Product Description

The fourteenth Discworld novel.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #5392 in Books
• Published on: 1993-11-04
• Binding: Paperback
• 386 pages

Synopsis
Features a cast of dwarfs, wizards, trolls, Morris dancers and one orang-utan.

From the Back Cover
THE FAIRIES ARE BACK - BUT THIS TIME THEY DON'T JUST WANT YOUR TEETH...

Granny Weatherwax and her tiny coven are up against real elves.

It's Midsummer Night. No time for dreaming...

With a full supporting cast of dwarfs, wizards, trolls, Morris dancers and one orang-utan. And lots of hey-nonny-nonny and blood all over the place.

About the Author
Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett is one of the most popular authors writing today. He lives behind a keyboard in Wiltshire and says he 'doesn't want to get a life, because it feels as though he's trying to lead three already'. He was appointed OBE in 1998. He is the author of the phenomenally successful Discworld series and his trilogy for young readers, The Bromeliad, is scheduled to be adapted into a spectacular animated movie.

Customer Reviews

Lords and Ladies review.
Lords and Ladies is a another spellbining book by Terry Prattchett.In Lords and Ladies the elves have come back and its down to Granny Weatherwax,Nanny Ogg,Magrat Garlick,the Lancre morris men and Shaun Ogg,Lancre's standing army,to stop them.If you like reading sci-fi,fantasy or fairy tales then read Lords and Ladies.If you enjoy this book then try books 3,6,12,18 and 23.

My favourite Witches book
I absolutely loved this book, everything about it is just perfect. It is perhaps one of the darker of Pratchett's witches books - the elves are actually quite a frightening adversary. I always hated Tolkein's high-handed elves, so effortlessly beautiful, so graceful, so noble, so eternally young, bleuch! Smug b*stards. Here Pratchett explodes the myth that being beautiful means you must be good.
Nanny Ogg is - as ever - a joy to read about. Her exploits around the 'Long Man' and her date with Casanunda are comic gold, as is her rousing speech to Lancre's ragtag army.
Granny Weatherwax also gets a bit of a backstory and, as a result a more rounded character. We can see why she is like she is and some of what she's had to give up to be the most powerful witch of all.
But it's Magrat who undergoes the biggest change - the scenes of her confrontation with the elves had me on the edge of my seat mentally cheering her on. This is Pratchett doing a more conventional style of adventure than his usual and it's very good.
I could almost taste the night air and smell the snow.

No one is to do the Stick and Bucket Dance ever again
The three witches, especially Granny Weatherwax, have always been my favorite denizens of the Discworld, and they do nothing to disappoint the reader over the course of Lords and Ladies. Add in a few of Unseen University's highest-ranking wizards, and you're guaranteed to have one wild time in the kingdom of Lancre. This novel wasn't quite as funny as Pratchett's earlier witch novels, but it shows Granny Weatherwax in a whole new light and makes for a very entertaining read all the way around.

Lords and Ladies opens with the three witches returning home to Lancre after their encounter with the Godmother in the novel Witches Abroad. They arrive just in the nick of time. A group of young girls have started doing some witching of their own; dancing around (with or without their drawers on) some of the ancient stones up in the hills isn't good for anybody, especially when the barriers between the worlds are rubbing close together and beings on the other side are just waiting to pounce on anyone capable of weakening the borders a wee bit more. The Elf Queen has set her sights on crossing over into reality, but there just isn't room in this reality for Granny Weatherwax and the Elf Queen. Granny knows what regular people forgot long ago - all that glamour and beauty that Elves project is just a mask. Elves are really nasty little buggers who care about human beings only insofar as they can torture them for their own amusement. Things are really nip and go here, as Granny Weatherwax isn't her old self these days - she can't even see the future anymore, and that doesn't bode well for anybody.

Of course, the citizens of Lancre are all distracted by the upcoming nuptials of King Verence and Magrat Garlick. Wyrd Sisters tells the story of Verence's witch-assisted rise from the king's Fool to the King of Lancre, as well as the budding romance between Verence and Magrat. Magrat is of course the third member of the witches' trio, a young lass with eternally plain looks, great interest in the traditions and proper ceremonies of witchcraft, and a naivety and generosity of nature that frequently drives Granny up the wall. She and Verence are as shy as the day is long, but they are to be married on Midsummer's Eve. Granny and Nanny Ogg tend to treat Magrat as a child, and she finally gets so perturbed she abandons the coven and settles in to learning the ways of being a Queen - which mostly involves being incredibly bored.

All kinds of folks arrive for the royal wedding, including Giamo Casanunda, the world's second greatest lover ("he tries harder," a process which invariably involves the use of a stepladder), and a caravan of wizards from Unseen University. Archchancellor Ridcully is extremely excited about it because he used to live in Lancre. He goes on and on about this girl he once knew and wanted to marry, a girl who happens to be Granny Weatherwax. It's hard to imagine Granny as a young woman, but Lords and Ladies shows us a side of the old crone we've never seen before. Magrat really starts to come into her own, as well, after the Elves capture Verence. Of course, everything comes down to a big fight with the Elves, but that's the least exciting part of the novel, as far as I'm concerned. It's much more fun just watching Pratchett put all his players in place for the ending.

Pratchett is absolutely on fire in a number of passages here, especially when young Ponder Stibbons tries to explain his theory of parallel universes and multiple forms of existence to Archchancellor Ridcully. Granny and Nanny Ogg are always hilarious, the whole makeup of Lancre sets up many a joke, and Verence's dependence on book knowledge sets up one of the funniest bits in the whole Discworld series. Lords and Ladies is enough to get a new reader hooked on Pratchett's unique genius, but you won't truly appreciate this novel unless you read Wyrd Sisters and Witches Abroad first.