Some magic-users just have a little more going for them than others. It’s time to meet them in Sourcery.
Summary
There is a wizard named Ipslore, who did something wizards are not supposed to do—he got married and had kids. Eight sons to be exact. Which means that his eighth son is a wizard squared, making him a source of magic or: a sourcerer. Ipslore is supposed to be taken by Death, but he’s angry at how he was cast aside by wizards and tells Death that he is going to influence his eighth son’s life so that he will become the Archchancellor and rule all of them. Death tells him that there must be a loophole in this prophecy. Ipslore decides that the loophole occurs if his son (named Coin) throws his staff away. Death agrees to those terms. Then Ipslore escapes death by putting himself into his old wizard staff, which is now his son’s staff. Eight years later, at the Unseen University, something is going all wrong, and Rincewind flees with the Luggage and the Librarian. Virrid Wayzygoose is supposed to be named Archchancellor of the University, but Coin arrives at the University to take the spot.
He challenges a Level Eight wizard to a duel for the Archchancellorship. Billias agrees to this duel, showing him Maligree’s Wonderful Garden, a piece of magic done by one of the last great sourcerers. Coin is not quite impressed, flipping the spell so that the garden Billias creates is larger, outside of the sphere he made for it, and the University Great Hall is now inside the sphere. Then he reverses it and shows them his own magic—he makes Billias vanish. He then dispatches Virrid is short order as well. Spelter, the university bursar, decides that they might be better off going along with the boy. Spelter allies with an eighth level wizard, Carding. They agree to give the Archchancellor hat to Coin and allow him to be a figurehead who they guide, not realizing that the hat has been stolen. The thief in question tries to recruit Rincewind to the cause, but he’s not interested. Suddenly, they are cornered by some of the Patrician’s guards, looking for the thief. They escape, and Rincewind learns that the thief stole the Archchancellor’s hat, but moreover, the hat is speaking to him.
The hat asked the thief to steal it and wants Rincewind to take it to Klatch where there is someone “fit” to wear it. They need to get out of sight, so they head into the Shades portion of the city, a incredibly dangerous district. The thief turns out to be a woman named Conina. They head into a tavern called the Troll’s Head and immediately get embroiled in a fight. Someone steals the hat and gets out. The hat freezes the fellow who tries to steal it (he later shatters), and they continue on their way. Rincewind learns that Conina is actually Cohen the Barbarian’s daughter—she actually wants to be a hairdresser, but this is where she’s landed given her genetic inheritance and predilections. The Luggage finally catches up to them (Conina is a bit mortified by it), and the hat tells them to commandeer a boat. Rincewind would rather not, but he feels compelled to do as the hat says.
The hat insists that there must be no more sourcerers, and prods at them until they give in. The next morning, the University is changing, magic is getting easier and more powerful than ever. Coin is awake and demanding to see more of the University. Spelter and Carding lead him around, and Coin begins to change things to his liking, getting rid of Archchancellor statues, making windows larger, ceilings higher, everything newer. Carding suggests Coin be made Archchancellor, but a seventh level wizard named Ivan Hakardly protests the appointment because it has not been done properly. Coin points out that wizards only seem to rule wizards and that he believes this to be a waste of time. He asks who is in charge here and the wizards suggest the Patrician, Lord Vetinari. Coin decides to go have a word with him, and draws him from his palace into the University. Lord Vetinari is irate and demands that they cease this prank, but Carding tells him off and turns him into a lizard.
Book Club Chat
I have questions about Ipslore. So many questions about him and his life and his anger. Discworld as a series is often very cavalier about wizards and their interest in romance and sex, but here’s a guy who was very interested, and made that choice, and now he’s furious with them for how that fell out, and I just want to know more about him?
And we’re back with Rincewind, who really should stop hating adventure so much because if he stopped it would probably stop hunting him down. Has anyone ever done a comparison chart between Rincewind and Bilbo Baggins? I feel like they have quite a bit in common overall, at least in terms of how they’d prefer their lives to go versus how often they are waylaid by insistent folks who demand their time and attention.
Buy the Book
The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue
The first thing that catches me in this book is Rincewind thinking how irritated he is that you’re supposed to be good at magic to be a wizard: “He knew he was a wizard, deep in his head. Being good at magic didn’t have anything to do with it. That was just an extra, it didn’t actually define somebody.” And that… is a very odd but enlightened sort of viewpoint, isn’t it? Maybe not in the sense of professions, but in the sense of how we talk about what we do in life. We get caught on the idea of quality, and let it destroy our ability to be and do things all the time. Like the hobby problem that many people have—we all think that we have to be good at the hobby to enjoy it, to do it. But expertise is not the be all and end all of life. It’s a facet. And it’s good to place value on expertise, to respect, even place importance on it for yourself. But you can adore something and not be good at it; music; the written word; math; science.
It occurs to me that Coin is very much the predecessor to Adam Young from Good Omens, and it’s interesting to see the way that Pratchett reuses and evolves concept and characters. Here we have another unnerving young boy with untold power who is ultimately too much for the world. It’s a different mechanism, but the same idea—he can create, he has inherent power rather than drawing from what already exists. The conceit of that, of the havoc that unleashes on the world, is more than anyone is capable of reckoning with at the moment.
There’s another Lord of Rings parallel here (amongst several, because we also get a steward of Gondor reference with Vetinari) with the Archchancellor hat—it’s less evil, but it definitely an object that can compel people to do its bidding.
Asides and thoughts:
- When Ipslore asks Death what there is in the world that makes living worthwhile, and he can only say CATS ARE NICE. Yes, Death.
- The image of the Luggage terrorizing people in bars for potato chips. My dog jumped up on a table and ate half a box of donuts this week, so I really do sympathize with Rincewind here.
- Casablanca throwaway aside (Of all the disreputable taverns in all the city, says the hat), I get a special sort of glee from the hat’s general impatience for people’s nonsense, particularly when Rincewind notes that the person it allowed itself to be stolen by a woman, and the hat gamely replies So was your mother.
- “It might be thought that the Mended Drum, scene of unseemly scuffles only an hour ago, was a seedy disreputable tavern. In fact it was a reputable disreputable tavern.” Okay, but this is a thing, though.
- Lord Vetinari is, of course, described in terms quite similar to Blofeld of the James Bond franchise. Just to make it extra-clear what sort of fellow we’re dealing with. (The family name is also a reference to the de Medici family who ruled Florence, Italy during the Renaissance, which is another major tell.)
Pratchettisms:
NO. I AM NOT ALLOWED TO ENLIGHTEN YOU, EVEN BY DEFAULT, ABOUT THE CURRENT TEMPERATURES IN THE NEXT WORLD.
There was no analogy for the way in which Great A’Tuin the world turtle moved against the galactic night. When you are ten thousand miles long, your shell pocked with meteor craters and frosted with comet ice, there is absolutely nothing you can realistically be like except yourself.
On the center table the complete carcass of a whole roast pig looked extremely annoyed at the fact that someone had killed it without waiting for it to finish its apple, and the model Uniersity made of butter was sinking gently into a pool of grease.
The wizards exchanged the kind of long, slow glare you could roast chestnuts on.
The silence tightened like a tourniquet.
Next week we’re heading up to “Erm,” he said, “excuse me…” See you then!
I was struck by how much better the writing read; from this angle, Mort is still better than Equal Rites but also shows another step rather than Pratchett at the top of his game. This despite a huge number of gags, snarks, etc. — they all seem to fit in the story, and many of them are sharper. (I had to stop reading due to laughter at least twice, which is at least once more than I did in the whole of Mort.)
@0: It’s not clear to me that Rincewind thinks magic is a hobby; how many of the not-very-good-but-loves-W people think of themselves as Wians? Rincewind may not be quite as far from reality as Miniver Cheevy, but ISTM he’s getting there. OTOH, you have a point that he might have less to run from if he stopped trying to run from everything.
OTGH, I see more differences than parallels between Coin and Adam. Coin is like Mark Vorkosigan, raised in isolation to take revenge and thinking nothing of using his power for whatever he wants; Adam was raised human (the authors imitated a mundane series of boys’ books) and is in conflict with his powers from the moment he realizes (a) that he can actually do things and (b) that what he does deliberately can have Not-Fun results. (I haven’t reread the rest of the book; this reaction may change as I do.)
It’s not absolutely clear to me that the Patrician’s special guards are looking for the hat — did the wizards tell the Patrician (who seems unaware of the chaos until he’s yanked into it) that the hat is missing, or did he just send them after Conina on the principle of getting the most chaotic person (as he’d see it) out of the city? Maybe Pratchett didn’t plot this precisely?
Favorite Pratchettisms:
When it comes to glittering objects, wizards have all the taste and self-control of a deranged magpie.
[the description of the wardrobe, including the Narnia drop.]
The skin is rare and highly prized, especially by the vermine itself; the selfish little bastard will do anything rather than let go of it.
… the kind of stare that basks on rocks on volcanic islands and never gets tired.
… pretty soon everyone was fighting to get something — either away, out, or even. [nice zeugma there, although he probably wasn’t specifically channeling “Madeira, M’dear”]
[the footnote calling out classic genetics experiments and how the wizards confused them.]
But there are people who can’t quite believe that children are fully human, and think that the operation of normal good manners doesn’t apply to them. [I wonder whether Pratchett remembering some people’s approach to his daughter, who would have been 12-13 when he was writing this.]
A request for future marks (since Pratchett didn’t believe in chapters): could you add “page X of N” to your next-week-reads-up-to? It would make finding the mark easier (for me at least — I like to mark the endpoint before starting, rather than having to keep asking myself “Is this break we were pointed to?”)
I think Rincewind being a wizard is much more than a hobby. In the book as a whole there is a lot of discussion of this and without giving much away it seems like a geas (and don’t miss the footnote about the geas).
While Vetinari’s brief is appearance is Blofeldesque, I think the Steward of Gondor is a much better reference. He does not strive for power so much as for order.
I think the comparison between Coin and Adam is premature at this point but a good talking point later on. Right now a better comparison would be Coin and Arthur from Mort.
Lastly, I really see the progression in Pratchett’s writing and plotting style when reading the books in order as opposed to when I found a copy.
I particularly liked the bit when Death tells Ipslore (who at the time is doing his best to avoid dying) that he’s just putting off the inevitable, and Isplore tells him that that’s the whole point of living.
Great line, that.
Sourcery marks the point where Pratchett had quit his job and become a full-time writer. The jump in quality from Equal Rites (though I do love it) to Sourcery is phenomenal. I found on first reading that the plot seemed a little too similar to the beginning of Equal Rites but by the time Rincewind appeared I really didn’t care: I was just along for the ride. My most recent reread noted a lot of similarities to The Light Fantastic but there’s enough variation that it really doesn’t matter unless you really want to start comparing all authors and their storylines. I always laugh out loud at Rincewind in the bar saying, “Not yet, but I’m trying.” when Conina whispers “Psst.” at him
I feel sorry for these wizards, but am glad they get killed off here, hecause they’ll be replaced by a zany bunch with much more longevity, who I love dearly.
Nonetheless, I find Coin far less likable than Adam Young, despite my eternal grudge against Good Omens for giving me the Horsepersons who still haunt my nightmares.
When the mattress went by, before its cockroach carriers were specified, I brielfy thought it had become sentient like those in one of the Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy books.
The ‘heroic quest’ offer described to Rincewind is indeed similar to the one offered to Bilbo Baggins, who was similarly uninterested.
Perhaps Conina came from the portion of Cohen’s life when, as he described in TLF, his preferred type of woman had “blonde hair and a glint of the world in her eyes.”
Another Pratchettism: Ipslore asks where humans would be without love, to which Death replies “RARE.”
What is the deal with the spelling of sourcery? Google tells me this isn’t a valid spelling. Is Pratchett making fun of British spelling, or trying to make it extra-British, or just emphasizing that sourcery is more special than sorcery?
I haven’t made it to the end of the book, but I guess this is probably left unexplained.
Edit: Oops! Missed that line. Thanks for pointing it out.
Just read the beginning of this post for an explanation:
@6 Sourcery is a pun. It’s a combination of sorcery and source. I think it is explained in the text later.
So… this is probably at the bottom of my list from the early discworlds.
On a positive side, the writing style continues to improve, its got a lot of funny moments and nice lines. It’s nice to see the evolution of the disworld (hello Havelock!).
On the other, much larger and slightly clammy hand. It’s another Rincewind novel, in a series which is rapidly outgrowing our failed wizzard. There’s not really any logical reason for Rincewind to be in this book, and it seems like none of the side characters re given enough to do because its a Rincewind book. Conina has promise, but why does she need Rincewind around at all? Why for that matter does she get inexplicably relegated to love interest half way through he book?
Coin is a non-character in his own book, as are Creosote and Nijel…
Put “Talking hat holding an important position in a wizard’s school,” as another thing that devious time traveler Pratchett nicked from Harry Potter.
WHAT!? I must have first read this book twenty-odd years ago, but I’d never realised until today, that the word isn’t commonly spelt ‘sourcery’.
Bloody dyslexia :(
This is why I keep re-reading Pratchett though, even though I’ve read some of the Discworld books probably ten times, I still find jokes which I’d not got before.
I find the sourcery discussion interesting (and embarrassing). Like many here across the pond, I just assumed that it was yet another odd British spelling.
“Honour? What do you Americans know about honour?” I bellowed, working myself into a fine fury. “You can’t even spell it!”
– Flashman and the Angel of the Lord
It’s another Rincewind novel, in a series which is rapidly outgrowing our failed wizzard. There’s not really any logical reason for Rincewind to be in this book, and it seems like none of the side characters re given enough to do because its a Rincewind book.
This is a good point. And it’s why I would disagree with comment 4 that this is where the jump in quality happens. I think it happened with Equal Rites, and Sourcery – and indeed the other Rincewind books – represent falling back. Sourcery is another Rincewind book, and it’s another one about the end of the world – too much like the first two, which I think everyone agrees are the author finding his feet. The witches come back in Wyrd Sisters, and after that he doesn’t really put a foot wrong for a long while. Pyramids, Guards! Guards!, Moving Pictures, Soul Music, Men at Arms, Reaper Man – most of these would be on everyone’s best-of list.
@Ajay — quality has many axes. I’ve been rereading only as the sections came up (other rereads I’ve sometimes read the whole thing at once and then reread sections just-in-time) and I don’t remember whether the story falls apart later on, so Rincewind could well be an issue — although there are places in plots for useful cowards. However, ISTM that the writing was massively better here; there were more and sharper bits and all of them fit into the story rather than stopping for a display. (cf the shift to musicals with songs integrated rather than separate “numbers” that happen because “it’s been too long since the last music” — I’m right now in the middle of Kaplow’s latest, in which he argues this was a progression rather than happening all at once with Oklahoma!) I’m not convinced that the-end-of-the-world (which we also faced in Mort) is worn out as a driver; I’ll see what I think in 2 weeks when we finish (assuming our host’s usual pace, and no more distractions like NYCC).
“Banished! Me! For showing I was human. And what would humans be without love?”
RARE, said Death.
(Sorry for being late to the game.)
Clearly, the origins of the word “sourceror” have to do with flavor; he is a sour individual. This implies that there are also “salterors,” “sweeterors,” and “savoryors.”
This explains something about Ipslore; he is clearly a bitteror character.
No apologies for this sort of thing.
I actually love Sourcery. Part of it may be for personal reasons, since I first read it during a very bright time in my youth, and on a purely objective level it may not be as good as Mort (or at least less original), but it all works for me: it has all the journeying and adventure of the first two Rincewind books, but written by a mature Pratchett who’s at the top of his game in terms of language and comedy. It has a more interesting plot and more suspense, too; even a bit of horror (when Coin and the wizards really gets the party started).
I agree with @9: having Rincewind and another character fancying Conina felt like it didn’t fit. Conina is too cool to be just a love interest.
Love that you find Coin similar to Adam Young in Good Omens; I was thinking the other day about their similarities. I like to think that after the events of this book, Coin eventually found his way to Roundworld and got to call him “friend.”
The misinterpretation of “sourcerer” as having anything to do with “sour” seems to be common. I think there was even some translation that made that mistake…
I’m already enjoying this book more than Mort or Equal Rites