Sourcery by Terry Pratchett

A part of the Discworld Series, Terry Pratchett’s Sourcery is a fun romp through a silly world.

A fantastically powerful wizard, a sourcerer actually, attacks the relaxed-to-the-point-of-ineptitude Unseen University (of Wizards.) Think Hogwarts, only sillier. The resulting Mage War is going to require some unlikely heroes, including a loyal but bad-tempered wooden trunk simply called The Luggage and the university’s librarian, who was magically transformed into an orangutan with no interest in returning to human form.

You get the idea.

The silliness is deftly held together by Pratchett’s gift for language. The one-liners and puns fly around like so many wild wizard spells. But, it is never too much. The plot is a nice balance between predictability and random shots to left field.

As satire, Sourcery is laughing at fantasy and hero sagas. It is also an “absolute power breeds absolute corruption” satire. If it had been written after J.K. Rowling’s masterpieces, I daresay it would be a satire about Harry Potter.

In the end it is just good clean fun and a light, fluffy read.

Link to Sourcery on Powells.com

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Drevil

Drevil earned his nickname at the cribbage table in his jail pod. His shaved head earned him the moniker Dr. Evil on the score sheet. Except someone forgot the dot and he was forever known as Drevil. He made it his mission to write reviews for every book he read during a long incarceration. We are proud to offer up as many of those reviews (and essays) as we could find.

 

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