Book Review: Discworld 3: 'Equal Rites' by Terry Pratchett

“...she was opposed to books on strict moral grounds, since she had heard that many of them were written by dead people and therefore it stood to reason reading them would be as bad as necromancy.”
― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Eskarina Smith was gifted at birth with the magic of a wizard. The problem is that there's never been a female wizard before, and a lot of people won't hold with it.

Discworld Reviews

“...it is well known that a vital ingredient of success is not knowing that what you're attempting can't be done.”
― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

I actually finished reading Equal Rites some time ago, but I fell into something of another bout of depression and was finding it hard to focus on actually writing up my review.

If you're just joining me, and haven't seen my other Discworld reviews, allow me to restate my goal: I am intending to read through the complete Discworld series (41 books) and review each of them here. 

My other reviews so far include:

1. The Color of Magic
2. The Light Fantastic

A book that's actually about something

“They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it is not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance.”
― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

While The Color of Magic had a lot of fun moments and The Light Fantastic was a fun adventure, neither of them really seemed to

be about anything, except maybe common tropes and ideas in fantasy stories. It makes for good comedy and maybe a good story and maybe something that makes you look at other fantasy works and go 'huh, that's not quite right,' but it doesn't have a lot of impact on your everyday life. I'm not saying that this is inherently a problem with these books. Sometimes that sort of thing is actively good or necessary.

The Obvious: Gender Roles

"'If you were a boy I'd say are you going to seek your fortune?'

'Can't girls seek their fortune?'

'I think they're supposed to seek a boy with a fortune.'"

― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Equal Rites is, in part, about the thing that might be obvious from the title and conceit of the story: gender roles. Esk is specifically given the power, and therefore the qualifications, to be a wizard, a position thus far only held by men. In her journey, she faces opposition to this objective not just from wizards, who don't think girls can be wizards because of sexist reasons or traditions, but also from people who want to be her ally/want what's best for her. Her greatest ally in the whole book, Granny Weatherwax, tries very hard to channel her magic into witchery, which is 'proper' female magic. 

While this theme is prevalent throughout the book, I was worried that the book would get "preachy" about it or hit the reader over the head with it, and I didn't feel that way in reading through the story (unlike a lot of other stories that I've encountered that have tried to address the same issue.) It's definitely a major theme of the story, but the story itself doesn't hyper-focus on it as much as I'd expected it to/worried that it would.

The Status is not Quo

“She was already learning that if you ignore the rules people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don't apply to you.”
― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

Esk is a curious young girl, as so many young children are, and she questions, with great insight, why the world is the way that it is. She readily points out that 'the way things are' often doesn't make sense, in a way that only a child can.

It reminds me very much of this comic that I saw recently (https://www.smbc-comics.com/comic/funny) which points out that "the default settings on children strongly argue that the world made sense at some point in human history." And basically points out that we make things more complex and less sensible than they should be.

Esk is good at making this point, be it intentionally or unintentionally, as she encounters ridiculous situations (often related to or parodying situations or structures in real life) that don't make sense.

Since starting to write this review, I've learned that terry Pratchett actually based the character of Esk on his own daughter. I don't think this impacts my reading of the book, beyond that I think it was likely inspired by his interactions with the phenonium of children not understanding the ways in which we make the world needlessly complex/nonsensible.

The Nature of Magic

"'That's one form of magic, of course.'
'What, just knowing things?'
'Knowing things that other people don't know.'"
― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

While both The Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic follow around a wizard protagonist, he is, very clearly, not a very good wizard. Because of this, the nature of magic in the Discworld is touched on, but it's not really delved into with any degree of depth. Because Esk's journey in Equal Rites is focused on her learning magic, its role in her life, its role in the universe, and the relationship between these ideas, a lot of what magic is and how it works in the setting is delved into a lot more deeply.

Establishing wizard magic and witch magic and differences of tradition and all the rest of it really helps to build more into the setting of the discworld and just brings more life to the magic system.

Other

“He had the kind of real deep tan that rich people spent ages trying to achieve with expensive holidays and bits of tinfoil, when really all you need to do to obtain one is work your arse off in the open air everyday.”

― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

While I wouldn't say the book is overall about anything other than those three topics, it definitely touches on a lot of other things including classism, mercantilism, greed, pretention in education, and a good deal of other things.

Overall

“She told me that if magic gives people what they want, then not using magic can give them what they need.”
― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites

I liked the book. I found Esk and Granny Weatherwax to be interesting characters that were fun to follow around. I had been worried that the book was going to express a dated view of feminism or else to be focused on it beyond the point of enjoyment, but neither of those things turned out to be the case. 

While the story itself wasn't as "fun" as The Light Fantastic, it felt like it had a lot more meaning to it and like it was overall a "better" story. 

Coming up next...

The fourth book of the Discworld saga is called Mort, and it's the first book that falls into the books about the personification of Death. (Death has been present in the previous books, but this is the first one where he is the focus.) I have already started reading Mort, but before starting it, my main thought was "while Death seems interesting and all, I don't know how there's going to be a whole book about him, let alone several books." I now understand better, but that understanding will have to wait for the next review.

In the meantime, I leave you with this insight on probability:

“Million-to-one chances...crop up nine times out of ten.”
― Terry Pratchett, Equal Rites