>>TERRY PRATCHETT<< Book reviews - Part 2
                    EQUAL RITES and MORT

                   by Andrew Wielochowski

                      >>EQUAL RITES<<
                       Price:- œ4.99
                   First published:- 1987

Drum Billet, a wizard, passed over his staff to what he first
believes to be the eighth son of an eighth son. He forgot however
to check the sex of the wizard-to-be.  This mistake leads to the
very quick hiding of the staff and a very irate Granny Weatherwax.
Esk grows up, and very quickly Granny can see that the magic is
forming within her and it has to be trained. Granny takes on Esk
as a trainee witch in hope to train her witch magic so she does
not become a wizard.  Esk proves quite a handful and when she is
introduced to borrowing all sorts of things go wrong and Granny
decides she has to be told.

For Esk to be trained in "Wizard Magic" or in Esk's terms "Proper
magic" she has to go to the Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork. Her
journey there takes her through a small village where one of
Granny's friends lives and there too she concentrates and gets
lost.  Esk makes her way towards Ankh-Morpork. She meets up with
Granny and once they arrive at the Unseen University, she isn't
wanted.  Esk ,very upset, joins as a cleaner and sweeps the
university and of course listens in on the lessons. She meets up
again with Simon and soon after an accident in the library they
are both fighting Dungeon Dimension creatures.

                          >>MORT<<
                       Price:- œ4.99
                   First published:- 1987

A good book for someone who hasn't read a Pratchett book yet.

Mort or Mortimer, not Boy, is a ginger-haired kid with wiry limbs,
he can read but he can't scare birds. Death chose him. Not to part
from his body but as an apprentice. Mort was picked up at midnight
on a cold night and whisked towards Ankh-Morpork for a Klatchian
curry.

Mort awakes in a soft bed with a rug you could loose Sybil Ramkin
in.  Mort while ambling down a hallway soon comes across Death's
daughter (adopted). The next person (broadest terms) he meets is
Albert the butler with a little drip on his nose. Albert is into
cooking fatty foods and as for his porridge...well!  Death's
daughter had been rescued by Death from a certain death in a cold
mountain pass.

Death starts taking Mort out on what he calls 'Duty'. Mort while
on a 'Duty' with Death sees a certain girl he feels attracted to.
And when allowed a free day off he fails to reach her, however
Death allows him to go on 'Duty' by himself. One of his clients is
the fore-mentioned princess. Instead of killing the Princess he
kills the assassin and then history feels hard done-by and starts
to sort the problem out.

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Next issue - I hope to have Sourcery and Wyrd Sisters reviewed.

Just a note:-

Terry Pratchett's new Discworld novel, Jingo (this is at present
a working title), is due to be printed on the 6th of November

He is currently working on THE LAST CONTINENT which is set on the
XXXX continent and will take off again with Rincewind - You may
have heard rumours that this will his last novel but he has
recently said that he will just spend a little less time on them
as two a year gets a bit of a handful!

@~He is evidently also changing publishers as he feels he will
@~get better coverage ... Sue



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