Tiffany Aching wasn’t much of a witch, when it came down to it. She couldn’t ride a broomstick without feeling sick, couldn’t make a shamble, couldn’t cast spells…
Well, never mind. That was what apprenticeships were for, wasn’t it?
A Hat Full of Sky begins where The Wee Free Men left off. Tiffany has just saved the universe (or something like that, anyway) with the help of some little blue pictsies and the feel of the chalk in her blood. (She lived on the coast.) In doing so she gained the approval of one Granny Weatherwax, a character instantly familiar to any Discworld fans. An experienced old hag, she can see the potential of Tiffany – though others protest that surely there has never been a witch from the chalk?!?
The “Wee Free Men”, the little blue guys who are good at four things - ”drinking, fighting, stealing, and… fightin’ an’stealin’ an’ drinkin’” can sense that there’s something afoot and they don’t like it, but they don’t want to interfere too much with the life of the “big wee hag” as they affectionately call her. But as time goes on their worst fears are realised, and what is worse is, Tiffany is all but oblivious to what’s happening until it seems too late… In her seemingly boring and futile role as apprentice to a witch with a very real case of split personality, what could possibly happen?
Both The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky are termed stories of Discworld, not Discworld novels. They are primarily aimed at children, and feature a few of the same settings and characters as the Discworld novels but mostly original characters. (Granny Weatherwax is a mainstay of the Discworld books, while the We Free Men (also called the Nac Mac Feegle) only appear in “Carpe Juggulum”, at least to the best of my knowledge. The style of writing is somewhat similar, being at heart comedy fantasy as are most of Terry Pratchett’s books, but with (as you might expect) far less bite and satire. Despite this I really loved the first of these books starring Tiffany and the little blue dudes.
The storyline bounces along quite merrily and, while not as funny as the first book the narrative drive is certainly enough to keep younger readers interested. For adult readers it’s okay but not much more. The vocabulary used will be challenging to some children but it shouldn’t be a problem for most. A few moralistic subplots are thrown in for good measure and the odd "family" set-up of the Wee Free Men and their "Kelda" (Queen) are typical Pratchett. A short dictionary of terms used by the Wee free Men prefaces the story and you may need to refer back to this at times or risk being completely lost in gibberish...
There are certainly quite a few funny moments throughout the book, but it’s not a riot. There are also a few passages that hint at a more meaningful rhetoric that even younger readers will pick up on to some extent. A very few jokes will be lost on the kids.
Unfortunately, what made the first book such a joy to read is largely absent from this sequel. There is very little interchange between the Wee Free Men and Tiffany, been as they are separated for most of the book. To me, this takes away much of the humour and enjoyment from the book. It was what made “The Wee Free Men” special, and without it, A Hat Full of Sky is merely a readable (and yes, enjoyable) but ultimately average book – though “average” for Pratchett is still well worth reading. Children will enjoy it a lot more than adults. Overall I’m going to give it 3 stars since I did enjoy reading it, but will not be repeating the exercise.
Read the review of The Wee Free Men, which in my opinion is a far superior book.
Recommended:
