This is the continuation of the Disc World series, but it involves no one from the first couple books. So no Rincewind, Twoflower, or Luggage. But it still has all of the humor, sarcasm and flat out silliness that makes this such a great series.
Okay, so in the Disc World boys can grow up to become wizards, but girls can only become witches. Meaning they cannot go to the wizard school and basically have access to earthen magic. Think plants, herbs and such. This is how it will always be, and how it has always been. And it would have stayed that way except a wizard named Drum Billet made a colossal mistake. When he was seeking out an eighth son of an eighth son (known to make good wizards) and laid his hand upon the child he only realized after passing on his wizards staff that he had not found an eighth son of an eighth son, he had found an eighth daughter. What follows is a hilarious quest following young Esk's attempts to get into the wizard's school.
Equal Rites certainly lives up to its play on words. This book is about getting equal rights for everyone. It goes own to trounce and disprove the words "This is how it has always been, and so that is how it should always be". To many times we hear that in everyday life a refusal to accept change. But as Equal Rites shows change doesn't have to be a bad thing, in fact it can be the start of best way.
While I was dismayed to see that none of the previous characters made an appearance, this was still an excellent book. After finishing it I did some checking to see if this was a branch off series, but it looks like this is just a one and done. My research also has shown that Rincewind wont be back till the fifth book. It appears Death gets his own book next.
