Sourcery (by Terry Pratchett)

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Having decided to re-read my Terry Pratchett books, including the Discworld books in order, I reached the fifth one, ‘Sourcery’. Since we’re travelling at present I wasn’t planning to read it until we got home. Then I spotted a copy on my son’s shelves. I didn’t remember much about the book, other than that I didn’t particularly like it. But I thought it would be good to pick up at odd moments, and would make a break from reading on my Kindle.

It was a little surprising to find that I re-read ‘Sourcery’ as recently as 2015. Apparently I liked it a bit better than expected, but not that much. This time I found it a lot more interesting and enjoyable. Perhaps the mood has to be right.

The theme is quite a serious one - that of world domination and the Apocalypse. The plot revolves around a ten-year-old boy called Coin. He is the eighth son of a wizard - and his father was the eighth son of an eighth son. Wizards are supposed to be celibate, not run away and get married. It becomes clear in the book that this is primarily so as to avoid any risk of another ‘sourcerer’ being born.

For ‘sourcery’ is the Discworld term for raw magic and power - the stuff of fairy-tales when wizards hold out their hands and create, change or (more often) destroy things. The Discworld wizards had become somewhat lazy, pottering in their university, muttering strange incantations from time to time, and drinking a lot.

Some of them were able to do some spells, but the Unseen University has a lengthy training period. They reach different levels of ability, and then try to be promoted. This only happens when a wizard on a higher level dies… and wizards are quite unscrupulous, so they all watch out for their own backs, and none of them really trusts anyone else.

They are about to promote a new archchancellor when Coin arrives, armed with a large and rather disturbing staff. The reader knows, because it happens in the first chapter, that the spirit of his father is in the staff. And whereas his father, in life, seemed a fairly likeable old man, he has grabbed hold of the idea of power and is being channeled through his son - who isn’t entirely happy about it.

Into the story stumbles the incompetent wizard Rincewind, whose hat proclaims that he cannot spell (either with letters or with his wand). He is having a quiet drink when he is interrupted by the beautiful barbarian heroine Corina, who has stolen the Archchancellor’s hat. The hat has a personality of its own and knows that it must not be worn by Coin.

So the book has two main threads… that of Rincewind and Corina escaping as far away from Ankh Morpork as is possible, and that of what Coin is doing with and through the other wizards, who find themselves strangely unable to resist. Other than the Librarian, who was turned into an ape several books earlier.

While the theme is rather vast, there’s plenty of light humour, including one or two places where I almost chuckled. I particularly liked Creosote the poet, and Nijel the Destroyer who wants to be a barbarian hero but is too nice, and prefers to engage in discussion than to fight. They join forces with Rincewind and Corina and keep escaping, in unlikely ways, from various perils.

As with most of the Pratchett books there are many innuendoes, but even those tend to be amusing. I particularly enjoyed Creosote’s extravagant compliments to Corina (or any other girl he comes across) which clearly have their origin in the Biblical ‘Song of Solomon’.

The ending is a bit confusing, with several things happening at once. Rincewind, despite his general incompetence, manages to save the world twice, and although he then vanishes towards the end of the book, there are hints that he will return, if only to find his hat…

Enjoyable, on the whole. As with most of the Discworld books this stands alone, although as Rincewind came in some of the earlier books, it is all the better for reading them in chronological order.

Review copyright 2019 Sue's Book Reviews