Equal Rites - Terry Pratchett

Equal Rites is the 3rd book of the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett (don't worry you can read the book even in random). Discworld being "a flat world balanced on the backs of four elephants which are in turn standing on the back of a giant turtle, the Great A'Tuin".

The story starts with a dying wizard Drum Billet wandering in a small town called "Bad Ass", with the intent of passing his staff on a successor. Which at that time he believes as the "eighth son of an eighth son" who is about to be born.

Believing the new born child is a boy, it was learned later by Drum Billet that it was indeed a female child, the mistake cannot be corrected anymore as the staff was already passed into her.

And in Discworld, a female wizard is completely non existent.

As the female wizard grew up to become a nine year old Esk (full name Eskarina Smith), it was obvious that she possesses uncontrollable powers, unaware of all her powers and the effect that it may to people around her. Local witch Granny Weatherwax decided she should keep eye on the young girl. At first Granny tries to persuade her from being a wizard instead offers to help her become a witch.

Eventually, Granny Weatherwax decided that if Esk would become a wizard and practice her powers, she should learn doing so by enrolling her into the school of the Wizards, which is at the so called "Unseen University" in Ankh-Morpork.

Knowing that the Unseen University don't accept female students, mainly because it is against their lore that women can become wizards, indeed it will be quite a challenge for both Granny Weatherwax and Esk to prove that there is indeed a room in Discworld for a female wizard.

With Terry Pratchett describing keenly a magical world full of entertaining characters that keeps popping in along Esk's journey with Granny Weatherwax, it was said that Pratchett had written the concept or idea of "Wizard School" ten years at least, earlier than JK Rowling, will make readers wonder maybe Terry Pratchett's Discworld series really lay the foundation for Rowling's own Harry Potter series.

Well, i did enjoy this book. Not really my kind of genre, i'm kind of new to the fantasy world ( hell i haven't even read Harry Potter, just saw the movies ), And i'm sure that i will read more Terry Pratchett novels in the future, his humor is really something, had me laughing a handful of times while reading this book. How i wish i had my hands on these kinds of books when i was so much younger. But thankfully, better late than never i'm glad that i had discovered it now.