Maskerade

Terry Pratchett

Average Rating 7/10 (1 Review)

The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork…

.…a huge, rambling building, where masked figures and hooded shadows do wicked deeds in the wings…

…where dying the death on stage is a little bit more than just a metaphor…

…where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by an evil mastermind in a hideously deformed evening dress…

Where…

…there's a couple of old ladies in pointy hats eating peanuts in the gods and looking up at the big chandelier and saying things like: 'There's an accident waiting to happen if ever I saw one.'

Yes… Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, the Discworld's greatest witches, are back for an innocent night out at the opera. So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening's entertainment with murders you can really hum...)

Review by Chrissi (300601) Rating (7/10)

Review by Chrissi
Rating 7/10
Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg are the only two witches of the group, now that Magrat has gone to the castle to be Queen. The only young girl of any discernible talent is Agnes Nitt, who rebels at the thought of spending years to learn how to be a witch, or at least, rebels at the thought of learning witchcraft from the likes of Granny and Nanny.

Agnes decides to go to Ankh Morpork, to see what the world has to offer and becomes involved with the Opera House. Unfortunately they want her voice but with someone else's body.

The requisite ghost haunts the opera house, and acts as a kind of good luck mascot up until the point where he seems to be killing people. Agnes finds herself applying common sense to the killings and finds herself a great deal more able to sort out the mess than the watch.

The witches travel to Ankh Morpork ostensibly in order to help Agnes but the reason that they travel is that they were asked not to. Nanny's recipe book that she sent away to be published is found to be much more profitable than she was ever paid for and this leads the witches to enter high society to secretly investigate the murders.

I like the witches, and this sees them investigating strange happenings with the aid of Greebo, sometimes in human form, sometimes in cat form, but always Greebo. His human form is described beautifully, you can picture him, with his eye patch and leer, and you can imagine what well-bred ladies would think of him, too.
Chrissi (30th June 2001)