Sourcery: (Discworld Novel 5) (Discworld Novels)

Product Information

Rincewind said "Pardon?" But the thing had gone past and was lurching awkwardly across the ancient lawn. Small Gods' Eve, on which it's considered extremely bad form to kill a brother wizard and Small Gods' Day, the next morning Sourcery is a 1988 fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the fifth book in his Discworld series. And some old characters received mixed treatment. The Librarian received his largest role to date in this book and shined. After being called a "monkey" in a prior book without proceeding to rip the offender's limbs off, he finally builds his ape cred. Terry Pratchett grew to advocate for orangutan preservation (in the round world) and you can see the beginnings of his appreciation for these creatures here. The Luggage... should have had a triumphant return, but it behaved so out of character and was removed from the action, it ended up as merely a disappointing side plot.

Yes, the hat told me that,' said Rincewind, as they turned down a narrow, crowded street between white adobe walls. 'But the way I see it, it's a lot harder to get up in the morning.' Chastity, celibacy, abstinence, contraceptives, and vasectomy all don´t help if determination predicts and wants that the chosen one is born. To do the usual Discworld shattering stuff. On the Discworld, "sourcerers"—wizards who are sources of magic, and thus immensely more powerful than normal wizards—were the main cause of the Great Mage Wars that left areas of the Disc uninhabitable. As eight is a powerful magical number on Discworld, men born as the eighth son of an eighth son are commonly wizards. Since sourcerers are born the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son, they are "wizards squared". To prevent the creation of sourcerers, therefore, wizards are not allowed to marry or have children. Born Terence David John Pratchett, Sir Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was thirteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe. Professor Sir Terry Pratchett OBE was the creator of the hugely successful Discworld series of novels, and became Britain’s best-selling author of adult fiction, writing over fifty wildly successful titles in his lifetime.Here we chronicle Terry’s life and highlight some exciting facts you may not have known about this incredible author and scholar of the human condition.

Synopsis

How can the effect be described with delicacy and taste? For most of the wizards, it was like being an elderly man who, suddenly faced by a beautiful young woman, finds to his horror and delight and astonishment that the flesh is suddenly as willing as the spirit. These weren't the normal city watch, cautious and genially corrupt. These were walking slabs of muscle and they were absolutely unbribable, if only because the Patrician could outbid anyone else. Creosote saying that he thought snow came up from the ground like mushrooms just reminds me of Lucy shouting “It comes up, Charlie Brown, snow comes up!” in the song “Little Known Facts” in the musical You’re a Good Man Charlie Brown. Next week we’re getting into Wyrd Sisters! This one is a tad longer, so we’ll be doing it in five parts instead of our usual four. We’ll be reading up to:

After that one thing sort of led to another and pretty soon everyone was fighting to get something—either away, out or even. Because though their adventure starts out more or less as a way of running away from the upcoming war, they will have to find a solution or the entire Discworld will be destroyed (not to mention the trouble about the Gods). Once upon a time, there was an eighth son of an eighth son who was, of course, a wizard. As if that wasn’t complicated enough, said wizard then had seven sons. And then he had an eighth son—a wizard squared (that’s all the math, really)—who, of course, was a source of magic, a sourcerer. There are many references to geasa in the text, which are idiosyncratic curses, vows or obligations placed upon a person (usually a hero, such as Cúchulainn in Irish mythology).But you could throw yourself on your mercy,' said Conina, running a paranoid eye over the dusty stonework. 'Oh, no. I think I would have to teach me a lesson, as an example to myself.'

This is fun,' said Creosote. 'Me, robbing my own treasury. If I catch myself I can have myself flung into the snake pit.'The whole book is endlessly quotable, honestly, and also I'm kind of at a loss to describe the plot in any more detail, so here are some more quotes I bookmarked while I was reading: Pratchetts´ McGuffins and Chekhovs´ are not statically and passively awaiting and craving for the heroes but, just as many living and conscious elements and entities of the world, the magic archchancellors´ hat is something with personality, such as the pearwood chest in the first two novels of the series. What is especially amazing about these living furniture and clothes is that they express emotions and opinions without ever saying a word. Scorned wizard instills a sense of revenge into his genius baby boy, who subsequently sets out to conquer the world. This is the 5th Discworld book and the 3rd with Rincewind. He's not exactly a main character though, or at least not the only one.