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A review by thomas_edmund
Lords and Ladies by Terry Pratchett
5.0
I have read Lords and Ladies before, but unlike some other rereads I hadn't actually remembered too much from this one except that the Elves were scary AF and Granny Weatherwax AIN'T DEAD (spoiler alert).
Rereading this one was quite interesting, in terms of evolution of the Discworld series I thought that Small Gods was actually quite dark and brutal, which while Lords and Ladies continues a fair amount of this - I couldn't help but notice a lot of humour and silliness throughout. And While I consider Pratchett to be the GOAT at what he did I feel on in comparisons to his other books the balance of humour and action is a bit off in this one. Nothing too extreme just at times some of the jokes don't land as well - for example there is a moment where one of the characters talks about 'psyching' up the others, which in itself is quite anachronistic and funny, and fits with the Witches' themes (and sort of fits with their 'headology') but in order to keep with the times 'psych' is spelt pssike. It takes a moment to translate, and the intentional misspell doesn't exactly add to the joke, its already funny to hear a fantasy character use modern language like that.
However despite this imbalance Lords and Ladies I think shows a big lead forward in character complexity, its the only Discworld other than The Light Fantastic (an immediate sequel to Colour of Magic) which has a 'previously on' and follows essentially immediately on from Witches Abroad. I confess as a younger reader I didn't really like Weatherwax that much, other than respecting her bad-assery but in rereading I actually wonder if Esme W is the closest to an author insert we get from Pratchett. I always assumed he was Vimes (and sometimes wondered if he might actually be Rincewind) although I'm relatively certain that isn't how Pratchett worked exactly.
As a final comment the plot of Lords and Ladies is slightly leaning into 'proper' story telling, while its still a twisted trope on fantasy clichés the actual story is much more mainstream than early Discworld, by which I mean there are clear 'bad-guys' and the MCs undergo triumph and character development a little more traditionally. And WHAT a group of bad-guys, the Elves in Lords and Ladies are disturbingly abusively evil - I feel like both Small Gods and Lords and Ladies reveal a darker part of Pratchett's imagination which I relish but also find a little scary.
Next up is Men at Arms - one of my favourite Guards books which I have read many times over - but like all of these not for some time. Will be interesting.
Rereading this one was quite interesting, in terms of evolution of the Discworld series I thought that Small Gods was actually quite dark and brutal, which while Lords and Ladies continues a fair amount of this - I couldn't help but notice a lot of humour and silliness throughout. And While I consider Pratchett to be the GOAT at what he did I feel on in comparisons to his other books the balance of humour and action is a bit off in this one. Nothing too extreme just at times some of the jokes don't land as well - for example there is a moment where one of the characters talks about 'psyching' up the others, which in itself is quite anachronistic and funny, and fits with the Witches' themes (and sort of fits with their 'headology') but in order to keep with the times 'psych' is spelt pssike. It takes a moment to translate, and the intentional misspell doesn't exactly add to the joke, its already funny to hear a fantasy character use modern language like that.
However despite this imbalance Lords and Ladies I think shows a big lead forward in character complexity, its the only Discworld other than The Light Fantastic (an immediate sequel to Colour of Magic) which has a 'previously on' and follows essentially immediately on from Witches Abroad. I confess as a younger reader I didn't really like Weatherwax that much, other than respecting her bad-assery but in rereading I actually wonder if Esme W is the closest to an author insert we get from Pratchett. I always assumed he was Vimes (and sometimes wondered if he might actually be Rincewind) although I'm relatively certain that isn't how Pratchett worked exactly.
As a final comment the plot of Lords and Ladies is slightly leaning into 'proper' story telling, while its still a twisted trope on fantasy clichés the actual story is much more mainstream than early Discworld, by which I mean there are clear 'bad-guys' and the MCs undergo triumph and character development a little more traditionally. And WHAT a group of bad-guys, the Elves in Lords and Ladies are disturbingly abusively evil - I feel like both Small Gods and Lords and Ladies reveal a darker part of Pratchett's imagination which I relish but also find a little scary.
Next up is Men at Arms - one of my favourite Guards books which I have read many times over - but like all of these not for some time. Will be interesting.