Equal Rites: A Discworld Novel: 3

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At the university, the librarian seems the only one smart enough to see Esk and see her for what she is - and to be kind to her (granted, only after she gave him bananas but still). To date there are a total of 36 books in the Discworld series, of which four (so far) are written for children. Together they develop a new kind of magic, based on the notion that the greatest power is the ability not to use all the others. In one of Canadian author Eric Nicol's short stories, The White Knight, he plays with the concept of the pure good knight becoming embroiled in battle after battle until he loses his goodness and becomes the villain (black knight) progressing through stages of greyness along the way.

Now his chauvinistic colleagues are forced to deal with a young girl who has all the qualifications to join their all-male profession.Bel-Shamharoth is an Elder God of the Discworld first introduced in 'The Sending of Eight' in The Colour of Magic. There's nothing wrong with it, mind you, but it was still very early on in Pratchett's career, and it doesn't have the smoothness of his later work. The setup, in other words, sounds like a very typical Tamora Pierce-style adventure, where our spunky heroine infiltrates a traditionally male space and dominates at everything.

This exploration of what kinds of magic women can and can’t do reminded me of the debate in modern Judaism about whether women should be able to perform mitzvot (commandments) from which they are traditionally considered ‘exempt’ (that is, only men are allowed to perform them).Neil Gaiman is the author of the acclaimed The Sandman comics series, as well as Terry's co-author on Good Omens. Pratchett was a feminist and there is no better way than the contrast between the first novels around the incompetent, and to a certain extent evil, Rincewind, and the selfless and clever witches to show and demonstrate mens´ hairy deficits and how he is rolling.