Equal Rites - (US)

Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent, bestselling novels have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody next to the likes of Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen. In Equal Rites , a dying wizard tries to pass on his powers to an eighth son of an eighth son, who is just at that moment being born. The fact that the son is actually a daughter is discovered just a little too late. “Unadulterated fun... witty, frequently hilarious.”—San Francisco ChronicleChaos and hilarity ensue when a young woman becomes the first female wizard, upending the Discworld in this bitingly funny tale from internationally bestselling author Sir Terry Pratchett.A little knowledge is a dangerous thing, but it's not half so bad as a lot of ignorance.Everyone knows there's no such thing as a female wizard. So when a dying wizard accidentally passes on his staff of power to an eighth daughter of an eighth son, the exclusively masculine world of wizarding is thrown into a tailspin.Eskarina isn't afraid of male critics and she isn't going to relinquish this unexpected gift. With a little hocus pocus from Granny Weatherwax, the Discworld's most infamous witch (an old crone who has plenty of experience ignoring the status quo), Esk infiltrates the magical Unseen University and befriends another apprentice, a wizard named Simon.But power is unpredictable, and these bright young students soon find themselves in a whole new dimension of trouble....The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Equal Rites is the first book in the Witches collection. The Witches collection, in order, include:Equal RitesWyrd SistersWitches AbroadLords and LadiesMaskeradeCarpe Jugulum "Unadulterated fun. . . witty, frequently hilarious." —San Francisco Chronicle The third novel in New York Times bestselling author Terry Pratchett's Discworld series, a fantasy universe where anything can happen—and usually does. A dying wizard tries to pass his staff on to the eighth son of an eighth son. When it is revealed that the he is a girl named Esk, the news of the female wizard sends the citizens of Discworld into a tail-spin. With their biting satire and limitless imagination, it is easy to understand why 80 million Discworld books have been sold worldwide. Equal Rites possesses rich characterizations, a journey of awareness, and even a hint of romance from master storyteller Terry Pratchett. Terry Pratchett's profoundly irreverent novels, consistent number one bestsellers in England, have garnered him a revered position in the halls of parody along with Mark Twain, Kurt Vonnegut, Douglas Adams, and Carl Hiaasen.In Equal Rites, a dying wizard tries to pass on his powers to an eighth son of an eighth son, who is just at that moment being born. The fact that the son is actually a daughter is discovered just a little too late... There are some situations where the correct response is to display the sort of ignorance which happily and wilfully flies in the face of the facts. In this case, the birth of a baby girl, born a wizard - by mistake. Everybody knows that there's no such thing as a female wizard. But now it's gone and happened, there's nothing much anyone can do. The last thing the wizard Drum Billet did, before Death laid a bony hand on his shoulder, was to pass on his staff of power to the eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately for his colleagues in the chauvinistic (not to say misogynistic) world of magic, he failed to check on the newborn baby's sex...