By Sir Terry Pratchett

Ok, here we come to the first of the Witches’ books in Discworld. Equal Rites is a book that I read when I was young, and it was a lot of fun to go back to.

“They say a little knowledge is a bad thing, but it is not half so bad as a lot of ignorance.

Everyone knows there’s no such thing as a female wizard. So when the wizard Drum Billet accidentally passes his staff of power to an eighth daughter of an eighth son, a girl called Eskarina (Esk, for short), the misogynistic world of wizardry wants nothing to do with her.

Thankfully, Granny Weatherwax, the Discworld’s most famous witch, has plenty of experience ignoring the status quo. With Granny’s help, Esk sneaks her way into the magical Unseen University and befriends apprentice wizard Simon.

But power is unpredictable, and these bright young students soon find themselves in a whole new dimension of trouble. Let the battle of the sexes begin…”

This book is a lot of fun. It takes an interesting look at gender politics. For those who have read my Tiffany Aching book reviews, this is the first book that includes Granny Weatherwax and Eskarina Smith, who we saw again in I Shall Wear Midnight.

I have three thoughts that I would like to talk about.

Firstly, Borrowing and Headology. This is something that was in the Tiffany Aching series, but I never had the time to talk about it. If this book wants to look at witch magic vs wizard magic, we might as well see what that magic looks like, especially because there is very little point in the book where you see wizards doing magic. Borrowing is the idea that you can ride in the minds of the animals. It is interesting that, unlike in other worlds, you aren’t taking over the animal because if you did that, you could lose yourself. Headology is the magical version of the placebo effect. After all, if you wear a pony hat and say strange words, then it must be magic.

Secondly, magic as an analogy for studying wizardry is studying science. The idea makes a lot of sense because most of what we see about studying wizard magic is a lot of research trying to discover new spells or trying to understand the world. This is interesting to look at because witches actually help people, but wizards seem to have more respect from the wider world.

Thirdly, Eskarina Smith. I wonder how much things might have been different if Eskarina Smith had dressed up like a boy and went off to Unseen University like that, but we won’t see something like that until Monstrous Regiment. Something that I find interesting when looking at Eskarina is the fact that she tries things that should not be possible for most people because no one has told her it is impossible.

Thank you for joining me today, and until next week.

Happy reading, and to all a good night.