Maskerade by Terry Pratchett

My rating: 3 of 5 stars


This is my second time reading Maskerade, the rating remains a 3/5 stars

We have another outing with the Lancre Witches. Pratchett moves us from parodies of Shakespeare to a parody of Phantom of the Opera. In true Pratchett fashion, this is not really the point of the narrative. Instead it’s about the silliness of Opera and about Agnes Nitt finding herself. I believe Anges was a bit character in the last Witches story – part of the emo-coven that the older witches found so silly. She’s moved to Anhk-Morpork to be out of Granny Weatherwax’s influence and joins the Opera. Nanny, noticing that witches have to exist in triplets – “the maid, the mother, and the….other one” – contrives to find another witch in Lancre. Unfortunately, there aren’t any maidens to be found in Lancre. And so Granny and Nanny head out to Anhk-Morkpork to provide comic relief while Agnes has her story.

Overall, it’s an OK Discworld story. It’s neither my favorite nor do I hate it. I couldn’t remember anything about the plot or where it was headed, which I guess says something about how memorable it is. If there one thing that doesn’t age well in this book it’s the incredible amount of fat shaming that Pratchett subjects Agnes to.

References to other Witch stories:
– The previous third Witch is now married and Queen of Lancre
– Greebo had to be transformed into a man in Witches Abroad and now has issues with his morphogenic field
– the return of Agnes
– There are a few references to Granny having been to Anhk-Morpork, including being familiar with Ms Palm. I believe this is a reference to Equal Rites, which has otherwise mostly been retconned or ignored at this point – along with the fatter version of the Patrician.
– (reverse reference) Nanny’s cookbook was eventually published in the real world



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