"There was a pause.
"Finally, another voice said, in far more ordinary tones: 'Well, I can do next Tuesday.'"
For the sixth Discworld novel and the second book in the witches arc, Sir Terry combines MacBeth, Hamlet, and his wondrous way with words into a most enjoyable romp through our beloved Discworld.
Granny Weatherwax from Equal Rites returns as a main character here, and we also are introduced to two other witches of Lancre that fill out the coven (the maiden, the mother, and the crone, or in their case, the maiden, the mother, and the other one). Nanny Gytha Ogg is roughly a contemporary of Granny’s although they had very different outlooks on things in their youth, with Granny being single and Nanny having so many kids that she has her own empire. Nanny also has a cat named Greebo, who is so dangerous that wolves keep their distance from him. The third member of the coven is the much younger Magrat Garlick. Magrat should be Margaret, but her mother wasn’t good at spelling. Magrat embraces a lot of new age thinking, which doesn’t always sit well with the older witches. She is often put upon, and mostly by the other witches, but make no mistake, she is still a witch, and one to be reckoned with when pushed. They are beloved by so many fans and for good reason; they’re all such great characters albeit in different ways. I’ve seen many fans, including Percysowner, who commented on the Doux Discworld hub about this, stating that they can really identify with Magrat on a personal level as well.
Our witches are reluctantly pulled into the drama over the leadership of Lancre after the king is slain by his cousin, Duke Felmet. Like MacBeth, Felmet’s wife is the more ambitious one of the pair. She’s downright frightening while Felmet’s madness makes him an erratic and fearful character very quickly, with flashes of cruelty that break through his insanity at times. They are able to get the heir and the crown taken away by a traveling theater group, but the kingdom itself is unhappy. The duke craves power, but he hates Lancre, so there is conflict here at the very core of the situation. It gets so bad that the witches have to take things into their own hands despite themselves and cast some extremely powerful magic to get things moving in the proper direction.
The theater company is also quite important for more than just the custodians of Tomjon, the heir to the Lancre throne and one of the best thespians ever seen once he grows older. Hwel is a dwarf and playwright that is bombarded by so many inspiration particles that he ends up not just writing plays in a Shakespearian style, but also analogs to Laurel and Hardy, the Marx Brothers, Charlie Chaplin, and more. He was kicked out of his clan for daydreaming too much, which isn’t good when you’re wielding a pickaxe. The owner of the theater, Olwyn Vitoller, is the leader of the theater troupe, and it was the decision of him and his wife to take Tomjon in to begin with. We meet them early on, but their return to Lancre much later in the book sets the stage for the conclusion of our novel as well.
The ghost of King Verence is quite enjoyable, too. We meet him very quickly as he’s killed by the duke, and he must haunt the castle, even if Death isn’t his biggest fan after their post-mortem conversation. We discover too that there are so many ghosts in the castle from centuries of regicide and other royal crimes, that it’s a veritable gaggle of specters in the place.
The Fool to the old king and now the duke is a personal favorite character for various reasons. The relationship between Magrat and the Fool is awkward, adorable, and great fun to read. He’s smart but miserable, as we find out the Fool’s Guild is an awful place that treats humor seriously, so it really takes the fun out of funny for the actual fools themselves. When he is sent by the duke to find an acting troupe to write a play to ‘correct’ things to his liking, the Fool of course finds Vitoller’s crew, and some folks notice an interesting thing when the Fool and Tomjon are in the same room...
For those familiar with the two Shakespeare plays that Sir Terry uses for the core of this story, you’ll get more out of this book than those that don’t, although those that don’t will still have a great time here. He alters things in often subtle ways, while others are more overt, such as the duke is the one that can’t get the blood off of his hand instead of the duchess, and his reaction to that is both a running gag and a bit disturbing simultaneously. The book not only takes on the classic plays, but it also demonstrates the power of words, something we see happening all around us more than ever thanks to social media, and especially with how people use words to change our perceptions to their advantage.
When I read the books back in the day, I had always rated Mort above this one. After revisiting them these 20+ years later however, I must give this one the higher evaluation. While I’m not the most knowledgeable of Shakespeare, I know enough to get the references, and Sir Terry adding his own take on the plays and his ability to constantly make me laugh, creates such a marvelous book that I have to give it very near the best rating.
3.9375 (3 and 15/16) plays about dead kings out of 4.
Some fun quotes:
The storm was really giving it everything it had. This was its big chance. It had spent years hanging around the provinces, putting in some useful work as a squall, building up experience, making contacts, occasionally leaping out on unsuspecting shepherds or blasting quite small oak trees. Now an opening in the weather had given it an opportunity to strut its hour, and it was building up its role in the hope of being spotted by one of the big climates.
"Divers alarums and excursions," she read, uncertainly. "That means lots of terrible happenings," said Magrat. "You always put that in plays." "Alarums and what?," said Nanny Ogg, who hadn't been listening. "Excursions," said Magrat patiently. "Oh." Nanny Ogg brightened a bit. "The seaside would be nice," she said. "Oh, do shut up, Gytha," said Granny Weatherwax. "They're not for you. They're only for divers, like it says. Probably so they can recover from all them alarums."
He growled and stood up. "There is a knocking without," he said. "Without what?" said the Fool. "Without the door, idiot." The Fool gave him a worried look. "A knocking without a door?" he said suspiciously. "This isn't some kind of Zen, is it?"
Morella is a Gen Xer who likes strange things a bit too much.
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