Customer Reviews

The Illustrated Wee Free Men (Discworld Novel)

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Wee Free Men is a children's book, but in the great tradition of British children's novels: it can be enjoyed by kids and adults alike. For my money, it is Pratchett's finest children's book. In the precocious, ferociously intelligent young witch Tiffany Aching he has created one of the great child protagonists in the genre. In the drinking, thieving, fighting and cussing Nac Mac Feegles, the Pictsies, the wee free men of the title, he has one of the comic forces of nature. The combination will make you laugh out loud. Repeatedly.

This 2008 edition brings Stephen Player's illustrations to Pratchett's 2003 novel. In some ways, some of the illustrations are a little too sweet. Tiffany Aching probably isn't that pretty, and I'm completely certain that Nac Mac Feegles are not nearly that clean or cute. But in other ways the illustrations are masterful. Tiffany's "unsuitable boots" are perfect. There are four delightful fold-out pages, the flashbacks are styled as diary pages, and the text of signs are set out as signs. The monsters are monsters, just short of terrifying, especially the dromes and the nightmares. And there's even a bit of new material for those of us who have read (and re-read) the book already.

The cameos by the Discworld's most famous witches at the end are spot-on. And Player's copy of "The Fairy Fellers' Master-Stroke" is inspired, even if the Feegle is being vulgar.

Too often, illustrations added later simply float over the story. Stephen Player's drawings, to a very considerable extent, add to the pleasure of the book. When Tiffany finds the way into Faerie, the fold-out drawing hides and reveals, just as Tiffany struggles to see with First Sight.

Player has brought new and additional delight to a delightful book. Very highly recommended.

I purchased this as a gift for a niece, and I must say it is beautifully done. It's Pratchett so that screams quality from the get go for the writting, and if you don't know what I'm talking about you have a lot of reading to catch up on. The Illustrations are nice, and there are a lot of little touches done with the pages that you generally only find in short picture books. The quality of the bindings and paper is of library quality. All in all a great product that I'm sure a child will be able to enjoy for a life time, even when they are eventually a big job themselves.

While those of us who love Terry Pratchett and any novel within the Discworld/Tiffany Aching series do not need the illustrated version to enjoy this book, it is a wonderful edition to read and own. I purchased it after having read all of the regular editions of the Tiffany Aching series, and enjoyed rereading it with the illustrations. I think it would be a great way to get kids (probably 8+ year olds, as some of the illustrations are a bit scary for little ones) into the series. The Nac Mac Feegles are drawn just as the small figurines (those licensed by Terry Pratchett) appear. The colorful illustrations really bring the story to life. I highly recommend this edition to any and all Terry Pratchett fans.

The Illustrated Wee Free Men is a fanciful fairy tale told with an enormous amount of wit and humor. This is the newest version of Pratchett's Discworld story. The original was released as a novel geared for youth, though it is sure to be enjoyed by readers of all ages.

Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching is growing up on a sheep and dairy farm and longs for a bit of magic in her life. Unlike the wizards and witches who wave wands and chant spells, young Tiffany offers a healthy dose of common sense and practical determination combined with an unhindered view of the world that allows her to see the realm beyond the ordinary and do what must be done to save her community and her young brother from the evil faerie queen.

Tiffany teams up with the fierce pictsies, the Nac Mac Feegle, also known as the Wee Free Men. The fact that the Nac Mac Feegle are blue and only six inches tall does not lessen their status as the most feared warriors amongst all faerie races. They are ruthless fighters, hearty drinkers, and unrepentant thieves who celebrate life and death with equal abandon.

Stephen Player's illustrations lend much to the tale and make this version of Wee Free Men a potential collectible. The drawings almost dance along the pages, often inserted as background shadow images or borders along the page. At times, the text on a particular page is re-arranged to accommodate the insertion of artwork in unusual places. Player's depictions of the expressions and physical stances of both Tiffany Aching and the Wee Free Men exactly capture how I would picture them to be when reading the story.

Pratchett's interesting characters have the wonderful habit if popping up now and again throughout his various novels. This continues to be the case with Wee Free Men. Whether you are new to Pratchett's Discworld series, or a longtime fan, I enthusiastically recommend The Illustrated Wee Free Men as one to add to your book collection.

Terry Pratchett's "Wee Free Men" in its original form has already been a wonderful appendix to the main Discworld book series, "Wee Free Men" being the first of the books written about Tiffany Aching, a young witch in-training and friend to the pictsies (think of drunken, thieving, fighting pixies with Scots accents; but never never never refer to them as "pixies" -- it would be safer to call the Librarian a "monkey"). As with all the best books written for a "young people" audience, the book is immensely enjoyable by an intelligent adult. Even in its original, text-only version it was a great pleasure, and now that enjoyment is enhanced thanks to the vivid, evocative illustrations in this new edition. I suppose it is impossible for an illustrator to exactly match the visual impressions already held by a reader, but Stephen Player does a good job at capturing the spirit of the thing. In several cases, the illustrations are cleverly integrated into the text, not presented merely as decorations.

If a reader is new to Discworld, this would be a good introduction (some of the later Discworld novels in the main series benefit from a previous familiariy with that peculiar world, although it does not delve into elephants on the back of a giant, space-swimming turtles; but a couple of popular characters from the main Discworld novels are on hand). And for long-time Discworld fans, it is simply a delight.

My title pretty much says it all. This is a great book for preteens to adults and is currently being sold at a killer price. I paid $25 for mine. I believe Stephen Player isn't thrilled with the quality of the printing of his pictures (the colors got a little warped) but I doubt any reader will see a problem with them.

Wee Free Men is a charming coming-of-age story with a brave and sensible female heroine. Tiffany Aching, a practical girl with a strong sense of intuition, journeys to fairyland to save her kidnapped brother from the Queen of Fairies. Armed with a frying pan and the help of drunk swearing blue pixies call the Mac Nac Feegles, Tiffany proves to herself that witches are not gnarled old crones hidden in the dark chanting spells over cauldrons. They are just people with common sense who know when to act.

Stephan Player's illustrations add another dimension to Wee Free Men. It is interesting to see an artist's take on Tiffany Aching's world. Not every page is illustrated nor is every major event illustrated. Sometimes there are just pages of text without illustrations. More often than not, there are only a couple of small illustrations dotting the page. However, big things and events like Tiffany, the Feegle mound, Fairyland monsters, The Shepherdess, Granny Aching and the Jolly Sailor are all accompanied with full page illustrations. The only thing that bothers me is that Player's Tiffany looks a bit like John Tenniel's Alice. All in all, Player does wonderful illustrations for a great Pratchett story.

One other item worth noting, if the cover of the book is important to you - the US edition and the UK edition bears different covers. The US version shows Feegles hidden in a tea cup. The UK version shows Feegles peering into the saucer of black ink Miss Tick uses to spy on Tiffany. The tea cup illustration also appears inside the book, but nowhere in the book can you find the saucer of black ink illustration.

My kids and I had listened to the Wee Free Men as an audio book, and loved it. When I saw that there was an illustrated version available I ordered it straight away for a Holiday gift. The illustrations are fun and fit in with the tone/style of the story. I would say a must for Pratchett fans!

Great book and story. Thanks for the service. This one we will read over and over and pass down to the next generation, always a nice thing to do.

We are huge Terry Pratchett fans here at home, and this (Wee Free Men) was the only book missing in our Disc World collection -- although there is some disagreement between the different publishing companies of whether the Tiffany Aching adventures are part of the Disc World series (some books list them as part of Disc World, some don't), I think it is obvious that they ARE part of Disc World. After all, they not just happen in the Disc World, but the old witches participate in them, as well as other characters, other places from Disc World are visited, etc.

Anyway, this was the last missing tome, so I decided to buy it for my girlfriend, who is the one who owns the whole collection. And why not buy the illustrated? She already had The Last Hero in illustrated form, and it was incredibly cool, so I got this one. And we were not disappointed. The story is great, of course, being Terry Pratchett. This is the book that first introduces young witch Tiffany and the fierce Nac Mac Feegle (the wee free men of the title). So, that part was as expected. But the illustrations... were even more amazing! Great stuff, very nice graphical work all over. I specially liked the little Feegles spread all over the book, messing with the letters of the text. Great book for kids 8-88 and beyond.