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Equal Rites

By: Terry Pratchett
Narrated by: Celia Imrie
Length: 7 hrs and 42 mins
4.5 out of 5 stars (1,560 ratings)
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Summary

Right before the wise old wizard Drum Billet died, he passed on his magical staff of power to the newborn eighth son of an eighth son. Unfortunately, Drum Billet never bothered to check the gender of the newborn baby, and it turns out it was a girl. Now his chauvinistic colleagues are forced to deal with a young girl who has all the qualifications to join their all-male profession.  

Terry Pratchett's third Discworld novel, Equal Rites, asks many provocative questions about magic, where it goes, where it comes from, and why.

Please note: this is a vintage recording. The audio quality may not be up to modern day standards.
Browse more of our novels of Discworld.Click here to see all the titles in our Terry Pratchett collection.
(P) ISIS Publishing Ltd, 1995; Copyright © Terry Pratchett, 1987; Cover Illustration © Josh Kirby

What members say

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Audible.co.uk reviews
Audible.com reviews
Amazon reviews
Sort by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Margit
  • WOLFSBERG, Austria
  • 19-03-12

Bad quality!

I love the story!

But
AUDIBLE
what have you done with the audio??

If I buy the old original cassettes or the cd version the quality is perfect regardless of the age of this record.

Your download quality is overpriced and ridiculous bad!!


Better buy cds or cassettes via Amazon than using this Audible download!

5 stars for book and plot, 0 stars for the audio quality.

32 of 33 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Soren
  • ASHBOURNE, United Kingdom
  • 02-07-11

Good book, poor quality

I enjoyed the book but like others here wasn't convinced by C.I. as a reader. My main complaint though is the RUBBISH quality of the download itself. Maybe it's just me but this had the squelching distortion of a very low bit rate download. I hope all Audible books aren't plagued by the same or I'll be going elsewhere!

31 of 32 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Pleasantly surprised

What did you like best about this story?

The Discworld series improves in Equal Rites as the world is fleshed out and the plot depth increases - I found the Colour of Magic to be an unengaging, if funny enough, series of unconnected escapades; The Light Fantastic to be better, and this to be better still.

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

It might have been, although circumstances prevented it. I have listened/read to TP in one sitting before.

Any additional comments?

I was pleasantly surprised by the Celia Imrie's narrating, especially after a plethora of negative reviews. I was worried at first but found her voice to be pleasant, and especially appropriate in this story, dominated as it is by female characters. Without two narrators one will always struggle here; while I am better used to Nigel Planer's reading, and enjoy it, I was not disappointed by Celia Imrie's. I would, however, advise readers considering purchasing this book to listen to the preview, and decide whether they wish for this voice, as it is a departure from the majority male narration in the series.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Paul
  • Pijnacker, Netherlands
  • 07-06-12

Narration not suited to the story

While the narration was performed by someone who obviously has gobs of talent as an actress, it seemed to be at odds with the humour. The story centres on two female characters, so Celia Imrie made sense, but it felt as if I was listening to a children's story book. Pratchett's humour has a certain sharp edge to it and I found Celia's voice too soft to deliver the jokes effectively.

A talented narrator and a talented writer, but I don't think they work well together.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars

Great book, dodgy audio

Any additional comments?

I think Celia Imrie made a great narrator for this book - she really gets the female voices down pat. The male voices are not quite so good, but at least she dodnt descend to the silly, squeaky voices that are the stock-in-trade of so many voice artists.

The main issue is the varying audio quality - did they record some sections with a knitted microphone? it was so muffled I couldn't make it out sometimes. Great book if you can live with the patchy sound

9 of 9 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars

Disappointing!

I thought this was let down by Celia Imrie's narration.

13 of 14 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • P
  • 21-04-15

DON'T BUY THIS RECORDING... of a wonderful story!

What disappointed you about Equal Rites?

This is a genuinely unbelievably DREADFUL narration by Celia Imrie. Don't get me wrong, she's a great actress and not even a bad reader... BUT she seems completely to have missed the tone, the wit and the characterization in the book. It is a tremendous story that i'd highly recommend anyone reading; however, CI's narration actually makes it slow-moving, dry and at times almost painful to listen to. It is the most APPALLING narration of a Terry Pratchett novel i have yet come across... or ever hope to. Whoever is responsible for recording TP books - PLEASE, PLEASE, PLEASE re-record this book with someone capable of matching Stephen Briggs as a narrator. I don't care if it is a man or a woman, but test them on whether they actually get the wit & humour of TP before foisting this kind of disappointing mess on us TP fans. So so so DISAPPOINTING! I would give the performance ZERO, if i could. It is that bad!

Who was your favorite character and why?

The book is really a comic masterpiece from Pratchett's earlier years. To my mind they actually got better later on, but there are tremendous characters in this book - they are just egregiously ruined by Celia Imrie's narration here. Granny Weatherwax is one of the greatest characters in UK fiction - you wouldn't know that from this AWFUL narration of her character.

Who might you have cast as narrator instead of Celia Imrie?

Stephen Briggs; Sandi Toskvig; Rebecca Front; Josie Lawrence; Someone who appears to actually UNDERSTAND the story

You didn’t love this book--but did it have any redeeming qualities?

The book is fantastic. Given how TERRIBLE this narration is, i would suggest to anybody looking at it to buy the actual book to read it as a book or on an e-reader ... and wait until another decent performance is recorded if you want to listen to it. Again i can't recommend the actual book highly enough - it's superb!

Any additional comments?

Who the HELL is responsible for issuing such a witless interpretation of this marvelous book. CI may have messed it up, but she appears to be trying her best at least. BUT who on earth is the supposed editor responsible for ensuring that something of decent quality is actually offered to us the consumer? I am going to COMPLAIN and ask for my credit for this book to be returned - it is that bad!!

14 of 16 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

good story bad narrator.

didn't like the narrator bring back Nigel plainer! could have been better. good story though.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars

Great story - not keen on the narration!

I wish Audible would produce another unabridged version of this book! I'd buy it! A Terry Pratchett Classic read poorly.

4 of 4 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Malcolm
  • LondonUnited Kingdom
  • 03-06-08

Disappointing

Equal Rites isn't one of Pratchett's best, but I had high hopes for this audiobook, thinking that Celia Imrie (a fine comic actress) was a good choice for a story which centres on two female characters. Unfortunately, though, frequent mispronunciations and odd intonations show that she didn't really understand what she was reading, and jarred me out of the story. Surprising, really: Pratchett's not exactly a challenging read!

10 of 12 people found this review helpful

Sort by:
  • Overall
    3 out of 5 stars
  • Hugh
  • 12-09-09

A great voice for street mime...

A poor poor poor representation of a remarkable Authors work. A brilliant, witty and entertaining edition from disc-world reluctantly, sorrowfully, painfully dragged down the blackboard of DEATH's niece with the DEATH OF RATS digging in its wee claws for maximum effect. The narrator presents with horrible attempts at character voices, sometimes bordering on unintelligible. Close to mono-tonish, with out actually qualifying AS mono-tone, alas even failing to successfully fail at that... an insomniacs biggest fantasy, was only the words of the story that kept me interested. 3 star average rating, 5 for story, 1 for narration. Sincere apologies to any and all that disagree.

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    4 out of 5 stars
  • RRF
  • 24-07-12

Entertaining!

Another good book in the series. Well-performed and entertaining as we come to expect from Terry Pratchett

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Maritta Helten
  • 08-03-19

she made Esme cackle!

Her general voice was quite pleasant when simply telling the main story, but her impersonating voices were straight horrible. i can't forgive her for what she did to poor old Esme.

Great story never the less.

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Elisabeth Adelsøn
  • 07-03-19

Love the book!

Some times the narrators voice dips beyond hearing, and in between she twists the text.

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • BjarneErik
  • 04-02-19

Fantastic story

The story is just fantastic. But what they have done to Death made me sad. His words are like the sound of heavy slabs of led come together, not like the Wizard of Oz and his voice box.

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    1 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Chris J.
  • 03-12-18

horrible narration. read like a book for toddlers.

it's a shame because it's a great story. If Celia is the chosen narrator going forward I can't see myself continuing with this series. wasted money

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • jardar aasen
  • 23-10-18

A nice change of pace

started reading the discworld books about a month ago. and finished the tow first books in a week this bok is a bit slow in the start but when you get in to the characters and the story starts moving it is as real joy to read.

  • Overall
    4 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Kindle Customer
  • 10-07-18

Story good, narration awful

Equal rites is fantastic, but the mixing of the audio on the audiobook is absolutely horrendous. Volume and pitch is completely off between sentences.

  • Overall
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    5 out of 5 stars
  • Helena
  • 30-06-18

Brilliant!!

Great performance with the usual Prachett weird world. some interesting characters and a good view of changing the systems.

  • Overall
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Performance
    2 out of 5 stars
  • Story
    1 out of 5 stars
  • IrekKsiazek
  • 20-09-16

not the best

One of the less wonderful discworld novels and reading it like children story definetly doesn't help.