Equal Rites
core novel 1987 Discworld
Record
| First published | 1987 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.07 (205,940 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| Page count | 228 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780575039506 |
Synopsis
A dying wizard named Drum Billet sets out to find the eighth son of an eighth son, destined by tradition to become a wizard, and pass on his staff before he dies. Through a mix-up, the staff instead goes to a newborn girl, Eskarina "Esk" Smith. As Esk grows and her uncontrolled magical power becomes impossible to ignore, the local witch Granny Weatherwax takes her to Unseen University in Ankh-Morpork, the wizards' own stronghold, since no woman has ever been trained there and witchcraft alone cannot contain what Esk can do. The two gain entry only by posing as a servant, setting up a clash over whether a girl can be admitted to a wizardry that has never before allowed one, while at the university Esk also meets an apprentice named Simon, whose radical new theories about magic draw her into further danger.
Where it sits
- Universe: Discworld
- Series: Witches core; position 1 of 6 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Terry Pratchett
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Witches: position 1 of 6: next Wyrd Sisters (1988)
Sources
← Discworld dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.