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Equal Rites Book Review

Equal Rites is a 1987 comic fantasy novel by Terry Pratchett. It was the third entry in the Discworld series and an apparent improvement upon its predecessors.

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“They say a little knowledge is a dangerous thing,

but it’s not one half so bad as a lot of ignorance“

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The story is about a dying wizard who passes his staff to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for him, he was a bit careless and the eighth son was actually a daughter. So this girl goes on an adventure to become a wizard in an all-male university. I did like ‘The Colour of Magic’ and ‘The Light Fantastic’ quite a bit, but this entry is where the franchise became truly enjoyable to me personally. It was such an obvious improvement and finally a more streamlined, simple and well crafted book in narrative and characterization.

Unlike its predecessors, this novel benefits from a stronger and less cluttered narrative. It also has a much fewer character count, which made it feel much more accessible and better paced and structure. It’s so simple, in fact, that it might be lacking in complexity for some readers, but I ended up appreciating its charming low-stakes plot.

The story is all about female empowerment, but Pratchett dealt with this subject in a nuanced and even amusing manner, making for a read that is very rarely preachy. The very examination of the words witch and wizard and whether or not they are the same things and if the distinction is only based on sex was very interesting. The author, thus, subverted the regular fantasy tropes of many decades past and offered a decidedly modern take on them.

There are essentially just five characters in this story and I loved the book for that restraint. I always prefer having a smaller character count as this leads to better characterization for everybody and a more coherent narrative. Drum Billet is the dying wizard from the opening section and he did make an impression for the small time that he got. That first sequence of events was instantly intriguing and a great hook for the rest of the story.

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But I have to say that I didn’t quite care for Simon. His character was underdeveloped and his goal wasn’t clearly defined. He felt like an afterthought to me. Not only that, but the story turning into this admittedly imaginative, but still convoluted epic quest toward the end was quite unnecessary. I would have preferred for the plot to remain just about the protagonist becoming accepted as a female wizard, but instead this whole new conflict was created and I got the impression that Pratchett did that for the fear of his story being too small. But he rushed things up considerably during the last stretch of the book.

But other than that, I did like every other plot beat and character. Cutangle is a hilarious creation. The idea that he would accept Eskarina into the university just because he wants to be remembered well and more importantly because he has the hots for her granny was so funny to me. Their elderly dynamic was so precious.

Speaking of Granny Weatherwax, she is such a strong personality. I loved the exploration of internal misogyny through her character and how she viewed the world was very interesting. Eskarina is a solid protagonist and an easily likable one, but it is the granny who stole the show for me personally.

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Equal Rites is beautifully written in descriptions and dialogue. Pratchett is particularly adept at humorous exchanges and this novel made me laugh more than a couple of times. The ending about the ants and how they are suddenly crucial to the story was a brilliant example of his absurdist touches and I wish that he includes more of these elements from this point onward. There is a sense of magic to this novel that made it super cozy to me. I always prefer stories about witches and wizards over other fantastical elements, so this was right up my valley. The moments where they inhabited the mind of an animal were the highlights for me as well as witnessing the lifestyles of witches and wizards and the townspeople that they met. It’s an adventurous story with superb world building.