Review: Hogfather

Hogfather by Terry Pratchett
eBook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars





The 20th discworld novel, Hogfather, was published in 1996. It's the 4th story around Death, who as always (almost) gives up his true profession to do something else.

It all starts with the Auditors, who are something like arch-enemies for Death and decide to get rid of the Hogfather to bring more "order" to the world. They are able to find an assassin creative enough to pull this off.
The consequences are: 1) Death takes up the role of the Hogfather, 2) Susan gets pulled towards her grandfather's job again, 3) free belief sloshes around, creating a number of interesting gods, fairies and so on, 4) this of course gets the wizards involved.
The showdown between Susan, the Auditors, Death and the Hogfather was a bit confusing to me, but at least I know who won.

Hogfather introduces some new characters and places, like creepy Teatime and the realm of the Tooth Fairy. There are also a lot of nightmarish creatures involved, which is just as well since Susan is a governess now and can deal with those. Oh, and Hex is evolving quite disturbingly...
Fun and entertaining as any Terry Pratchett, and worth the movie it got.


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Review: Soul Music

Soul Music by Terry Pratchett
eBook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars





Soul Music, first published in 1994, is the next novel in the Death storyline. Death has, once again, problem with his profession and leaves to seek forgetfulness. He couldn't have chosen a worse time...
His talents are transferred to his granddaughter, Susan Sto Helit, who didn't know of her heritage since her parents, Ysabell and Mort, had a dispute with Death when she was small. Susan has difficulties with her new tasks, since she grew up to be a very sensible abd realistic person and just doing the Duty won't do for her.
At around the same time, a young harp player named Imp y Celyn tells his parents that he wants to be the greatest musician in the world. He leaves home and ends up in Ankh-Morpork, where he starts a band with a troll and a dwarf, whom he met at the (too expensive) musicians guild. When the troll accidentally ruins Imp's harp, they find him a guitar in a mysterious music shop. All of a sudden, music comes alive and brings fame and riches to the Band (With Rocks In). But don't the famous die young? It's all Susan can do to keep Imp, aka Buddy, alive and singing...
In the end, Death has to return to save the day, the discworld, and his most faithful servant.

I've read Soul Music in German before, but enjoyed the English version more. Translations can only get you so far (although I've also heard that 50 Shades of Grey is better in German)...
Anyway, Death is always an amusing character to read about, especially when he tries to be human, and it's almost sad that the main focus of this novel is on music, the Band and CMOT Dibbler making money (and failing horribly in the end). It lacks the usual philosphical component of Death novels.

Again, what I admired most about Soul Music was the continuity. I think it's amazing how Terry Pratchett doesn't make mistakes, even though he is working with only remotely connected storylines in his different discworld novels. There are always connections, guest appearances from characters of older books, and it always fits. J.K. Rowling didn't even manage that in seven books for just one story.


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Review: Witches Abroad

Witches Abroad by Terry Pratchett
eBook

My rating: 4 of 5 stars




Witches Abroad was first published in 1991 and is the twelfth discworld novel. As you can probably guess from the title, this novel is third in the witches line. It focuses, like Wyrd Sisters before, on Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg and Magrat Garlick.

This time, old Desiderata Hollow, who was not only a witch, but also a fairy godmother, dies and leaves her wand to Magrat, asking her to travel to a faraway city called Genua and prevent a story from happening. Knowing the older witches, Desiderata forbids them to go and help her, so that they do exactly that.
Throughout their travels, the three witches get famous - in a way that makes the people they've met a lot more careful around "helpless" old women. Closer to Genua, they also get involved in stories - animals and people acting unnaturally to fulfil their roles in different well-known fairytales. They prevent the stories from happening and instead help the people. Genua, though, has been turned into something resembling a fairytale kingdom by Lilith, Desiderata's sister fairy godmother (they always come in pairs), whose real name is Lily... no, I won't say.
Now the witches have to help Ella, who doesn't want to marry the prince, but the story requires she should. Magrat replaces her at the important ball, where it turns out the prince is actually a frog. Magrat flees in terror, of course leaving a glass shoe behind. Luckily, that shoe doesn't fit her, but Nanny Ogg...

To give you a short overview: We have three witches travelling to foreign parts (with Nanny Ogg speaking "foreign"). We have Magrat as fairy godmother who doesn't know how her wand's supposed to work. We have a voodoo witch, the best gumbo cook in Genua. We have animals turned into humans and humans turned into animals. We have Casanunda the dwarf and Death as guest stars. We have a showdown between headology and mirror magic. And we have stories.
Terry Pratchett has a lot to say on the subject of stories, and quite a bit of it is done through Granny Weatherwax. The witch doesn't like stories. They force you to be something you are not. They expect animals to think, they expect people to be happy all the time. They are dangerous and hard to stop once someone feeds them...

Stories are a parasitical life form, warping lives in the service of only the story itself.

I think I was reading this fast, right? I enjoyed it quite a bit, too. The witches are fun, and I loved the guest appearances.
There's a lot to be learned from Witches Abroad, about magic and stories and how to best help people (and about Granny Weatherwax). Stars don't care for your wishes, and magic doesn't make things better.

The invisible people knew that happiness is not the natural state of mankind, and is never achieved from the outside in.

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Review: Reaper Man

Reaper Man by Terry Pratchett
Paperback

My rating: 4 of 5 stars



I bought Reaper Man at a jumble sale, last year or maybe the year before. This is the third time I read the book, and I couldn't put it down. In cases like this I think that not being able to put down a book isn't necessarily caused by wanting to know how it ends. For me, it's knowing how it ends and wanting to read - no, experience - it all again. Really good books can do this to you.

Reaper Man is Terry Pratchett's eleventh discworld novel, and was first published in 1991; it's also the second in the Death story line. In it, the so-called auditors of reality decide that the death of the discworld has to be replaced, seeing that he has developed a personality. So, when Death finds his own life-timer counting the seconds to his ceasing of existence, he leaves his realm to spend his remaining life time with the living (to great dismay of his servant, Albert). Under the name of one Mr. Bill Door, Death is hired as help on the farm of old Miss Flintworth, just in time for the harvest. Here, he experiences feelings, and sleep, and dreams, for the first time.
While he is away, though, things start going wrong all over the discworld. With no one to take the dying to the netherworlds, life force is building up, finding outlets wherever possible. One person extremely affected by this is the wizard Windle Poons (whom we've met in Moving Pictures as the oldest wizard at Unseen University), whose time has come to go. Upon dying, he ends up in a blackness, with nowhere to go except back to his dead body, which he does. Being a zombie isn't easy, though: you have full control over all bodily functions (by the way, how does the spleen work?) and when you've been looking forward to being reborn as a woman, spending the afterlife in your own dead body is no alternative. The other, alive, wizards at Unseen University are more than willing to help Windle die, but as none of their approaches work, he ends up at the Fresh Start Club, with other un-deads and people generally un-welcome in society.
Finally, while Death confronts the new death (wearing a crown!) to reclaim his job, Windle, the Fresh Starters and the wizards have to save the city of Ankh-Morpork from the consequences of superfluous life force.

Terry Pratchett is good at humour. It's what he is most famous for.
How often do people mention his talent for suspension and drama, though? Reaper Man is one of the discworld novels with this dramatic, touching, heart-breaking turning point that is so important for a good story.
The secret is, he won't leave you with that. A discworld novel always ends with something funny, relaxed, witty. For the balance of things.


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