Witches Abroad Book

Hilarious.

This made me think of the 1988 John Landis film starring Eddie Murphy Coming to America. Not that either story are very much similar at all, except that the most charismatic part of each was the mesmerizing interaction between the characters. Just as Eddie Murphy and Arsenio Hall (who each played multiple characters) were the most enjoyable part of that otherwise mediocre film, so too does the dialogue between Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Og, and Magrat Garlick make this 1991 Pratchett Discworld novel so much fun.

In this the twelfth Discworld book, Sir Terry revisits his Witches sub-series that he left in 1988's Wyrd Sisters and to marvelous effect - a fairy godmother has died and so the three must travel to Genua to settle matters. This presents a vehicle whereby Pratchett, comic genius that he is, to explore and have fun with fairy tales and folklore of all sorts.

Like the Shrek films (starting in 2001) the idea of a parody of fairy tales is a fecund field of plenty - and Pratchett has seemingly no end of material from which to draw. An observant reader will see abundant use of Grimm, Disney and even L. Frank Baum.

Like so many of the Discworld books, Pratchett also uses the comic setting of the novel to explore and comment upon various elements of human nature and to administer satire from the playful to the biting.

An uproarious good time.