"Humanity is a nice place to visit, but you wouldn't want to stay."

Terry Pratchett's 12th installment of Discworld sees our three favorite witches on a whistle-stop tour of fairy tales on their way to stop a girl from marrying a prince. Lots of pumpkins are involved. There's also gumbo.

This is another great entry into the series, certainly one of the strongest, drawing on fairy tales and a few other things that should be fairly familiar to most people, but Pratchett puts his own spin on it and hilarity ensues. This was definitely one of the more "laugh-out-loud" Discworlds for me so far.

Esme, Gytha and Magrat are all in fine form and it was nice to see them a little bit out of their comfort zone in this one. The supporting characters aren't quite as strong in this one I feel, but the three witches (and particularly Esme and Gytha in this one) are strong enough for that to not really matter.

The plot is a fun one, I felt that it was maybe a tad weaker than some of the other Discworlds but this was more than made up for by Pratchett's inclusion and spin on so many classic fairytales and such.

The only disappointment that I had was that there weren't as many footnotes as there usually are, and those are often the best bits. Still though, another fantastic Discworld book.

Boj za emancipáciu rozprávkových bytostí a za právo ľudí tvorov, mať sa tak zle, ako len chcú.

Loved it. Thank goodness for Sir Terry and his Discworld novels.There's nothing better than settling down to read about Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg on a dark,grey day with the wind howling outside and the rain lashing the window!Witches Abroad is now one of my favourite Discworld books. Highly recommended for all fans of Sir Terry!

Trigger warnings: death, murder, xenophobia, animal death

30/6/2023
Bumping it up to 4 stars. I kind of stand by what I said last time in that it takes more than half the book for them to reach Genua. But the story is so utterly charming - particularly Nanny's constant mispronunciations - that I honestly didn't mind that it took half the book to get to the point. Also, I will always be here for Greebo.

23/10/2014
3.5 stars. This is essentially Discworld Does Fairytales. Essentially, Magrat is made a fairy godmother and the witches have to go to Genua to stop Ella (known as Embers because she spends a lot of time by the fireplace) from marrying the prince, who's not what he seems.

The main reason why this isn't rated higher is that it takes a long time to get going. It's a 285 page book, and the witches don't arrive in Genua until page 149. So there's an awful lot crammed into those last 135 pages. Still, the setting is absolutely fabulous. There are fairly frequent mentions of Genua in the Discworld books, but this (from memory) is the only time we see it. And Genua is essentially New Orleans. It's in an alligator filled swamp, there's a big carnival every year, people eat gumbo and jambalaya, and there's voodoo and zombies aplenty. Add in Wizard of Oz references, Granny Weatherwax being her usual badass self, and turning Greebo human and you've got yourself one hell of a ride. It's just a shame it takes half the book to get there.

Duodécima obra por orden de escritura del maestro Terry Pratchett y duodécima alegría que me llevo.

En este libro volvemos a la saga de las brujas, con la Tata Ogg, Magrat Ajostiernos y la increíble Yaya Ceravieja, y tocamos muy de cerca el mundo de los cuentos. ¿Así, en general? Pues sí, porque no sé cuantísimas referencias a cuentos he identificado y cuántas más me he perdido. Porque cada vez que leo un libro de Terry Pratchett me doy cuenta el profundo y amplísimo conocimiento que tenía sobre un tema cada vez que una de sus novelas giraba en torno a éste. ¡Hasta el Señor de los Anillos he sacado por ahí, y no una escena particularmente conocida!

Sobre la trama poco puedo decir, pues básicamente el libro trata de un viaje bastante particular que las tres brujas harán al "extranjero", que es básicamente todo lo que esté más allá de Lancre.

En esta novela se nota mucho más la madurez escritora de Pratchett, con una trama más concreta y limitada y no tan apocalíptica como en las anteriores. No hay una multitud de personajes, pero todos los que están lo hacen muy bien. Por supuesto, la Muerte no podía faltar. Me encanta ese personaje. ¿Cómo es posible que con tres palabras en mayúsculas pueda hacerme sonreír tanto?

Muy muy recomendable. ¡Vamos a por Dioses menores!

It’s good to be back! It’s been a few years since I read a discworld book, and I forgot just how fun they are. A lot of this had me laughing out loud. The plot and the characters were super creative. I was thoroughly charmed, and I am excited to keep reading this series!

This is also one of my favorites in all of Discworld, I think Nanny and Granny are at their height in this book as far as their back-and-forth dialogue. The two play so well off of each other in this one it still tickled me even though this must be my 20th re-read of this particular novel.

This book opens with the death of Desiderata Hollow, an older witch who like most witches, had predicted her own demise and knew exactly when she was going to die. This is handy most especially in her case because it allowed her to set in motion plans that would continue post-mortem. She made certain, using headology, that Esme, Nanny, and Magrat would make their way to Genua. Esmerelda’s sister, Lilith, has gone mad with power, and Desiderata was no match for her in the end. She’s running the entire city and forcing them into stories of her own wishing, whether or not they wanted to be a part of the story. She’s currently manipulating a young girl into marrying a frog prince, except she’s disguised him to look like a regular prince. The disguise isn’t perfect however, and the young bride to be, Emberella, wants nothing to do with him – she thinks he’s slimy and is concerned by the whispers of the townsfolk about his eyes.

Desiderata hooks the three Lancre witches into this by sending Magrat the fairy godmother wand, along with a letter stating that she’s now the second Fairy Godmother to Emberella and that she’s to go to Genua to stop the wedding. (There are always two fairy godmothers, the good one and the bad one of course) So, off go Granny, Nanny and Magrat several thousand miles across the Discworld to Genua, a completely foreign land.

On their way to Genua they encounter some dwarves who’ve been trapped in a cave in, Nanny has a house dropped on her, and find a half human half wolf creature that’s in absolute misery and a victim of Lilith’s meddling. Throughout this journey Magrat tries her best to help with her magic wand, but all she can manage to do is turn things into pumpkins. The three witches ate more pumpkin than they ever wanted to on this journey to foreign parts. The letters home that Nanny sends are some of the best parts of this book, the three witches are amazed at things like garlic, and food that hasn’t been boiled.

We had some stuff it was chewy you’ll never guess it was snails, and not bad and Esme had three helpins before she found out and then had a Row with the cook and Magrat was sick all night just at the thought of it and had the dire rear. Thinking of you your loving MUM. PS the privies here are DESGUSTING, they have them INDORES, so much for HIGEINE.

Once they get to Genua they encounter Mrs. Gogol – a voodoo witch. She’s also displeased with what’s going on in Genua as well, and her magic isn’t to be trifled with. At some point her and Granny both want to “take care of Lilith”, Esme insists it’s a family matter which pushes Mrs. Gogol’s buttons enough for her to perform voodoo on Esme. Oh, and Greebo makes his first appearance as a human. So there’s that

чудесно

*** 4.63 ***

Headology and Symbology are better than plain old Magic any day!!! ✨✨✨

This is actually a very thoughtful entry in the series, as well as enjoyable as always. Also as always, the story is a tad secondary to the ideas and situations. Every sentence is loaded with meaning and the whole book can be used as quotes. The Maiden, The Mother and The Crone are archetypes everyone can relate to and their power is universal. Stories ARE ALIVE and we have to be careful about the stories we tell about ourselves and write ourselves into.

I absolutely love the audio for the series, however in order to catch all the word and linguistic gymnastics, I would recommend eye reading it first, or concurrently with the audio.

I wish you all Happy Reading and may you always find what you Need in the pages of a Good Book

Witches Abroad is the 12th Discworld novel by Sir Terry Pratchett. The thing about Discworld is that you don't necessarily have to read his books in order. They all take place in the same world, and all the characters pop up and make cameos in each other's stories, but it doesn't really matter. But of course, along with having that thing where I can't quit things, I also have that thing where I have to read things in order. One would think being at #12 would be an accomplishment, and one would normally be right, but Sir "I am a prolific genius" Pratchett has 39 books in his wacky, absurd fantasy world, a world that takes place on a planet that is flat (really literally flat), and which "travels through space on the back of four elephants, which themselves stand on the shell of Great A'Tuin, the sky turtle." And I have 27 books (and counting*) to go.

*Despite having been diagnosed with early onset Alzheimer's in 2007, he continues to faithfully churn out (well-received) books.

Witches Abroad features the fan-favorite set of characters The Witches, and while they're not as funny as the Night Watch, say, they still make me laugh quite a lot. The entire novel is basically a deconstruction of fairy-tales. Three witches have to prevent the princess from marrying the prince, and defeat the fairy-godmother, preventing stories from taking over the world -- and they're the good guys. First there's Granny Weatherwax, a formidable witch who is more akin to a force of nature than an old woman; Nanny Ogg, who is kind of horny; and Magrat Garlick, who is often described as being a "wet hen."

The pacing is typical Pratchett. There are no chapters, and the characters are thrown headlong into the action. Like many Discworld novels, Witches Abroad is a wacky landslide of inappropriate humor and clever words that gradually spirals into genuine emotion. It was a bit slow to start, and it didn't get quite real enough at the end, but otherwise, very enjoyable read. Pratchett is good at symmetry, and fittingly enough for a story about the power of stories**, he understands how to work them.

**This book is also about mirrors and sisters and cats and zombies, and there are some dwarves and other assorted fairy-tales to be found as well. There's even a Gollum-parody near the beginning.

And now, as is traditional with a Discworld book review, here are wacky quotes:

"Nanny Ogg [...] had a tendency to come out with what Magrat thought of as double-intenders, although in Nanny Ogg's case they were generally single entendres, and proud of it."

"Despite many threats, Granny Weatherwax had never turned anyone into a frog. The way she saw it, there was a technically less cruel but cheaper and much more satisfying thing you could do. You could leave them human and make them think they were a frog, which also provided much innocent entertainment for passers-by."

"Racism was not a problem on the Discworld, because -- what with trolls and dwarfs and so on -- speciesism was more interesting. Black and white lived in perfect harmony and ganged up on green."

"'Baths is unhygienic,' Granny declared. 'You know I've never agreed with baths. Sittin' around in your own dirt like that.'"

"Magrat was annoyed. She was also frightened, which made her even more annoyed. It was hard for people when Magrat was annoyed. It was like being attacked by damp tissue."

"She hated everything that predestined people, that fooled them, that made them slightly less than human."

"You can't go around building a better world for people. Only people can build a better world for people. Otherwise it's just a cage."

Watch the abyss behind the seemingly harmonic fairy tales while Magrat Garlick starts earning her reputation as one of the tightest young witches beside Tiffany Aching.

Pratchett uses postmodernism
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Postmod...
to deconstruct, satirize, and exaggerate many of the stereotypical and unrealistic tropes of legends, mythology, economics, fairytales, fantasy, political science, and humanities. Subverting the opportunism and uniformity of moral and ethical codexes, witches, night watches, and wizards are sawing on the wrong, awful, and dishonest foundations of Western culture. No matter what, close to each system has some inherent self destruct or madness buttons, and Pratchett, Monty Python, and some lesser known others laid the cornerstone for groundbreaking, extremely dark new works.

The continuation of this process towards the morbid can be seen in the amazing adult animation series of the 21st century, while, in contrast, Pratchett is mainly satirizing and using the formula of changed motivations and personalities to give both laughter and insights.

Back to the show:

The witches aren´t as directly violent as other characters, they use the soft magic of headologie and altruism to help avoiding disasters or with mundane everyday problems. I would subjectively guess that Pratchett liked his female characters and women in general the most, because he puts most positive, progressive ideas in their minds while all other male characters stay pretty dull, egoistic, or good oldfashioned different stages of insanity.

Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are one of the best friend pairings in the Discworld, a symbiotic relationship, also completely differing from the male friendships, later becoming less important when Tiffany Aching enters the stage. But while the males are primarily fighting, alphaing, posing, and incompetencing around, Granny and Nanny don´t just care for everyone else, but have a long going, emancipated womance.

A bit of laughing about tourism is in there too and the all time favorite of marriage politics can never be bad. Oh and, of course, zombies.

Tropes show how literature is conceptualized and created and which mixture of elements makes works and genres unique:
https://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.ph...

This one is added to all Pratchettian reviews:
https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scheibe...
The idea of the dissected motifs rocks, highlighting the main real world inspirational elements of fiction and satire is something usually done with so called higher literature, but a much more interesting field in readable literature, as it offers the joy of reading, subtle criticism, and feeling smart all together.

“Pantolon ha?” dedi Nine öfkeyle.
“Şey, tam olarak bildiğimiz pant…”
“Ve burada seni izleyen erkekler var!” dedi Nine. “Utanç verici!”
“Hani utanç?” dedi Ogg Ana, arkadan hızla yaklaşarak.
“Orada duran sevgili Magrat Sarımsak, bacaklarını ayırmış,” dedi Nine, burnunu havaya kaldırarak.
“Genç adamın adını ve adresini alsın da,” dedi Ogg Ana sevimli sevimli.
“Ogg Ana!” dedi Magrat.
“Bence oldukça rahat görünüyorlar,” diye devam etti Ogg Ana. “Ama biraz bol.”
“Benim hoşuma gitmedi,” dedi Nine. “Herkes bacaklarını görebiliyor.”
“Hayır, göremiyorlar,” dedi Ogg Ana. “Çünkü araya kumaş giriyor.”
“Evet, ama herkes bacaklarının nerede olduğunu görebiliyor,” dedi Havamumu Nine.
“Bu aptalca. Bu… bu herkesin, giysilerinin altında çıplak olduğunu söylemekten farksız,” dedi Magrat.
“Magrat Sarımsak! Tövbe de!” dedi Havamumu Nine.
“Ee! Doğru ama!”
“Hayır, değil,” dedi Nine ifadesizce. “Çünkü ben üst üste üç fanila giydim.”


Lancre'ın üç cadısının her türlü macerası, komedinin kitabını yeniden yazan türden. Havamumu Nine gibi despot ama bilge bir kadın, yanında Ogg Ana gibi dünyanın en hafifmeşrep ve bilge tombul ninesi ve eşantiyon olarak da bilge olma yolunda ilerlemeye çalışan duygusal ve romantik Magrat. İyi, kötü ve çirkinden bile aykırı bunlar.

Ve hani denir ya, insan birini en iyi yolculukta tanırmış diye... eh, işte size, Koçbaşı Dağları'ndan başlayıp Vieux Nehri (yani aslında, Mississipi Nehri) üzerinden Genua'ya (yani aslında New Orleans'a) uzanan bir yol hikâyesi... Dünyanın en saçma yol hikâyesi.

Cadılar bu kez, Genua kentindeki peri anneyi durdurabilme misyonunda. Bunu başarmak için de türlü dil becerileri, konaklama dürtüleri ve çeşit çeşit "gâvur" geleneği yaşamak zorundalar. Tabii, Havamumu Nine'nin buzhane soğukluğundaki heyecansızlığı ile Ogg Ana'nın kaynayan lavlar ısısındaki coşkusu bir araya gelince, her şey, olmaması gerektiği kadar gülünçleşiyor.

"Cadılar" alt serisinin en komik kitaplarından biri.