Lords and Ladies (Discworld Novel)

Lords and Ladies is a another spellbining book by Terry Prattchett.In Lords and Ladies the elves have come back and its down to Granny Weatherwax,Nanny Ogg,Magrat Garlick,the Lancre morris men and Shaun Ogg,Lancre's standing army,to stop them.If you like reading sci-fi,fantasy or fairy tales then read Lords and Ladies.If you enjoy this book then try books 3,6,12,18 and 23.

My favourite Witches book (2/2 people found this helpful)

I absolutely loved this book, everything about it is just perfect. It is perhaps one of the darker of Pratchett's witches books - the elves are actually quite a frightening adversary. I always hated Tolkein's high-handed elves, so effortlessly beautiful, so graceful, so noble, so eternally young, bleuch! Smug b*stards. Here Pratchett explodes the myth that being beautiful means you must be good.
Nanny Ogg is - as ever - a joy to read about. Her exploits around the 'Long Man' and her date with Casanunda are comic gold, as is her rousing speech to Lancre's ragtag army.
Granny Weatherwax also gets a bit of a backstory and, as a result a more rounded character. We can see why she is like she is and some of what she's had to give up to be the most powerful witch of all.
But it's Magrat who undergoes the biggest change - the scenes of her confrontation with the elves had me on the edge of my seat mentally cheering her on. This is Pratchett doing a more conventional style of adventure than his usual and it's very good.
I could almost taste the night air and smell the snow.

No one is to do the Stick and Bucket Dance ever again (7/10 people found this helpful)

The three witches, especially Granny Weatherwax, have always been my favorite denizens of the Discworld, and they do nothing to disappoint the reader over the course of Lords and Ladies. Add in a few of Unseen University's highest-ranking wizards, and you're guaranteed to have one wild time in the kingdom of Lancre. This novel wasn't quite as funny as Pratchett's earlier witch novels, but it shows Granny Weatherwax in a whole new light and makes for a very entertaining read all the way around.

Lords and Ladies opens with the three witches returning home to Lancre after their encounter with the Godmother in the novel Witches Abroad. They arrive just in the nick of time. A group of young girls have started doing some witching of their own; dancing around (with or without their drawers on) some of the ancient stones up in the hills isn't good for anybody, especially when the barriers between the worlds are rubbing close together and beings on the other side are just waiting to pounce on anyone capable of weakening the borders a wee bit more. The Elf Queen has set her sights on crossing over into reality, but there just isn't room in this reality for Granny Weatherwax and the Elf Queen. Granny knows what regular people forgot long ago - all that glamour and beauty that Elves project is just a mask. Elves are really nasty little buggers who care about human beings only insofar as they can torture them for their own amusement. Things are really nip and go here, as Granny Weatherwax isn't her old self these days - she can't even see the future anymore, and that doesn't bode well for anybody.

Of course, the citizens of Lancre are all distracted by the upcoming nuptials of King Verence and Magrat Garlick. Wyrd Sisters tells the story of Verence's witch-assisted rise from the king's Fool to the King of Lancre, as well as the budding romance between Verence and Magrat. Magrat is of course the third member of the witches' trio, a young lass with eternally plain looks, great interest in the traditions and proper ceremonies of witchcraft, and a naivety and generosity of nature that frequently drives Granny up the wall. She and Verence are as shy as the day is long, but they are to be married on Midsummer's Eve. Granny and Nanny Ogg tend to treat Magrat as a child, and she finally gets so perturbed she abandons the coven and settles in to learning the ways of being a Queen - which mostly involves being incredibly bored.

All kinds of folks arrive for the royal wedding, including Giamo Casanunda, the world's second greatest lover ("he tries harder," a process which invariably involves the use of a stepladder), and a caravan of wizards from Unseen University. Archchancellor Ridcully is extremely excited about it because he used to live in Lancre. He goes on and on about this girl he once knew and wanted to marry, a girl who happens to be Granny Weatherwax. It's hard to imagine Granny as a young woman, but Lords and Ladies shows us a side of the old crone we've never seen before. Magrat really starts to come into her own, as well, after the Elves capture Verence. Of course, everything comes down to a big fight with the Elves, but that's the least exciting part of the novel, as far as I'm concerned. It's much more fun just watching Pratchett put all his players in place for the ending.

Pratchett is absolutely on fire in a number of passages here, especially when young Ponder Stibbons tries to explain his theory of parallel universes and multiple forms of existence to Archchancellor Ridcully. Granny and Nanny Ogg are always hilarious, the whole makeup of Lancre sets up many a joke, and Verence's dependence on book knowledge sets up one of the funniest bits in the whole Discworld series. Lords and Ladies is enough to get a new reader hooked on Pratchett's unique genius, but you won't truly appreciate this novel unless you read Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad first.

Where'd all these Elves come from? (11/12 people found this helpful)

Lords & Ladies, the 14th novel in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, is a wonderful return to Pratchett form for me. It is laugh-out-loud funny and a wonderful parody of Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream. The Shakespeare allusions aren't quite as bewildering as they were in Wyrd Sisters either, which makes it a bit more accessible for the non-Shakespeare fan.

This book was fantastic. It was a very interesting blend of comedy and grimness. In fact, it was probably the most mainstream plot that I've seen Pratchett produce. The conflict between the Elves and Magrat (and the Elf Queen and Granny) is very straightforward and almost chilling. The Elves are relentless in their pursuit of their victims. Magrat has to do some very harsh things to save herself from them. The Elves are almost unstoppable. Then, there is the Granny's confrontation with the Queen, which is very much like other confrontations between heroes and villains. Granny is captured and the Queen is just playing with her. They discuss what's going to happen to Lancre when the Elves take over. The Queen threatens her life. That sort of thing. These scenes are almost terrifying, and that's the first time I can ever say that Pratchett has done that to me.

However, that doesn't take away from the comedy. There are some truly funny scenes in this book that will make you laugh hard. The Archchancellor of the the Unseen University of wizards decides that he should come to the wedding along with a few colleagues (including the Librarian, an orangutan that used to be human before a magical accident). The scenes with the wizards, as usual, are just hilarious. This includes everything from attempting to hire transport (they don't have enough money, so they have to say that the Librarian is a pet) to the Archchancellor's attempts to woo Granny. As they say, hilarity ensues.

The characters are simply wonderful. It is such a difference between this book and Equal Rites. Not only are they very funny, but you start to care for them as well. Great strides are made in character development. Magrat finally learns what she can do when she's pushed, when she stands up to the Elves. Granny learns to respect Magrat just a little bit. Nanny learns about Casanunda, the world's second greatest lover ("I try harder"). All of the witches seem a bit less testy, but still well within the character established for them in earlier books. Even the wizards get some development, which doesn't happen very often. You learn a bit about the Archchancellor in this one as well. Usually, the wizards are just around for comedy relief.

Probably the best character, though, is Simon. He's one of Nanny Ogg's sons, and he's basically everything at the castle. He's the army, he's the servant, he's the herald, etc. His attempts to get his mother and the other witches to follow royal protocol (like letting him announce their presence to the King) are very funny. Even he gets some development, though, as he learns what it is to be a leader when he has to lead a rag-tag band against the Elves.

There is only one thing wrong with this book. The ending, again, is a bit lack-luster. This time, it's also a bit anti-climactic. It doesn't exactly come out of nowhere, as there is a bit of a set-up. However, I think it still needed a bit more. I applaud Pratchett for trying to turn the clichéd ending to something like this on its head, but I think it needed a little more support.

As far as the characters and the plot go, though, this was a classic book. Not quite as good as Reaper Man (I don't know if he'll ever be able to top that), but still very high up on the list. And ignore what Pratchett says at the beginning of the book. While it does continue straight on from the previous book (which I haven't read), it is still very understandable without that. In his little blurb at the beginning, Pratchett gives you all of the information you will need to understand this one.

If you can't find Reaper Man, this one also makes an excellent entry into the Discworld universe.

The end of the ýMagratý trilogy (3/6 people found this helpful)

Most of Pratchett's Discworld books function well enough as stand-alone novels, but as the last in a definite trilogy Lords and Ladies is best read in correct sequence. Pratchett first introduced witch Granny Weatherwax in Equal Rites, but his novel more properly rounds out the trilogy begun in Wyrd Sisters - which introduced other coven members Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick (who ended the novel engaged to be married to the new king of Lancre) - and Witches Abroad, which saw Magrat temporarily avoid her marriage to try her hand at fairy-godmothering in distant Genua. In Lords and Ladies Magrat's wedding, and her transformation from 'wet hen' witch to queen, finally gets the go-ahead, but inevitably things don't run smoothly as evil Elves gatecrash the Discworld with a view to taking over Lancre.

Both Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad were fun, but Pratchett tops both of them with Lords and Ladies, a novel that combines a cracking plot with some of the best jokes in the series. The addition of romantic dwarf Cassanunda helps tie in the otherwise slightly extraneous Witches Abroad, while similarly the inclusion of the Unseen University wizards ties the Witches books more firmly with Pratchett's Ankh-Morpork novels. This novel is also the first to depict the Bursar as truly mentally deranged and on dried frog pills, while the revelation of a young romance between Granny and Archchancellor Ridcully adds a touch of pathos. Add in some quantum theory on parallel worlds, and Pratchett's regular theme of the glamour of fiction, and you have one of the strongest Discworld novels, and definitely the best of the 'witches' books up to this point. Highly recommended.

Lords and Ladies (Discworld Novel)

Terry Pratchett

Reader Reviews:

Lords and Ladies review. (2/4 people found this helpful)

My favourite Witches book (2/2 people found this helpful)

No one is to do the Stick and Bucket Dance ever again (7/10 people found this helpful)

Where'd all these Elves come from? (11/12 people found this helpful)

The end of the ýMagratý trilogy (3/6 people found this helpful)

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