at the Unseen University and kills the Archchancellor and takes his place.

Of course during this murder, Rincewind, his faithful Luggage, and the Librarian get the heck out of dodge and hole up in the Mended Drum. In the bar, they meet Conina, one-off character, professional thief, and daughter of Cohen the Barbarian who has managed to steal the Archchancellor's hat. I would like to take this moment to apologize to all the readers who, like me, are going to keep mixing up 'Coin' and 'Conina.' The hat, of course, can talk and it wants to be taken to Al Khali. It's been a while since I read this book, reader, so I don't remember how bad the Orientalism gets. It's meant to be a tongue-in-cheek play on those tropes in other works of fiction but it's a very fine line between parodying them and just straight up having them in your story. 

That aside, Coin's presence has made all the wizards in the University more powerful so they set about taking over the city. After that Coin (being influenced by his father's ghost) plans to take over the rest of the Disc as well. Meanwhile, Rincewind is thrown into a snake pit, Conina is taken to the Seriph's harem for storytime, and the Luggage runs away because it is upset because Conina was rude to it. 

Back at the University Coin burns down the Library and sends a group of wizards to attack Al Khali. Rincewind temporarily gains the power to work magic, which he uses to get out of the snake pit, along with Nijel who he met in there. Conina sets eyes on Nijel and falls immediately in love. They escape with the Seriph but the hat is left behind with the vizier who puts it on and is unfortunately possessed. Words of wisdom: Don't use wizard's hand-me-downs, they've almost certainly put their soul in there and a cheap pair of socks is simply not worth the risk.

In the meantime, the wizards begin fighting amongst themselves and Rincewind leaves his merry band of miscreants only to run into the Librarian who asks him to stop Coin. He's also saved the library books, for those of you who were shocked and horrified that Coin burnt down the Library. And, lest we forget about that magic hat, the Luggage eats it before it can do something really silly, like trap the gods in a pocket dimension and unleash the ice giants. So Coin traps the gods in a tiny pearl-sized pocket dimension accidentally releasing the ice giants who presage the end of the world. Oops. Fear not, reader, for Rincewind is on the case with a sock full of sand and a lot of moxy. And by moxy I mean fear. He manages to grab Coin and take them both to the Dungeon Dimension and Death finally reaps the soul of Coin's father. Rincewind tells Coin to set things right and buys him time to escape by attacking the Dungeon Dimension Creatures with his sand sock. Coin frees the gods, who put a stop to the ice giant nonsense, and the Luggage barrels into the DD after Rincewind.   

Coin does indeed set things back to the way they were before. He also takes Nijel and Conina's memory of Rincewind away so they will stop looking for their friend and settle down together. Coin leaves for a pocket dimension of his own since he is far too powerful to remain. 

And there we have it. Don't worry over much about Rincewind, dear reader. He'll be back.

I would say Sourcery, while short, isn't the best place to start. Rincewind's stories tend to be best read in order since they often follow one another pretty closely. That said, this book does establish just why the University is important to the wizards and what the wizards were like before it. The book contains some interesting world-building and a cameo from the Four Horseman of the Apocalypse which is always a good time. I'd recommend this if you're a Rincewind fan. 

Next stop on our tour is Wyrd Sisters, one of my favorites and the first proper introduction to the Witches of Lancre.

Until then, reader 🎃