Equal Rites – Terry Pratchett

“If you ignore the rules, people will, half the time, quietly rewrite them so that they don’t apply to you.”

     On the Discworld, the eighth son of an eighth son is always a wizard. A dying wizard seeks out the soon to be father of an eighth son to pass on his staff and give the newborn a decent start on his way in life. However he learns a few minutes too late that the “son” that was being born is actually a girl. On Discworld, women can’t be wizards or use the same type of magic as men. Eskarina’s (the not-son) father and Granny Weatherwax, the local witch, decide that if they ignore the staff and possibility of magic, then Esk will grow up to be a normal girl. When that doesn’t work, Esk is apprenticed to Granny Weatherwax to learn how to be a witch. After a couple of years, Esk’s ability with the wizard’s staff becomes too powerful for Granny to deny that Esk needs training from real wizards. They set off on a journey that includes fighting sexism, bandits, and creatures from the dungeon dimensions to find Esk a wizard willing to train her.

     Equal Rites was actually the 3^rd published Discworld novel. We see quite a few characters that develop into long running regulars. Granny Weatherwax, Death, and the Librarian all play a part. While they aren’t quite as developed and a few details we’ve come to know are changed a bit, they still keep their basic roots from this book. It’s well written as most Terry Pratchett books are and full of those punny moments we all enjoy. There aren’t as many foot notes explaining how Discworld works as there are in later works. My only little issue with this book is the pervasive “girls can’t do that” argument that everyone uses to justify Esk not being a wizard. I know this was one of his first novels and the point Pratchett was trying to make was “yes girls can do that”, but the repetition of it over and over was just grating. Even in 1987 when this was published that argument for most things was dying out. I’d also like to know why it takes 20 years to hear from Esk again. I would think Esk or Simon would be involved in Unseen University business in the later books. Apparently I need to reread I Shall Wear Midnight, since Eskarina makes an appearance and I missed it. Equal Rites is definitely a book to pick up if you’d like to see the Discworld in its infancy.