SOUNDTRACK: hiatus
[READ: Summer 2021] Sourcery
This story follows up on some of the ideas in Equal Rites. In that books we learned that the eight son of an eighth son was destined to be a Wizard. But the eighth son of a Wizard–which shouldn’t happen since Wizards don’t have relations.
But in this story, an excommunicated Wizard (he DID have relations) had a eighth son whom he named Coin. He wanted to take revenge on the Wizarding world because of how they treated him and what better revenge than to create a Sourcerer. A Sourcerer generates power rather than using it.
A few years later, Coin goes to Unseen University and overthrows the current Archchancellor Wayzygoose. (The Archchancellor role becomes more stable in a few books, which is what I remembered). Coin, being a strong presence and the kind of person who can Set Things Right, is embraced by the Wizards (who are pretty susceptible to this sort of thing). It turns out that Rincewind (and his Luggage) as well as The Librarian (who is a Wizard that was tuned into an orangutan and does not want to be turned back) were not at the University when this all went down. So they’re aware that something is suspicious about Coin.
They are called into service against Coin by Conina, Cohen the Barbarian’s daughter and a master thief. She had stolen the Archchancellor’s hat before Coin arrived and she is very much aware of all of the trouble that is going to go down soon.
However, they are going up against Coin, whose power grows every day. He has also encouraged all of the Wizards to see just how powerful they are. They shouldn’t be second class citizens, they should be ruling all of Ankh-Morpork. And they start to take over, even turning the Patrician, Lord Vetinari into a newt. Coin even declares the Library obsolete and orders it burnt down. (You know The Librarian is going to say something about that. Yes, it will only be “Ook” but there will be a lot of meaning in that “Ook”).
Coin even gets enough power to take on the gods. But his trapping the gods allows the Ice Giants to be freed. (There’s back story about the Gods fighting the Ice Giants for Disc supremacy).
Rincewind gets involved and looks to take on Coin (a laughable proposition). But Pratchett brings the Dungeon Dimensions back into play (they are used less frequently on later stories). And soon enough, Coin and Rincewind find themselves on the other side of the barrier. Of course, The Luggage is there so everything better watch out. But it is the last we’ll see of Rincewind (for a pretty long time).
There was a lot of fun in this story, but it felt a bit long to me. Also, notice that this book features the original(ish) British cover. I bought this imported book from Wordsworth Books in Boston before it was available as an American book.
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