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Sourcery

Sourcery

FantasyHigh Fantasy
Pages
256
Published
1988
Language
English

Synopsis

When the eighth son of an eighth son of an eighth son is born, the result is not a wizard but a sourcerer — a being of raw, primal magic that has not walked the Discworld in thousands of years. Young Coin arrives at Unseen University channelling his dead father's ambitions, and begins remaking the world. Only Rincewind — who wants no part of any of this — stands between the Disc and a magical apocalypse. The return of Rincewind to the series, first published May 1988.

Prose complexity
4/10

Vibe

FunnyAdventurousSatiricalTense
Reluctant HeroSurvivalChosen OneQuest

Genres

Fantasy High Fantasy Comic Fiction Humor Satire

About the author

T
Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was an English author best known for the Discworld series, a sequence of forty-one comic fantasy novels set on a flat world carried through space on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant turtle. Across four decades, the Discworld grew from a parody of sword-and-sorcery fantasy into one of the most sustained works of social satire in English literature, examining politics, religion, science, gender, race, capitalism, and the nature of stories themselves. Pra...

Characters

RincewindProtagonist

The Disc's most inept wizard, who discovers that sometimes the only person standing between the world and destruction is the one who is least qualified.

Coin (Discworld)Antagonist

The child sourcerer whose enormous raw magical power is directed by his dead father's ghost, trapped in a staff and using Coin as a vessel.

ConinaSupporting

Cohen the Barbarian's daughter — cursed with her father's barbarian combat instincts despite being a hairdresser by training.

The LibrarianSupporting

Unseen University's orangutan librarian, who proves particularly useful in a crisis involving sourcerous fire.

Nijel the DestroyerSupporting

A pale, weedy would-be barbarian hero working his way through a beginner's guide to heroism, who falls in with Conina and Rincewind on the road to Klatch.

All characters in Sourcery

Frequently asked questions

  • What is a sourcerer, and how is it different from a wizard?

    A wizard manipulates existing magic through spells and training. A sourcerer is a source of magic itself — an uncontrolled fountain of primal power that predates the rules wizards use. The return of sourcery is treated in the novel as a catastrophic event akin to reopening a sealed disaster.

  • When was Sourcery published?

    First published on 26 May 1988 by Victor Gollancz Ltd, in association with Colin Smythe. It is the fifth Discworld novel and the third Rincewind book.

  • What happens to Rincewind at the end?
  • Is Conina a recurring character?

    Conina appears only in Sourcery. She is Cohen the Barbarian's daughter, whose combat instincts are hereditary but whose personality is entirely her own. Her character is a riff on the barbarian-hero tradition applied to someone who deeply resents being good at violence.

  • Who is Nijel the Destroyer?

    Nijel is a would-be barbarian hero who is the opposite of the type — pale, slight, and working from a beginner's guide to heroism. His partnership with Conina provides much of the comedy in Sourcery's middle sections.

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