The Sir Terry Pratchett Reading Challenge: Wyrd Sisters

This post is dedicated to my sister Euphemia, who, unfortunately, doesn't turn 12 today. She turns 12+6 years old instead.

I love Shakespeare. I also love Terry Pratchett. So when Terry Pratchett borrows from The Bard, you know the book has to be awesome.

Loosely based/Inspired by Hamlet (trees make an appearance!), King Verence of Lancre is killed by the Duke, who takes over. Unfortunately, the little baby Prince managed to escape, and thanks to Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax and Margrat, is now in the safe hands of an acting group. Um, what an unusual childhood it'll be.

But in the meantime, the Duke is driving the three witches mad. He's even managed to make Granny Weatherwax angry, with some scary results. In fact, in a first for me, I saw Granny Weatherwax (temporarily) beaten.

But if you think this is just a story about kings, well, it's not. There's a good bit directed at acting (lots of Shakespeare references!), and ok, fine, it's about kings and royalty. I loved reading about the kind of monarchy that people like.

Oh, and Ankh Morpork makes an appearance too~ Kind of like a comparison between countries.

So yeah, I've told you the basic elements, which means that if you read a lot of Discworld, you can more or less guess the kind of humour that's going to happen.

Personally, I love the interaction between Magrat, Granny and Nanny. Magrat is so different from the two older witches, what with her being idealistic and having ideas that conform to what people think witches do in this world. But for Granny, it's all headology.

I wonder if I should continue fangirling? I'm currently in the mode where all I can do is say "READ IT READ IT READ IT" and then try to force the book down people's throats. Maybe I'll just share a quote instead. This quote comes from when Magrat brings Granny and Nanny to the theatre for the first time:

" 'I reckon', she said slowly, 'I reckon it's all just pretendin'. Look, he's still breathing.'

The rest of the audience, who by now had decided that this commentary was all part of the play, stared as one man at the corpse. It blushed.

'And look at his boots too.' Nanny said critically. 'A real King'd be ashamed of boots like that.'

The corpse tried to shuffle its feet behind a cardboard bush."

P.s. for those interested in things like this, the Driot de Seigneur is an important part of the plot. Of course, it's misunderstood by almost all the characters. If you're one of those that like to expand your knowledge, you may want to google the term. If you do, I'm sorry for turning you into someone from my HL3 class (full of knowledge you can't say out loud in polite company).