Carpe Jugulum

Here’s the second Discworld book to make me cry.

Read Discworld, they said. It will be fun, they said. What everyone forgot to mention is that after the first few books it starts wrecking your heart.

This is probably the darkest book I read in the series so far. A family of vampires is invited to Lancre and takes over the kingdom, but these vampires are not the classic type. They adapted and trained themselves so the tricks to defeat vampires that everyone knows don’t work on them anymore. This is the first time I felt like there were real STAKES. Granny Weatherwax is battling with the darkness inside her that was hinted at in past books and she is absent for at least 100 pages. Even though she is not physically present every show more character keeps mentioning that they need her and wondering where she is, which makes the situation seem even worse. There is also a priest struggling with his faith and Agnes trying to deal with her insecurities.

I love handsome, charming, manipulative villains and this book gave me Vlad de Magpyr. I love even more that Agnes has zero tolerance for him. The Magpyr family are my current favourite Discworld villains, along with Mister Teatime in “Hogfather”. I really love the bits I saw of their family drama and the interactions between Agnes and Vlad are the best.

The dynamic between the four witches is fantastic! I could really feel the bond and friendship between them. They know each other so well at this point that at times they communicate without words. However, the stars of this book really are Agnes Nitt and Esmerelda Weatherwax. I am really glad I got to see more of Agnes because she is amazing and she went through so much growth in this book.

I really enjoy the scenes with Mightily Oats as he questions what he was thought about his own religion, but also witches and vampires. The scenes with him helping Granny really warm my heart and this is another one of my favourite dynamics. There are so many in this book!

Another one of my favourite dynamics is Granny Weatherwax and Death. These are my two favourite Discworld characters and the mutual respect they have for each other is fantastic to witness. In this book Death follows Granny more than once, giving an even more dark and creepy atmosphere to this book than it already had.

I like every character except for the Nac Mac Feegle, but at least their scenes are really short. I also don’t love the initial scenes with the falconer, but those are also really short. Those things don’t make me lose my love for this book because the good parts are so much stronger.

I am really glad that I finally gave a Discworld witches book 5 stars because I love the witches as characters, but the books with them always seem to include some scenes I don’t love. This one has them too, but they didn’t bother me enough to rate it lower given that I absolutely loved most of this story. show less

I can’t believe I just finished the last Discworld book in the Witches series. Dammit, why isn’t there more?!? Wait, I think there’s still a couple in the Tiffany Aching stories I haven’t read yet, maybe those count?

It didn’t take me long to progress through the first three of the five stages of grief. I may never reach Acceptance, though, because I am really going to miss Granny and Nanny Ogg and Magrat and Agnes/Perdita. Mostly Granny, though. I sure hope she makes some cameo appearances in the other books I haven’t read yet.

Carpe Jugulum was fun. So much fun that I mostly blew off watching the ALCS and stayed up waaaay past my bedtime during the work week to finish.

"You must be happy to let things lie. Don't chase faith 'cos you'll never catch it...but perhaps you can live faithfully."

There are times when I wonder if Pratchett just tried to challenge himself. "Okay, so, if I have vampires...no, let's call them vampyres...and witches and Frankenstein's Igor...but let's add some Frankenstein's monster to him...and let's throw some religion and atheism in there too, and a newborn. Oh, and some garden gnomes. Now, let's see what I can make of this particular stew."

Once again, Pratchett delivers more than the goods. He gives us a great story with a lot of laughs, but he also creates one of the—at its core—more horrifying and satisfying vampire stories I've ever read, while also giving us some show more thought-provoking arguments both for and against believing in some sky god.

And, along the way, Agnes comes into her own.

How many series can you name that, 23 books in, just keeps getting better? show less

A heavily vampire themed discworld novel, with a vampire family threatening to take over the micro kingdom of Lancre, using their modern ideas of pseudo-civilised domestication of the population, their hypnotising skills and their pseudo enlightened methods of removing any vulnerabilities (such as garlic, daylight) by training. Will Granny Wetherwax, Nanny Ogg, a couple of more junior witches and a wondering priest be able to stop them? The running jokes in this novel are all the myths surrounding vampires, zombies and similar creatures, while religion gets a huge kicking to boot. As usual, Granny Wetherwax's cantankerous charm is incredibly addictive, and she is for me one of the funnest (and perhaps most powerful?) character in the show more whole series. Partly because of her presence, on the whole this time the structure of the novel really worked for me - it was well paced, without too many somewhat less exciting side turnings that other discworld novels may have - and it all just seemed to work extremely well. Definitely one of the better novels in the series. show less

Reread 2025: I'm sad to be at the end of my Witches reread but what a reread it was! So much fun and depth in these books.

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"Carpe Jugulum," read Agnes aloud. "That's...well, Carpe Diem is 'Seize the Day,' so this means-"

"'Go for the Throat,'" said Nanny.

Carpe Jubulum is the 6th and final book in the Witches sub-series and the 23rd Discworld novel in publishing order. It's witches verses vampires! King Verence and Queen Magrat of Lancre have had their first child, a daughter, and have invited everyone to the naming ceremony. Unfortunately this includes the Duke and Duchess de Magpyr, a family of vampires from Uberwald. Everyone who knows anything about vampires knows you don't invite them in unless you want a permanent show more guest. And these sunlight-loving, garlic-eating, progressive vampires are making themselves at home in the castle. It's up to the witches and an Omnian priest to save the kingdom.

It never ceases to amaze me how Pratchett can weave such a fun satire and yet still touch on deeper notes. On the surface we're given a satire about pre-Twilight vampire mythology. It does this well, especially with Alucard Dracula's story, and pokes a lot of fun at classic vampire lore. Going a little bit deeper, he also touches on rural vs modern life as well as religion, faith and morality. The Kingdom of Lancre is Pratchett's version of an idyllic rural kingdom turned sideways, where the King rules by not asking anyone to do things they weren't going to do anyway and all the servants are from the Ogg family, mostly Sean Ogg. We are also treated to an introduction of the Nac Mac Feegle, who feature later on in the Tiffany Aching books.

It was interesting to see ties back to Small Gods in the form of the Omnian priest Mighty Oaks. Mighty Oaks is in well over his head and yet comes through like a champ. Oaks and Granny Weatherwax have some interesting discussions around faith and morality, which I found unexpected and enjoyable. It's moments like this that lift the book above just being a simple satire.

Overall it's another great entry to the series. For new Discworld readers I would not start with this book as it relies heavily on you knowing the characters prior to this installment. show less

Witches and vampires and priests, oh my! It's easy for me, when I'm not reading Pratchett at the moment, to remember how much silliness his books contain, but forget what great storytelling is in there too. But boy, when I'm reading it I sure remember.

This is a grand tale about some witches that live in a small kingdom on the rim of the Discworld, one of whom has married its progressive, modern king, and had a baby who's due for a christening. The king, wanting to expand the scope of his kingdom's influence, invites the rulers of the neighboring kingdoms to the christening ceremony. Unfortunately, one of those kingdoms is ruled by vampires, in particular, by a family of very modern and progressive vampires, who understand that garlic is show more delicious, that the effect of sunlight on them is purely psychosomatic, and that religious symbols are practically everywhere, and don't have to mean a darn thing to them. They do, however, maintain a tremendous ability to control the minds of others. Add to the mix a maybe-not-so-secure-in-his-faith priest of a religion that has rather recently switched from burning everyone that didn't agree with them, to taking their disagreements inward, leading to schism after schism. Can you guess how this turns out? It's a bit of a mess, and great fun!

Apparently this is number 23 in the Discworld series. While a publisher's note at front suggests that reading the series in order might increase one's enjoyment, I found this to be thoroughly delightful, even though I'd only read the first couple before this. I recommend it almost without reservation, the reservation being that it might not be great for you if you are offended by humor at the expense of fat people, short people, old people, stupid people, modernists, traditionalists, goths, lispers, lackeys, kings, queens, Picts, peasants, or priests. But other than that it's purely charming :). show less

Carpe Jugulum by Terry Pratchett is is the 23rd Discworld book and the sixth (if I'm counting right) of the Witch books. It's also, I think, the introduction of the Nac Mac Feegles, and coincidently, the clan who end up proving the new Kelder for Rob Anybody's clan.

OK, I admit to reading it mostly for the Feegles, but the actual "stars" of the book are a family of vampires that have decided to invade Lancre through their use of glamor. What they weren't expecting, though, was a coven of witches with close ties to the king and queen — the queen being Magrat, a former member of said coven.

It's a very short, silly book on the surface. But when the sophomoric jokes are set aside, there are some deep observations about feminism and the show more human condition in there. This book especially (and probably because of the Feegles) has some grains of thought that are allowed to ripen in the Tiffany Aching books. show less