false 4 0 false false Sat Jun 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri May 29 06:57:35 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 07:09:29 -0700 2009
Or so they think. Pratchett has a lot of fun with the concept of stories and the fate of people who find themselves playing the part of their characters. There's clever stuff in there about the power of stories and how things are always going to turn out to suit them and the best you can do is ride along like a leaf in the rapids. To illustrate this concept Pratchett yanks threads from all kinds of stories featuring witches or magic in order to put Granny, Nanny, and Magrat through perils, including Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, the Wizard of Oz (that part was particularly hilarious, by the way, with an exchange between Magrat and some dwarfs who inexplicably want to drink things out of Nanny Ogg's red slippers), Little Red Riding Hood, Dracula, and others. But the stoic and generally imperturbable Granny Weatherwax does her best to change the course of the rapids to her own liking.

So I liked it quite a bit. It's funny, because when Granny Weatherwax first appeared in Equal Rites I didn't like her as a character at all. She just didn't have any zing and seemed like a one-joke character. But by the time of Witches Abroad it's apparent that Pratchett has not only improved as a writer, but he's figured out how to make Granny work (short version: she's a crabby old lady who does nice things in not nice ways) and by placing her in a trio with contrasting characters that provide lots of opportunities for them to play off each other. And along those lines, Magrat and Nanny have also started to flesh out as characters as well. I'm now looking forward to seeing more of them.]]>