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Lords and Ladies

Lords and Ladies is a book by Terry Pratchett. It is the fourteenth book in the Discworld series. The entire series is great, but this is one of the best that I’ve read so far. This is partially because the protagonists are three witches.

See, each Discworld book has different main characters at its focus. Some books are about the wizards of Unseen University, other books follow the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, a few books deal mainly with Death. The books I like best are about the witches, though. There are three main witches: Magrat Garlick, who is the youngest and most put upon witch, Nanny Ogg, the sauciest and most colorful witch, and Granny Weatherwax, sort of the headstrong and proud leader of the coven, as it were.

Lords and Ladies is sort of a spoof of A Midsummer Night’s Dream, except not really. I mean, it has elements of the play in it, mischievous elves, a play within the book performed by some working men (they scoff at the idea of including a donkey in a play), and people being bewitched, but it really has its own story and ideas.

The thing that sort of drives the entire plot is that elves aren’t just mischievous, but downright evil. They’v been gone from our world for a long time and all that anybody can remember is how glamorous they are and how they are always laughing. It turns out that they are always laughing because they are amused when bad things happen to humans and they project an aura of glamour partially because they think so little of human beings.

Lords and Ladies has it all: comedy, romance, gripping action, and grappling with mysterious forces. I especially like how Terry Pratchett creates a believable and internally consistent world in his books. It has strange rules, but he obeys the rules and subtly reminds the reader that this world is like our world but not with clever story points, dialogue.

Wait, did I mention that there is an orangutan? It crunches some elvesĀ real good. You should definitely read this book.

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