In the 3rd
adventure featuring Rincewind, an inept wizard on Discworld, Terry
Pratchett invited his readers on an mis-adventure of magic, magic,
and more magic! This book, is called Sourcery (No, I have not
misspelled Sorcery, this book IS called Sourcery). This is one
of the earlier Discworld books, and like The Color of Magic
and The Light Fantastic, Sourcery is a light, and fun
parody of the sword and sorcery genre.
Synopsis:
Once upon a time, A and B entered a profound discussion about the truth to everything. Their discussion became the turning point for the lives of all sentient species in existence. Below is a record for their mind-blowing exchange of dialogues:
A: “They say, like father, like son.”
B: “Ok, but who is “they”? Who
said this?”
A: “Ah ha, now you are thinking
critically and asking the right question. Never let the search for
truth end, abruptly, at an assumption. Instead, one should trace BACK
to the source, use the first principle, and always ask “where did this
come from?”.
B” “Hmm, by your own admission, we
should never settle an answer on an assumption; this should also apply
to the epistemic method you have outlined here, right? So tell me,
why do you assume that “going backward”, is the only way to find
the source? What if, we can also find the source by going forward?”
A: “All right, you got me there.
Inconsistencies are plaguing my epistemology. I admit defeat! Come to think of it, you may be onto something there when you suggested, that perhaps
we can also locate the source by going forward.”
Continue....
A: “In a galaxy not so far
away, there is this place called Discworld. As its name suggests,
this world is as flat as a disc (a scientifically proven fact). On
Discworld, magic is a reality. Now, some people are going to ask, what is the source, the ground, for the existence of Discworld's magic? It's a bit complicated. Basically, the source of
Discworld's magic can be found by the reversing the first principle. In
other words, the answer to the question about the source, does not
lie always in regression, but sometimes, in progression.”
Continue...
A: “Once upon a time, an eighth son gave birth to an eighth son, who became a wizard. That wizard went on and had seven sons. When he had the eighth son (that is a wizard squared, mind you!), the son became a sourcerer – the source of magic. This is known as the theory of sourcery. By the way, this is all mathematics, really.”
Continue...
A: “Furthermore, the theory of
sourcerry is supported by an irrefutable evidence, because the
sourcerer went on and almost destroyed the Disc, an event witnessed
by many. A very nice gentleman called Terry Pratchett recorded this
history in a book that he wrote, it is called Sourcerry.
Actually, why don't you go and read it?”
My thoughts on this book:
In my opinion, Terry Pratchett was the
best satirist since Jonathan Swift. However, if you are like me, who
have read the latter installments in Discworld and then coming
back to read his earlier works, then one cannot help but notice, that
in a book such as Sourcery, Sir Terry's prowess as a satirist
was not yet evident. In fact, I would say that in Sourcery,
the 5th installment in Discworld, Sir Terry had yet
to scratch the surface of what he was going to do with this series
latter on, one that would go on and become a most powerful satirist
fantasy series beloved by millions of readers.
In other words, like the earlier
stories featuring the cowardly wizard Rincewind, Sourcery is a
straight parody of the Sword and Sorcery genre. In this book, Terry
Pratchett poked fun at the fantasy literature by parodying the
genre's tropes. In Sourcery, Sir Terry cast his story with a
pool of eccentric, but vibrant characters; an inept wizard, a skinny
barbarian hero who consults a manual before he acts, a damsel who is
actually an ass-kicking barbarian warrior, and a sentient luggage who
walks on hundreds of little legs. With colorful, and picturesque
portrayals Terry Pratchett depicted these characters. Every one of them
grows into memorable characters. In Sourcery,
Terry Pratchett showed the readers, why he was among the best authors
when it came to writing a character and describing things. This is
especially evident from his characterization of the luggage, who is
by far, my favorite character in this book. As an example, in this
book there is a scene where the luggage fell in love with the alleged
damsel. It walked alongside her protectively, but was kicked aside.
It then turned around with a shocked and a hurtful “look” on it.
Ok, the luggage doesn't have a face, and it doesn't speak, so how did
Sir Terry communicate the luggage's shock and hurt over its
unrequited love? Read the book, and I think you will come to
appreciate the genius of Terry Pratchett's writing as much as I do.
One cannot help but feel, that reading
some Discworld novels is a bit like watching Monty Python
movies. Sir Terry's literary works can be very random at times, and
some Discworld novels, some books more than the others, have
pieces that appear randomly without being a part of the story. For an
example, I think The Color of Magic may confuse a new comer to
the Disc. Sourcery, the first 2/3 of it at least, on the other
hand, tells its story in a manner more cohesive than in The Color
of Magic and The Light Fantastic. However, the last 50
pages in this book became a bit blurry for me, I struggled to make
sense of the ending, because as this novel moved closer and closer to
its end, too many random things were popping up and I couldn't
understand how it fitted into the story. This, is my main criticism
about this book.
Despite coming out of Rincewind's third
adventure and being slightly dazed by its ending, I had a fun time
reading Sourcery. I love the characters in this book, and the
story put a smile on my face. As I mentioned earlier, Sourcery
is an early work in the series, and it had yet to scratch the surface
of Discworld. But it is a humorous novel nevertheless, and it
also serves as an excellent introduction to the series. I will
recommend this novel, but one should read this book after The
Color of Magic and The Light Fantastic.
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