Pratchett, Terry - The Wee Free Men

[oyceter]

My library doesn't have the next books in the Death series or the Witch series, which makes me sad!

Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching one day finds there is a monster in her river. Then some small blue men with funny accents start stealing the sheep. Then her little brother disappears.

Tiffany decides that This Will Not Do and goes after her brother with a cast-iron frying pan, along with a whole lot of the Nac Mac Feegle (the eponymous Wee Free Men).

I wasn't going to like Tiffany at first, since she was entirely too capable, but I ended up liking her anyway. She hits things with frying pans!

Um. I was going to say something else, except I have gotten stuck on the frying pan bit. It reminds me of Patricia C. Wrede's Frying Pan of DOOM!

Also, the Nac Mac Feegle are hilarious!

Oh yeah. Anyway, there is a lot of stuff about Faerie (the scary version) and dreams, and I found the latter to be particularly confusing, because people would keep slipping in and out of dreams. I have a difficult enough time following straight-forward plots, much less plots that change every two pages.

Still, I liked this quite a bit, particularly Granny Aching, and I am glad I already have the next two in the series checked out.

Comments

[slrose.livejournal.com]

I love her use of the frying pan.

[oyceter]

Me too! I am a big fan of frying pans as weapons.

[(Anonymous)]

I remember the Frying Pan of Doom. I think it was the frying pan that first drew me to the Tiffany Aching series, and as a result, Discworld. On the 'Wintersmith' blurb, it mentioned something about how Tiffany had faced the Queen when she was nine, armed with only a frying pan.

[vom-marlowe.livejournal.com]

Oh the Nac Mac Feegles are awesome! And I came to love Tiffany, too. These are my favorite YA ones to listen to on audio. My mom hauled them home last summer from the library, and we took to listening to them each evening. I finally succumbed and bought them. I found the dream bit confusing, too. My favorite in the series so far is the second one. There's a whole lot of neat female comradery in the series as it builds, that I really really love.

[oyceter]

Oh! These would be really fun to listen on audio, huh? I was a little irritated at having to read the Nac Mac Feegles dialogue at first because I had to slow down to get what they were saying, but a few chapters in, I completely adored them.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Bonus: once you learn to read Nac Mac Feegle (I found it helped to read it aloud), you can parse Glaswegian tone poetry.

[chomiji]

I've always loved Tiffany, because she is such an uncompromisingly geek-ish girl! The whole thing with using her baby brother as bait for the monster, and measuring its eyes after she clocks it with the frying pan ... . And then there's the scene where she faces down the snotty teacher: "No ... Patronizing is a big word. Zoology is really quite short."

The dream scenes are a bit confusing, but I think they're meant to be. And I really, really love the bit at the end, when Tiff acknowledges and embraces her powers, and her Granny shows up. (Actually, this is an interesting counterpoint to what we were discussing earlier, in regard to "Stardust," about modes of feminine power ... Granny Aching was one impressive old woman!)

Tiffany is keeping her personality pretty well as Pratchett "ages" her. My hat is off to the guy - he's doing a really good job of portaying a brainy, sensible adolescent girl.

I'll be interested in hearing what you think of the sequels (I blogged Wintersmith a little while ago).

And you inspired me to do a Feegle icon!

[oyceter]

Icon love!

I LOVE Granny Aching showing up. And I loved all the little stories about her interspersed in the narrative. I was a little contrary at first because I knew I was supposed to be impressed by Granny Aching (I can be a contrary reader), but she won me over anyway, much like Tiffany did.

Good point about modes of feminine power, esp. wrt Stardust. The funny thing is, I keep wanting Pratchett to do a very traditionally feminine character too! (see above re: me being contrary as a goat.) Actually, I think the bit that won me over with Granny Aching was her showing up in the frilly shepherdess dress and her own boots, particularly after how much Tiffany had worried about her gift. I liked that it seemed to be saying that wearing a frilly dress didn't negate who Granny Aching was.

Hrm. I think Granny Aching picking the dress worked while Yvaine dressing up in the movie didn't because in Pratchett's book, it was pretty clear that the women and girls had a LOT of power already (Tiffany, Granny Aching, Miss Tick, the later appearance of Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, the Queen), whereas the women in Stardust the movie with power were evil and the women who were good didn't have power.

[chomiji]

XD     I bet Granny Aching would be a contrary reader too - I know Tiffany is.

I really love Granny Aching's emphasis on the responsibility of a witch/master shepherd to her community, and how her words enable Tiffany to resist the power of the Queen. And it's plain that although Roland's father would likely defend the lives of his people in case of armed invaders, it's Granny Aching (and now, Tiffany) who defends their livelihoods, day after day after day, every day, all the time. And that's what takes real heroism. It reminds me of something I saw recently, something like "Slaying a dragon - that's nothing much. But waking up and falling in love with the world all over again, every day - now that takes a hero."

Discworld, for all its crazy nonsense, is much more firmly rooted in our reality than most fantasies are. Pratchett once spent a bunch of time figuring out how much foodstuffs - eggs, flour, meat, etc. - his city of Ankh-Morporkh needed every day, because he thought that was important - at least as important as knowing what the head of the Invisible University looked like. And he likes to make fun of fantasy tropes, big time. So the idea of women as nothing but wicked witches or pretty trophy princesses is just the sort of thing he likes to break into little pieces, and he often does it by smacking the fantasy nonsense into a hard dose of reality. But he's also, at the same time, quite affectionate toward fantasy: it's entirely Pratchettian that Granny Aching might enjoy a pretty dress, even while she's also a tough-as-rocks witch.

(Feel free to gank the icon from here if you like ... .)

[oyceter]

*nods* Yeah, I've been enjoying the focus on things like pig-doctoring and lambs and the everyday that often gets forgotten in most pseudo-medieval fantasies.

[(Anonymous)]

Which Pratchett books are you looking for? I'm planning to order a bunch more, let me know if there are particular titles you want...
-Your Friendly YA librarians

[oyceter]

Ooo! Ooo!

Reaper Man, Equal Rites, Soul Music, Maskerade, Men at Arms and probably some more... I was checking out this reading guide: http://www.lspace.org/books/reading-order-guides/the-discworld-reading-order-guide-1-5.pdf

I think you guys have several of the earlier books and several of the later books for the Death, Witches, and Guards series, but some of the books in the middle are missing.

[shewhohashope.livejournal.com]

Reaper man is (one of) my favourite(s)!

Have you read 'Guards! Guards!' yet? Trust me, you'll be confused by any City Watch books you pick up until you do.

As for the Tiffany Aching series I think 'Hatful of Sky' comes out on top for me too. Even though I do come to love Roland (of all people!) in 'Wintersmith'.

[oyceter]

I haven't read any of the Guards books yet! Mostly I was just browsing through the library catalog to see where the holes in the collection were.

[kenderly-yours.livejournal.com]

The first City Watch book I read was 'Night Watch', although the first one I read that mentioned Vimes was 'Monstrous Regiment'. It actually wasn't that confusing for me.

[almeda.livejournal.com]

Tiffany is Very Plucky. Somehow Pratchett makes me not hate her, though.