Equal Rites

Although this is officially the third Discworld book, I think of it as the first real Discworld book, because it's the first one in which Pratchett managed to write a coherent plot and set the style for future Discworld books. The two preceding books were false starts.

This one also introduces Granny Weatherwax, one of the leading characters of the Discworld.

The first half of the book is enjoyable, endearing, and often funny. It makes quite a good introduction to the Discworld. The second half, unfortunately, begins to take itself too seriously, though it remains readable and doesn't entirely lose its sense of humour.

Apart from Weatherwax, we also meet two young wizards, Eskarina and Simon, both of whom are over-powered. This is quite fun initially, as Eskarina performs various amusing magical feats; but in the longer term it's a mistake to give anyone limitless magical powers, because it destroys the story. If any problem arises, they should be able to magic it away; and, if they can't, you wonder why not.

Doubtless because of this problem, in subsequent Discworld books I think Simon is never seen again; Eskarina reappears briefly in two books right at the end of the series.

Granny Weatherwax appears here with her character and attributes surprisingly well-defined, and stays much the same in later books. However, it seems rather out of character for her to get into a magical duel with a wizard; I think Pratchett might have taken that out if he'd ever gone back and released version 2 of the book.

I frankly dislike the whole phenomenon of the Things from the Dungeon Dimensions. It seems to me that Pratchett first over-powered his young wizards, and then tried to restore some challenge to the plot by introducing something fearsome enough to worry them. That's what makes the second half of the book too serious. Better not to over-power them in the first place. If you're going to have magic in a story, make sure that it has definite limits, and preferably try to explain what the limits are. That way, you can give your wizards real challenges without needing to invent over-the-top scary monsters.