Monday, February 05, 2007

Terry Pratchett - Wintersmith


Terry Pratchett's Wintersmith is at once an age old story of how a God falls in love with a mortal, it's also a story of how the God (really the elemental of Winter, the Wintersmith) doesn't get his own way (cough) because he falls for a mortal who is also a witch the 13 year old Tiffany Aching.

There's little add to this - the Discworld is faced by eternal winter, unless Tiffany can spurn the advances of the Wintersmith and a certain young boy can complete a dangerous task. We also meet some of the Discworld's best characters again, Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, and are treated to the formers superb "Headology".

A couple of times, I wondered whether I'd read some of this before - the descent into hell, that forms part of the quest felt a little like Will and Lyre's trip into a similar place in the third volume of Phillip Pullman's wonderful "His Dark Materials" trilogy. And is it just a coincidence that Tiffany's true love, setting out on his world saving quest is called Roland?

Nevertheless this is a fun read for all Pratchett fans, though definitely not a good starting point for someone new to the series, and can I add how lovely it is to read a good novel in hardback, something that I rarely get a chance to do.

Related Reviews

Pratchett - Thud
Pratchett - Going Postal

4 comments:

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Joy said...

Hi! I welcome you to the Non-Fiction Five Challenge! You said that non-fiction isn't much of a challenge for you, but that's okay...I'm glad you still want to participate with us. :) I look forward to seeing your choices and I'm sure others will find them of interest as well.

The Chasing Iamb said...

Hey,

Why are you letting crazy people comment on your nice blog?

Framed said...

I hope I'm not one of those crazy people mentioned above. Just wanted to thank you for visiting my blog. I enjoyed reading your reviews. What fascinating books. I plan on reading Pratchett sometime soon. And "England, My England" is going on my TBR list.