Hello again,

I’m back again with another review, this time of Sourcery (book 5 of the Discworld series).

I honestly don’t know how to review this book, haha. I’ll give it a go anyway. It might be all over the place. hhaha 🙂

I was afraid that I wouldn’t finish this book; I had a bad couple of days. Additionally, a heatwave is starting in the UK, and I don’t do well in high temperatures. My sleep pattern is destroyed at this point! So I feel very grim.

Book 5 begins with a wizard father at the end of his life, and Death appears. The conversation started peacefully (this is when you got an explanation of the difference between Wizards and Sourcers) until the father had seconds to live. While holding onto his metal staff, he begins to think to himself.
(The tone of the conversations starts to shift, im not sure if this is the ‘good guy or the bad guy’ of the story.)

I believe this is one of the funny quotes of the series.
Where the father asked,

“

‘What is there in this world that makes living worth while?’
Death thought about it.
CATS, he said eventually, CATS ARE NICE.’
(Kindle, LOC 99, Sorcery by Terry Pratchett)

“

(Death is definitely my favourite character in the Discworld universe so far.)

With only seconds left, the father decided to infuse himself into the staff and pass it on to his son. Escaping from Death’s grasp.
The father said he can teach his son the way of magic through the staff. Im still not 100% at the start. Im assuming that this is a ‘good character’ introduction.

Im sure im missing some details, but that’s all the first chapter! I was hooked.

…….

Moving past the first chapter, the story unfolds in a bizarre manner. You learn more about the Unseen University and the ranking of the wizards. And this is when you get introduced to the lowest rank and our friend Rincewind—the cowardly, full of doubt wizard, who hasn’t passed the wizardly test yet. The books keep on reminding us of the details, and his trusted trunk with legs, Luggage.

Then you are introduced to the Sourcer, who possesses an ancient and overwhelming form of magic, and the level of magic he displays is incredible! It is too difficult to describe here. (The first showcase of his magic, my jaw hit the floor. I couldn’t believe what I was reading!

(After a couple of scenes with him, it’s clear that he’s the ‘bad guy’ of the story.)

Then the story splits into two storylines: one follows the Sourcer, with his metal staff and the University, and the other follows Rinewind, who is searching for a magic hat.
With these two storylines, there were two objects with voices: the Sourcery’s staff and the magical hat. I was hoping to learn more about these voices.)

This is where the audiobook really helped me. can follow the Sourcer’s story just fine. However, in the Rinewind story, when the group of friends travel to a new location, they spend A LOT of time in this area.

At one point, Rinewind and friends travel to a whole new area, a village in the Desert. It’s clear that Rinewind is a city dweller, and he’s not happy with the change in settings.
The story started to lose me a little. At one point, you get introduced to new characters so quickly, all with different motivations. Struggled to follow the plot a few times.

Perhaps my memory is deteriorating, and I struggle to recall the other books; however, this book shares a remarkable number of similarities and metaphors that appear randomly throughout the plot. There were enough of them that pulled me out of the story at times.

The audiobook made it easier for me to follow the plot.

There are some fascinating hidden gems that are interesting to think about.

I’m using a Kindle, and I wish I had written down the LOC number on some of them now! There was something about silence that was not the absence of sound, it’s… something I can’t remember now! I can’t find it in my notes, and I don’t want to go back and look for it.

…

There was a small moment, you were with Rinewind, and there’s a quote that spoke to me for whatever reason.

‘Rinewind had always been rather proud of the fact that he always felt alone, even in the teeming city, but it was even worse being alone when he was by himself.’
(Kindle, LOC 2751, Sorcery by Terry Pratchett)

I’m not sure why, but that caught my attention while I was reading. I had to take a pause, and it got me thinking for a moment.
And made me relate to Rinewind a bit more.

Any ‘bad things’ in this book?
I just realised most of my ‘bad’ comes from the ending of the story!

(I have already discussed the similarities and metaphors present in the story.)

I suppose the other drawback of the story is that it does not provide a clear conclusion on what happens to the ‘ghost’ that is present in the staff. After the crazy first chapter, I thought he had a bigger role within the story (or a more active one). I just thought the story kind of forgot about him near the end.
(Same thing with the hat! Looking at my notes, I’m wondering who or what this hat is. NO IDEA!! There isn’t a clear answer, or I might have missed it.)

The same thing applies to Rincewind; the book teases a relationship with another person, but nothing comes of it by the end of this book. Maybe it’s a plot in the next book??)

Oh, almost forgot (I won’t go into spoilers!)- the book has a strange ending?

The main plot ends, and there are like four more separate ‘plots’ (I’m not sure). I can’t help but think that’s four plots setting up other books or storylines within the series. It felt completely random.

I was extremely confused by the final few pages of the book.
(The only thing I can’t think of is how people often say The Lord of the Rings feels like it has multiple endings.)

Despite some details at the end, I still like this book, even though I listened to the audiobook for the middle part.

(I blame this HEATWAVE!!)

The next Discworld book is……. ‘WYRD SISTERS (by Terry Pratchett)’, which is part of the Witches’ Series. he last book was Equal Rites, and I struggled a little with that one. I heard that the storylines do get better the more books I read, so hopefully I’ll be ok.)

If you want more Discworld thoughts, please check out my other Discworld book Reviews!