Terry Pratchett
Doubleday
ISBN 978-0-385-60984-5
Tiffany Aching is almost thirteen, she live on Disc World, and is a trainee witch. Tiffany has voices in her head that help her, and us, see what is really going on. She is also frequently surrounded by very small blue men, they are called the Nac Mac Feegles. They have a duty of care over Tiffany, although they would not necessarily express it like that, so when ever she's in trouble they are watching over her and do their best to help. The Nac Mac Feegles have no fear, except of women, especially angry women, and of course witches. Otherwise they are always up for a fight. They provide the lighter moments in the book, and prevent us from taking the story too seriously. Tiffany is the typical precocious child, and will not do as she's told. She's not bad, quite the reverse, but her sense of independence gets her into trouble. She's looked after by an older witch, who is supposed to be training her. She's taken to see the dance where summer and winter swap as the dominant elemental for the new season. The dance is the Black Morris. -She joins in – always a bad idea, and gets mistaken for the Summer Lady. That's when the trouble starts, the wintersmith falls in love with her, and all sorts of dangerous things begin to happen.
Its Mistress Weatherwax (the hag 'o' hags as the Nac Mac Feegles call her) who's really looking after Tiffany and training her and testing her. She is one of the original characters in Disc World, and appears in many of the books. Here we see a softer side of her, but only just.
Using elements from various mythological stories, new ideas and twists, and of course the setting of disc world itself we have another brilliant story from Terry Pratchett. If you've read any of the Disc World stories, you'll already know what a good story teller Pratchett is. The characters are developed nicely from the previous book in the series, and you have a feeling there is more to come. Which we certainly hope there is.
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