It's been a hot minute, but I've finally got the next two books in the Great Discworld Re-read ready for review! First up is the next book with our favorite Witches, Lords and Ladies (1992)
We're back with the witches of Lancre and they've finally made it back home from their various travels abroad. Magrat is astounded to discover that in her absence, Verence, the new king of Lancre, has taken it upon himself to arrange for their wedding to take place on Midsummer Night's Eve, and everything has been arranged already for her. So why isn't she happy? Meanwhile, Granny and Nanny realize that Lancre has a pair of problems - some new girls in town who think they understand what witchcraft is all about, and Elves. The problems are most likely connected, of course.
Now, I'm not sure why, but the Witches books are ones that I enjoy a great deal but always take me a long time to get through. Part of it, I think, is because we see so much of the world through Granny Weatherwax's view, and she realizes just how dumb people can be. It can be really hard to read page after page of people not being smart enough to get out of the rain until an old woman with an honorary degree in Headology tells them to do so. She's full of common sense, except when she isn't, and her view that other people have no sense whatsoever colors nearly every interaction she has with other characters. It's not the easiest thing to read.
It is, however, a bit of a delight to see some characters that we're going to get to know in later books in the form of the new girls in witching circles. Magrat is already a different kind of witch from Granny and Nanny, and seeing how witchcraft can evolve even further (and then take a sharp left turn into something out of the movie The Craft) is interesting to watch, particularly with how Nanny and Granny react to it. Granny is, shocking absolutely no one, incredibly stubborn, and Nanny is willing to work around the constraints of the rules of the game to make sure the "right" people win and do what they're supposed to.
This is also a book that introduces the idea of the Trousers of Time, Pratchett's take on multiple timelines. Basically, at any one decision point, a person can end up going down a different leg of the Trousers of Time and end up in an entirely different place than they would have if they'd gone the other way. We start seeing this with the Elves causing circle time, indicating that the walls between Here and There are thinner than normal and that it might be possible to see or hear (or remember) what one did in those other legs of the Trousers. Elves, needless to say, are bad news, and just the kind of messy things that Granny hates, so of course, there has to be a battle.
There's Shakespeare, Morris dancing, showdowns, and a big wedding all in one book, and I imagine everyone just needs a really long nap afterwards.
Finally (for this installment, at any rate), we're back to the City Watch with Men at Arms (1993).
The world has changed quite a lot for the men of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. For one thing, there are more of them, and they aren't all men. Carrot, our favorite dwarf by adoption, introduces his parents to three new members of the watch - Cuddy (a dwarf by birth), Detritus (a troll), and Angua (a woman who also happens to be a werewolf). In addition to adding new members, one of their own, Captain Sam Vimes, is set to retire after he marries the Lady Sybil Ramkin, who he met during the dragon exploits of Guards! Guards! Sam has also gotten on the wagon and is trying to figure out how to live as a civilian, and discovering that he's not the biggest fan, but what can you do?
Well, you can start by figuring out who blew a hole in the Assassins' Guild, killed a clown, a dwarf, and a beggar, and trying to blow big holes into Detritus...
Generally, the technology level of this part of Discworld is probably about the Middle Ages, maybe a little later. You've got crossbows, but nothing more than that. At least, you didn't, until one Edward D'Eath of the Assassins' Guild discovers a drawing in a little-known book by Leonard da Quirm and sets a few things in motion that cause a whole lot of chaos.
I have to wonder how an American author would have tackled the idea of the first gun in a world that knows only crossbows, because the way Americans and Brits think about guns varies so widely, in large part due to how ubiquitous (or not) they are. In Pratchett's world, a gun is a sign of a devastating change in the atmosphere, a way of destroying lives that will cause no end of sorrow and make death cheap and easy, and will clearly cause nothing but bad things to happen. There's no space for "self defense" in Pratchett's world when it comes to a gun.
This is also the book that introduces the idea that Carrot Ironfoundersson might be more than simply a charismatic guard with adoptive dwarven parents, but possibly the rightful king of Ankh-Morpork. He seems to have an idea that this might be his destiny, and we see that he wants no part in it. While others may talk about "back when we had kings," he is happy to proceed along the streets of the city, showing the new guards the ropes and giving Angua a gift of the city he calls home.
There are so many aspects to this one book that it's hard to summarize. Pratchett's latent anger toward police comes out in some of the ways the Watch acts, talking about how they chase because someone ran, and "an innocent man has nothing to fear from the police" is an axiom in need of addressing because it's clearly wrong. He mentions how people are guilty of something most of the time, and if the police happen to catch a person who is guilty of the thing they're actively seeking at that moment, then it's a happy coincidence - this is not the language of a person who trusts the police.
And yet. The City Watch are some of the best characters in the Discworld, in part because they aren't perfect, and Pratchett doesn't let people think for one second that they are. He shows them, warts and all, and lets people see that the work still needs to be done by someone, but it can (and should) still be done better. Over the course of the books, the Watch does get better as people grow and evolve, so it's important to see that they have to start from somewhere.
And like that, this edition of the Great Discworld Re-read is complete. Next time we'll start with Soul Music (1994) and Death having a personal crisis. Again.
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