Sign in with Facebook
Trish's Reviews > Carpe Jugulum
Carpe Jugulum (Discworld, #23)
by
by
This 23rd Discworld novel is the last of the witches books before the appearance of Tiffany. It's kind of like a goodbye to the trio of Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and (first) Magrat (and in the meantime) Agnes Nitt / Perdita.
As is known from the previous books, Magrat has left the coven and married the King of Lancre. Now, she has also given birth to a daughter. However, as in classical fairy tales, the naming ceremony goes ... well, slightly wrong.
The main problem is the guest list for the naming ceremony of the little princess. You see, Verence is not only just a symbolic king as is tradition in Lancre, he also very much believes in reforming the place, amongst other things by introducing cooperation and extending a hand in friendship to all kinds of creatures. Unfortunately, just because he's nice doesn't mean all others are as well. Thus, he invitesvampires vampyres from Überwald and we all know what happens when you invite vampires vampyres in, no matter how modern and progressive they pretend to be.
In the middle of the ensuing chaos is another guest: The Quite Reverend Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om Oats, a priest of the god Om (who is remarkably similar to the Christian god). While this kind of priest loved to burn "infidels" in the past, he's a modern version and Nanny soon discovers that he's not what she feared him to be.
There are a lot of great secondary characters such as Igor and his dog (introduced in one of my status updates), Lancre's chief bird wrangler
and the finally introduced Nac Mac Feegles who were as glorious as I had been promised!
What do you do when the odds are not in your favour,vampires vampyres are trying to take over the kingdom, and you're tired as well as outmatched and people don't seem to value you very much?
You do right by them, of course. And boy, does Granny ever!
I must say that this was not only a funny romp full of action and nice bends in the road, it was also a great way of ending the witches as we've come to know them. Like handing over the torch though I'm not sure the author was aware at the time of writing.
I have always loved Granny, from the first book she was in, and therefore positively dance whenever she's in a story, however briefly, and to see her teaching her enemies as much as her ... not-enemies ... what is what, is simply glorious. Not that I don't value Nanny or Greebo, but it wouldn't be as fantastic an adventure without Granny (and no, the young witches both can't hold a candle to the two old ones).
Anyway, apart from numerous clever puns and turns of phrases that Pratchett has become famous for, the central theme in this book is faith. And religion. Yes, there is a difference. Terry Pratchett himself was an atheist but the kind that didn't mind believers so long as they didn't mind him. With this book he shows that he had a very entertaining and almost gentle way of addressing any and all issues he has had with God and His followers, making his points not only solid in argument but the delivery of said points also very agreeable and downright charming.
A wonderful addition to the series and I hope the future books about witches will be just as great.
As is known from the previous books, Magrat has left the coven and married the King of Lancre. Now, she has also given birth to a daughter. However, as in classical fairy tales, the naming ceremony goes ... well, slightly wrong.
The main problem is the guest list for the naming ceremony of the little princess. You see, Verence is not only just a symbolic king as is tradition in Lancre, he also very much believes in reforming the place, amongst other things by introducing cooperation and extending a hand in friendship to all kinds of creatures. Unfortunately, just because he's nice doesn't mean all others are as well. Thus, he invites
In the middle of the ensuing chaos is another guest: The Quite Reverend Mightily-Praiseworthy-Are-Ye-Who-Exalteth-Om Oats, a priest of the god Om (who is remarkably similar to the Christian god). While this kind of priest loved to burn "infidels" in the past, he's a modern version and Nanny soon discovers that he's not what she feared him to be.
There are a lot of great secondary characters such as Igor and his dog (introduced in one of my status updates), Lancre's chief bird wrangler
and the finally introduced Nac Mac Feegles who were as glorious as I had been promised!
What do you do when the odds are not in your favour,
You do right by them, of course. And boy, does Granny ever!
I must say that this was not only a funny romp full of action and nice bends in the road, it was also a great way of ending the witches as we've come to know them. Like handing over the torch though I'm not sure the author was aware at the time of writing.
I have always loved Granny, from the first book she was in, and therefore positively dance whenever she's in a story, however briefly, and to see her teaching her enemies as much as her ... not-enemies ... what is what, is simply glorious. Not that I don't value Nanny or Greebo, but it wouldn't be as fantastic an adventure without Granny (and no, the young witches both can't hold a candle to the two old ones).
Anyway, apart from numerous clever puns and turns of phrases that Pratchett has become famous for, the central theme in this book is faith. And religion. Yes, there is a difference. Terry Pratchett himself was an atheist but the kind that didn't mind believers so long as they didn't mind him. With this book he shows that he had a very entertaining and almost gentle way of addressing any and all issues he has had with God and His followers, making his points not only solid in argument but the delivery of said points also very agreeable and downright charming.
A wonderful addition to the series and I hope the future books about witches will be just as great.
Sign into Goodreads to see if any of your friends have read
Carpe Jugulum.
Sign In »
Quotes Trish Liked
“Granny was an old-fashioned witch. She didn’t do good for people, she did right by them.”
― Carpe Jugulum
― Carpe Jugulum
“She was not, herself, hugely in favor of motherhood in general. Obviously it was necessary, but it wasn't exactly difficult. Even cats managed it. But women acted as if they'd been given a medal that entitled them to boss people around. It was as if, just because they'd got the label which said "mother", everyone else got a tiny part of the label that said "child"...”
― Carpe Jugulum
― Carpe Jugulum
“The smug mask of virtue triumphant could be almost as horrible as the face of wickedness revealed.”
― Carpe Jugulum
― Carpe Jugulum
“Carpe Jugulum," read Agnes aloud. "That's... well, Carpe Diem is 'Sieze the Day,' so this means-"
"Go for the throat”
― Carpe Jugulum
"Go for the throat”
― Carpe Jugulum
“Oh, we're always all right. You remember that. We happen to other people.
-Nanny Ogg”
― Carpe Jugulum
-Nanny Ogg”
― Carpe Jugulum
“I mean, it's one thing saying you've got the best god, but sayin' it's the only real one is a bit of a cheek, in my opinion. I know where I can find at least two any day of the week. And they say everyone starts out bad and only gets good by believin' in Om, which is frankly damn nonsense.”
― Carpe Jugulum
― Carpe Jugulum
“Vargo climbed in, twisted and turned a few times to get comfortable on the pillow, then pulled the lid down and latched it.
As the eye of narrative drew back from the coffin on its stand, two things happened. One happened comparatively slowly, and this was Vargo's realization that he never recalled the coffin having a pillow before.
The other was Greebo deciding that he was as mad as hell and wasn't going to take it any more. He'd been shaken around in the wheely thing and then sat on by Nanny, and he was angry about that because he knew, in a dim, animal way, that scratching Nanny might be the single most stupid thing he could do in the whole world, since no one else was prepared to feed him. This hadn't helped his temper.
Then he'd encountered a dog, which had tried to lick him. He'd scratched and bitten it a few times, but this had had no effect apart from encouraging it to try to be more friendly.
He'd finally found a comfy resting place and had curled up into a ball, and now someone was using him as a cushion-
There wasn't a great deal of noise. The coffin rocked a few times, and then pivoted around.”
― Carpe Jugulum
As the eye of narrative drew back from the coffin on its stand, two things happened. One happened comparatively slowly, and this was Vargo's realization that he never recalled the coffin having a pillow before.
The other was Greebo deciding that he was as mad as hell and wasn't going to take it any more. He'd been shaken around in the wheely thing and then sat on by Nanny, and he was angry about that because he knew, in a dim, animal way, that scratching Nanny might be the single most stupid thing he could do in the whole world, since no one else was prepared to feed him. This hadn't helped his temper.
Then he'd encountered a dog, which had tried to lick him. He'd scratched and bitten it a few times, but this had had no effect apart from encouraging it to try to be more friendly.
He'd finally found a comfy resting place and had curled up into a ball, and now someone was using him as a cushion-
There wasn't a great deal of noise. The coffin rocked a few times, and then pivoted around.”
― Carpe Jugulum
“Repent!’” Nanny Ogg went on. “Repent? Me? Cheek! I can’t start repenting at my time of life. I’d never get any work done. Anyway,” she added, “I ain’t sorry for most of it.”
― Carpe Jugulum
― Carpe Jugulum
“People were good at imagining hells, and some they occupied while they were alive.”
― Carpe Jugulum
― Carpe Jugulum
“The people of Lancre wouldn’t dream of living in anything other than a monarchy. They’d done so for thousands of years and knew that it worked. But they’d also found that it didn’t do to pay too much attention to what the King wanted, because there was bound to be another king along in forty years or so and he’d be certain to want something different and so they’d have gone to all that trouble for nothing. In the meantime, his job as they saw it was to mostly stay in the palace, practise the waving, have enough sense to face the right way on coins and let them get on with the ploughing, sowing, growing and harvesting. It was, as they saw it, a social contract. They did what they always did, and he let them.”
― Carpe Jugulum
― Carpe Jugulum
“Three witches?” said Granny. “Well, no reason why not. The maiden, the mother and the—” “Go carefully,” Nanny Ogg warned.”
― Carpe Jugulum
― Carpe Jugulum
“And that’s what your holy men discuss, is it?” “Not usually. There is a very interesting debate raging at the moment about the nature of sin, for example.” “And what do they think? Against it, are they?” “It’s not as simple as that. It’s not a black and white issue. There are so many shades of gray.” “Nope.” “Pardon?” “There’s no grays, only white that’s got grubby. I’m surprised you don’t know that. And sin, young man, is when you treat people as things. Including yourself. That’s what sin is.” “It’s a lot more complicated than that—” “No. It ain’t. When people say things are a lot more complicated than that, they means they’re getting worried that they won’t like the truth. People as things, that’s where it starts.”
― Carpe Jugulum
― Carpe Jugulum
Reading Progress
"
"Comments Showing 1-2 of 2 (2 new)
date
newest »
newest »
message 1:
by
Bradley
(new)
-
rated it 5 stars
Apr 24, 2019 01:21PM
Glad you loved! :)
reply
|
flag
I was pretty sure I would - it's Pratchett, it's Discworld AND it's the witches. But I LOVED it. :)
