Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Wyrd Sisters
Book Review: Rollickingly Brilliant Fantasy/Parody
Summary: 5 Stars
I discovered the writing of Terry Pratchett when I happened to read a short story called 'The Sea and Little Fishes,' which was included in the Legends compilation series. That short story featured one 'Granny Weatherwax' and her companion Gytha Ogg, and the deadpan brilliance of the writing and imagination hooked me immediately. Since then, I have purchased and read every book in Pratchett's 'Granny Weatherwax' cycle (except Witches Abroad) and I have enjoyed each one of them immensely. Pratchett is sly, witty, fiendishly nonsensical when he has to be, masterful in his plotting when he has to be, and above all else, entertaining. Wyrd Sisters was an absolute hoot of a book, laced with memorable scenes, lines of cracklingly funny dialogue and fresh imagination. Pratchett knows how to walk the fine line between camp and clever, and he never misses a beat in his Granny books. Read and become hooked at your own peril.Book Review: Shakespearatchett
Summary: 5 Stars
Terry Pratchett has created an entirely ridiculous and enjoyable world with his Discworld novels. It is a world peopled by the inhabitants of fantasy and science fiction, with events not often too far removed from what happens in the 'real' world. Yet Pratchett's writing seems to be at its strongest when he is working from other sources and not from his uniquely own material. Such is the case with "Wyrd Sisters", a sendup of Shakespeare's 'Macbeth' and many of his other plays.
When the king of Lancre suddenly finds himself dead, and witnesses the duke who killed him to gain his throne, he is at a complete loss on how to cope with being dead, as well as how to seek revenge. He seeks out the local Ramtop witches, commonly known as Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick to help him out. The witches are not meant to interfere with destiny, but find themselves involved when the king's young son is dropped into their hands. They find a home for him among a traveling band of players and try not to interfere as the new duke makes a royal mess of the kingdom. But when the witches become hunted due to terrible false rumors, the three are forced to take matters into their own hands.
"Wyrd Sisters" is a delightful mixing of Pratchett's unique sense of humor and various Shakespearean tales, for fans will recognize other plays that make an appearance - especially a play designed to make a murderous king confess to wrongdoing. Pratchett is in his element when satirizing or making parodies of well-known works, and seems much more comfortable messing around with others' works than in his own skin, which is just fine for fans of Shakespeare and the Discworld.
Book Review: Shakespeare's never been in such a good shape
Summary: 5 Stars
A very good book, full of everything you may expect to find in one of Discworld novels, which is to say humour, a nice plot, hilarious characters and much more.Wyrd sister takes elements from most of Shakespeare's plays and merges them together as only Terry Pratchett could do, making them outright funny as they were not supposed to be.
Some passages will just make you laugh out loud, such as the witches going at the theater, the summoning of the demon or the way Magrat finds out the Fool's name.
A must read.
Book Review: Sharp and clever
Summary: 5 Stars
This was the first Terry Pratchett book I read, some fifteen or so years back, and it was, excuse the pun, utterly betwitching. I recently reread it and found it had mysteriously improved - probably because I'm a bit older and better read! If you've ever sat through a tortourus high-school stage version of MacBeth, or been irritated by a fatuous 'lost baby with a mysterious destiny' story (Harry Potter included), you'll also find this a funny and deeply satisfying read.Book Review: Something wickedly funny this way comes
Summary: 5 Stars
Wyrd Sisters, the sixth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett, is a very funny take-off of MacBeth. The Shakespearean allusions were a bit above my head without reading the online annotations, but even without that I found I was laughing a great deal. Plus, it has an interesting story playing on the old "lost son of a king" cliché.The three witches are my least favourite of the sub-series that Pratchett has in Discworld. Of course, that's because the other two (City Watch, Death) are so good, not because the witches are bad. They are still well worth the price of admission into their stories. Granny Weatherwax is a curmudgeon of sorts, often speaking of how the new people are "getting ideas" put in their head. "'Modern,' said Granny Weatherwax with a sniff. `When I was a gel, we had a lump of wax and a couple of pins and had to be content. We had to make our own enchantment in them days.'" She doesn't understand a lot of new things, like theatre. In fact, one of the funniest scenes in the book is when Magrat and Nanny Ogg take her to the theatre and she tries to intervene in what's happening on stage.
Nanny Ogg and Magrat are wonderful creations as well. Nanny is old, but she's a lot more open-minded. She can understand a lot of the new ideas going around. She's also good at what she does. Another great scene is when Felmet and his wife try to torture her. Let's just say it doesn't quite work. Magrat is the young witch, who thinks that symbols are very important. When they try to summon a demon to help them, she's the one who thinks that they need the "proper" ingredients in order to do it, rather than the makeshift ones that the other two bring in. Together, the threesome is a very entertaining bunch.
The incidental characters are marvelous as well. There's the Fool, who only became a Fool because it was a family tradition. He really hates it. There's Hwel, the dwarf who never took to mining, so he became a playwright. Death makes a few appearances as well, also making his stage debut in a riotous manner. There isn't a wasted character in the bunch, and they are all well-rounded individuals who are interesting to read about.
The plot is excellent as well. The only thing that marred it for me was the extensive Shakespearean allusions, and that's only because I didn't understand half of them. There were times when I knew I was missing a joke, which became a bit frustrating. It's one thing to miss a joke and not even see it, but when you see it but don't understand it, it's a bit of a letdown. Still, if it encourages people to go back to the original plays and read them, then so much the better. The book doesn't suffer for all of this, though. It is still a very entertaining read without it.
This is a wonderful beginning to the Three Witches sub-series. I look forward to reading more of them. It's an excellent place to start your entry into Discworld.