Read All About It: Sourcery

Sir Terry Pratchett returns to Rincewind's tale in this wonderful addition to the nonsensical Discworld series. I continue to fall in love with these hilarious books and their witty characters. Each novel draws me deeper into the unique universe of Discworld in the best way.

Rincewind may not be everyone's favorite character, but he's definitely high on my list. I didn't start with Rincewind--I started in middle school, with Tiffany Aching, and she will forever hold a spot in my heart. But it's amazing to see how this series has evolved (and it seems like it has grown up with me), so when I started reading this series this year, it felt like meeting an old friend.

When an eighth son of an eighth son is a wizard, and then he himself has an eighth son, that son is a source of magic--a sourcerer. When his dad kind of refuses to die, he makes it much harder for the world to remain balanced. The sourcerer is an unknown in the strictly ordered world of the Unseen University--and there's only one wizard who can help.

Rincewind is largely known as the most inept wizard on the Disc, and now he's turned up again, with his trusty Luggage somewhere behind him. Dealing with a crush, the ability to use some magic, and an angry Luggage, there's nothing that Rincewind can't just barely succeed at.

Rincewind deals with a lot in this episode, and we get to see him grow into himself as a wizard. As people continually look down on him, he rises up to every challenge--mostly because of his incredible luck in surviving things he shouldn't, but still. He's one of the most interesting characters I've ever read, and I look forward to seeing him again in a few books.

There's no shortage of fantastic magical feats, but there is a shortage of real female characters in this one. There's just Conina, who is the daughter of Cohen the Barbarian, who has set out on her own adventure because she can feel it calling out in her ancestry. Conina on her own is one of the strongest female characters in this series, and she can definitely take care of herself--unlike Rincewind. I just wish that she'd had another female to interact with (other than a few concubines).

We get a very satisfying wrap-up to this story, along with all the trials and tribulations that come about when you introduce new magic to a world where magic stopped being new a few centuries ago. Overall, this novel made leaps and bounds for how Sir Terry wrote his characters. It showed them as realistically as you can expect in a novel that throws all the normal rules out the window and then throws them in the ocean for good measure.

Sir Terry created such an amazing universe, and I look forward to exploring it with you all. Until we meet again for Wyrd Sisters, watch out for a wizard without a hat who pops up in the most unexpected place.