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Short story series more than a novel; with a very special "american epic" writing, genius worldbuilding and storytelling

I have a feeling that most of the sketches in this book could have been turned into proper novels by a genius Roger Zelazny was.

In regards to the ideas I've picked up on...

A big one was how arbitrary history is and how stupid is revisionism. I wish people would internalise that idea more.

On arbitrarity of revisionism:

A question has just occurred to me,” Dilvish shouted, “with respect to identification. With these troops and gods moving about the countryside, how does one distinguish a statue of Cabolus from one of Salbacus?”

“Cabolus has his right hand upraised!” cried the short priest, whacking the other upon the shoulder.

“Should you change your mind,” Izim called out, tripping the other, “Salbacus has his left hand upraised.”

On the real issues that drive revisionists:

“Now you have the belt back, why not just call things off and go home?”

The priest quirked an eyebrow. “Surely you jest,” he said. “They started this. They need a lesson. It’s our turn, anyway. They did it to us within my lifetime. And besides, the troops are already in the field. Can’t send them home at this point without some action or there’d be trouble. No, that’s the long and short of it. Some of them should be arriving here shortly, in fact. You can accompany our band.

It will be an honor to go with Cabolus—and you’ll come in for a share of the spoils.”

Dilvish's stoicism plays into this arbitrarity in almost a comical fashion. Picking the "right side" only to realise that the right side shall continue their crusade regardless of the fact that the declared grievance was settled in their favour.

There are some cute aspects to worldbuilding, for instance, toponym Princeaton as well as one of the character referring to a very Amberian concepts of "many worlds", suggests that the events of the book may be happening in a parallel-world America (how colonialist of Zelazny to assume that Princeton is a thing in all the Americas).

And of course, Zelazny's pulpy humour amidst a stylised classical epic always gets me:

“Not a bad final speech,” Black observed. “It had all of the classical elements—the threat, the curse, the proper bravado, the invocation of the deity—”

“Great,” Dilvish acknowledged. “But if you’ll save the literary criticism for later, I’d like some practical advice: Did you just drive off an invisible creature of sufficient solidity to devour Fly?”

Almost a perfect book, the fractured nature of it just shows how hard Zelazny had to hustle to push the short stories into various magazine instead of writing novels like more privileged authors.

I want to emphasise that I’d probably not give this such a high rating if that was merely a book, and perhaps that’s the reason why people rate it so low.

But it is a piece that was made specifically to be illustrated and published with illustrations! Which is magnificent even for a non-discworlder with no relation to the characters described. Also, a very welcome and missed by many homage to the simpler times of Colour of Magic and Light Fantastic, just done way better than both.

The cast is packed and diverse and it’s always a pleasure to see Patrician do some fieldwork. Not that I like him as a person or anyone who works for him.

Now to quotes. There are some I liked, but if I had to pick one, I’d pick the hook that the author “told” in the beginning to “show” it later. Kind of like the candy from the “Lords and Ladies”, but in reverse.

"Men," he said, settling for one that was undoubtedly correct, "it falls to me to congratulate you on... on..."

He hesitated. Lord Vetinari was not a man who delighted in the technical. There were two cultures, as far as he was concerned. One was the real one, the other was occupied by people who liked machinery and ate pizza at unreasonable hours.

"... on being the first people to leave the Disc with the resolute intention of returning to it"

—-

"Do not pull the lever marked 'Troba'!" snapped Lord Vetinari, leaning forward.

[..]

"Er... there's a lot of clicking and whirring..." he reported. "And... some of the levers are moving by themselves... now the wings are unfolding... we're sort of flying in a straight line, at least... quite gently, really..."

"Good. I suggest you apply yourself to waking up Leonard," said the Patrician. He turned and nodded at Ponder. "You yourself have not studied the classics, young man? I know Leonard has."

"Well... no, sir."

"Prince Haran was a legendary Klatchian hero who sailed around the world on a ship with a magical tiller," said Lord Vetinari. "It steered the ship while he slept. If I can be of any further help, don't hesitate to ask."

I absolutely adored the interlude where the author conveys the feeling of early morning after a night of creative work and all that comes with it.

It's amazing to be able to feel it as if lived, through straightforward contemporary prose.

Just as everything that Terry Scott Taylor has done, this short story is a rough diamond, with immense amount of love and work put into displaying it in the most captivating environment.

Accompanying music can be found on bandcamp or spotify.

Stand-out quote:

SORRY I HAD TO STOP MID SENTENCE THERE... HAD TO GO SEE A MAN ABOUT A HORSE.

OKAY, WHERE WAS I? I'M LOOKING OUT MY WINDOW AND TRYING TO GATHER MY THOUGHTS, AND NOW MY EYES HAVE FALLEN UPON A FAMILIAR SIGHT; THERE IN THE NEAR DISTANCE AND SURROUNDED BY RELATIVELY LESSER TREES, LOOMS MY OLD FRIEND THE ELM-PROUD, MAJESTIC, AND PROTECTIVE AS HE FAITHFULLY KEEPS WATCH OVER ME AND MY SURROUNDINGS LIKE A FAITHFUL SENTRY [..]

Of exploits of: - daring barbarians on a quest for something that no barbarian has quested before, - information autocrats, manipulating and defusing the protest, - lady Luck, world’s least wizzardly wizzard and… Butterflies.

“We sent the message,” said the visitor. “No one saw us.” [..] “I don’t understand, o lord,” said the visitor, whose name was Two Fire Herb.

“Good.”

“[..] they believe in the Great Wizzard and you want him to come here?”

“Oh, certainly. I have my…people in”—he tried the alien syllables—“Ankh-More-Pork. The one so foolishly called the Great Wizzard does exist. But, I might tell you, he is renowned for being incompetent, cowardly, and spineless. Quite proverbially so. So I think the Red Army should have their leader, don’t you? It will…raise their morale.” He smiled again. “This is politics,” he said.

“The Great Wizard will come. We sent the message, at great personal risk.”

“How will we know when he arrives?”

“If he’s the Great Wizard, we’ll hear about it. And then—”

“Gently Push Over The Forces Of Repression!” they chorused.

Two Fire Herb looked at the rest of the cadre. “Exactly,” he said. “And then, comrades, we must strike at the very heart of the rottenness. We must storm the Winter Palace!”

There was silence from the cadre. Then someone said, “Excuse me, Two Fire Herb, but it is June.”

Disclaimer: you have to read all other witches stories prior to this one to enjoy it the most.

I cried several times reading this. Even aside a masterful narration, full of foresight and meticulous planning, this book is simply too wholesome and romantic in the best way possible.

I liked the wordplay on discussing the traits of elves. While I was learning English, I was always perplexed by the etymology of the word "terrific".

With all the fine details feeding off each other, perhaps my favorite one is the bag of sweets quote from the elf queen:

“There’s no trickery here,” said the Queen. “No silly women with bags of sweets.”

“You noticed that, did you?” said Granny. “Gytha meant well, I expect. Daft old biddy. Mind if I sit down?”

“Of course you may,” said the Queen. “You are an old woman now, after all.”

She nodded to the elves. Granny subsided gratefully on to a rock, her hands still tied behind her.

“That’s the thing about witchcraft,” she said. “It doesn’t exactly keep you young, but you do stay old for longer. Whereas you, of course, do not age,” she added.

“Indeed, we do not.”

“But I suspect you may be capable of being reduced.”

Pritchett has found a way to make witches even more "metal" than they were in the previous books. The portrayal of them riding the brooms forming a wing is absolutely badass. The story starts with an inevitability of an old witch losing and unfolds into an adventure planned out by her in quite some details.

Diverse set of characters, plot twists and wit. My favorite quote is exploring the perception of justice and the willingness to act upon it:

“Let’s throw her off the tower,” said Magrat.

“All right,” said Nanny. “Do it, then.”

Magrat hesitated. “Well,” she said, “when I said let’s throw her off the tower, I didn’t mean me personally throwing her off, I meant that if there was any justice she ought to be thrown off—”

“Then I shouldn’t say any more on that score, if I was you,” said Nanny, kneeling carefully on the crunching shards.