I’ve read most of Terry Pratchett’s Discworld series now, and the Wizards of Discworld are some of my favourite characters, so I was excited to discover I hadn’t read the Discworld book ‘Sourcery’.
These were not quite the Wizards I knew from later books as only a couple of familiar names jumped out such as Rincewind and the Librarian, but the usual attitude of the Wizards was there to read, well for a short while at least!
Back in time sourcery and wizardary was not a good combination, and the Discworld and its population suffered whilst they fought amongst themselves. In current times sourcerers have vanished from the Discworld, but that is all about to change!
There is a wizard called Ipslore the Red and his eighth son called Coin was born a sourcerer, and his father has big plans for him, only the wizard died, but that doesn’t stop the determined wizard from being an influence! Young Coin appears at the Unseen University (the wizard university in Ankh-Morpork) and this sets in motions events…. which I’m not going to tell you about!
Let me just say that Rincewind a wizard (just) once again finds himself having to be involved in dangerous situations, whereas if you know Rincewind, he would rather be having a rather dull time.
This 1988 Discworld book is no disappointment and Terry Pratchett’s wonderful use of the english language to lay out his story, weave in an assortment of unusual characters and situations is as per usual, a joy to read.
The book takes you from Ankh-Morpork to Klatch, as well as various other locations on the Discworld. Rincewinds luggage is naturally within the book, and plays a starring role, plus Death also makes some appearances, with his usual awesome dry conversational skills.
It is amazing how even if I’ve not read a Discworld book in a while, once I start reading one I feel like I didn’t leave the world, and I am eager to find out what occurs next, which is a testament to the quality of writing and the world Terry created.
My absolute favourite Discworld characters are the Night Watch, but they are not in this book, but I do quite like reading about the wizards as well, and this book showed another side of the wizards.
Like other Discworld books, it was a great read and I highly recommend this book.
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