Their travels around what was obviously Europe were great, as well. I suppose there will be no more running with the bulls since Magrat and Greebo finished them off. Nanny was fun with the Absinthe, and the Europeans they met were appalled with the witches! I don't know if we went down the French Riviera, but I think we ended up in New Orleans. After Nanny lost all their money on the riverboat, Granny was a joy to watch beating the card sharks at their own game.

One of the best references comes from The Wizard of Oz, as Nanny Ogg wonders why anybody would make a road out of yellow bricks. She is accompanied by somebody who is told she needs a heart (Granny) and somebody who is told she needs a brain (Magrat)! Finally, when the farm house drops onto her head (she was saved by her incredibly structurally sound hat), she and Greebo feel homesick! Nanny was also wearing red boots (close enough to ruby slippers).

Ruining story after story didn't stop them from wondering how to end Cinderella (or Ember-ella), the story that the mysterious fairy godmother Lilith had set into motion, and couldn't be stopped. The witches were still funny in Genua, as they nattered at each other like the old crones that they were. The story, however, took a slightly more serious tone, even though funny things happened.

I was wondering why it was so easy for them to destroy the story after turning the coach into a pumpkin and ripping up the dress. Lilith had a wand also, however, and was able to make mice into horses and driver, and send Ella to the ball anyway. Even replacing Ella with Magrat (hilarious in her hypnotized self-assurance) and breaking the glass slipper didn't seem to deter the story.

I wondered why we needed to have Lilith be Granny Weatherwax's sister, but in the end, it made sense. We got to peer through Granny's eyes because of her reflection in her sibling. So Granny wanted to be the evil witch, but had to be the good one because Lily left. Interesting, how she keeps herself in check. She is so incredibly powerful with magic that she would have been terribly evil, and maybe would have ruled the world.

She again uses her headology with the voodoo doll, in an amazing twist of the story, turning the voodoo woman's magic against her. Their dances at the ball were hilarious, with Granny's steel-toed boots and the crush Casanunda (a true Diskworld Casanova!) had on Nanny Ogg, and not to mention Colonel Mustard in the ballroom, a nod to the game Clue. It turns out that the Prince was actually a frog (but he was also a French Duc, which they all confused with duck in several funny scenes!), and Granny was able to break the spell. She defeats Lilith by breaking one of her mirrors and sending her into oblivion. Although we are led to believe that Death came for her in the mirror, it's always possible to bring her back for a future story, since we don't know for sure.

I don't think Nanny's explanation about Granny's attitudes concerning magic is right. Sure, she might mean that the "nobody" in "nobody should use it" doesn't include her. I think it lies more with what Granny told Mrs. Gogol at the end of the ball, that magic should be used to set things straight, then be withheld so that people can find their own way.

Granny sure has come a long way, from when she used to call anything outside her neighborhood "forn parts". Now she travels to foreign parts, and ends up looking for more! I love that kind of character development. The others get a little, too, of course, but this was primarily a story about Granny.

During their travels, wandering from story to story, it was hilarious -so funny that I laughed out loud. The ending couldn't compare with that, but I still laughed at so many little things, from the way the author describes an event or a thought, especially descriptions of Nanny Ogg -how I love her character.