Discworld Read-Along #3: Equal Rites
Welcome to the third part of our Discworld Read-Along! I’m excited to be back to the read-along with everyone, and I hope you spent the last several weeks finding time to read Terry Pratchett’s Equal Rites, the third book in the Discworld series! We’re reading it chronologically, so we aren’t super far in yet! Things are improving as we leave Rincewind and Twoflower behind to focus on Esk and Granny, but there are still a few hiccups to talk about as we discuss this next book.
A Summary of Equal Rites
First of all, the title itself is an excellent pun. Equal Rites is, very clearly, a play on Equal Rights. This is thematically on point, given that this story centers around something that we learned in by reading the first two books: women are not supposed to do magic, and they certainly aren’t supposed to go to Unseen University—the fear being that women will be better than men at wizardry, but the explanation being that there are problems with the plumbing.
That throw-away gag in the first two books ends up being a major plot point for Equal Rites, as we learn that our protagonist Esk—a young girl with a magical staff who hails from the village of Bad Ass—is capable of being a wizard. She’s a powerful being, and when witch training doesn’t really take as well as it should, she sets off with Granny Weatherwax to seek entry into Unseen University.
During the journey, Esk causes a few problems, as well as solves a few, and is generally just a delight to follow as this well-written child does exactly what a child would do: questions everything. After being briefly separated from Granny, Esk and the witch are reunited and successfully reach Unseen University, where Esk is promptly denied entry while her friend Simon is granted entry (being a man and all).
Unfortunately, Simon opens a portal to the Dungeon Dimensions, which you might remember from The Light Fantastic, the previous book we read in our Discworld Read-Along. Esk’s staff, seeking to protect her, closes the portal but leaves Simon’s mind trapped in the Dungeon Dimension. Esk tries to rescue Simon, but ends up in the Dungeon Dimension herself as a result.
While in the Dungeon Dimension, Esk and Simon learn how to weaken the entities of the dimension that have a hold on Simon’s mind. Then, with the help of Granny Weatherwax and Chancellor Cutangle of Unseen University, they escape the Dungeon Dimension. Esk becomes the first girl admitted to Unseen University as a student, where she and Simon develop a new kind of magic.
My Thoughts on Equal Rites
Equal Rites, much like equal rights, is great. Are great? My grammar checker really doesn’t like book titles. Equal Rites is a superb improvement over the previous two books—I had a great time reading through this one again, and found it to be a ton of fun. Terry Pratchett writes children with remarkable ease. Typically, I don’t like young protagonists because I find them to be poorly written, often just being an author’s terrible interpretation of what a child is actually like. Pratchett, however, successfully captures that child-like wonder and wit in a way no other author I’ve read can. He nails it. The way that Esk manipulates and connives her way into getting what she wants is simply brilliant, but isn’t the result of her having some sort of superhuman intellect—it’s the result of her being a child. A clever child, certainly, but a child nonetheless.
However, Equal Rites struggles with its pacing as the story draws to a close. The first seventy-five percent of the book was brilliant, fun, and well-paced. Once Esk reaches Unseen University, however, I feel the story became too eager to wrap itself up. Don’t get me wrong, the ending is cool, but everything happens so quickly, and then it just… ends. There wasn’t a lot of build-up as we got near the end of the tale, but suddenly we were in the midst of the climax of the story. Things happened quickly; we had so much time pass with just a few words when interesting things could have (and should have) happened.
I was feeling five stars for this one as I read through it again, loving it more than I remember having loved it when I first read it years and years ago. However, once the story ended, I felt like it was just too abrupt of a conclusion, so I’ve reduced my rating to four stars here. It was a lot of fun, but the climax was rushed.
Your Thoughts on Equal Rites
I changed up my poll style this time around because keeping track of numerous poll options was rather challenging for me, especially when it came to tallying those polls across multiple platforms. Instead, I now put up a poll on YouTube, Twitter, and Instagram asking for a star rating, and then I encourage any thoughts to be shared in the comments or thread of the rating. Let’s get to the star ratings first!
Across all of my polls, four stars took the cake, but there were only a couple of five-star ratings, with a number of three stars popping up in a number of places. I’m a little surprised to see some three-star ratings in there. If you’re someone who would give this book fewer than four stars, I’d love to hear your explanation for that rating!
I also got a couple of commented thoughts that I want to touch on here.
Ken (@the_guy on Twitter) says:
“I preferred Granny and Esk more than Rincewind and Twoflower. I liked the parts that took place in Bad Ass and at the Unseen University, but not really the journey between them, partially because of how well the journeys were done in the last two books”\
I half agree! I loved Granny and Esk, and find them to be a much more entertaining duo than Rincewind and Twoflower. Granny especially is a lot of fun, and Esk is remarkably well-written. As for not enjoying the journey, I do disagree with that—I will concur that I think the journeys were a little more engaging and exciting in the other books, but Esk’s antics and wonder make her trek entertaining in its own way. However, I can definitely understand that Esk’s particular perspective may not be quite as enjoyable as the exciting and fantastical adventures of Rincewind and Twoflower. I think it depends on what you enjoy most! Thank you, Ken for sharing your thoughts!
James here on YouTube says:
“I feel like it ended too fast—like the story was great, and then everything happened at once.”
Thanks for sharing! I’m glad to know I’m not the only one who felt this way, but I’m curious to know if there’s anyone else who felt the same way about the conclusion to Equal Rites.
Our Next Book
The next book we’re going to read is (drumroll please… I said drumroll please! Thank you) Mort! This is our first book in the Death collection and I’m absolutely thrilled to get into it with everyone! Not only is Death my favorite character in all of Discworld, but many people have told me throughout the course of this read-along that Death is also their favorite! If you missed Death in Equal Rites, get ready for Terry Pratchett to make up for that with this fourth story. Y’all are in for a treat if you haven’t read this before (and even if you have, I’m sure you’re going to have a great time—I know I will). I’m also curious to find out if it’s really as much fun as I remember (I’m sure it is).
I have links below to purchase Mort in various editions. If you don’t already have the book, I’d love for you to buy it through one of the links I’ve provided below! I get a few cents from each sale, which helps to keep this read-along going and to support me in general. You don’t have to, of course, but it does help a little!
However you choose to read Mort, you will need to finish it by February 8th, just under a month from now! It’s a pretty quick and easy read, and a lot of fun, so this is definitely more than enough time. Knock it out in a weekend if you want to participate in the discussion that will be up on that date! Then, the discussion video—like this one—will be posted on February 15th.
Conclusion
It’s good to be back to the Discworld Read-Along! I’m having a lot of fun reading through this with y’all, and I hope to see more folks join in! There’s plenty of time still to catch up to where we’re at, or you can just hop in with whatever the current book we’re reading is! Discworld is easy and simple like that.