Pratchett, Terry - A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith

[oyceter]

We return to the adventures of Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mac Feegle!

In A Hat Full of Sky, Tiffany ends up being possessed by something called a hiver, and Wintersmith is a sort of take on the Hades/Persephone myth. I continue to enjoy this series, though next time I may try to stop myself from reading several over a few days. It's interesting that each successive book has Tiffany make more mistakes than the last -- the conflict in Wintersmith is much more Tiffany's fault, and she comes off much more flawed.

Generally I like that, except for the romantic bits in Wintersmith, which I didn't take well to.

I'm rather impressed that Roland is actually likeable as a character, as opposed to the brat he was in The Wee Free Men. I think I wished for more of the Feegles in Wintersmith, particularly more of Jeannie.

My favorite in the series so far is A Hat Full of Sky; I found the ending very touching and real, and I particularly love the Granny Weatherwax-Tiffany interactions. Then again, Wintersmith has great Nanny Ogg-Tiffany interaction, and I really love that Pratchett has an actual range of older women in this series alone, from Miss Tick to Miss Treason to Nanny Ogg to Granny Weatherwax to Granny Aching. And Roland's aunts. He's got older women who reject traditional femininity and have lots of power, to those who play at traditional femininity (mostly Nanny Ogg, who subverts it in her own way by having lots of lovers and by continuing to talk about it while being older, and partially Miss Tick as teacher), which I appreciate.

Also, Horace the Cheese cracks me up.

Comments

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

Have you gotten to "The Last Hero" yet? For all my deep and abiding love for Gytha and Esme, I think elderly barbarian heroine Vena the Raven-Haired (http://www.en8848.com.cn/fiction/Print.asp?ArticleID=693&Page=6)/Mrs. McGarry may be my favorite of his older female characters -- she's got the best textile-crafter-martial-arts pwnage scene since Asia the Invincible's embroidery needles. :D

(I love her sooo much that I'm currently working on my own version of one of her not-so-sweet little samplers (http://smillaraaq.deviantart.com/art/Sampler-Snark-63785445).)

[oyceter]

No, I haven't! I am excited about textile-martial-arts! I feel there should be much more.

The Last Hero is more like a graphic novel

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

because the text and the illustrations are so interwoven throughout. (I *want* Ponder's "Rocket Wizard" shirt, even though I'm neither, just because it's so funny. I also really liked how even the Patrician is thrown by trying to deal with the ubernerdery of the High Energy Magic department!)

Oddly enough, while you don't have to have read it for the other to make sense, you do find out something key about the backstory of Monstrous Regiment in Last Hero...

Re: The Last Hero is more like a graphic novel

[smillaraaq.livejournal.com]

And if not a true graphic novel where the words and pictures are just inextricable, it definitely has for me the feel of something like Stardust or The Dream Hunters, where the illustrations do just add immeasurably to the richness of the experience. You could read the text alone, but why would you want to?

(The little touches referencing the other books are particularly charming -- I adored the random plate of all the baroque swamp dragon breeds, or the picture of Leonard surrounded by birds...including a parrot last seen in The Truth...)

OT, but worried

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

Do you know what happened to coffeeandink? Was she hacked, or did something blow up offline, or what?

Back on topic - what I really like is that Tiffany is flawed but also fixes her own mistakes, instead of just being passively rescued - yes, she has friends and helpers, but in the end it all comes down to *her*, which doesn't happen very often to heroines in any genre.

Re: OT, but worried

[oyceter]

I think she's ok, just taking some time off from LJ to get stuff done.

Yeah, I really liked that even when the Feegles were sent off to rescue people, it was still Tiffany that did most of the work.

Re: OT, but worried

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but it says her journal's been deleted. That's not commonly the way of GAFIAtion. But if you who know her IRL say she's okay, that's what counts.

Yeah, I really liked that even when the Feegles were sent off to rescue people, it was still Tiffany that did most of the work.

And everything from coming up with solutions to carrying them out. It's amazing how many different standard forms of passivity in the "Faux Action Girl" model there are, and how you don't notice them except when they're missing.

The other thing I liked, of course, is how the Hiver wasn't actually evil, just deadly like a shark, and insane from being immortal and an immaterial entity. It was one of the best genre takes on the "possessing demon" trope that I've ever seen, and that includes the Jossverse as well as some adult profic.

Re: OT, but worried

[oyceter]

Yeah, I already checked in with her yesterday re the journal deletion.

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

that's her right, but it kind of stinks given how many blogs are linked to her illustrated post "how to suppress discussions of racism", though. The vanishing-into-the-ether problem is the one thing where the hard copy world has it over the blogosphere.

[oyceter]

I think she's doing what's best for her, and I respect her decision.

[bellatrys.livejournal.com]

I'm just saying that the fact that when a print zine goes under, all its issues don't evaporate and can still be tracked down makes them a whole lot more valuable academically and politically than blog posts, at this point, the fact that blog posts do vanish, even more so than websites - and thus can't be referred to any more - does a lot to validate the view of people like Robin Hobb that this is all pointless narcissism on our part. You don't have to delete your past posts if you don't want to write any more.

[oyceter]

I'd really rather not discuss this; what my friend does with her LJ is not my business to talk about.

[theodosia.livejournal.com]

I think Pratchett's female characters are very underrated, truly. Do you know if there's been any Wiscon panels on the Discworld and feminism?

[oyceter]

I don't know... if there have been, I probably didn't pay attention to them at that point, since I hadn't read Discworld then. That would be pretty cool though.

[chomiji]

Heh, my reactions to the sequels were rather opposite yours. Although I also liked them both, I liked Wintersmith better. I got a bit tired of the bitchy girls and the Gothic pseudowitchery in Hat Full of Sky, and I felt the Hiver was a bit contrived. I liked the firmer basis of the mythos (Britsh Isles folklore, mostly) in Wintersmith.

[I will miss coffeeandink's reviews and such. When I was first reading Saiyuki, her writeups on it were very helpful (they're also linked on telophase's Memories page for her Manga Analysis Series). And it was the interesting book reviews on LJs like yours and hers and kate-nepveu's that influenced me to finally settle on LJ for a blog, back last December.]

[oyceter]

Yeah, I think in general I wasn't as interested in the plot of Wintersmith because I've read several takes on the Persephone/Hades myth. Though Horace the Cheese makes up for a lot ^_^.