The Witches meet the Wizards of Unseen University. That alone is enough for this book to be readable. ( )

I very much wanted to love this book because I love Sir Terry Pratchett's style and I love the characters who feature in it - Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, and Magrat Garlick. (Also, Jason Ogg, being my favorite of the Ogg clan.) Unfortunately, I just couldn't really enjoy Lords and Ladies.

It is a funny book and filled with allusions - I haven't come across a Discworld book yet that isn't - but the whole thing seemed to drag. It's like Pratchett decided on a particular sequence of events for the finale, put all the focus on it, and then neglected to do anything with the rest of the book except what had to be done to get to the finale.

But I loved the bits with Ponder Stibbons and King Verence and Jason Ogg and the Bursar and the Librarian, even if they tended to be scenes that were obviously created specifically to foreshadow future plotpoints, or give sense to a future plotpoint.

I guess my feelings are pretty mixed about this book. I liked it, and I wanted to love it, but I mostly just think "meh." It's not one that I've a strong desire to go back and re-read, the way I love Witches Abroad or Pyramids or Guards! Guards! (for example). ( )

In the midst of a parochial kingdom's wedding between the king, a former fool, and his queen, a former witch, the charismatic yet deeply evil elves try to break into and control the normal world, with only a couple of old witches clever enough to put up a proper fight against them. Definitely one of the more dramatic of the discworld novels, with an operatic climax, and one of the best, most interesting and lovable characters of all the series, Granny Weatherwax. Here she flourishes as perhaps the most powerful and wise magic being on the disc, which somehow works brilliantly with her character being 100% cantankerous. As with many of Pratchett's novels, there were many tedious passages, and the post-climax ending was long and largely uneventful - this novel would have been a million times better if it were 2/3 the length. Nevertheless, at times very funny and very exciting and one of my favourites in the series, if only because of Granny Weatherwax getting so much airtime. ( )

My second reading of this book loosely based on a Midsummer Night's Dream. Pratchett is a genius. ( )

Basic Reason for Beginning: I kept hearing several of my friends recommend this for the elves and... well, actually the trouble was that I had no book for the long (long) train journey home and couldn't recall which was actually the first in the series and most of the Discworld books work as stand-alones, so hey why not simply cave?
Basic Reason for Finishing: Because Granny Weatherwax kicks ###.
Texture: Pratchett's style isn't very pretty... (In fact, it's often choppy, awkward and painful to read, but it sure does work that way.)

Full review here.

Rereadability: Yup. Double yup. Triple yup.
Recommendation: Get ye hence and read about Granny Weatherwax! ( )