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Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett 9780552134651 Books

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Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett 9780552134651 Books

Terry Pratchett admitted once that if he "had stayed in the same environment of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic" people would say "'whatever happened to Terry Pratchett?!'"

I think Sir Terry flexed his literary muscles with his third book, Equal Rites. Others pick Guards! Guards! or Sourcery. All three of those books proved that Sir Terry could write and write well.

But it wasn't until Witches Abroad that Sir Terry created a truly great work of art. He deals with a big question here: the nature of stories in general and fairy tales, in particular. He considers free will and predestination. And he displays a burning anger. This is the Terry Pratchett that Neil Gaiman described when he said "there is a fury to Terry Pratchett’s writing".

Witches Abroad uses familiar characters and shows us new (often unsettling) things about them. We follow the plot and enjoy the creativity of an author who tries to do more than just to make us laugh.

Terry Pratchett encourages us to think.


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Witches Abroad Terry Pratchett 9780552134651 Books Reviews

Many years ago I first read this book and was a devoted fan of Disc World. The witches have always been among my favorite characters along with the denizens of the Unseen University. This is one of the early books of the series and I highly recommend it. It begins the development of the witches and is definitely required reading. Enjoy it and you will be hooked and that is not a bad thing. Pay attention to Granny, she is uncannily accurate in her analysis of human nature. There are NO BAD books by Sir Terry.
Once upon a time in this 12th Book of Discworld, a witch doing extra duty as a fairy godmother dies and leaves her magic wand to another witch with very little instruction except to not let Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax help with the fairy godmothering. No other instructions could have ensured more help from those two. In Discworld, the world is a flat disc, balanced on the backs of four elephants which are standing on the back of a giant turtle. There are many novels set in Discworld, and most of them are clever, witty, and rapid-fire novels. Almost all of the Discworld novels fall into different categories Tiffany Aching, Rincewind, the three witches, Sam Vines and the guards, and Death. This is a book of the three witches. Terry Pratchett is a master of satire that somehow remains timely. (He writes for example toward the beginning “But the trouble was that ignorance became the more interesting, especially big fascinating ignorance about huge and important things…” Sounds timely to me.) This book is a fractured retelling of fairytales, a great journey through mangled but recognizable locations, and magic gone wrong. That sounds like a train wreck of a mash-up, but do not forget that this is a Terry Pratchett book and he can make nonsense make sense. It is also satirical, absurd, and occasionally silly. For example, the wand seems only to make pumpkins, but you would be surprised how occasionally pumpkins are helpful. There is method to the madness. Terry Pratchett does a wonderful job of maintaining the integrity of his absurd world and his characters while keeping everything fresh and creative. As always, the humor is wrapped around serious themes. It may be absurd, but it can also be thought provoking. I cannot read too many of them in a row, but when I need something different, a Discworld novel is the perfect metaphorical palate refresher. Like all the Discworld books, the tone is satirical and clever. These books do not contain any scenes, language, or images that would rate even a PG-13 rating at the movies. If a reader does not have sufficient maturity, much of the book will be wasted, because you won’t get the jokes or understand the satire.
What a joy it was to realize that there was a Discworld book I hadn't read! Witches Abroad was the 12th Discworld book, which means that coming to it late means going back to a Discworld where the Watch is still a bit of a joke, where Tiffany Aching has yet to emerge, and where so many of the social changes with regard to the less human creatures of the Disc had yet to occur.

What it also meant was returning to a time when Terry Pratchett wasn't quite using the series to explore profound truths like he would later. (It would hit that landmark in a big way in the next book, Small Gods.) That's not to say that Pratchett had nothing to say here; Witches Abroad is fascinated by the power of stories in our lives, from urban legends to fairy tales, and how we so often use the power of stories to override sense and logic, throwing our lives and passion after a plot line that always works on paper. That's rich fare, and if Pratchett would revisit it to some degree more effectively and powerfully in Hogfather, that doesn't detract from the great ideas he's tossing around here.

But none of that really has any impact on just how much fun reading Witches Abroad is. Pratchett tosses in any number of fairy tales, letting his wonderful trio of witches - the elderly, unbeatable, and determined Granny Weatherwax; the dotty, pleasure-seeking Nanny Ogg (and her terrifying cat Greebo); and the inexperienced but enthusiastic Magrat Garlick - crash their way through them, leading to any number of "fractured fairy tales" filled with anarchy and absurdity. And with Pratchett being Pratchett, that's not enough for him, so he takes on bull-running, Cajun cooking, Mardi Gras, vampire stories, the self-image of cats - oh, and sibling rivalry, political power, the importance of belief, and more. There's no shortage of social commentary here, ranging from the important to the trivial, and all of it feels insightful, funny, and deeply humane. (Also, his descriptions of Cajun/creole cooking are so accurate as to hurt.)

And as always, it's written in classic Pratchett style, with nary a sentence passing without a joke, a great aside, or a clever bit of phrasing. And why play a scene normally when you can pack the book with silliness, including what it's like when animals become people, the divide between magic and just messing with people's heads, a few surprisingly racy double entendres, and what it means to be "foreign". In other words, it's what made me fall in love with Pratchett the fact that he combines a slew of ideas, a wondrous imagination, clever prose, satirical bite, great insights, and rich plotting, and makes it all look easy. I don't know how he did it, but I can say that there will never be another like him again, and I'm just glad that I got my last chance to jump in fresh to a classic Discworld novel.
Terry Pratchett admitted once that if he "had stayed in the same environment of The Colour of Magic and The Light Fantastic" people would say "'whatever happened to Terry Pratchett?!'"

I think Sir Terry flexed his literary muscles with his third book, Equal Rites. Others pick Guards! Guards! or Sourcery. All three of those books proved that Sir Terry could write and write well.

But it wasn't until Witches Abroad that Sir Terry created a truly great work of art. He deals with a big question here the nature of stories in general and fairy tales, in particular. He considers free will and predestination. And he displays a burning anger. This is the Terry Pratchett that Neil Gaiman described when he said "there is a fury to Terry Pratchett’s writing".

Witches Abroad uses familiar characters and shows us new (often unsettling) things about them. We follow the plot and enjoy the creativity of an author who tries to do more than just to make us laugh.

Terry Pratchett encourages us to think.