"Equal Rites" by Terry Pratchett

Plot summary: A dying wizard leaves his staff to an eighth son of an eighth son (which father is not himself an eighth son of an eighth son, so there's no sourcery going on here), except that eighth son is a daughter instead. Granny Weatherwax sort of takes said daughter under her (supremely grumpy) wing, then sends her off to the Unseen University to become a wizard. And plot ensues.

This is the second-to-last Discworld book in my reading of them. (The last one is, fittingly, The Last Hero, which our library doesn't have.) So if anyone was tired of my constant Discworld reviews, I have good news: this is the last one until I manage to track down a copy of The Last Hero.

It's only Granny Weatherwax who shows up in this one, not the full trio (either of the full trios). Despite this, I still class it as a Witches book (rather than an Unseen University book) because it mostly focuses on Weatherwax, not the University.

We have finally learned, mostly, what is up with the Dungeon Dimensions. They're inhabited by eldritch horrors that want to eat reality because they think it'll make them real, despite the fact that eating reality wouldn't help them one bit. And magic helps them exist more fully. Or something.

This book is also the first mention of the Necrotelicomnicon (phone book of the dead), also known as the Liber Paginarum Fulvarum (Book of Yellow Pages). I still find its existence hilarious. (Actually, I think the first mention of the Necrotelicomnicon was in one of the short stories in A Blink of the Screen, but that wasn't a Discworld story.)

Were this a videogame, I'd rate it: T15+ for crude humor. I don't seem to recall that much swearing.

4 stars.

Favorite lines:

    If you invited a hedge wizard to your party he would spend half the evening talking to your potted plant. And he would spend the other half listening.

    Page 143.

    The great doors of Unseen University are made of octiron, a metal so unstable that it can only exist in a universe saturated with raw magic. They are impregnable to all force save magic; no force, no battering ram, no army can breach them.

    Which is why most ordinary visitors to the University use the back door, which is made of perfectly normal wood and doesn't go around terrorizing people, or even stand still terrorizing people. It had a proper knocker and everything.

    Pages 150-151.

(Endnote: The eighth daughter, Eskarina Smith, |also shows up in The Shepherd's Crown. Which probably would have been a "WHOA REALLY?" moment for me had my hold on Equal Rites actually delivered it in a reasonable amount of time, instead of three months after I put it on hold.| But eh, at least I got the one with the cool cover.)