Equal Rites

A Discworld Novel

Hardcover, 224 pages

English language

Published March 25, 1988 by Victor Gollancz.

ISBN:
978-0-575-03950-6
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4 stars (3 reviews)

The wizard Drum Billet knows that he will soon die and travels to a place where an eighth son of an eighth son is about to be born. This signifies that the child is destined to become a wizard; on the Discworld, the number eight has many of the magical properties that are sometimes ascribed to seven in other mythologies. Billet wants to pass his wizard's staff on to his successor.

However, the newborn child is actually a girl, Esk (full name Eskarina Smith). Since Billet notices his mistake too late, the staff passes on to her. As Esk grows up, it becomes apparent that she has uncontrollable powers, and the local witch Granny Weatherwax decides to travel with her to Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork to help her gain the knowledge required to properly manage her powers.

But a female wizard is something completely unheard of on the Discworld. Esk …

37 editions

An artifact more badass than a lightsaber

5 stars

The first flight on the rod scene, to me, is more epic than Luke getting the lightsaber.

Amazing rhyme of the two storylines of the main characters, a counter-position between the cozy and contained village life and dramatic path to the city, as well as events that followed, genius driven by dark conspiracy, ah. So much of this is absolutely badass.

Half a point nudged off for Pratchett's favorite idea of putting enough machinae around to pull dei out of those by their ears.

Review of 'Equal rites' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

What a fun book! This is my very first Terry Pratchett. After the stories of the Discworld have been on my to-read list for way too long I was finally convinced to try one and Equal Rites is definitely a very good start into the series.
It was fun, honest, critical and everything what you want. So much magic and quirkiness, but not in a bad way—I enjoyed this book very much and definitely cannot wait to be drawn even deeper into the Discworld!

Review of 'Equal Rites' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

This perfectly ridicules the arbitrariness of gender stereotypes. Everybody knows that only men can be wizards, everybody knows it’s part of the lore, but nobody actually knows where it is written or why it should be the case. And Esk just ignoring both her role as a wizard and a witch and rescuing Simon and herself by not using magic is about the best possible ending.

Subjects

  • Fantasy
  • English Science Fiction And Fantasy
  • Fiction
  • Fantasy - General