Carpe Jugulum

The story begins with the christening ceremony of King Verence and Queen Magrat’s baby girl, Princess Margaret Note Spelling. A family of modernist vampires from Uberwald attend the ceremony and quickly and painlessly take over the castle, in part by using mind control on all in attendance. But two people couldn’t be controlled: one was the priest who performed the christening, the other was Agnes Nitt/Perdita, she of two minds, neither of which could be controlled by the vampires. Meanwhile, Granny Weatherwax has gone missing, and the three junior witches: Magrat, Nanny Ogg, and Agnes/Perdita (wait–isn’t that technically 4?) have to work out for themselves how to conquer the vampires. They can’t be killed in the usual way–they have trained themselves to overcome the effects of religious symbols, holy water, garlic, sunlight, and other traditional methods. It’s not long before the witches know they’re in over their heads, and have to find Granny Weatherwax. But when they do find her, she refuses to come with them. She cannot get into the vampires’ minds, but they can get into hers, and the only way she feels safe is to hide out in a cave. Of course, the reader knows that won’t last long. She figures out a way to store part of herself in someone else–but whom? But this weakens her and when she finally faces down the vampires, she cannot resist them, and one of them bites her.

At this point, I was wondering how Pratchett could pull off the plot resolution without it seeming terribly contrived, but he succeeded. If you want to find out how, you’ll have to read the book. It’s the usual pace of the Discworld books: seemingly disparate plot lines plod along, start to converge halfway through the book, then there’s an action-packed crisis, and a then he ties up the loose ends in the last few pages. We get some great insights into Granny Weatherwax’s character. A very satisfying read.

King Verence and Queen Magrat had a baby. I guess they got that part figured out. This story starts with the babys Naming Day. Someone very important didnt receive their invitation. However, the things that wouldnt leave, Vampires, did get an invitation, due to King Verence practicing some diplomacy. The Vampires move in and take over and its up to the Lancre witches to get them out of the castle. This story was some much-needed entertainment and I was chuckling all through it, mostly because of Nanny Ogg. She is quite the character and all through the book I kept wondering just how large her bloomers really are. Thats something no story has ever made me wonder before. I found the little blue men very comical, too. Alls well that ends well in this book, and I believe some of the characters came out of it better characters than when the story started. I know it strengthened my view of a few things. I highly recommend this book.

If you have read Discworld books before, or any Terry Pratchett books, this is more of the best. Gentle humor, a rambling long way around to get to where all the facets of the story tie together, and over the top fantasy! It is classic Pratchett! If you never have read any of these books yet, I do advise to start at the beginning with the first couple books: The Colour of Magic, and The Light Fantastic. It will help set the stage for most of the characters of Discworld. After that, look up the entire list of Discworld books and read about whatever characters hit your fancy. Have fun!

I love this story and this is the 3rd time Ive read it! The most original vampire story Ive ever read. It makes fun of the modern idea that vampires are really wonderful, theyre just misunderstood . Well, Mr Pratchett certainly debunks that idea!! Love it! I love them all! Im only disappointed in the fact that this particular book has not been recorded yet. The Discworld is even better when narrated!!!!! (You know what they say about people who use exclamation points )

I read this in the lead up to jim butcher’s peace talks release date.read it slowly,realizing there will be no new discworld books due to the death of pratchett.in this one,one of the witches(magrat)has recently given birth to a daughter.the other witches must have together to keep a modern vampire from taking over the kingdom.no vimes,no sergeant carrot or angua,but the story moves along at a good clip,especially if you already know the characters.

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