BOOKS: A Hat Full of Sky

Terry Pratchett's A Hat Full of Sky, the sequel to last year's The Wee Free Men, is "a young readers novel of Discworld". Which, as far as I can tell, simply means, "a novel of Discworld that doesn't use the words 'arse' or 'bastard'". It's not like the usual Discworld novels are horribly profane; anything even remotely dirty is usually disguised with innuendo, anyway.

The young readers Discworld books (three, so far) do suffer slightly from a smaller scope, though. They involve far fewer characters than usual, fewer plot threads, and fewer digressions. Especially these last two books, which both feature Tiffany Aching, a young witch-in-training. They're basically a straight shot through from introduction of problem to solution of said problem. A Hat Full of Sky more so than The Wee Free Men, because Men at least had to take the time to introduce both Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle (the Wee Free Men of the title), tiny belligerent fairy creatures which aid Tiffany in her troubles.

In Hat, the enemy is a Hiver, a non-corporeal intelligence which takes over the minds of powerful creatures and people -- like, say, a young witch-in-training. But the book never really succeeds in making the Hiver a credible threat. It's defeated fairly early in the story, with relatively little difficulty. And then the story drags on, and the Hiver has to be defeated again, but in a different way. And then the story drags on after that, with a long wrap-up sequence at the Witch Trials (a competition, not a burning) and beyond, delving a little too tediously into the nature of being a witch, ground which Pratchett has tread many times before.

The book was enjoyable enough (no Discworld book has ever been bad), with several good laughs, and Granny Weatherwax, a great recurring Discworld character, makes an extended appearance. But the book feels like a contract fulfillment more than anything else, padded with rehashed ideas and themes from other Discworld books, including Wee Free Men. It was too soon to revisit Tiffany, although the Nac Mac Feegle were every bit as entertaining as last time out (even without the return of my favorite, Not-as-big-as-medium-sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-wee-Jock-Jock). A lesser but still readable entry in the series.

BOOKS: Monstrous Regiment, The Wee Free Men

Have you ever been reading a book, and enjoying it a great deal, but then, when you set it down one night, you feel absolutely no desire to pick it up again the next day?

That's happened to me with Lolita, which thankfully I eventually forced myself to pick up again and finish, and Infinite Jest, which maybe someday before I die I might get back into. But I never thought it would happen to me with Terry Pratchett's Discworld, the most entertaining series of books I've ever read. Especially not two books back-to-back.

The first was Monstrous Regiment, what you might call a proper entry in the series, about a woman who disguises herself as a man to join the army, and discovers that she's not the only one to do so. It was very funny, with even more than the usual complement of colorful characters (a troll, a vampire, a zombie, a werewolf, an Igor), and a bevy of satisfying confrontations and resolutions, and it featured Commander Vimes, perhaps my favorite recurring character in the Discworld universe. And yet, somehow, I set the book down and didn't pick it up again for months.

The second was The Wee Free Men, which I bought the week it came out, in April 2003, and just finished tonight. The delay in finishing is all the more embarrassing when you consider this is the second of Pratchett's Discworld books for children. It took me fifteen months to finish a children's book.

Not that I spent fifteen months reading it. It took about a week, with a fifteen-month pause in the middle. I can't explain why, but again, I just set it down and couldn't pick it back up. It's a fun book, about a young girl, Tiffany, a witch-in-the-making whose brother is kidnapped by the Queen of the Fairies. She must rescue him with the help of the Wee Free Men -- the pixies, here called the "pictsies", tiny blue belligerent creatures who accept Tiffany as their leader. The pictsies are the most entertaining part of the book, with names like Rob Anybody and Daft Wullie and (my favorite) Not-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock-Jock, and their thieving, drinking, fighting ways accented by their deep and sometimes unintelligible Scottish burr.

I love Terry Pratchett, and I love Discworld. I can't understand why I'm having such troubles finishing his books of late. Maybe it's because I've slowed down on all my reading; the internet's probably at least partly to blame for that. After spending an hour or two online (which I do most every day), I'm more inclined to want to rest my eyes than pick up a book. Also, I blame TiVo. Sweet, wonderful TiVo. You should see a list of the books I've started and not yet finished, or, worse, bought and never even opened.

There's a new Pratchett book out right now, A Hat Full of Sky, which is apparently the sequel to The Wee Free Men. I'll pick it up soon -- I have to; as slow a reader as I may be these days, and as many books as I have stockpiled, Pratchett is still a must-buy. I just hope I finish it sometime this year.