Pratchett, Terry - I Shall Wear Midnight

[oyceter]

Tiffany Aching's adventures in Wintersmith have attracted the notice of an old enemy to witches, the Cunning Man, and she has to deal with that along with her relationship with Roland and her relationship to the people of the Chalk now that she's their witch and not just little Tiffany Aching.

I've seen people mentioning here and there that this will be the last Tiffany Aching book that will be published as YA, and this book does indeed start out dark. On the other hand, despite the series being YA to date, I find the Tiffany Aching books to be some of the darker Discworld books, adult or YA, largely because they're about Tiffany growing into her power and acquiring more and more responsibilities as the books go on. As such, they're my favorite out of all the Discworld series.

That said, this isn't a very fair review, because I spent the entire book wondering if the voice was off or if I was just making things up. So I was pretty distracted while reading and focusing more on the nuts and bolts of prose rather than what was going on. I'm still not sure if it was me or the book; it's been a few years since I last read the Tiffany Aching books, so my memory, already terrible, is even worse.

So... the villain was very creepy, I loved the folk tradition woven into the ending, I'm curious to see how Pratchett handles Tiffany + romance, I continue to love how Pratchett always brings in so many different women of different ages in the witches books, I really liked how he handled Tiffany's relationship with Letitia, but I felt really distant from the book while I was reading it. I suspect this will be one of things that changes on a reread.

ETA: Also, let me know if you have a review of this! I know I missed people's while I was waiting for my library hold to come in.

Comments

spoilers

[kore]

Is this the last YA Tiffany book or the last Tiffany (or even Witches) book, period? I know there's at least one more Watch/Sam book, I think. This novel felt very valedictory to me.

I think I might have enjoyed it more than you did, but yeah, the Tiffany books always sound very different to me than the other Discworld novels -- I'm not sure if it's partly that he thinks writing a young female YA narrator is that different or if it's not on purpose, but the sentences are shorter, there's fewer in-jokes and irony, and I think there's even fewer footnotes. What gets me a lot of the time are the exclamation points in the narrative. I know they're Tiffany's reported thoughts, but they bug me.

All that said, I do love the Tiffany books, and while I was a bit slow to warm up to this one (Roland engaged wha?) but Preston was really wonderful.

Re: spoilers

[oyceter]

I feel like I've heard it's the last YA Tiffany book and that the next one will basically be adult-Tiffany (or, I'm guessing a Tiffany closer to her twenties), but that is from memory and not evidence.

Okay, maybe I was just comparing the voice to other Discworld books and not to the prior Tiffany Aching books... I can't remember the earlier books enough! It'll be interesting doing a reread of all of them and seeing how that changes what I think of this book! (Like, I liked it, just... more intellectually than I usually do with Pratchett books.)

Preston was awesome.

Re: spoilers

[mercredigirl]

I can't wait for this book to hit our shores (or libraries). Your review got me piqued, I must admit!

Re: spoilers

[oyceter]

Hope you enjoy it when you get your hands on it!

Re: spoilers

[redbird]

The voice seemed fine to me, but I don't have a strong memory of the previous Tiffany Aching books, so differences there might go right past me.

Re: spoilers

[oyceter]

Hee, well, I don't have a strong memory of them either, so who knows? I think I was mostly comparing them to other Discworld books...

[cyprinella]

because I spent the entire book wondering if the voice was off or if I was just making things up.

Oh good, it wasn't just me. I really felt like it was off just enough to be distracting. I felt that way about Unseen Academicals too. It's nothing that I can specifically point at though. (Although I thought UA was a bit less tightly plotted than usual but 20+ books into a series and you'll get some like that.) I feel like I need to reread the Tiffany series (oh darn) to see if I can spot the difference.

[oyceter]

UA I didn't notice the voice so much, but I think a large part of that was because I was bored by it (what subject the book makes fun of makes a big difference to me when enjoying Pratchett, and I sadly have zero interest in most sports). I suspect I will soon be rereading Tiffany books again too!

[vom_marlowe]

I read somewhere that Pratchett has to dictate the books these days, not type them, and I suspect that might account for some voice changes.

I haven't read this one, yet, but I had that problem with Unseen Academicals, which I found so problematic that I couldn't finish it. I know a lot of people liked it, but eh, that one was not for me.

[oyceter]

Oh interesting, I hadn't known that!

I was really unimpressed by UA, both because of the subject (bored by most sports that aren't figure skating!) and I had some issues with the whole nature/nurture thing that I now cannot remember well enough to articulate...

[kore]

Oh, I hadn't thought of that, but yeah, the Tiffany books do seem more conversational at times.

[kore]

Yeah, that book....mainly didn't work for me. I felt funny about criticizing it, because I think it was the first novel published after he disclosed his illness, but the pacing really felt off and I never connected to any of the main characters (plus I really disliked the ending). I think when he uses Discworld to depict and discuss real-world racial issues it doesn't go very well.