Customer Reviews

The Wee Free Men: a Story of Discworld

5 star:		(103)
4 star:		(24)
3 star:		(5)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(4)

 

 

If you're already a Terry Pratchett fan (I certainly am), you don't need a reviewer to tell you that you'll like this book. I'd like to address this review to the many many readers who are looking for something really GREAT for younger readers.

Tiffany, a 9-year-old witch must save the world with the assistance of a herd of drunken angry red-headed six-inch-tall kilt-wearing Scottish fairies, who bear names like "Slightly Bigger Than Wee Jock But Not So Big as Middle-Sized Jock Jock" and "Rob Anybody."

The book is hysterically, laugh-out-loud funny for both younger and adult readers (my family looked at me funny as I was giggling the whole time I was reading it.) Although a girl is the hero, the rambunctious troublemaking Feegles will make the book highly appealing for boys (of all ages) as well.

It's actually serious in intent, though, with themes reminiscent of A Wrinkle in Time or The Lion Witch and the Wardrobe series (the villain is a Queen who distorts people's consciousnesses and leaves a trail of frozen weather everywhere she goes). Tiffany saves the world through strength of character and common sense (and hooray for those!) rather than with magic alone.

As much as we liked Harry Potter around our house, I think that Wee Free Men is the equal of any of the Potter books. The best "kid" fiction of the year (or longer).

Terry Pratchett won a Carnegie Medal for his first children's book set in his Discworld, "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents." He has a good shot at a second award for "Wee Free Men." It's that good.

Nine year old Tiffany Aching was born on The Chalk. The Achings have lived on The Chalk and tended their sheep for centuries. Tiffany's grandmother was the matriarch of the Aching clan, and while she never called herself a witch, she never denied it, either. Tiffany is still trying to adjust to the death of her grandmother, and to the birth of her sticky little brother, Wentworth, when she is attacked by a monster out of Faerie. One thing leads to another, and before long she must rescue her brother from Faerie, be the kelda of the Nac Mac Feegle, the Wee Free Men of the title, and save the world from the terrors of Faerie. Because there is no one else.

One of Pratchett's many skills is inversion. In "Amazing Maurice," he inverted the Pied Piper of Hamlin. In "Wee Free Men," he inverts children's fairy tales in general. Instead of a magic sword, Tiffany has a plain old iron frying pan. Instead of a wise mentor, she has a toad who used to be a lawyer. Instead of an army, she has the Nac Mac Feegle. The Queen of Faerie, Tiffany's antagonist, is about as far from a noble Tolkien elf as you can get. Because the Queen of Faery has the power to steal your dreams, your worst nightmares, and trap you inside them.

And Tiffany must confront the Queen on her own ground, in the land of nightmares, where the monsters are terrifying and real. You don't have to reflect very long to understand Pratchett is working at several levels. The themes are meaningful and accessible to children without the slightest condescension.

Some of the characters - the Queen herself, the Nac Mac Feegle, and wonderful cameos at the end of the story - are familiar from other stories. But as was the case with "Amazing Maurice," you don't have to know the other Pratchett stories to relish "Wee Free Men." This is masterful story-telling, hysterically funny and very scary by turn. Pratchett is very, very good, and this story is one of his best. Highly recommended to both children and adults.

"The Wee Free Men" is Terry Pratchett's second foray into Discworld-for-Young-Adults coming a year and a half after "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" and six months after his last 'regular' Discworld book, "Night Watch". It revisits ground from "Lords and Ladies" and "Carpe Jugulum", which is fine, because with usual Pratchett flair, he tosses in enough wry satire, strange humor and generally good storytelling that you don't always notice when he goes back to some of his older material.

While the Nac Mac Feegle (the Wee Free Men last seen in "Carpe Jugulum"), little woad-tattooed Pictsies, do feature in a large chunk of the book, the heroine is Tiffany, a nine-year-old witch's granddaughter and budding witch herself who must be the singularly most sensible (but still likeable) character I've ever read in a book directed at an audience less than 18 years old. She struggles to cope with the death of a grandmother who, even though she died more than a year ago, has still had a huge impact on her life. She also struggles with making sense of the world - both as a young girl and as a human being, and she struggles with the Queen of the Elves/Fairies (last seen in "Lords and Ladies") in what becomes a metaphor for maturity and clarity in a large, scary world. Pratchett's moral is that just because you're not yet officially an adult, it doesn't mean that you can't understand the world any less well. This is a theme he's played with before, but it's always appropriate no matter how many times he brings it out.

As a huge Discworld fan, I really enjoyed this book - possibly even more than "The Amazing Maurice...", although it's probably not at quite the same level of literary excellence as his previous work. Fans of Pratchett in general will undoubtedly appreciate his jabs at academia, fairy tales and the Harry Potter series (which future books about Tiffany may someday parody more explicitly). For fans of Discworld, not only are Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle two of his more interesting creations (which is saying something), but the cameo by Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg at the end is delightful. Missing, though, is the obligatory cameo by Death - possibly for the first time ever in a Discworld book.

Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone regardless of age or knowledge of Discworld. As with "The Amazing Maurice..." the Discworld cosmology is relatively light, so if you're not familiar with the Disc, it won't get in the way of enjoying the book. If you are, though, his subtle touches and revisitations throughout the book make it a more integrated work than his last foray into Discworld-Young-Adult. Either way, though, it's a great book.

This review is specifically about the e-book version of The Wee Free Men. I love this story, but am very displeased with the Kindle version for two reasons. First, the e-book is incomplete. It lacks an image of the book cover. Worse yet, all of those amusing footnotes found in Terry Pratchett novels are missing. I can see where they would have been, but they are not included in the e-book version. Since many of Pratchett's best jokes can be found in the footnotes, this is a shocking omission. Second, I am frustrated that in spite of the deficiencies of the e-book version, Harper Collins Pub. has the audacity to charge the same price as the paperback book. I adore Terry Pratchett's work, but plan to ask Amazon for a refund and refrain from buying any more Harper Collins e-books.

The Wee Free Men are scared--the lines between the world are getting thin and the Queen that they once served is ready to break through. Only a witch can help--but the only witch available is nine-year-old Tiffany. Tiffany Aching doesn't know magic and she doesn't have a pointed hat, but she's decided she will be a witch some day. With the arrival of the Queen and the kidnapping of Tiffany's brother, some day arrives more quickly than Tiffany had anticipated.

Tiffany sets off on an adventure in a dream world--a world where your dreams can hurt you, and where other being's dreams can hurt you even more. The Queen is the mistress of dreams--and nightmares. In her kingdom, and increasingly in the mundane world that Tiffany comes from, nightmare monsters are loose. Even the wee free men cannot stand against them.

Author Terry Pratchett starts with a simple fairy tale--the poor shepherd girl facing the evil Queen, and dresses it with multiple layers of meaning. At the simplest level, WEE FREE MEN is an adventure that twists many of the established rules of the fairy tale (the witches are the goodguys, the beautiful Queen is evil, and the baron's son is purely incompetent). Dig deeper and every detail had weight. The Wee Men are funny with their Scottish accents and willingness to fight, but they are also a bit sad and more especially, a good example for all of us. Like us, they've been fooled before. Unlike most of us, they are willing to fight to prevent it from happening again.

Tiffany, armed with her frying pan and with instructions to open her eyes, then open them again, is unusually clever for a nine-year-old, but then she is the hero. With the example of her grandmother behind her, there is little that Tiffany cannot do if she can keep her mind on it--and keep from being swept up in other people's dreams.

I might be making WEE GREEN MEN sound like some sort of philosophy text and nothing could be farther from the truth. It's filled with Pratchett humor and insights, an exciting adventure, and emotional complexities. One small word of warning--although the Nac Mac Feegle (the wee men) appear in Discworld stories, Tiffany's world resembles our own a lot more than it does the Discworld of Ankh Morpork and the Great God Om.

There's Terry Pratchett. And then there's... well, basically, a whole load of other people. But few of these other people can tie you to a story like Terry can.

There's Tiffany. And then, well... There's her annoying little brother. Who only wants sweets and to go a-toylut.

Of course there's education. If it wasn't there, children would have too much time to play and playing wouldn't be fun anymore. There's also Education. About how life really works (when other people think that things are just as they are, or make perfect sense, it's always interesting to actually take a look...).

And then there's Terry on Education with a story of Tiffany and how witchcraft is about what things are really about. About the sound of silence, the comfort of an informed granny and the feel of a snowflake on your pointy nose.

There is, well, nothing like it.

As with much of Terry Pratchett's work, the story-line in the Wee Free Men takes place on Discworld, in this case on The Chalk. It is a story of a young witch's "coming of age." Tiffany must save herself, her brother, her new-found charges the Nac Man Feegle (a tiny group of men who remind me of rabid football fans)and of course, the world. She goes from churning butter on the farm to battling the Queen of the Elves and her grimhounds. Armed only with a frying pan and her memories of Granny Aching, Tiffany sets out on a wonderfully narrated voyage of adventure and self-discovery.

Anyone who has read even one or two of Pratchett's books (I read the book before I bought the CD) marvels at the sub plots, the message, the moral -- and this book does not disappoint. Many times, I set down the book (pushed the pause button) and just contemplated what I was hearing. Marvelous.

Stephen Briggs, the narrator, does a great job doing the voices of Tiffany, the Queen, the Nac Mac Feegle. He has the ability to keep the characters separate in my mind as I listen to the CD. When he switched from narration to dialogue it did not interrupt the flow of the story. This CD was worth every cent!

Nobody writes fantasy witches like Terry Pratchett! With "The Amazing Maurice and his Educated Rodents," Terry Pratchett took his Discworld series into young adult turf (actually, these aren't too different from the adult books). Now he sprinkles more grass seed on that turf with "The Wee Free Men."

Tiffany Aching (great name) is a young witch-in-training, which is complex enough. But now her spoiled, troublesome little brother Wentworth has been kidnapped by the Queen of the Elves of Fairyland (these aren't Tolkien's fair, nice Elves -- they can be quite mean), and in true legendary tradition, Tiffany has to find him.

So Tiffany arms herself with a talking toad (courtesy of witch mentor Mrs. Tick) a frying pan, and not much else. (She hasn't quite got her magic yet...) And her new allies as the Nac Mac Feegles, also known as the Wee Free Men -- they're tiny, tattooed, and quite feisty and funny. But even with the Wee Free Men on her side, the sinister forces of the Elf Queen may not let her get Wentworth back...

Terry Pratchett has a certain talent for creating skewed and funny fantasy ideas. The Wee Free Men are a bit reminiscent of ancient Celts and Picts with their tattoos, sheep,, drinking and swords. (They are, however, six inches tall) These guys are funny additions to the ever-growing flat world and hopefully we'll see more of them.

Pratchett's dialogue is still funny and sharp His writing style is minimalist, sort of a funnier, lighter version of Robert Zelazny. But even though this book is labelled as being for the kids, there's no dumbing-down. And he peppers this story with some not-so-nice sprites, an eerie fairyland, and the sinister knife-toothed grimhounds. Nice stuff, there.

Like all of Pratchett's best heroes, Tiffany isn't the typical kind. She has "First Sight and Second Thoughts," fights evil with a frying pan, and has a lot of doubts. She is, in short, quite likable and sympathetic. (And anyone with an annoying little brother or sister will understand her thoughts about Wentworth) The Elf Queen is a fantastic villain; the talking toad serves is an excellent foil for Tiffany. But the Wee Free Men steal the show.

It's anyone's guess how Terry Pratchett can write all these amazing books so fast. Kids and adults alike will enjoy "The Wee Free Men," with its quirky Brit-humor and likable characters. A keeper!

This book was recommended to me by a friend that I consider to have a similar sense of humor, but I was not prepared for how funny this book is. It takes a while to get going, sometimes it was a bit confusing at first -- probably a function of not being able to read it straight through -- but once the story pieces are in place, it rollicks right along. Not that the entire book is funny, but the parts that are stick with you. I found myself trying to explain passages to my spouse and ignoring the fact that so much of the humor is inexplicable out of context. For starters, if you don't think the fact that many of the supporting characters are "pictsies" instead of "pixies" and are dressed accordingly is at least a teeny bit funny, you may be reading the wrong book. Some of the reviewers on this site have complained about the thick Nac Mac Feegle accents, but I think that style only serves to increase the giggle factor. Especially as an Amurrican who gets a kick out of how different peoples speak to one another.

There are storytelling elements that will feel familiar. I found myself having thoughts of the Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe as I was reading about the evil Queen and her land of eternal winter, though that may have been a conscious nod to the classic fantasy genre on Mr. Pratchett's part.

On the whole, however, this book gets 5 stars so that other people will read it. I am a certified book junkie who has had to limit the additions to my collection because it is getting too large. This one made the cut for purchase after I finished the copy I had checked out of the public library. I like to imagine that when my kids grow up, this will be the kind of book that they too will enjoy.

It was certainly good enough for me to write my first review for Amazon, a site I've been using since 1997.

This is an entertaining addition to the extensive Discworld series, although not the equal of 'Jingo' or 'Nightwatch'. The story stands alone well, and can be read without any reference to the rest of the series. While nominally a young adult book, it will be enjoyed by adults as well as kids (as is true for the rest of the series).

As usual, Pratchett produces a vivid combination of outrageous humour, twisted cultural and literary references, satire and keen understanding of human nature, in a book that is both funny and thought provoking. Young Tiffany Aching sets out to rescue her brother from the dark side of fairlyland, armed with a frying pan, a copy of 'Diseases of the Sheep', and the help of the Nac Mac Feegle, three inch tall, blue skinned, red haired pictsies who will fight, drink or steal anything. The Nac Mac Feegle steal the show (as well as the sheep), causing me to laugh out loud on several occasions.

This is, in many ways, an anti-fairy tale, turning the traditional fairy tale standards (and the modern sanitising thereof) upside down, giving us something that is more pragmatic, darker, and also more magical than typical Disney fare.

At one point Tiffany reflects that everyone knows that fairy tale adventures generally happen to girls with blond hair and blue eyes, or red hair and green eyes, and that girls with brown hair and eyes are generally left to be secondary characters. This is a book that, in the spirit of Munsch's picture book 'The Paper Bag Princess', rejects the traditional role of helpless princess waiting to be rescued and gives us a story for brown haired people who would much rather be the ones doing the rescuing.

In summary, this is a good addition to the Discworld series. Although not as good as the best books of the series, it stands alone quite well, and is definitely well worth reading. (Keep in mind that the four star rating is in comparison to other Pratchett, rather than your average book).