Rating: 
Summary: Magical
Review: This book is worth the $7 just for the scene in the mirror.Read it. You'll see what I mean ;)
Rating:
Summary: Magical
Review: This book is worth the $7 just for the scene in the mirror. Read it. You'll see what I mean ;)
Rating:
Summary: My favourite Pratchett
Review: This is definitely my favourite Discworld novel. Magrat Garlick, the slightly wet witch, is unexpectedly landed with the job of being a Fairy Godmother. Her job is to go to Genua and prevent her goddaughter Ella from marrying the Duc of Genua. Naturally Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg decide to accompany her. Their journey across the Discoworld to Genua is full of hilarious incidents. One of the best is when they are rowing a boat down an underground river, and encounter a sinister Golum-like character. Granny Weatherwax wacks him over the head with an oar. Now if only Tolkein had thought of that! There is a wonderful incident where they are staying at a village inn, completely oblivious to the fact that the village is being terrorised by a vampire. The vampire is out to get Magrat, but fails miserably, and ends up inside Greebo, Nanny Ogg's horrible cat. "Vampires have risen from the grave, the crypt, and the tomb, but have never managed it from the cat". Then there's the bit on the riverboat where Granny Weatherwax plays Cripple Mr Onion with a group of professional gmablers and takes them all to the cleaners. When they finally arrive in Genua (which rather resembles New Orleans) they find the city being terrorised by Lilith di Tempsicore, the sinister power behind the Duc, who has a nasty secret. They join forces with Voodoo woman Erzulie Gogol in order to outwit Lilith, but can they succed? This is a wonderfuly funny book with an ingeneous plot,lots of memorable incidents and marvellous characters. As well as the witches themselves there is Mrs Gogol, Mrs Pleasant the Palace Cook, Cassanunda the amorous dwarf, and Ella, who does not want to marry the Duc. Absolutely marvellous.
Rating:
Summary: Hilariously funny. His best parody yet!
Review: This is one of the greatest books in the Granny Weatherwax series
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This is the 12th of Pratchett's Discworld series. It's one of the very best (at least on par with "Reaper Man," and maybe even a tad bit better). Obviously, this book centers around Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. Pratchett uses fairy tales as his template. His main fairy tale is Cinderella. But, he brings many others in: "Snow White," "The Three Little Pigs," "Little Red Riding Hood." He's even got references to "The Hobbit" and "The Wizard of Oz." As always, the interesting relationship between Granny and Nanny is hilarious. As an added bonus, in this book, Pratchett's given quite a bit of emphasis to Grebo (Nanny's cat (who deserves a book all of his own)). This is a must-read book, especially if you're a fan of Granny, Nanny, and Magrat.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent Book
Review: This is the 12th of Pratchett's Discworld series. It's one of the very best (at least on par with "Reaper Man," and maybe even a tad bit better). Obviously, this book centers around Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. Pratchett uses fairy tales as his template. His main fairy tale is Cinderella. But, he brings many others in: "Snow White," "The Three Little Pigs," "Little Red Riding Hood." He's even got references to "The Hobbit" and "The Wizard of Oz." As always, the interesting relationship between Granny and Nanny is hilarious. As an added bonus, in this book, Pratchett's given quite a bit of emphasis to Grebo (Nanny's cat (who deserves a book all of his own)). This is a must-read book, especially if you're a fan of Granny, Nanny, and Magrat.
Rating:
Summary: All's well that ends well
Review: This is yet another hilarious and very clever novel from pratchett, who cannot seem to spout forth anything but genius. The trouble begins when Magrat has the dubious honour of godmothership betstowed on her, and to carry out her duties, she must travel to the distant city of Genua (a sort of Discworld version of New Orleans which, incidentally, i WISH he had brought this wonderful place back in another book). While there, accompanied of course by the continually brilliant Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, she must in fact STOP a servant girl from marrying the prince, helped only by her trusty wand, which has the awkward habit of turning everything into pumpkins... Wonderful. A wonderful book, for many reasons, only a few of which i am truly aware of. It is, of course, hilariously funny, and many side-splitting moments are contained within, but there's also a very sinister tone to it all, which is unexpected due to enforced happy-ever-after-ness that pervades Genua, the ruler of which makes it their duty to go about forcing everyone into cheer and happiness. Yet it is also a novel about stories and their nature, and about the nature of "good" and "evil" (i.e. which is really which?) I love the witches, and although Death is probably my favourite character (aint he everyones?), the witches series is my favourites series within the Discworld series, i just can't get enough of them. All of which the witches books rank somewhere in my top ten pratchett books, and this one in particular lies very near the top of the list, i think. (Can't be sure, because, after all, he's written so very many excellent books, almost ALL of them could feature on a "Top Ten Of Pratchett" list). Regardless of that, this is a novel that every fan of Disworld should read, it's got great characters, a wonderful story, it flows marvellously, the setting and the atmosphere is quite excellent, and it goes without saying that it's all hilarious. If you're new to Pratchett though, i reccomend you start at the beginning, "The Colour of Magic", and simply read your way through this first-class series, enjoying every single step of the way. Long live Terry Pratchett!
Rating: 
Summary: Granny, Nanny, and Magrat (and Greebo) on another adventure!
Review: This time they are off to Genua, far away from Lancre. Genua is a city state not unlike New Orleans and its culture. Magrat, newly "appointed" fairy godmother, is out to fulfill a mission: to go to Genua and stop another fairy godmother from forcing everyone to live out fairy tale lives, all with happy endings, endings dictated by the stories, not the peopl forced to live them. Of course, Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax must join her to help her along. Here is the best of the book: Gytha Ogg and her "amazing" knowledge of the language and customs of every people they meet - amazing, of course, for its incorrectness, but who's going to tell a witch that she's wrong? Needless to say, most of their hosts can't wait for them to leave as quickly as possible. Granny Weatherwax is superb in the way she defeats Lilith and defies the other witch's voodoo magic. What an iron will! But that is why we like her. Unfortunately, I really didn't care as much for Magrat's character. All 3 Lancre witches act in similar ways as before. Granny's determination and Nanny's optimism (and weird humor) I never tire of, but Magrat's wimpiness can be annoying. She can't do it as well as say Rincewind can. Yes, she can be funny as a counter to Granny and Nanny, and for that reason, I like her. Though she is upright enough, I don't see her able to win here without Granny to fight for her. OK, it is difficult with a wand that turns things into punpkins, but her character is too mushy and a bit ineffectual here, she is in way over her head. Good thing for Granny, or ...? It's OK.. Magrat recovers in the book "Lords and Ladies." As queen she is good. So, though I didn't like Magrat as much, Nanny and Granny certainly came through (as did Greebo the cat). The parodies of the different fairy tales were interesting. So I really say 3.5 stars - I did like it better than "Wyrd Sisters." So this is still a good adventure worth exploring if only for Nanny's advice on foreign customs.
Rating:
Summary: Another amazing Discworld novel !
Review: This was another amazing Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett. I have read several of his books now, and I continue to be surprised at how fresh and original each books is. This one is a continuation of the witches' series, and it is one of the funniest I have read to date. Granny, Nanny and Magrat are among the most comical of Pratchett's creations. The three witches travel to foreign lands to prevent an allegedly "good" fairy Godmother from forcing a "happy" ending to a "story" against the wishes of the story's unknowing participants. Witches Abroad contains a collage of many well-known fairy tales. The novel is loaded with irony and the story happens to be poignant. I loved this one and highly recommend it. (I also recommend that you go back and read the excellent previous books, Equal Rites and Wyrd Sisters.)
Rating:
Summary: The FUNNIEST of them all!
Review: Unlike the Watch and Death novels, even some others in the Witch subseries, this book makes little pretense to deliver Pratchett's 3-P's--profundities, politics and philosophy--although we do get something of a political lesson on the perils of utopianism. It's the funniest of all the Discworld stories. Even rereading it, I find myself laughing until I get tears in my ears. WITCHES ABROAD lampoons just about every tourism cliche, and I suppose I got the biggest laughs from the parodies of riverboat gamblers on the Vieux (Ol' Man) River and Mardi Gras ("Fat Lunchtime" according to Nanny), plus a voodoo witch with a Russian name and a baba yaga house, which made her even funnier. Every fairy tale you can imagine is parodied and twisted around, even modern ones like THE WIZARD OF OZ. But the best lampoon is the hysterical two page Hemingway send-up in the bull chase sequence, turning that author's infamous cojones and humorlessness into something side-splitting. In spite of her inner urgings, which are brought out most forcefully in this novel, Granny Weatherwax is her usual sour but fundamentally decent self, making us prefer her direct tactlessness to her sister's slick manipulation. "Tact" is something Granny ignores. She perpetrates every paranoid suspicion generated by "ugly American" tourists and their British counterparts, and I've met both kinds while traveling in Europe. Nanny Ogg is almost too eager to communicate, and too certain of her "forn" vocabulary. Her malapropisms of languages and cuisine (crap suzette, anyone?) had me collapsing with laughter. Magrat, who for the most part bids farewell to the subseries after the next book, LORDS & LADIES, may be a wet hen but begins to show some mettle. Certainly she demonstrates good sense when she objects to the servant girl's name, Emberella, as sounding like "something you'd put up to keep the rain off." There's so much more that will keep you giggling -- a continuation of Pratchett's dwarf bread jokes, Greebo the Cat's amazing transformation, Nanny's introduction to the very short great lover Casanunda (whose name is one of of Pratchett's best puns). All in all, WITCHES ABROAD would make a wonderful Christmas present for anyone who needs cheering up. Since it's readily available in bookstores around here, why is it currently NOT available through this website?
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