Book Report: Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett

I guess I get into a Pratchett run sometimes.

Wintersmith is the most recent in Pratchett's run of Tiffany Aching books, books for younger readers (middle-grade?) which feature as the protagonist a young girl who is good at making cheese, tormenting her brother, and being a witch. It also features the Pictsies, the Nac Mac Feegle, who are technically fairies but are likely to give you a face full of head if you bring it up. Rumor is that they were thrown out of fairy land for being drunk and disorderly at two in the afternoon.

That I love Pratchett's work should be evident by now. But I think that the Tiffany books hold a special place. There are moments when she is feeling homesick, or when she is on the verge of triumph, when she remembers her bond to her land (the chalk hills) and to her grandmother (a shepherdess who was, maybe, not great with grandchildren, but made up for it by being amazing with sheep, and quite likely the greatest witch ever to come into her power without being aware of it), and something about that moves me. "I'll never really leave you, land under wave."

I have no idea why that almost brings tears to my eyes, but it does.

In Wintersmith, Tiffany accidentally steps into the dance called the Dark Morris, which is danced in the high Ramtop mountains to welcome the winter in Pratchett's Discworld just as the Morris is danced everywhere else to welcome the spring (I think that's how it goes). As a result, she attracts the attention of the Wintersmith, the god of Winter, who mistakes her for his counterpart, the Summer Lady. His pursuit of love is both comical and deadly, as Tiffany tries to avoid his attentions while simultaneously dealing with the death of her mentor, the persistent intrusion of the Nac Mac Feegle, and the sudden advent of a cornucopia.

Ulysses Rating: 5 (I'll read this again and again).