Review: Lords and Ladies, by Terry Pratchett

Russ Allbery eagle at eyrie.org
Wed Dec 25 22:50:19 PST 2019


Lords and Ladies
by Terry Pratchett

Series:    Discworld #14
Publisher: HarperCollins
Copyright: 1992
Printing:  May 2009
ISBN:      0-06-180752-4
Format:    Kindle
Pages:     374

This is the fourteenth Discworld novel, the third book to focus on
Granny Weatherwax and the witches, and a direct sequel to Wyrd Sisters.
That said, I remembered very little of Wyrd Sisters, which I read over
ten years ago, and still found it generally comprehensible.

Lords and Ladies opens with Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat
Garlick returning home from the events of Witches Abroad. They are
immediately plagued by a rash of crop circles, leaving Granny and Nanny
quite concerned about the circle of standing stones called the Dancers.
Worse, an upstart new coven has been dancing around the Dancers,
risking the unleashing forces they don't understand. Magrat has other
problems: Her very tentative possible future husband has decided that
they're to be married on Midsummer's Eve without consulting her first,
and she has to adjust to new and very unfamiliar life as royalty.

It becomes quickly apparent that the lords and ladies of the title, and
the threat that Granny and Nanny are concerned about, are elves. These
are not noble Tolkien elves, and are even less human and more sinister
than the darker sort of fantasy. They are malevolent dimensional
travelers who can break through when the walls between worlds are thin,
something that is signaled by the sudden appearance of crop circles. As
the story unfolds, it becomes clear that the kingdom of Lancre has been
plagued by elves before, and that many of the local customs and
traditions that now seem without purpose are defense mechanisms. But
everyone other than Granny and Nanny have forgotten, and the elves have
been offered a bridge back into Discworld.

I generally like Granny Weatherwax, but I think this is relatively
minor Pratchett. Granny's normal insight and practical wisdom is
transformed here to the anger of someone who remembers why things are
dangerous and can't believe other people are playing around with them.
That's less interesting, and more cliched, than her normal role. Nanny
is obnoxious to her extended family, which Pratchett mostly plays for
humor but which I didn't find funny. And Magrat spends most of the book
bored and manipulated in ways that made it hard for me to either like
her or find humor in her situation.

But the larger problem with Lords and Ladies is that it's a bit
overstuffed. Granny and Nanny are pursuing one thread of the plot,
Magrat is entangled in another involving castle life, Death shows up
somewhat gratuitously, and even some of the wizards from the Unseen
University get involved, rolling on the random encounter table as they
come. I enjoyed seeing the Librarian again as much the next Discworld
reader, but by the time Pratchett adds in the Morris dancers and some
backstory revelations for Granny, it all feels like a bit much. The
conclusion is a running multi-front battle that mostly involves
characters struggling to get to the right locations, and which I found
more confusing than choreographed.

As with Wyrd Sisters, Lords and Ladies is rife with Shakespeare
references, particularly A Midsummer Night's Dream but also King Henry
V and others. As with all of Discworld, see the Annotated Pratchett
File to catch all of the references (but beware of spoilers). It's been
a long time since I've read Shakespeare and I've never seen much
performed, so most of this was lost on me.

Even weaker Pratchett is still fun, of course. There are lots of good
jokes, some thoroughly enjoyable Librarian scenes, and a fair bit of
Granny being a badass. I didn't find this take on elves particularly
interesting, but the ending is entertaining and satisfying. I don't
think this is the book that will sell someone on Discworld, but if
you're reading through the series, no reason to skip this one.

Followed, in publication order, by Men at Arms. The later plot sequel
is Maskerade.

As an aside, Discworld shows one of the serious drawbacks of the Kindle
format and a dedicated reader. The reader does not handle footnotes
well. The footnote itself is marked by a tiny underlined asterisk that
is very easy to miss on the page or confuse for a quotation mark, and
scanning each page for tiny footnote marks distracts from the reading.
When I did see one, I then got to play the game of mashing my large
finger on the screen four or five times until the Kindle finally
realized I was trying to follow the footnote and not turn the page. It
was a frustrating experience I mostly gave up on, meaning that I read
all the footnotes at once at the end of the book. That's not the
expected experience, and I'm now tempted to buy further Discworld books
on paper. Or at least use the Kindle tablet app, which can use color to
make footnote links slightly more apparent.

Rating: 7 out of 10

Reviewed: 2019-12-25

URL: https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-06-180752-4.html

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle at eyrie.org)             <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>


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