Joanne Harris, Terry Pratchett: Wyrd Sisters (German language, 2004)
351 pages
German language
Published Nov. 5, 2004
Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Maigrat have fairy godmother-dom thrust upon them.
I didn't like this one as much. I found it hard to follow the plot and I disliked how a lot of characters were .. characterised. I also suspect that a lot of references went right over my head, since I haven't really read any Shakespeare, and I've ignored all summaries of Shakespeare that ever showed up in my life.
Granny Weatherwax was great in her previous outing in "Equal Rites", but it's the bickering trio of Granny, Nanny and Magrat, introduced in this book for the first time, that really bring the Witches stories to life.
This book also introduces a sense of progress and dynamism to the Discworld that is largely absent in the previous books, but will become a staple as the series progresses. Previous books have high stakes sometimes, but don't ultimately alter the status quo - Equal Rites did not end with women being accepted as wizards, everything is restored with a snap of the fingers at the end of Sourcery, etc. In Wyrd Sisters we see multiple characters breaking out of their rigid, pre-ordained roles, and a sort of renaissance taking root in the founding of the Dysk theatre. Though it seems almost incidental to the plot, it leaves the world altered.
A great continuation of the storyline of witches, but this one is about craft, betrayal and Agatha Christy-esque finale. Colourful and interesting read, but – as we know – Pratchett could and did do books where it's all that plus a lot of depth.
I did love the quote where he compares Ankh-Morpork with a drain where everyone ends up and can't escape. As a relatively newfound Londoner, it strikes a chord.
What an immensely entertaining book. I didn’t get all the references but enough for it to be very entertaining. So well written in it’s craziness—one can barely believe it. I’m not even sure which witch I liked best. They’re all super! I’m really glad I started into the Discworld with this subseries.
This is the sixth book of the Discworld series. The humor is there, the characters are great, but on the whole, I had expected more.
One of his masterpieces, and even better on rereading (although I can’t remember my first reading). The tension in this one is painful: helplessness in the face of tyranny was especially excruciating right now, days before the 2022 midterm elections. Even his humor, sharp and insightful and at his best, has uncomfortable cautionary undertones.
WYRD SISTERS became enjoyable about halfway through, which was either when the Shakespeare references really got going or is just when I realized they were happening at all. I got enough of them for it to be funny, but it also means that a lot of the humor is referential, depending on the reader to be familiar with a bunch of other stuff (or in this case, with several specific plays) in order to get the jokes. Discworld humor tends to he referential but this felt like a particularly egregious version since so much of it has one source rather than generally pulling from many disparate inspirations.
There was a disconcerting amount of humor which revolved around men being in dresses in a theatrical setting. It was particularly frustrating when someone of it was from a Dwarf, who (at least later on in the series) have an approach to gender …
4.5
The first in this series that I just bloody love.
My favorite so far. I'm a sucker for everything Shakespeare, so the heavy Macbeth usage kept me all smiles. Granny Weatherwax really comes into her own more in this book.
I love Pratchett's writing. The way in which he twists and morphs Shakespeare and folk tales as he winds his way through his own version of Hamlet is amazing. Granny Weatherwax is also one of the greatest witches from any story.
I didn't enjoy this book as much as his previous books, I think a lot of this is down to having seen the animated film version of Wyrd Sisters and for me that dulled some of the jokes.
It is a good story though and granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are fantastic characters, I loved how no matter what the situation Nanny will not be fazed. The fact that these characters are so good makes the rest of the cast no so likeable.
I did enjoy how this reality keeps trying to break through Hwel's dreams. References to Charlie Chaplin kept popping up.
The book is a good read, just not as good as previous books.
"Granny turned slowly in her seat to look at the audience. They were staring at the performance, their faces rapt. The words washed over them in the breathless air. This was real. This was more real even than reality. This was history. It might not be true, but that had nothing to do with it.
Granny had never had much time for words. They were so insubstantial. Now she wished that she had found the time. Words were indeed insubstantial. They were as soft as water, but they were also as powerful as water and now they were rushing over the audience, eroding the levees of veracity, and carrying away the past."
"There was something here, he thought, that nearly belonged to the gods. Humans had built a world inside the world, which reflected it in pretty much the same way as a drop of water reflects the landscape. And …
"Granny turned slowly in her seat to look at the audience. They were staring at the performance, their faces rapt. The words washed over them in the breathless air. This was real. This was more real even than reality. This was history. It might not be true, but that had nothing to do with it.
Granny had never had much time for words. They were so insubstantial. Now she wished that she had found the time. Words were indeed insubstantial. They were as soft as water, but they were also as powerful as water and now they were rushing over the audience, eroding the levees of veracity, and carrying away the past."
"There was something here, he thought, that nearly belonged to the gods. Humans had built a world inside the world, which reflected it in pretty much the same way as a drop of water reflects the landscape. And yet . . . and yet . . . Inside this little world they had taken pains to put all the things, you might think they would want to escape from – hatred, fear, tyranny, and so forth. Death was intrigued. They thought they wanted to be taken out of themselves, and every art humans dreamt up took them further in."
I did like the parts about words and how powerful they can be, in this one. The point is brought home nicely. However, in general I found some parts uneven and not so much to my liking. Thus, a three.
This is actually 3-1/2 stars...
Terry Pratchett is always fun, though I admit to being a little disappointed with this one. It's not the author's fault, though, that I seem to prefer the stories that take place in Ankh-Morpork and involve the Night Watch. They're so much funnier than his witches, though I did enjoy Nanny Ogg. Oh, and DEATH is hardly in this one, and I missed him, too.
