Pratchett, Terry - Witches Abroad

[oyceter]

I continue to go through Discworld! I think that while I am fond of the Discworld books I've read so far, I'm not head-over-heels in love. That said, they're remarkably good light reading, they generally cheer me up, and while Pratchett can get a little repetitive in his intended points, I find that I have been looking for light fluffy books these days. I suspect the fluffiness is more because Pratchett is very skilled at writing light without writing thin; the books are easy to digest, but they also have a lot more layers than they seem to.

Witches Abroad takes place after the events of Wyrd Sisters, though I'm guessing you can read these completely out of order, as Pratchett reintroduces characters and concepts. Sometimes he does this too much; the beginning of this book is nearly identical to that of Wyrd Sisters (the coven gathering, then the food), which had me rolling my eyes a little.

Anyway, Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat find themselves trying to carry out the last wishes of a fairy godmother, which means subverting the evil intentions of Lilith, who just wants everyone to have their own happy ending.

Some of the themes got extremely anvilly, which was irritating, particularly that about not being able to make people's happy endings for them and that the easy fix is usually the bad fix (as someone who likes to pretend to be able to come up with hack-y solutions, I object a little to this, though I get Pratchett's point. Multiple times).

On the other hand, I really liked that I actually felt threatened by the villain; most of the other Pratchett books didn't have me really believing in the threat. There are also some genuinely creepy moments in the book (the big bad wolf, for me). And, of course, I am always a sucker for fairy tale takes.

Also! Actual black people! /sarcasm

More seriously, I liked that Pratchett mixed together New Orleans and gumbo and Voodoo and Legba with Cinderella and "traditional" fairy tales; the Discworld books I've read so far are pretty West-centric, though people have commented that there are Asia and Africa and Australia equivalents in the world. I probably just haven't gotten there yet. Is there a South American equivalent?

I would normally be irritated by Nanny Ogg's mastery of "foreign" (particularly the moments of "chop chop" and the pidgin Asian languages) except that Pratchett is clearly making fun of the general propensity of tourists to march in and bungle things up, and I laughed at Granny Weatherwax's belief that if she just said something slowly and loudly enough, the language barrier would magically disappear. I'm also not sure how he does with Voodoo -- from my very uneducated POV, I was a little irritated by the voodoo doll and the zombie, but I also liked the take on the zombie and the voodoo doll. Also, I loved Mrs. Gogol's gumbo pot, and in general, my impression was that Pratchett was taking the trappings of Voodoo that make it into horror movies, poking holes in those caricatures, but also building fairly solid secondary characters underneath. I'm still not quite sure how he does this, but I am very impressed by how he can pull it off consistently.

Is Mrs. Gogol black? I thought so, though reading through the passage via Google books doesn't explicitly say so. On the other hand, the Discworld wiki lists her as black.

Anyway. POC! Yay!

And I loved Pratchett's description of Cajun food.

Comments

[oyceter]

What counts as early Pratchett? I've mostly been avoiding Color of Magic and Equal Rites per people's suggestions, but I'm still sort of trying to figure out how to navigate the massive amounts of books he's written.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

You have already seen the L-space Reading Order Guides (http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/), I hope? That helps keep the twisty turny relationships between the series straight.

For me, at least, the only sub-series that I liked from the very beginning were the Watch books and the Industrial Revolution books, and the standalone Ancient Civilizations tales. I didn't really care so much for the Death or Witches series until the second books, and Rincewind I love as a character, but found all of his books fairly unsatisfying on the whole until very late in the series, around "Interesting Times".

It took me a long time to get into Discworld, I'd originally tried to go in publication/series order and "Mort" and "Equal Rites" and "Colour of Magic" really didn't do all that much for me. Then I just sort of gave up going in order and started reading them randomly, skipping about back and forth, and that wound up making me much much happier in the long run. I can even go back occasionally and revisit those earlier books a bit more favorably now, seeing them through the lenses of the later stuff, but they will just never be as dear to me or as often-reread as the later books.

[oyceter]

I have been consulting it frequently! Otherwise I get totally confused.

Hrm, do I need to read the other Rincewind books to read "Interesting Times"? I want to check out the Chinese bit, but pretty much everyone has told me to skip Rincewind.

I actually first read Mort and Wyrd Sisters over five years ago, totally didn't get into them, then read The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents a couple years ago (rats!), sort of liked it but wasn't hooked, and then randomly picked up Mort again this summer, after finally stealing it back from my sister. And... have been on a bit of a binge ever since.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Hrm, I think you could probably jump in to that one without too much trouble? Rincewind and Twoflower are both so much more fleshed out here as characters, Twoflower in particular is just sort of a one-note sweet naive tourist in his first appearance, and here he's actually a real person with backstory and family and emotions and all. And as for Rincewind, well, it takes a little while for him to get on the scene and the way it's set up would I think be a sufficient introduction to the character that you wouldn't be lost? Sure, some of the jokes and little references are probably a bit funnier if you've seen Rincewind and Twoflower and Genghis Cohen and the Luggage before, but the fun of that sort of thing is sort of counterbalanced by the not-as-much-fun-ness of the earlier books.

(Rats! Wait until Reaper Man turns up and you get the first appearance of Death of Rats. SQUEAK.)

[oyceter]

I know! I have been dying to get Reaper Man (no pun intended) just for the Death of Rats!!!

[chomiji]

What smillaraaq said ... .   XD

YMMV, but I haven't felt inclined to re-read any of the following, in addition to the two you mention: The Light Fantastic, Sourcery, Eric (but I know other people who really love that one), and Wyrd Sisters. All of those are early Discworld books. He hasn't really developed his Pratchett-ness yet, somehow, in those. Too many cheap laughs, not enough texture.

I frequently re-read and enjoy Lords and Ladies, Carpe Jugulum, Hogfather, Monstrous Regiment, all the Watch books, and all the Tiffany Aching books.

The other ones fall in between.

But there's much variation among Pratchett fans ... I can take or leave Small Gods, but for many it's the epitome of a Discworld novel!

And my fondness for the Watch books is probably fallout from when I used to love police procedural mysteries (before they got so bloody and cruel).

[oyceter]

I just finished Lords and Ladies and really loved it! I'm still waiting for Reaper Man to get to the library so I can finally keep going with the Death series.

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

I am fonder of Wyrd Sisters than you are -- Hwel and Verence's ghost just really work for me, even if Magrat still hasn't grown a spine; and I love Small Gods now although it took me a while to warm to it. But otherwise our lists are remarkably similar! :) I adore all of the one-shots, I like the Witches books starting with Wyrd Sisters, the Death books starting with Reaper Man, and even the Rincewind/Wizards starting from Interesting Times, and reread them all pretty frequently; but those earlier books I very rarely dust off. The jokes aren't as deeply layered, the characters don't have as much depth and/or haven't settled into their final forms, and frankly I like Pterry better when he's dropping anvils instead of just trying to do a simple genre parody. This is probably why I adore Sam Vines with such a deep and uncritical love, as he's the most anvilly of them all.