Lords and Ladies (Discworld 14)

[jazzfish]

In which our Witches Three, with the "help" of some visiting wizards, deal with an incursion from fairies.

There's a lot going on here, plotwise. Magrat is getting married and becoming Queen of Lancre; Archchancellor Ridcully and a few other wizards come to visit for the wedding; it turns out Ridcully and Granny Weatherwax have A History. Not to mention the locals putting on a play for the wedding, a la Midsummer Night's Dream. Or the new coven of teenage witches causing Problems. And all of that is necessary background for the return of the fairies.

This one worked well for me. Granny's still overbearing but she's a bit less terrible to Magrat, or maybe it's just that Magrat's growing a spine. Ridcully continues to amuse me. It's nice to see him getting some depth of characterization, too. The whole of his and Granny's "but what if" feels solid and real, like real people making real choices and maybe regretting them while also appreciating where they've gotten to. (Eventually, in Ridcully's case.)

That's not even getting into the fairies. The Queen's a strong and vicious antagonist, very much in line with the idea of fairies as powerful amoral beings. I got on far better with her than I did with Vorbis from Small Gods: might be the (lack of) religion and self-righteousness, might be that no one apart from the other fairies thinks she's at all in the right. At least not once they get a good look at her. The whole Elves are terrific. They beget terror." bit is memorable and classic for a good reason.

There's just so much in this book. I haven't even mentioned Casanunda, Nanny Ogg's dwarven paramour, or the witchcraft contest between Granny and young Diamanda. And all of it fits together, all of it belongs here, and all of it gets treated with heart and respect.

This one is also chock full of terrible, terrible puns and other jokes, more so than previous. It makes me optimistic about the rest of the series.

Up next: ooh, back to the City Watch with Men At Arms. Eager to see what it is that makes other folks love the Watch books so much.

Comments

[jessie_c]

I loved the appearance of Schrodinger's Greebo.

Greebo had spent an irritating two minutes in that box. Technically, a cat locked in a box may be alive or it may be dead. You never know until you look. In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.

Shawn dived sideways as Greebo went off like a Claymore mine.

[jazzfish]

:D That was pretty great. Greebo is one of my favourite (very) minor characters.

[amazon_syren]

This is the one that got me into Discworld, after bouncing off a couple of the earlier books in the series. I continue to love it to pieces.

[jazzfish]

Makes sense to me! Between this one being unexpectedly Quite Good (for me anyway) and all the love that Men At Arms gets, I'm hopeful that the early-series jitters have been worked out by now.