Tuesday, November 4, 2008

A wee free read

Precocious kids bursting with all kinds of talents and waiting to become the next big promised thing has mostly always been a hallmark of fantasy and Pratchett is not to be left too far behind.

Enter Miss Tiffany Aching, 'hag' and 'spawn of Granny Aching', all of 9 years old and her adventures with The Wee Free Men. Little Miss Aching, dairymaid par excellence, 'jiggit grandchild' is tickling trout by the river when she first meets the only little men who pull of being cute and blue at the same time (and are not Smurfs too!)

Then, her teeny brother is whisked away by the Queen of Fairies (remember Lords and Ladies?) and our tweeny heroine sets out to get him back home, armed with First Sight, Second Thoughts and a sturdy frying pan made of iron and aided by wee Scotsmen in kilts. The rest of the novel is classic Pratchett and his raucous take on Snow Queen, Narnia, Peter Pan and most things Celtic with even the odd Moby Dick thrown in.

Though the book doesn't exactly leave you aching for more, it was an entertaining read in the usual Pratchett manner of being an exaggerated parody of real life "and it didn't stop being magic just because you found out how it was done..."

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Frankly couldn't even understand what the blog ment...did you actually enjoyed reading the book..the summary of it makes no sense to me but then if you had enjoyed it cool cause in the end thats what matters!!!

Naimisha said...

The key pieces which you seemed to have missed being, 'it was an entertaining read in the usual Pratchett manner'