#Review: Wyrd Sisters

Wyrd Sisters by Terry Pratchett

The murder of the King of Lancre is the opening for this Pratchett offering and sets the scene for the tyranny and intrigue to follow. Pratchett playfully refigures the plot of Macbeth to give us the story of how a country ruled by a tyrant chooses to rebel. It’s not pretty, with the usual majority blaming whomever the ‘media’ decides is to blame. And for this particular scenario, the witches come under the cosh.

Naturally the witches are forced to fight back in the manner which only a Pratchett creation can. As usual, he is able to highlight the flaws in society and how people turn on each other at the slightest provocation. The book also focuses on feelings of frustration due to powerlessness in a given situation. How well I know that particular emotion.

The book also emphasises how words can have a power which we dismiss too easily. But that very power affects more than one person and has a terrifying domino effect. I was amused by the segments showing a playwright wrestling with inspiration and lost count of the number of literary references tweaked in Pratchett’s inimitable way.

But what stayed with me the most was the message that in order to be happy we have to do that one thing we most enjoy. I heartily concur.

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