Sourcery

infobox Discworld|id=5th novel – 3rd Rincewind story
characters=Rincewind
locations=Ankh-Morpork Klatch
motifs=Wizards and sorcery; Apocalypse
year=1988
publisher=Victor Gollancz
ISBNH=ISBN 0-575-04217-6
ISBNP=ISBN 0-552-13107-5
awards=
notes=

"Sourcery" is the fifth "Discworld" novel by Terry Pratchett, published in 1988. On the Discworld, sourcerers - wizards who are sources of magic – were the main cause of the great mage wars that left areas of the disc uninhabitable. Men born the eighth son of an eighth son are commonly wizards. Since sourcerers are born the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son, wizards are not allowed to marry or have children. The first few pages of the novel deal with a sourcerer's father who cheats death by making a prophecy that Death must honour; the alternative is to risk destroying the Discworld. The rest of the novel deals with the sourcerer's plan to have wizards rule the Discworld, and the efforts of a small group – including Rincewind the Wizard, Nijel the Destroyer and Conina the Hairdresser, daughter of Cohen the Barbarian – to thwart those plans.

There are many references to "geasa" in the text, which are idiosyncratic curses, vows or obligations placed upon a person (usually a hero, such as Cúchulainn in Irish mythology).

Translations

Footnotes

External links

* [http://www.lspace.org/books/apf/sourcery.html Annotations for "Sourcery"]
* [http://www.lspace.org/books/pqf/sourcery.html Quotes from "Sourcery"]
* [http://www.lspace.org/books/synopses/sourcery.html Synopsis of "Sourcery"]