Review: Lords and Ladies

Series: Discworld: #14

Series: Discworld - Witches: #4

Lords and Ladies continues more or less directly the events of Witches Abroad. It follows the trials and tribulations of the witches Weatherwax, Ogg, and Garlick.

This time around, a decent chunk of the book is dedicated to the Discworld idea of the Fae–which are just about as terrifying as they should be.

Elves are wonderful. They provoke wonder.
Elves are marvelous. They cause marvels.
Elves are fantastic. They create fantasies.
Elves are glamorous. They project glamour.
Elves are enchanting. They weave enchantment.
Elves are terrific. They beget terror.
The thing about words is that meanings can twist just like a snake, and if you want to find snakes look for them behind words that have changed their meaning.
No one ever said elves are nice.

On top of that, we deal decently much with the nature of reality in the Discworld and the possibilities of parallel realities.

It was here that the thaum, hitherto believed to be the smallest possible particle of magic, was succesfully demonstrated to be made up of /resons/ (Lit.: ‘Thing-ies’) or reality fragments. Currently research indicates that each reson is itself made up of a combination of at least five ‘flavours’, known as ‘up’, ‘down’, ‘sideways’, ‘sex appeal’ and ‘peppermint’.

Physics!

In fact, the mere act of opening the box will determine the state of the cat, although in this case there were three determinate states the cat could be in: these being Alive, Dead, and Bloody Furious.

The characters are great (especially towards the end when Magrat comes into her own). The humor is humorous. The plot is … well … Discworldy.

Worth the listen.