I’m not certain if Wyrd Sisters is, in fact, the first book in the series, but I do know that it reads quite well on its own. There is a wonderful description of Discworld, what it is, what it looks like, and why so much magic can be found there. Once you learn about all of that, you are ready to jump in and explore Discworld for yourself.
In this book we meet three very influential women of Discworld, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick, who are also known as “The Wyrd Sisters”.
Granny Weatherwax is proper, somewhat conservative, and a witch. Nanny Ogg is wild, passionate (both about her drink and her men) and also a witch. Margrat is young, not yet confident, and learning how to be a witch. The three clash on how to go about doing most things witches do, but, manage to work together when they really need to.
At the beginning of this book, we meet King Verence, who is a king troubled with problems. One problem is that he happens to be quite dead. Another problem is that he is absolutely miserable as a ghost. His biggest problem might be either that his infant son wound up missing soon after his death, or, that his somewhat insane cousin, Duke Felmet, has now taken over the kingdom. It’s hard to tell which is worse.
The Wyrd Sisters, um… I’m going to say “find”, the infant son, and decide immediately exactly what is best for him. They get him adopted by traveling performers, where no one will ever think to look for him. Until, one day, the Wyrd sisters change their mind, go looking, and implement a creative and detailed plan to set things right once again.
In between, there are lots of things I am leaving out for the reader to find and enjoy. Death is a character, and he’s rather funny at times. There is this horrible cat named Greebo, who is, by far, is my favorite character. I laughed out loud at every scene Greebo was in, and then insisted my poor husband listen to me read him those scenes, so he could laugh too. Greebo is awesome!
There are lovers who are lacking in social skills so much that I doubted if they would ever manage to finally get together. Many characters have hidden identities. There is a dwarf who writes plays you just might find oddly familiar, and a magic stone, who is painfully shy.
Sound a bit strange? Well, that’s because it is. But, that doesn’t stop Pratchett from creating a world I’d like to visit if I could, or from tying up all the loose ends together in a colorful, if off-center, bow.
This book review of Wyrd Sisters – by Terry Pratchett is a post written by Jen Thorpe on Book of Jen and is not allowed to be copied to other sites.
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