Lords and Ladies (novel)
ISBN 0-575-05223-6 | | |
Preceded by | Small Gods | |
---|---|---|
Followed by | Men at Arms |
Lords and Ladies is a
Synopsis
Granny and Nanny discover that a group of local girls, led by
At the Dancers, Magrat arrives to confront the Elf Queen at the same time as the people of Lancre, rallied by Shawn and Nanny. But the Elf Queen quickly subdues Magrat with glamour. The captive Granny mentally combats the Elf Queen and releases Magrat from the glamour before succumbing to the Elf Queen's attack, her prone body being covered by the bees from her hive, which have swarmed at the Dancers. When the Elf Queen turns her powers on Magrat, attempting to stop her resistance by dismantling her identity, she exposes the unexpectedly valorous core of Magrat's being – something which Granny had deliberately been stoking, aggravating and provoking all along for just this very outcome. Magrat attacks and subdues the Elf Queen just in time for a projection of the Elf King to arrive and send the Elves back to their world.
Granny appears to be dead, but then Nanny and Magrat learn that she has actually borrowed her bees' hive mind, a feat thought impossible. They break open a window in the castle, where Ridcully has reverently laid Granny's body, enabling the bees to get close enough for her to regain consciousness. Nanny points out to Magrat that Granny's letter to Verence has had a great positive impact on Magrat's life, as well as giving her the strength to fight the Elf Queen. Magrat and Verence are married by Ridcully. Later, Granny and Ridcully make peace with their past and their place in the universe. The growing sense of impending death she had been feeling had been due to the impending deaths of some of her parallel-selves.
Characters
- Granny Weatherwax
- Queen of the Elves
- Mustrum Ridcully
- Nanny Ogg
- Magrat Garlick
- King Verence II
- Shawn Ogg
- Ponder Stibbons
Reception
In 1995, Kirkus Reviews considered the novel "a so-so addition to a mostly hilarious series", but praised the "agreeably wry, self-deprecating quality" of the humour.[2] In 2000, Publishers Weekly found it "uneven", noting that "[o]nly in the last third of the novel does [Pratchett] strike a successful balance among action, imagination, and comedy", and that the fun only begins "once the smiling, sadistic elves actually appear", ultimately concluding that the novel is "unlikely to widen [Pratchett's] readership".[3]
References
- ^ Fantastic Fiction Lords and Ladies (Discworld, book 14) Terry Pratchett Retrieved 2009-05-9
- ^ LORDS AND LADIES, reviewed at Kirkus Reviews; published August 1, 1995; archived online May 10, 2010; retrieved July 9, 2021
- ^ Lords and Ladies, reviewed at Publishers Weekly; published January 3, 2000; retrieved July 9, 2021