There's a Ghost in the Opera House of Ankh-Morpork. It wears a bone-white mask and terrorizes the entire company, including the immortal Enrico Basilica, who eats continuously even when he's singing. Mostly spaghetti with tomato sauce.

What better way to flush out a ghost than with a witch? Enter the Opera's newest diva, Perdita X. Nitt, a wannabe witch with such an astonishing range that she can sing harmony with herself. And does.

To further complicate matters (and why not?) there is a backstage cat who occasionally becomes a person just because it's so easy. Not to mention Granny Weatherwax's old friend, Death, whose scythe arm is sore from too much use. And who has been known to don a mask...

Maskerade

FROM OUR EDITORS

I often wonder what Terry Pratchett's version of a bad book is; it's one of those pleasant, futile imaginative exercises as I don't actually think he can write one. In Maskerade, he's in fine form as Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax attempt to add a third witch to their coven. Well, actually, they do a lot more than that, being witches, and they do it in inimitable style (which is probably a good thing). Unfortunately, they're not quite in their element; they're at the Opera House. The haunted Opera House. Anyone who's familiar with The Phantom of the Opera and who retains a sense of humour about it will get a certain added amusement out of the bit players: a vapid young blond named Christine who faints at convenient times, a put-upon theatre owner who isn't informed of the history of the building itself, and, well, a Ghost. Murder, mayhem, and more improbable plot twists than any rational person could possible believe: Grand Opera.
—Michelle West

FROM THE PUBLISHER

The Opera House, Ankh-Morpork: a huge rambling building, where innocent young sopranos are lured to their destiny by a strangely familiar evil mastermind in a hideously deformed evening dress. But Granny Weatherwax is in the audience, and she doesn't hold with that sort of thing. So there's going to be trouble (but nevertheless a good evening's entertainment with murders you can really hum.)

SYNOPSIS

Terry Pratchett does it again with Maskerade, another truly out-of-this-world blend of humor and fantasy in his always enchanting Discworld series. Maskerade, which on more than one occasion is laugh-out-loud funny, is the tantalizing story of an opera house in Discworld's capital city. This is no ordinary opera house, however; this one's haunted, and not by one of those passive hang-out-and-observe types of ghosts, either. No, this ghost is devious and dreadful and terrorizes the entire company with his pranks. Can the witch Perdita X. Nitt help save the day, and get the role she's always dreamed of landing in the process? Terry Pratchett is one of the best-selling authors in the United Kingdom; after reading Maskerade, one can surely understand why.

FROM THE CRITICS

Piers Anthony

Pratchett is fast, funny, and going places. Try him!

Oxford Times

Simply the best humorous writer of the twentieth century.

New York Review of Science Fiction

The funniest parodist working in the field today, period.

Isaac Asimov's Science Fiction Magazine

Consistently, inventively mad . . . wild and wonderful!

White Dwarf

The hottest writer in fantasy today. Read all 6 "From The Critics" >