240 pages
English language
Published 2005 by HarperCollins.
Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent novels, consistent number one bestsellers in England, have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody along with Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen.In Equal Rites, a dying wizard tries to pass on his powers to an eighth son of an eighth son, who is just at that moment being born. The fact that the son is actually a daughter is discovered just a little too late...
Other than the climax just kind of going confusing at breakneck speed this was a fantastic book. Really love how arbitrarily self-assured Esk and Granny are. They are basically unstoppable in a university full of dweebs. Great fun.
What a fun book! This is my very first Terry Pratchett. After the stories of the Discworld have been on my to-read list for way too long I was finally convinced to try one and Equal Rites is definitely a very good start into the series.
It was fun, honest, critical and everything what you want. So much magic and quirkiness, but not in a bad way—I enjoyed this book very much and definitely cannot wait to be drawn even deeper into the Discworld!
This perfectly ridicules the arbitrariness of gender stereotypes. Everybody knows that only men can be wizards, everybody knows it’s part of the lore, but nobody actually knows where it is written or why it should be the case. And Esk just ignoring both her role as a wizard and a witch and rescuing Simon and herself by not using magic is about the best possible ending.
