Sourcery

Executive Summary: This one might be a tie with [b:The Color of Magic 34497 The Color of Magic (Discworld, #1; Rincewind #1) Terry Pratchett https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1407111017s/34497.jpg 194190] as my least favorite of Discworld thus far.Full ReviewAfter how much I enjoyed [b:The Light Fantastic 34506 The Light Fantastic (Discworld, #2; Rincewind #2) Terry Pratchett https://d.gr-assets.com/books/1389554927s/34506.jpg 592532] I was looking forward to another Rincewind book. I just never got into this one as much. There are once again some great jokes, but many of them felt in one or two parts of the book and then longer stretches where I didn't even chuckle.The plot wasn't terribly engaging. It had potential. The Eighth son of the Eighth son is destined to be a Sorcerer, far more powerful than any Wizard of Discword. But I guess the execution was just a bit lackluster.Maybe I don't like the Rincewind books as much. Or maybe I'm getting burned out on Discworld after reading so many in a short period. I think it's most likely that in a series this large, they can't all be winners.The highlight of the book was Conina. The badass barbarian warrior women with aspirations of being a hairdresser. Most of the funniest quotes of the book seemed to involve her in some way. I hope we'll be seeing more of her in future books.

Yet another Discworld book.
Here, the eighth son of an
eighth son of an eighth son
is born, destined to be a
sorcerer. Sorcerers and
wizards compete to control
the world.

It's not easy to write good comedy, and it's significantly harder to write good parody. So I can only imagine how difficult it must be to create satire that is not just meant as a one-off gag, but is in fact an entire fantasy series in its own right, with lore and worldbuilding and continuity that surpasses most of the things it's lampooning.

Sourcery is my first Discworld book, though of course I've heard of both the series and the author for decades. I knew that it - and he - had a great reputation, and after finishing the book I can say it is well earned if only for his ability to thread this particular needle.

The most important part of a comedy is that it's funny, and Sourcery is very funny. Jokes are delivered at a rate equivalent to a belt-fed mounted machine gun. Even if one joke fails to land, you barely need to wait for the next sentence before a new one is attempted. There's puns, irony, satire, poop jokes, deep references, obvious references, and tons of meta jokes that could really only be told in literary form.

It's remarkable, often brilliant, sometimes distracting, and other times... a little annoying.

Sourcery is firmly a fantasy novel, and it's trying to tell you a story like one, with worldbuilding and adventure and character arcs that one expects. Most of the time the humor adds to the tapestry being presented, but not always. It's a book that doesn't take itself seriously, yet it still makes the attempt to tell a real story, with real stakes and character motivations and tension. It's a difficult balancing act, and not an altogether successful one. The prose constantly undercuts itself, oscillating between Loony Toons logic and real (well, fantastical) logic without much of a breather in between.

It's a bit of a mishmash, and you can imagine a creative process in which the phrase “cut that, it doesn't fit” was rarely said.

Take Conina. She's a stealthy master thief, yet also an extremely violent barbarian, but really, she just wants to be a hairdresser. She's descended from Cohen, and like him her name is a pun. She is the love interest of 2 (maybe 3) men and a treasure chest. She's serious and smart except when she's dumb and naive. Of the 4(ish) members of the party, she's generally most competent, but I had no idea what her motivation was for remaining in the story, and I think you could have probably cut her after the first 50 pages without losing anything.

It's mostly obvious which parts of Conina are meant to be silly jokes and which are meant to be serious characterization. But when you smash all those traits into a single character, and the primary supporting role no less, it just doesn't gel right.

It's like eating a tasty meal that nevertheless feels off, as if the ingredients weren't measured in the right ratio, or didn't fully combine in the cooking process.

I liked Sourcery, and I think I'll read more Discworld books someday, but only when I'm in the mood for its particular brand of food.