Lords and Ladies (The Witches of Discworld, #4) (Discworld, #14)

by Terry Pratchett

It's a hot midsummer night and the crop circles are appearing everywhere. The Lancre All-Comers Morris Team have got drunk on a fairy mound and the elves have come back, bringing with them cruelty, kidnapping, malice and evil. Now Granny Weatherwax and her coven have really got their work cut out.

• ISBN10: 0575065788
• ISBN13: 9780575065789
• Publish Date: 6 August 1998 (first published November 1992)
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 3 October 2007
• Publish Country: GB
• Imprint: Gollancz
• Edition: Collectors ed
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 288
• Language: English

Reviews

[Amber (The Literary Phoenix)]

There’s a lot of revelling and a lot of chaos going on in Lords and Ladies. The fourteenth book in the Discworld series and the fourth in the Witches storyline. I’l pass on the warning that Terry Pratchett left on the first pages of this book – while most of the Discworld novels can be read independently, it’s highly recommended to read Witches Abroad before reading Lords and Ladies.

I will say that the only witches book I’ve read is Carpe Jugulum, and I never felt lost reading this one? But the author recommends maybe not picking this up independently so I thought I’d pass that along.

One of my favorite things about Terry Pratchett’s writing is the humor – it’s why I loved The Light Fantastic and what keeps me coming back to Discworld. The tone in Lords and Ladies is a bit different. It’s about an upcoming wedding and an elvish invasion and there’s a lot going on. No time, really, for joking around. I wouldn’t call the tone flat out series – I don’t think any of Discworld is serious – but this one takes itself a bit more seriously.

I found myself quite enjoyed Almost-Queen Magrat. She had good growth as a character, and there’s just something totally badass about a young bride digging up old legendary armor and riding a unicorn into battle. You want to turn fantasy royalty on its side and create a powerful female character, Magrat is pretty cool. I always give extra brownie points to the strong female characters in older fantasy, because while these heroines are a dime a dozen now (and so help me, I love them), they were still relatively uncommon in 1992, especially as written by male authors. But it’s not just Magrat that’s impressive – all three of the witches are great. Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax, and Almost-Queen Magrat all brings different things to the table with different styles.

The chaos in Lords and Ladies is like A Midsummer Night’s Dream gone wrong. Instead of friendly tricks and true love woven, with all back to good in the morning… this is a coup. This isn’t the “nice” kind of elves. These are mind-controlling trickster elves. We have three different couples. We have a king and queen of the Fair Folk. We even have a troupe of Rude Mechanicals which, frankly, feel as unessential to the plot here as they did in A Midsummer Night’s Dream. I think that overall, this is a wonderful tribute to Shakespeare’s original play. It’s a twisted upside down version, but there are so many parallels and it’s a fun nod to the original story.

My only really complaint about Lords and Ladies is the multitude of characters and names to remember. A lot of them are purposely confusing, like Baker the weaver. There are five POV characters, but scores of other minor, recurring characters. Wedding guests, love interests, townspeople. It’s really difficult to keep track of all the characters and remember what they’re doing and why they’re important. It doesn’t help that sometimes characters are called by their first name, sometimes their last name, and sometimes a nickname or profession. It’s altogether a bit distracting and at times I felt like skipping over scenes that felt unimportant.

As a self-contained story, I really liked this book. The plot was fun. The story went along quickly and the dialogue was light and bantery. I was engaged in the witches themselves and enjoyed the character development from the three of them. The invasion plot line interested me, but the chaos outside of the elves and witches didn’t particularly catch my attention. I don’t think it’s the best of the Discworld novels, but it’s light and fun and tricksy and I enjoyed it for that.

[layawaydragon]

I loved this book. It's Pratchett. If you don't know what that means, you just need to read one to understand it.

Pratchett books always have lots of pop culture, science and literature references. There's introspection on life and everything in it, from creaking doors to societal oppression and stereotypes. It's witty and funny, with jokes from high brow to low. He certainly has a writing style, like the Elves, witches or cats. Especially like Greebo the Cat who hunts wolves and Nanny Ogg, the witch who talks baby talk to him.


I don't get a lot of the criticisms of this book. The elves were well done, especially since Pratchett had to work against everyone's bias of loving Elves. Granny isn't a terrible person and shouldn't leave Magrat alone, after all Magrat would be hiding in her shell without Granny.

Anyways, so glad Magrat finally stopped being a wet hen! I figured it would happen, I just couldn't see Granny and Nanny investing in a witch for 10 years without knowing if Magrat had it in her to be a witch. I'm glad we got to see more of Granny under all three vests she wears (so to speak), to get to understand and know her better. There's more history and personality. I'm just curious what the hell happened between the books, when Granny was suppose to be dealing with the Unseen College and Esk. Of course, the answer to that question may be in other books.



Again lots of awesome quotes I want to pull out, plenty of them have already been liked so I won't repeat and will keep it short.



On page 24:

"Corpses as such didn't worry her. Witches generally act as layers-out of the dead as well as midwives; there were plenty of people in Lancre for whom Nanny Ogg's face had been the first and last thing they'd ever seen, which had probably made all the bit in the middle seem quite uneventful by comparison."

Conversation on page 92, that begins with Nanny,

"I remember when I was young there was a girl like Diamanda. Bad-tempered and impatient and talented and a real pain in the bum to the old witches. I don't know if you happen to remember her, by any chance?"

They passed Jason's forge, which rang to the sound of his hammer.

"I never forgot her," said Granny, quietly.

"Funny thing, how things go round in circles..."

"No they don't," said Granny Weatherwax firmly. "I wasn't like her. You know what the old witches round here were like. Set in their ways. No more than a bunch of old wart-charmers.

And I wasn't rude to them. I was just...firm. Forthright. I stood up to meself. Part of being a witch is standing up for yourself- you're grinning."

On page, 145:

"Yes, because I've been paying attention while you were dodging the traffic in Memory Lane,"said Granny.

Granny, on page 204

"It all works out,' said Granny Weatherwax,"somewhere. Your young wizard knows that, he just puts daft words around it. He'd be quite bright, if only he'd look at what's in front of him."

Oh, the awesome ending, on page 205:

"Where does it end?

On a summer night, with couples going their own ways, and silky purple twilight growing between the trees. From the castle, long after the celebrations had ended, faint laughter and the ringing of little silver bells. And from the empty hillside, only the the silence of the elves.

The End."