Maskerade
The story begins with Agnes Nitt leaving Lancre to seek a career at the Opera House in Ankh-Morpork. When Granny Weatherwax realizes Nanny Ogg has written an immensely popular cookbook but has not been paid by the publisher, the witches also leave for Ankh-Morpork to collect the money, as well as to attempt to recruit Agnes into their coven, to replace Magrat Garlick who left the coven when she became Queen of Lancre (in Lords and Ladies). This has the side benefit of distracting Granny from becoming obsessive and self-centered, or so Nanny believes to her great relief. Agnes Nitt is chosen as a member of the chorus, where she meets Christine, a more popular but less talented girl. The Opera House Ghost, who has long haunted the opera house without much incident, begins to commit seemingly random murders staged as "accidents", and also requests that Christine be given lead roles in several upcoming productions. Due to her incredibly powerful and versatile voice, Agnes is asked to sing the parts from the background, unbeknownst to Christine or the audience. Having discovered the problems at the opera house and also having coerced the publisher to pay Nanny richly for her book, the witches investigate the mystery, with Granny posing as a rich patron, and Nanny insinuating herself into the opera house staff. Agnes unmasks Walter Plinge, the janitor, as the ghost, though as he is seemingly harmless, the others are unconvinced.
Stats for nerds
3recommend
4mentions
4people
2018–2022years
75% recommend25% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- Satire/comedy helps me cope with the world. For me, his stories are a nice balance of story, pragmatism, stoicism, fantasy, whimsy, and most of all satire. I particularly love his dialog. I have been searching (in vain) for whimsical/clean satire that helps me cope since Pratchett’s passing.
I second the suggestion to give one a go. Pratchett is not for everyone though. I encouraged my office mate to read Going Postal; he liked it so so, but declined to read another. My flight instructor liked small gods at first, but then didn’t; he wanted to dissect it too literally. I think it bothered him that it didn’t validate his view point as an atheist, instead flirting with many of Pratchett’s common satire of organized religions. My son loved every Sam Vimes book, but didn’t care as much for the others. A good friend tried one, was ok with it, and then read Hogfather, after which he said “give me every one of these that has Death in it.” My daughters really enjoyed Tiffany Aching, I had read Maskerade earlier to them, but only when they did finish Tiffany Aching did they really want more of the witches. My opera trained daughter now counts Maskerade as one of her favorites. As others have pointed out, his earlier works are more whimsical (think Monty Python or Hitchhikers Guide). Near the end of his life, Raising Steam was sadly predictable in its plot as a “tying things up” song. Me personally, I didn’t care for the Rincewind novels, until I watched one of the BBC adaptations, the one with Jeremy Irons, and now I even like the Rincewind/Twoflower/Cohan books. My wife thinks they are all eye rollingly silly and wonders why we get so excited about them.
Which is meant to be a long winded way of illustrating that you may have to poke around a little to find the satire and/or personalities that really resonate with you.
If you’re looking for something that has the closest connection with programmer geek culture, then I suspect Going Postal with its satire on who controls the flow of information (e.g. the web), it’s “code shifters” and the “Smoking GNU”.
- I've always felt he was inconsistently great.
E.g. in Reaper Men, I really liked the story of Death & Miss Flitworth. But the fresh starters in the mall were garbage.
Going Postal is surely among his best, but IMHO the small part with the wizards should have been left out.
The fifth elephant was a story that grew on me. I started out finding it Meh, but after a reread I found it rather good.
The witches were also something that got better as it evolved. Equal rites wasn't that good, but Maskerade was a lot better!!!!! I'd say 'The sea and the little fish' would be my prefered witch story, but it isn't even a book.
For the best, I'd go with Night Watch.
- Since no one has mentioned it so far, I recommend the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett. This year, I finished (numbers in Discworld order, annotated by the series):
9. Eric [Rincewind]
10. Moving Pictures [Independent]
12. Witches Abroad [Witches]
18. Maskerade [Witches]
19. Feet of clay [The City Watch]
23. Carpe Jugulum [Witches]
32. A Hat Full of Sky [Tiffany Aching]
37. Unseen Academicals [Wizards]
38. I Shall Wear Midnight [Tiffany Aching]
Brilliant series, highly recommended. Whenever I feel down, I re-read one of the Witches series - I spot something I never noticed before - an immediate mood-booster!
- Interestingly I've heard this mask meme before - but from a different fantasy author, Terry Pratchett, in Maskerade. I wonder if there's a common origin. Either way it's a lovely story and empowering for some who hear it.
