Sourcery – Terry Pratchett
This is number three in the Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge.
The basic premise here is that Ipslore the Red was the eighth son of an eighth sonand he had eight sons, the youngest, by virtue of his position in the family is a Sourcerer…a source of magic. Ipslore the Red doesn’t want to die but has little choice as Death has come. To stave off his time he bargains with Death and then imprisons himself in his staff and stays by his son, Coin. Fast forward about ten years and Coin, who has been tutored by his father while imprisoned in the staff, comes to the Unseen University to take up the hat of Archchancellor. All sorts of fun and games ensue with Rincewind doing what he does best…running. I’m not going to tell you if things end up okay, you really need to read the book.
I’m going to go out on a limb here and say I wasn’t entirely impressed by it. I’ve read it a few times and have had the same impression each time. I’m struggling to find the words but it just doesn’t seem to fit the rest of the Discworld series. I’ll probably read it on other occasions to try and quantify what I find different about it. It’s one of the few Pratchett books I don’t like.
It does help to give a lot of background into wizardry and how it interacts on Discworld. It also shows just how bad things can get if a parent takes the wrong attitude to parenting.
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