Another fabulous reread in the Witches Discworld series by the terrific Terry Pratchett who here takes on the issue of gender equality, where witches are witches and well, wizards are wizards. Even the magical terms were worded such that you don’t have to think twice to understand what real-world concept is being referred to. Pratchett's Discworld is such a fantastic and surprising place, so different from structured reality, that it was really interesting to explore native prejudices and expectations among the inhabitants. The new day doesn't erupt, it sort of sloshes gently across the sleeping landscape in the same way that the tide sneaks in across the beach, melting the sandcastles of the night. I've read that she changes quite a bit in the Wyrd Sisters and beyond, but I'm glad I can see how she started out before I jump into that.

Equal Rites is a great jumping on point for anyone unfamiliar with the Discworld series and comes with my highest recommendation. Eskarina’s proper place is at the Unseen University, but they don't admit girls, on the premise they cannot be wizards. I never thought that I would pick up any Discworld novel but the more I read of them, the more I'm inclined to pick up another Pratchett book. The setup, in other words, sounds like a very typical Tamora Pierce-style adventure, where our spunky heroine infiltrates a traditionally male space and dominates at everything.At the beginning of the book, she hid the fact that Esk has the powers of a wizard and trained her to be a witch because in her opinion that is the natural thing for a girl. At the university, the librarian seems the only one smart enough to see Esk and see her for what she is - and to be kind to her (granted, only after she gave him bananas but still). this is a play on the common term for a dealer in stolen goods and the line from the Robert Frost poem, Mending a Wall which originated with the proverb which has been around for a couple of centuries in different forms. In its day, in 1948, this was the height of desirability -- so much so that for its first few years it was only available for export.

I was regularly unsure of whether it was a character or the narrator talking because she read them all in exactly the same way. Don´t get me wrong, I instrumentalize anything to fit my agenda and continually misuse and wantonly misinterpret the code of objective reviewing, you should have already get used to it if this is not my first review drivel you read, but I at least don´t breed new prejudices. Men have to be wizards and women have to be witches, no debate about that, it´s the unwritten rule of doing it so since… What, stop asking stupid troublemaker questions about small girls being wizards, that´s impossible as women lack the…er… physiology to cast spells because one needs… sperm, yes, and body hair, muscles, you know, musk smell, the epic stink, to show the magic who is boss and dominance, yes, violent alpha male predator stuff, no sissy girly unicorn rainbow witching around. Kirby caricatures himself as the pointy-eared wizard on the back cover -- anyone who has seen his picture in The Josh Kirby Posterbook can confirm this. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe.But it's still a fun ride from beginning to end, and honestly the characters are such a delight I don't even need them to be having world-in-peril adventures; I can just watch them hanging out. Eskarina and Simon discover the weakness of the creatures from the Dungeon Dimensions - if you can use magic, but don't, they become scared and weakened. You’re reading along, minding your own business, when he slips in little phrases that catch you off guard and make you chuckle audibly. Normally I advise people begin at the beginning of the series, but despite this being the third book of Discworld, it makes for a better start than either of the first two books. The book starts with a dying wizard accidentally bestowing his powers on a newborn - what was intended to be the eight son of an eight son, who would carry on a proud tradition of wizards in the Disc.