Book 104: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett
Book 104: The Wee Free Men (Discworld #30) .
Author: Terry Pratchett, 2003.
Genre: Fantasy. Young Adult, Witchcraft,
Other Details: ebook. 404 pages.
Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching thinks her Granny Aching - a wise shepherd - might have been a witch, but now Granny Aching is dead and it’s up to Tiffany to work it all out when strange things begin happening: a fairy-tale monster in the stream, a headless horseman and, strangest of all, the tiny blue men in kilts, the Wee Free Men, who have come looking for the new ‘hag’. These are the Nac Mac Feegles, the pictsies, who like nothing better than thievin’, fightin’ and drinkin’. Then Tiffany’s young brother goes missing and Tiffany and the Wee Free Men must join forces to save him from the Queen of the Fairies - synopsis from author's website.
This was my first Discworld book in a while. I faithfully read the earlier books as they were published though stopped with The Thief of Time (#26) I wasn't that interested in the next two and then went into a reading slump that only perked up in 2007. As a result I am quite familiar with Discworld as a comedy fantasy universe.
While set in Discworld and with a cameo from two of my favourite characters from the early books, this did seem a more conventional fantasy with comic bits than I recalled from previous Discworld books. This comic restraint may well be due to it being a Young Adult book and so not as much broad satire.
There were some aspects of Tiffany's travels into Fairyland that reminded me of Labyrinth, especially a phantasmagorical costume ball and of course the theme of the snatched disliked baby brother though here the enemy is a Faerie Queen rather than a Goblin King. As Labyrinth is one of my favourite films I certainly did not mind these similarities.
Overall I found this novel very entertaining and funny and so have bought others in the Tiffany Aching sequence. I may even fill in the gaps or go back and re-read some of my favourite in the series.
Cross-posted to 50bookchallenge.