After reading this fifth book in the Discword series, I’ve decided that if I had read them in order as they came out, I might have dropped out here, and missed some great reads later. “Sourcery” is very much like the first two books except that Rincewind the hapless, cowardly magician is even more annoying than in the first two books. The Luggage is here as well, but doesn’t have many good moments. The simian librarian of The Unseen University, the college of magic, is here, and is perhaps the best of the returning characters, though limited in dialogue mostly to “Oook.” Death appears a few times, but doesn’t have much to do either.

The new threat to Discworld is a young sourcerer, Coin, who has enough power to easily take control of the much older wizards of Unseen University, and he begins to remake the world to suit his plans, with the usual chaos ensuing. Rincewind, Conina (the daughter of Cohen the Barbarian) and would-be hero Nijel attempt to stop him, and the usual disasters occur with occasional triumphs. I found this book to be mostly a retread of the first two in spirit and design, and was often tempted to stop reading it, but persevered. It’s not a bad book, just too much of the same thing, very plot driven, and too light-weight for my taste.

Only mildly recommended.