I was not surprised when I saw that Terry Pratchett's last novel, published post-mortem this week, is currently the number One bestseller.
I am glad it is a Tiffany Aching book that he managed to get out, she is my favorite witch, and the witches may well be my favorite characters of his. Tiffany is righteous, and smart, and strong. (The cranky eldest witch, Granny Weatherwax, actually takes off her hat to Tiffany at one point, something which I'm not sure ever happened before.)
I would say "get it!", except I would recommend reading her books (five) in sequence, starting with the wee free men. The books start with her being around six, and in her late teens in the last one. So seen as a whole, you might say it's a big growing-up, or coming-of-age story. In an usual way, since it's less about boys and more about power and magic and responsibility and how can you fight an invisible, intangible enemy...
I'm not generally a fantasy reader. Most fantasy seems stuck in about twelve of the same ideas all the time, most Tolkien-related. There's only so many times you can read about orphans' destiny and magic swords. But: Terry Pratchett's book are not like that, not by a long shot. His books can be about anything, including suddenly a time travel story or whatever. But they always holds together.
They have great characters, and they are FUNNY.
Update:
Anonymous said...
That cover really blows,
Yes sadly I agree. The shade of green of the dress is just wrong (though she does wear green and blue. She intends to wait with wearing black til she is old (source: "I Shall Wear Midnight).). And he clearly does not know how to draw a young woman's face. (I had two choices of covers to show. The other one was worse.)
It's a pity, it's actually quite rare that they find a really good artist for book covers. They should look at among comic book artists, particularly comic book cover artists, there are some excellent ones amongst them.
That cover really blows.
ReplyDeleteYes sadly I agree. The green colour of the dress is just wrong. And he clearly does not know how to draw a young woman's face.
ReplyDeleteIt's a pity it's actually quite rare that they find a really good rtist for book covers. They should look at among comic book artists, particularly comic book cover artists, there are some excellent ones amongst them.
That cover is pretty crappy. You'd think Pratchett would warrant a top artist.
ReplyDeleteYes, wouldn't you? But that's just a little bit of the many things why I'm happy self-publishing is eating in on publishing houses. Not only have the usually no clue about good covers, but the writer has no say in the matter! It's patently ridiculous.
ReplyDeleteI emailed Pratchett some years ago and said I didn't care for the garish paintings of charicateured characters which were usually on the covers here in the UK. It seemed he agreed with me, but the publisher said they helped sales, so he could not do anything.