Hi all, I was wondering if it was just me or if Equal Rites not as good as the rest of the books so far? So far, I've only read 5 Discworld books (the first 4 and Thud!). Does the Witches group of books from Discworld improve? -ken
Thanks Stercus Wyrd Sisters is the next book in the Witches series that I'm going to read (after Sourcery, as I'm reading the books in order of being published) -Ken
Wyrd Sisters is a cracker. Equal Rites is easily my least favourite book - the last time I tried reading it I gave up before I was halfway through. The other Witches books are great.
ER is one of my least favourites of the entire series. The books get better the further you go, but I think the Witches see the greatest leap in quality. So yeah, you've got through ER, the best is yet to come! I think my favourites witches book is still Carpe Jugulum.
Nah, it's not just you. I hadn't read it before, it's probably the only book I hadn't read, purely out of accident, but I'm reading it now and it's so weird to see "Granny" not being like Granny at all, she's a completely different character, and I'm glad she changed !
Equal Rites I'm glad you are going to continue. Equal Rites didn't really do Granny Weatherwax justice. The Witches just keep getting better.
Equal Rites But having said that, I have to add in all fairness that it was a good way to instill the Witch vs Wizard attitudes to Magic.
The witches books are my favourites followed by the City Watch books. I read Carpe Jugulum before Equal rites so I did everything the wrong way round but I found ER interesting in that Granny is not the developed character she is in CJ. I once asked Terry, at one of the Question and Answer spots at a Clarecraft event if Eskerina would ever be seen again, as an adult wizard/witch. He said he didn't like to move so far ahead because it meant old characters would have to die. Granny Weatherwax was already supposed to be in her 70s when Esk was a child. He said there would be an outcry if she died. But in Wyrd Sisters time is accelerated by the witches except for in Lancre where they hold it still so maybe he could write a plot like that again. Besides anything is possible with magic isn't it?
I dispute this - it was early in character development, but the later Granny is there in the earlier writing - just in an unusual situation - but still with the iron-hard determination and her own solutions to problems. What I want to see is Esk coming back - if anyone is going to replace Granny she would be better than that wimpess Tiffany - but I would rather see Granny keep on to a ripe old age.
There are elements of the Granny-to-be in ER, but her actual personality is quite different, there's no sarcasm, none of the toughness and her know-it-all-even-if-I-doesn't side hardly appears. I agree that the character was being developed, but she doesn't "evolve" like the others, it was as if suddenly she was the same person but completely different, a bit like if we had seen nothing of Carrot or Vimes between their first appearance and Thud...
I agree with Katcal, Granny changed radically between Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters. Part of it was due to the introduction of Nanny Ogg and Magrat, which changed the central theme, but really... It's just not the same character. Granny went from a flat character to an complex one in a single book.
It always annoyed me that we never see Esk again (altough I hear rumors that she's coming back). Even as a side charactor in a wizard book, it would be nice to see her.
I think part of the difficulty is that Granny does not generally deal with children - and is not sure how to treat/respond to them. Sarcasm does not work the same with kiddies. I'm not too good with toddlers/kids, as I'm never round them a lot. Its a case of hello little person.... help what do I say next... 'Yes thats nice'... help..., 'and what's the picture of?'... where's your ******* mother... 'Oh it's me' ... how the hell am I supposed to know that... '- how nice, silly of me not to know'. 'Ah'... what does wibble dibble soflabub mean... Babies - don't even go there You do see Granny in ER once you have read the other books, and read ER again. But I do prefer Wyrd Sisters.
It's also becuase before ER Granny...had a much smaller mental scope. I remember reading in one of the later books that Granny spend most of her life as a contented village which i think granny's character grew and exbanded has her horizons broadened. The term 'edge' witch has only recently been added.
Granny has no problem with children in the Tiffany Aching books. It's just that she wasn't yet fully developed in ER.
I agree equal rites is my least favorite book. I do not agree that Tiffany is a wimp. If she is a wimp then so is the hero of die hard whatever his name is.
