Sourcery

Image credit: Wikipedia

Fantasy, as a genre, is favoured by many authors and readers as being the best allegorical means by which to voice your opinions about the state of the world be it climate-change, communism, the rise of women, or the folly of man. Myself, what I love most about fantasy is the endless dangers to the world that they can harbour. While there are definitely a lot of recognisable villains and evils within the genre, there’s a whole bunch of original ones too and, having a tendency to prefer villains to heroes most of the time, that’s what I love about the genre. I’ve just closed the cover of the fifth book in the Discworld series: Sourcery, a book, which sees a most unlikely villain.

There was an eighth son of an eight son who, naturally, became a wizard. It should have ended there, but this wizard defied the laws of wizard celibacy and went on to have kids. Seven sons in fact. And then he had an eighth son; a wizard squared, a source of magic… a sourcerer. And to add insult to injury, this wizard then defied Death and fled into the staff that he left his eighth son. Now he’s raising a child of unbridled power to reform wizardry and take over the world. 

A subtle exploration into the battle of nature vs. nurture, the economical benefits of a one-child policy, and just a very clever pun, Sourcery is the fifth book in the Discworld series and sees the return of our favourite inept wizard Rincewind and the Luggage. Where Equal Rites explored the villainies of the patriarchy as an enforced socio-economic structure, Sourcery’s villain (or central drama) is a natural occurrence born from the breaking of another socio-economic rule. We then have the jab at the nature vs. nurture debate and even a delightful detour into the generic makeup of villains, as particularly and hilariously done in the description of the Seriph’s Grand Vizier (a reference to Aladdin, which I most thoroughly enjoyed).

Image credit: Penguin Books Australia

We get to see new and exciting realms of the Disc, greater exhibitions of magic and its consequences. New characters, new lore, and new hilarious dangers that plague a central cast of compelling characters. Sourcery is another great addition to a unique and delightful world and I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Author: Terry Pratchett, 1988

Published: Victor Gollancz, 1988. This edition published by Corgi, 1989