Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Wyrd Sisters
Book Review: Not wyrd...but brilliant
Summary: 5 Stars
It seems to me that these first couple of Discworld books is dominated by witches. Introduction to series ('Colour of magic' and 'Light fantastic') is utterly unremarkable for me now (though I liked them as a kid), but the witches storyline remained powerful and gained on power over the years. It has been a long time since read this one and up to this days just had a vague remembrance of the plot and main idea. Remembered the coven, Magrat Garlick as a progressive witch who happened to get involved with Granny and Nanny and stuff like that. But, apart from the main plot-line everything was in a mist. Finding out how good this book was (or is) almost kicked me out of my chair.
Yes, it's another one of the Discworld novels which doesn't really have to do anything with fantasy and parody. Sure, Pratchett would like you to think so, but you'd be missing the better part of the book if you just stick with that reasoning. Sure, there is narrative causality present here as in the other Discworld books, there is parody on theatre and parody of lords and ladies, but underneath it all lies the debate about nature of power, concept of destiny, and the idea of a human being. Powers that do clash here, and whose struggle marks even our world, fall into a number of different categories. There is a power of words, gossip, rhetoric, oration, almost godlike power of theatre (i.e. fiction) clashed together with Granny's headology, power of illusion, appearances, grasping the inherent truth that lies dormant in everything. Lurking above them all is sheer power of rulers, power exercised for powers sake, consuming power which destroys humans and cities alike. Amongst the threads of these forces destiny shows up her head and Discworld characters will be hard pressed to avoid being crushed by its unrelenting pressure. Granny and her coven (even though Granny doesn't think much about such business as covens) will try to make everything right, will try to differentiate between the forces and help the world (Land) to restore its balance. Once again, Pratchett tries to re-establish status-quo of the world (Granny being the biggest adversary of anything new here), but in this case he does it in a way that makes sense, and sheer magic of his writing and usage of English language, his admiration for people and their flaws, pulls you right into the story from which you cannot escape until it's finished.
It almost seems like Pratchett decided to set aside comedy for this one (still bringing some of it up just for good measure), and started to write his own mimetic charade, one that does resemble the theater of the absurdity, one that does reflect the world in which we live in. His writing is the main advocate for the ideas presented in this book and it shows us that comedy bits of Discworld are just smoke on the water - charlatans trick to attract attention. Once we separate our minds from Discworld mode of storytelling, entire storyline shows itself like it is, grim and sad, but strangely comforting. Pratchett shows us people like they are, somewhat distorted through the lens of the fiction (which is precisely what Granny does with Duchess), he shows us the world in its bareness and leaves us to deal with it. And, surprisingly, upon seeing all of this, we don't feel despair. Book is strangely comforting just by pointing the fact that you're not alone in the world that looks like that. Just by reassuring you there are lots of people out there who notice this, and the ones who deserve a second chance. And this is something that we forget more often than not. It need reminding now and then - and "Wyrd sisters" do excellent job out of it.
Book Review: One of Pratchett's best efforts
Summary: 4 Stars
Plays off MacBeth. Since I read these hopelessly out-of-order, it is nice to go back and figure out just how the former Jester became King and Magrat his (eventual) queen. The old King Verrence is murdered, but his ghost gets to hang around and haunt the castle, and his son is spirited away to join a troupe of roving actors and a dwarf playwright. This one moves well and finishes well (finishing well is kind of unusual for a Discworld novel), there are quite a few great puns, and we get to know the three witches better. It is up-to-the-eyeballs in Shakespearean references, avoids being too pat, and ranks as one of Pratchett's best efforts.Book Review: One of the Best Books Ever Written, Anywhere
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the 6th book in Pratchett's Discworld series. Alternatively, it's the 1st book in the Witches subseries ("Wyrd Sisters," "Witches Abroad," "Lords and Ladies," "Maskerade," and "Carpe Jugulum" -- though Granny Weatherwax did have a role in "Equal Rites" (which preceded this)). Take the essence of Macbeth, give it a twist, sprinkle it with hilarious characters, dialog, and situations, and then throw in several parallel structures. Shake well. You've got one of the best books ever written by anyone, anywhere (this book). It's a tough book to read because my eyes repeatedly filled with tears from laughing so much: 5 stars out of 5.Book Review: Practice novel leading up to Brilliance
Summary: 3 Stars
I adore Terry Pratchett, but I admit that he has learned a lot in the last 25 plus years. This book is not his best, although it includes many of the aspects that make his best books not only best compared to his own work but also compared to those of others. In this novel, there is satire not only on our own society's cynicism and blind belief, but also on the deep fairy tales that continue to move us, and the surprising forces that give us hope in our own individual free choice.
This book isn't Pratchett's best, but it is a great deal better than most authors' average,and reading it will give you an entryway to some of the best fiction writing of our time, fantasy, "realistic" or otherwise.
Book Review: Pratchett's all-time best
Summary: 5 Stars
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.