Wyrd Sisters - Terry Pratchett > Reviews > The Wyrd Sisters At A Glance

Author's product rating:   

Would you listen to it again?	Yes
Story	Good
Characters	Outstanding
Listenability	Once you start it, you won't be able to switch it off!
How does it compare to similar audio books?	Excellent
How does it compare to audio works by the same author?	Excellent

Advantages:	Uses a great feel of magic and humour to create atmosphere
Disadvantages:	If you haven't read Macbeth, some humour may not be understood

Recommend to potential buyers:

yes

Full review

Stubbly (most probably), wart-filled faces (especially those noses, they're witches, right?), black boots that scream authority, nightmare black robes that blend with the night, and a simple-black pointy hat - a hat is a must for a witch?
These "Wyrd Sisters" don't exactly set off on a journey, the journey comes to them, like most things do for witches, who are said to be powerful with wicked authority but righteous in their rites.

The Wyrd Sisters are made up of 3 witches:
Nanny Ogg: A fun loving witch who joins in with a good jig now and then, and doesn't really do much - she has countless daughters-in-law to do everything for her. Nanny Ogg tends to be quite free-spirited and go against some traditional wiccan rules, especially if it means getting home in time for a nice cuppa.

Granny Weatherwax: Much recognized as the leader of the group, and you can see why from her stone-cold voice, her see-through stare and her imperious posture that dooms over you like a falling cliff - that you really should get out the way of. Granny Weatherwax likes to do things proper, as she would say, and really can't be doing with any of this modern mumbo-jumbo.
Granny Weatherwax is a powerful character who with one snap of her fingers can send you jumping - by your own wanting - off the rim of the Discworld itself. The third and final character is..
Magrat: That's right, Magrat, not Margaret.. don't be mistaken. Magrat is a rather young which, which just a small, teensy-wincey obsession with an ancient witch, and some of her very successful love spells.. Magrat develops a transparent love for the Fool, who works up at the castle with that new king.. he's said to have killed the old king?

-- Introduction --
This book is based around Shakespeare's Macbeth. It is linked through the fact of firstly, and obviously, the 3 witches.. the "Wyrd Sisters" and with the start of the book, we see the Duke, due to pressurizing orders from his wife, killing the King, who has been oh-so-good to the duke. The King remains in the castle though, haunting its corridors and driving the Duke - the king now, of course, to insanity.

-- General Plot -- (And oh, what a good one this is..)
Upon finding the King dead, one of the palace workers take his son, who is but a baby at this point, with his rightful crown, and takes him to safety. The nearest safety in this point were the 3 witches, the Wyrd Sisters - it's not exactly his fault if he drops dead, right? The Wyrd Sisters are all compelled by the consuming mysteriosity of the situation, and the powerful glow of attraction coming from the crown. The 3 witches decide to hand the baby over to a performing company who live on the road, traveling from town to town, showing their performances to the villagers, and it seems tomatoes - the stains of rotten tomatoes are really hard to get out of your clothes when they hit you with such force.

The crown, however, is hidden oh-so-conveniently in the trunk of props: the baby, when the time was right, would find it the witches knew. Due to this, the baby grew up not really knowing where to call home, seeing as he didn't know his past or where he had come from.
From here, the book generally skips a bit - thanks to the efforts of Granny Weatherwax and her defiant touch on Time - approximately 14 or so years into the future - a good age for a boy, or man, rather.. to become king.

Little does Tomjon - the boy that was once a baby - know that his destiny is about to unravel. Due to the combined efforts of King Verence - his oh-so transparent father (it's not his fault if he's dead) - and the 3 witches, who attempt to drive the evil Duke and the unbelievably evil duchess to insanity. And show the kingdom the true.. and only?.. heir to the throne. The only problem is, Tomjon doesn't want to be king, he wants to continue acting with his fellow peers he has grown so attached too. At this point, Magrat looks at the Fool, and then at Tomjon, and notices an uncanny resemblance and a spark of suggestion comes to mind, involving the King, the Queen, and someone else on the side..

-- My Opinions & The Good Bits --
This book is amazingly funny, with so many humorous alterations of Macbeth (my favourite thing about the book) and for no wanting of a better example..
" 'All hail wossname,' she said under her breath, 'who shall be king here, after.' "
The attitudes of the characters - the way the witches are so used to having everything wrapped around their wrinkly pinky (except for Magrat, she's still a few years to go before her pinky is wrinkly) and then meet a challenge upon finding the Duchess, as she has no humanity at all. The witches find this highly perturbing - and we, however, find it funny.

This is one of the books you don't jump at to read, but once you are reading it, you can't remove your eyes from its pages. I would recommend this highly to any lovers of Shakespeare (Mainly Macbeth, obviously) or any current fans of Terry Pratchett, and anyone who likes a bit of "magick" and humor.

-- Prices! --
If you're not too bothered about it being shop-bought, you can often find some great deals on Amazon or eBay for as little as ?3 (even if they haven't been read). Though my personal favourite way of buying Terry Pratchett is Waterstones - there is a permanent 3 for 2 offer on many books, including Terry Pratchett. This is the method I always use and buy the books 3 at a time in the order they go in (which can be found at the front of any Discworld novel). I don't feel any doubt in buying 3 at a time as I know every new Discworld novel takes me into another world - though always being the Discworld - and never lets me down.