Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett

   1988; 319 pages.  Book 6 (out of 41) in the “Discworld” series; Book 2 (out of 6) in the “Witches” subseries.  New Author? : No.  Genres :  Humorous Fantasy; Shakespeare Spoofery; British Humour.  Laurels: 135^th in The Big Read.  Overall Rating : 8*/10.

 

    It’s all a bit confusing.  King Verence can see himself lying at the bottom of a stairway.  His body is well-toned.  He’s kind of proud of that.  But why is he able to gaze upon himself from above?

 

    There’s a black-robed being at his side who’s explaining all this.  Something about King Verence now being a ghost.  But that’s silly.  He was alive just a minute ago, at the top of the stairs.

 

    Maybe that dagger sticking out of the middle of his back has something to do with it.

 

What’s To Like...

    Wyrd Sisters is part of the “Witches” subseries of Terry Pratchett’s fantastic “Discworld” series.  The story takes place in the Kingdom of Lancre, not the customary setting of Ankh-Morpork, which means there’s no Sam Vimes, Carrot, or Patrician to amuse us.  But the three witches, Granny Weatherwax, Magrat, and Nanny Ogg, do a fine job of weaving their own fascinating tale.

 

    Plus there are a bunch of new characters to help out: the ghost of King Verence, the Fool, Duke and Lady Felmet, Tomjon, Hwel, and a specter-seeing cat named Greebo.  And last but not least is the always entertaining grim reaper, Death.

 

    The main plotline chronicles the aftermath of King Verence’s demise.  But we also tag along with a traveling theater troupe, watch the three witches develop their coven and, for one of them, sample something called romance.  And despite a witchy rule of never meddling in the affairs of humans, the trio of hags quickly become entangled in the issue of who shall succeed the lately deceased King of Lancre.

 

    There are references throughout the text to several Shakespearean plays, most notably Macbeth.  I also sensed brief nods to Romeo and Juliet, as well as The Tempest, and other reviewers spotted several more.  But rest assured, even if you’ve never read any of the Bard’s plays, or read them and were unimpressed, you’ll still find Wyrd Sisters an entertaining tale.

 

    The book’s title is referenced twice along the way.  The text is chock full of Terry Pratchett’s delightful footnotes, and completely devoid of Chapter separations, another Pratchett trademark.  Death tries his hand at a new career, and Granny tries to understand why people go to watch plays.  You’ll also learn worst insult you can lay on a dwarf: “b’zugda-hiara”.  Its translation is given in the comments, due to its filthiness.

 

    All the plot threads converge to make a suitable ending.  Good triumphs, Evil is vanquished, and a nifty plot twist pops up just when you think you’ve figured out how everything’s going to turn out.  Wyrd Sisters is a standalone novel, as well as a part of a series and a subseries.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

    Orgulous (adj.) : haughty; bossy.

    Others: Hoyden (n).

 

Ratings…
    Amazon:  4.6/5 based on 10,621 ratings and 696 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.16/5 based on 117,976 ratings and 4,757 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    Vitoller shifted uneasily.  “I already owe Chrystophrase the Troll more than I should.”

    The other two stared.

    “He’s the one that has people’s limbs torn off!” said Tomjon.

    “How much do you owe him,” asked Hwel.

    “It’s all right,” said Vitoller hurriedly.  “I’m keeping up the interest payments.  More or less.”

    “Yes, but how much does he want?”

    “An arm and a leg.”  (pg. 227)

 

    “When’s the play going to be, then?” she said, moving closer.

    “Marry, I’m sure I’m not allowed to tell you,” said the Fool.  “The duke said to me, he said, don’t tell the witches that it’s tomorrow night.”

    “I shouldn’t, then,” agreed Magrat.

    “At eight o’clock.”

    “I see.”

    “But meet for sherry beforehand at seven thirty, i’faith.”

    “I expect you shouldn’t tell me who is invited, either,” said Magrat.

    “That’s right.  Most of the dignitaries of Lancre.  You understand I’m not telling you this.”  (pg. 260)

 

“Double hubble, stubble trouble, Fire burn and cauldron bub—"  (pg. 231)

    There’s never much to gripe about in a Discworld story, so I’m reduced to nitpicking.

 

    There’s very little cussing in any Discworld novel.  I counted just four expletives in the first 50% of the book, and those were all of the “mild” variety.  Needless to say, there were no R-rated situations either.

 

    There were a few more typos than I’d expect in a book published by ROC Fantasy, a subsidiary of Penguin Books, including feel/feet, eves/eyes, Ramptoppers/Ramtoppers, and help/held.

 

    Finally, keep in mind that Terry Pratchett is a British author, so Discworld novels are written in English, not American.  Examples: mantlepiece/mantelpiece, theatre/theater, no-one/no one, grey/gray, and mid-air/midair.  It's always fun to learn a foreign language this way.

 

    For me, Wyrd Sisters was a delightful read; but then again, I say that about all Discworld novels, only two of which remain on my TBR shelf: Soul Music and The Truth.  If you’re looking for a lighthearted Fantasy series, one which you don’t necessarily need to read the books in order, I can’t think of any better one than this.

 

    8 Stars.  One last tidbit.  Early on, a reference is made to something called “droit de seigneur”.  It rang a bell, but I had to look it up, and I’ll let you do the same.  It brought back old memories of a 1965 Charlton Heston, The War Lord, where droit de seigneur plays an important part.  Jeez, I haven’t thought of that flick in decades.

Neverwhere - Neil Gaiman

   1996; 370 pages.  New Author? : No, but it’s been a while.  Genres : Urban Fantasy; British Contemporary Literature; Paranormal Fiction.  Overall Rating: 8*/10.

 

    Richard Mayhew has a good life.  He’s got a decent job and a girlfriend, Jessica, whom he loves very much, even if she is working very hard on changing him into a better man.

 

    Richard Mayhew is an honorable guy.  When he comes across a girl crumpled and bleeding on the sidewalk, he knows to do the right thing: take her to his apartment and tend to her wounds as best he can.

 

    Richard Mayhew is a bit naïve.  His girlfriend Jessica is not amused by his act of chivalry and lets him know it in no uncertain terms.  And that’s just the beginning of Richard’s troubles.  He’s about to lose Jessica, lose his job, and lose his apartment.  Amazingly, he's also about to lose the very city he lives in—London, England.

 

    All because he took pity on the injured girl named Door.  Hmm.  I wonder why they call her that?  Probably it’s short for “Doreen”.

 

    What other explanation could there be?

 

What’s To Like...

    Neverwhere was published in 1996 and was Neil Gaiman’s first “solo” novel, coming six years after he co-authored Good Omens with Terry Pratchett.  Both of these novels are fantasy tales, but where Good Omens is steeped in comedy (what else would you expect from the pen of Terry Pratchett?), Neverwhere is a darker work of Urban Fantasy.

 

    The story is set entirely in the two London.  The first half of the book focuses almost exclusively on worldbuilding, which is a Neil Gaiman forte.  Richard and the reader explore “London Below”, aka "The Underside”, meeting all sorts of strange characters and otherworldly species, while getting entangled in all sorts of dangerous plotlines.

 

    The main storyline finally gets underway in the second half of the book, and the major story threads include: a.) finding an angel named Islington; b.) acquiring some sort of “key” and bringing it to Islington; c.) helping Door figure out who killed her family, and why; d.) assisting Hunter in her quest to kill “the Beast of London”; and e.) somehow getting Richard back to “London Above” (aka “The Upside”) and back in good graces with Jessica.

 

    Gaiman’s attention to the details of London Below is masterful, to the point of almost overshadowing the action.  Among the things Richard and the reader encounter are The Floating Market, Earl’s Court, The Great Beast of London, Black Friars, The Velvets, The Golden, The Sewer Folk, and the Rat-Speakers.  I chuckled at “Blaise’s Reel” (be careful what you wish for!), and got a greater respect for the admonition “Mind The Gap!”

 

    The ending is spread out over the last 50 pages or so.  It’s a bit predictable, but I nevertheless found it to be fun.  Most of the plotlines get tied up nicely, and the last chapter serves as both an Epilogue and a teaser for a sequel which, ANAICT, was never written.

 

Kewlest New Word ...

Vol-au-vents (n., plural) : small, round pastries filled with a savory mixture, typically of meat or fish, in a richly flavored sauce.

 

Ratings…
    Amazon: 4.6*/5, based on 11,364 ratings and 3,607 reviews.

    Goodreads: 4.17*/5, based on 490,956 ratings and 26,644 reviews.

 

Excerpts...

    “Young man,” he said, “understand this: there are two Londons.  There’s London Above —that’s where you lived—and then there’s London Below—the Underside—inhabited by the people who fell through the cracks in the world.  Now you’re one of them.  Good night.”  (pg. 127)

 

    “We were looking for you,” said Richard.

    “And now you’ve found me,” croaked the marquis, drily.

    “We were expecting to see you at the market.”

    “Yes.  Well.  Some people thought I was dead.  I was forced to keep a low profile.”

    “Why . . . why did some people think you were dead?”

    The marquis looked at Richard with eyes that had seen too much and gone too far.  “Because they killed me,” he said.  (pg. 295)

 

“’Nice’ in a bodyguard,” lectured the marquis, “is about as useful as the ability to regurgitate whole lobsters.”  (pg. 118)

    As with any Neil Gaiman novel, trying to find things to grouse about in Neverwhere is a challenge.

 

    The cussing is light – just nine instances in the first 30% - which once again reinforces my maxim of “the more skilled the author, the less cusswords are needed for effect."

 

    Spending half the book on worldbuilding is probably not to everyone’s literary tastes, and that includes mine.  But if anyone can pull it off, it’s Neil Gaiman.  That’s all the quibbles I can come up with.

 

    I enjoyed Neverwhere but I wouldn’t call it Neil Gaiman’s best effort.  That’s reserved for American Gods (2001), Anansi Boys (2005), and The Ocean at the End of the Lane (2013).  It isn’t that Neverwhere is bad, it’s that those other three books are just so good.  Want a second opinion?  Wikipedia notes that China Miéville, one of my favorite present-day novelists, cites Neverwhere as one of the major influences for his stellar book, Un Lun Dun.

 

    8 Stars.  Neil Gaiman is currently involved in a major Graphic Novel series titled Sandman.  To date, there are nine books in the series.  I have the first one on my Kindle, and Santa brought me Books 2 and 3 for Christmas last week.  I think I'll begin reading them very soon.

Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell - Susanna Clarke

   2005; 850 pages.  New Author? : Yes.  Genre : Alternate History; British Historical Fiction; Dark Magic; Fantasy.  Laurels: Shortlisted for the Whitbread First Novel Award (2004) and the Guardian First Book Award (2004); winner of the Time Magazine’s Best Novel of the Year (2004), the British Book Awards Newcomer of the Year (2005), the Hugo Award (2005), the Locus Award – Best First Novel (2005), the Mythopoeic Award – Adult Literature (2005), and the World Fantasy Award (2005).  Overall Rating : 7½*/10.

    England has lost her magic.  She’s apparently forgotten all about it somewhere along the line.  This realization comes at a pretty bad time, too.  Napoleon is kicking everybody’s butt over on the continent, and the reigning King of England is locked away in Windsor Castle because he’s stark raving mad.  It would be nice if someone would brew up a potion or a spell to cure him, and whup up on Bonaparte while they're at it.

    There are a couple of self-proclaimed wizards in England, most notably the “Learned Society of York Magicians”.  But they’re “theoretical” magicians, devoted solely to combing through ancient books and manuscripts, looking for incantations and spells long gone.  None of them has ever attempted to cast a spell, nor do they intend to.

    There are also a couple of street wizards around, but they just use some cheap sleight-of-hand tricks to entertain poor street urchins for a pittance.  The most famous one is Vinculus, but he looks more like a beggar, and has never done anything truly magical.

    However, things are about to change.  Some upstart named Mr. Gilbert Norrell has just moved to London, and he’s called out the theoretical magicians, much to their chagrin. He’s issued them a challenge.  They are invited to meet him and watch him try to do some unequivocal feat of magic.  If he fails, he’ll leave London at once and never bother them again.

    But if he succeeds, the Learned Society of York Magicians must agree to disband forever and never call themselves magicians again.

What’s To Like...

    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell is divided into three “volumes”, namely:

        Mr. Norrell (1%-24%),

        Jonathan Strange  (24%-58%), and,

        John Uskglass (58%-93%).

    These are not separate books, and this shouldn’t be considered a trilogy.

    The novel is set in the early 1800’s (1806-1817, to be exact), mostly in England, but also with excursions to Portugal, Italy (primarily Venice and Padua), and an otherworldly place called “Faerie”.  I liked that the fairies here are rather evil creatures, making them much more interesting than if they were Tinkerbells.  Terry Pratchett would be proud.

    The book is billed as a Fantasy, which is why I picked it up.  But as the title hints, it is really more about the relationship between the two protagonists.  Jonathan Strange and Gilbert Norrell have different personalities, different views on the history of English magic, and different ways of becoming proficient in it.

    The book is written in 1800’s English, which didn’t bother me, although the author seemed to find any excuse possible to use the words “chuse”, “surprized”, and “connexions”.  I liked the usage of other archaic words, such as shewed, dropt, sopha, learnt, stopt, popt, headach, ancles, scissars, standers-by, and learnt.  But I can see where this might get tiresome for some readers.

    The primary storyline theme of the book is: why is there no more magic in England, and what can be done to recover it?  Each protagonist has his own opinions on this.  Jonathan Strange argues that there is a pressing need to learn magic, since there are damsels to save and a French dictator to defeat.  Mr. Norrell, urges caution since one doesn't know what sort of beasties might be unintentionally unleashed by the casting of spells.

    The book is also Historical Fiction, and I thought this was done quite well.  It was fun to get the “feel” for how the Napoleonic wars were conducted, and in times of peace, how travelers passed the time while vacationing in Italy and other parts of western Europe.

    There are some drawings scattered throughout the text; they were a nice touch.  I can relate to Mr. Norrell’s book-hoarding, and I enjoyed visiting Shrewsbury (where Ellis Peters’  Brother Cadfael series is set), and Windsor Castle, which I’ve walked through.  The ending ties up most of the main story threads, including the identity of the man with the thistle-down hair.  There is one major plot thread left unresolved, which could conceivably be developed into a sequel.  But I don’t think Susanna Clarke has any plans to write one.

Kewlest New Word…

Quern (n.) : a simple hand mill for grinding grain, typically consisting of two circular stones, the upper of which is rubbed to and fro on the lower one.

Others : Phaeton (n.)

Kindle Details...

    Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell presently sells for $8.54 at Amazon.  ANAICT, Susanna Clarke has only one other novel available as an e-book there, The Ladies of Grace Adieu, which is a collection of short stories, some of which are set in the same world as this book.  It is priced at $9.99.   

Excerpts...

    It had never occurred to him before that Strange would need books in Portugal.  The idea of forty precious volumes being taken into a country in a state of war where they might get burnt, blown up, drowned or dusty was almost too horrible to contemplate.  Mr. Norrell did not know a great deal about war, but he suspected that soldiers are not generally your great respecters of books.  They might put their dirty fingers on them.  They might tear them!  They might – horrors of horrors! – read them and try the spells!  Could soldiers read?  Mr. Norrell did not know.  (loc. 5053)

    “Go to the store-room at the foot of the kitchen-stairs.  In the chest under the window you will find lead chains, lead padlocks and lead keys.  Bring them here!  Quickly!”

    “And I will go and fetch a pair of pistols,” declared Lascelles.

    “They will do no good,” said Mr. Norrell.

    “Oh!  You would be surprized how many problems a pair of pistols can solve!”  (loc. 12826)

She wore a gown the colour of storms, shadows and rain and a necklace of broken promises and regrets.  (loc. 2689)

     As shown in the header of this review, Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell was nominated for, and often won, all sorts of literary awards in 2004-05, and there are a slew of reviews at Amazon and Goodreads overflowing with gushing praise.  Yet, for me the book was a let-down.  Outside of fairies and wizards, there are very few otherworldly critters to meet and greet, and for the majority of the book, the magic is rather tame.

    There are a slew of characters introduced, probably close to a hundred in all.  That in itself is okay since this is an 850-page epic, but putting a Cast of Characters at the beginning of the book would have been a real plus.  There are also a slew of footnotes, which worked well, but seemed to be there mostly to make the Alternate History storyline seem convincing.  For me, it didn’t succeed.

    But my biggest issue with JS&MN is the pacing.  Despite being well-written, and an easy read, I found it to be a slow-go.  Volumes 1 and 2 seemed to get bogged down with way too many descriptions, plot tangents, and people and places that had no later impact on the storyline.

    There is good news, however.  If you can stick it out until about 70%-Kindle or so, everything comes into focus deftly, and the pacing picks up significantly.  It probably sounds like a cliché, but if the first 500 pages had been skillfully edited to half their content, this would’ve been a dynamite read.

    7½ Stars.  In summary, if you’re someone who typically reads Jane Eyre or David Copperfield and want to expand your literary horizons to include Fantasy novels, Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell might thoroughly thrill you.  OTOH, if you typically read Harry Potter or LOTR, and want to read something a bit more highbrow, this might be a bit of a slog.