Customer Reviews

Terry Pratchett's Hogfather (GollanczF.)

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Up on the housetops porkers paw...at least on Discworld they do. And down the chimney comes good old Hogfather. Or at least, he's supposed to. Who can take his place if the Hogfather is somehow...indisposed? How about Death and his chain-smoking cook, Albert? Yes, Virginia, we really are on Discworld.

"Hogfather" is one of my favorite Discworld novels (and the made-for-TV movie isn't bad, either - Hogfather) because only Pratchett has the audacity to tangle together three of our favorite anthropomorphic personifications (Santa Claus a.k.a. the Hogfather, the Tooth Fairy, and Death) in one intricate story line that is really about belief and what makes the Sun come up in the morning.

Only Death's granddaughter, Susan has the moxie and the common sense to sort out new anthropomorphic personifications (how about a god of hangovers, and a Verruca gnome) that rush into the belief vacuum created by the absence of Hogfather, thwart the evil Auditors, and foil the assassin who has broken into the Tooth Fairy's castle. Meanwhile her Granddad is delivering some very interesting presents to the little kiddies of Discworld.

On Gouger! On Tusker! On Rooter and Snouter!

This is the sequel to Soul Music. It includes all of our old friends Susan , Ridcully, Some others from the university, Raven, The Death of Rats, Albert, And who could forget Susan's good old grandpa Death. It starts out on Hogswatch eve at The Assassin's Guild where one of the auditors (also featured in Reaperman) come to speak with the head of the guild. After the two are done talking the victim is apparent, a near immortal being named- The Hogfather. The Hogfather comes out on every Hogswatch night to give preasents to children. To deal with this mind boggling task the head comes up with one of the more bloodthirsty assassins named Teatime.
Throughout the book we discover what Susan has been doing since we left her. She has taken a job at an orphanage and she adjusts well to taking care of the kids. But she soon finds out that keeping care of about ten children is nothing when she's faced with monsters limited only by the children's imagination. Meanwhile Death of Rats comes with the news that Susan's grandfather has taken up the the Hogfather's reins.
I thought that the story was fun and reviled parts of human nature that are usually kept in the dark with some of the most thoughtful authors. The only major flaw of the book is that towards the end it starts to become a bit ridiculous even in Disk World standards.
My personal favorite part of this book was all the places it takes you such as The Toothfairy's castle, The Hogfathers Palace, and Deaths Country.
This is a very fun book and I would recommend it as one of the better Disk World series but would advise readers to look into reading Mort and Soulmusic first.