Hogfather by Terry Pratchett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Hogfather
Book Review: Hogfather - Another Masterpiece from Terry P
Summary: 5 Stars
It won't take any Pratchett fan very long to realize that our man Terry is trying something subtlely different in "Hogfather". For sure this book is slow to get off the ground. Much space at the beginning gets spent on Susan, along with the Raven and the Death of Rats, sequences that many fans may find lacking in traditional Pratchett humor. Elsewhere Death is filling in for the jolly Hogfather, who has died of a sort, and makes the mistake of giving some youngsters what they want rather than what their parents think they should want. The biggest laughs in the book come when the wizards show up, and join the search for the Hogfather together wtih an ant-powered mechanical computer named "Hex". And when a wayward comment brings in a board-game toting Cheerful Fairy determined to lighten the mood, I guarantee you enough side-splitting laughter to make up for any dull passages at the start.
But beneath all this, there is more. Pratchett has always snuck tinges of philosophy into his books. In "Small Gods" we learned that Gods only wield power so long as people believe in them. In "Pyramids" an unfortunate accident forced an entire kingdom to face its beliefs manifested in physical reality. In "Witches Abroad" we learned that fiction shapes people rather than the other way around. But in "Hogfather" he pushes the envelope further, asserting that all reality is make-believe, and all make-believe is reality, and furthermore that this is a good thing. It's a daring statement and a daring approach to life, one that will make small-minded folks sneer, and imaginative ones, at the very least, stretch their minds to a new place.
Terry Pratchett is brave. Not just a master of wit and a keen observer of human nature, he takes on everybody's most cherished institutions and sees how they were shaped by belief rather than reality. It's a thought that frightens us because it's like realizing that your house is built on quicksand. If the beliefs start to change, then the house can collapse. But the point of "Hogfather", the real point, is that we should be joyful at realizing how powerful our beliefs are, because once we reach that realization we are free from the tyranny of gods and of moral absolutes.
Book Review: Hogfather: A Novel of Discworld
Summary: 4 Stars
Another brilliant book by this author. Having read all of his books (several times)I can't say that any one of them ranks as the out and out best, but this one certainly comes close to being my favourite. Any book featuring DEATH as the Discworld's equivilent to Santa has to be good. His attempts to understand human nature are hilarious, especially when he gets things wrong. Albert is also a favourite character of mine. The scene in the fairy grotto is the best in the book. Definitely a laugh-out-loud book.Book Review: I love this book..
Summary: 5 Stars
I love this book. Oh, did I mention I love this book?Quite apart from containing Death's granddaughter, Susan Sto Helit, who could make a book worthwhile all by herself, it's REALLY REALLY COOL. That Assassin Teatime is *wonderfully* creepy. I have a Teatime fixation now. And the oh god is amazing as well.. Well, the characters, as always, make or break the book, but the plot here's amazing as well. And where else but the Discworld can you have a storyline that takes you from a child's playroom, to Death's house, to the Tooth Fairy's castle?
Book Review: If you haven't got a ha'penny...
Summary: 4 Stars
I read this back in November and didn't even mind a really long commuter train delay. My neighbors may have, although most of them seemed to smile as I snickered, giggled and guffawed my way through it. When I went home for Christmas, I pressed it on my mother, and, when she complained that her eyes hurt too much for the tiny print, I read parts of it aloud. Fortunately, my mother shares my sense of humor.I think this is the funniest of Pratchett's books. To be sure, someone else can disagree, and that's not a bad thing. Pratchett's eye for the ridiculous is sharp, but he stays reasonably charitable which makes a nice change. Best of all, Pratchett never forgets that a satire works best if it has a story of its own to hang on. That's a point all too often forgotten by people who think they're writing satire.
Just because I can't resist, I'll hint at my favorite passage: "IT'S NOT MEANT TO BE SAFE." If you haven't already read the book, that's the point where I couldn't stop laughing, and never mind that one lady looked quite ready to summon the security people!
Like Gibbon, Pratchett lives a good deal of his life in his footnotes, acerbic enough to appeal to my somewhat jaundiced view of humanity. He thinks a lot of people are idiots, and it's a good thing the world has got so well padded. For some, it could get even better padded...
Christmas, even crass and commercialized, is a good thing, and Pratchett remembers that. This book is great.
Book Review: In the Bottom Half...
Summary: 2 Stars
This is one of those "bummer" Discworld novels, lying somewhere in the bottom half of Pratchett's output. This is one of those Discworld novels where the plot (what there is of it) evolves entirely off stage, and is never even summarized by Pratchett or one of the characters. You have to guess it from occasional vague indications.On stage we have the always boring Susan, grandaughter of Death, as well as Death himself, plus some time-wasting and always irrelevant antics at Unseen University. You will not be surprised at all to learn that with Discworld's equivalent of Santa Claus or Father Christmas turning up missing, Death has to fill in. Nor will anything that then happens surprise you. And most of it won't amuse you either. The villain, Mister Teatime, is potentially interesting, but is given little or nothing to do, like all the other characters.
By this time in his output, 20 novels down the tubes, Pratchett seemed quite tired of it all, and the reader will be tired of this novel long before the final page is turned.