A Hat full of sky

Sure, the Tiffany Aching books are exciting and funny. But behind and around all of that, they are also calm and wise and comfortable. There is deep good humor and kindness underlying all of Terry Pratchett’s work, but that may be most evident in his Tiffany Aching sequence.

In the first Tiffany book we met our heroine, but were all but carried away by the Wee Free Men and their nonstop antics. In this book, the second in the series, everything turns around Tiffany, and the Wee Free Men are less prominent and take more of a supporting role. Tiffany has been sent to apprentice to a quirky witch and to be trained up. While playing around with a showy way to step out of her body Tiffany attracts the attention of a wild, ancient, roving, bodiless Hive that undertakes to track her down and possess her.

You can see where this is all headed. Tiffany is growing up, as a young woman and as a witch. She has to face terrible peril while not fully prepared. She has to reach deeply into her sense of self and use her wits and heart to fight off this invader. Through it all we see a lot of Granny Weatherwax, and the interactions of the two play a clever and subtly imagined variation on the traditional spring/winter myth, as young Tiffany both honors and challenges old Granny Weatherwax’s prominence.

So, there are wise and generous messages about service and community and self-reliance tucked away between the laughs, which adds warmth and color to what could otherwise be a slightly dry and flinty tale. Even the devotion and loyalty of the Wee Free Men has an uplifting touch. Anyway, you have to love an obsessively tidy poltergeist.

The young witch of the Chalk downlands goes begins her apprenticeship not knowing that shes being stalked by a long-lived lifeform that likes taking over hosts. A Hat Full of Sky is the 32nd book of Terry Pratchetts Discworld series and the second following Tiffany Aching and her friends the Wee Free Men.

A year and a half after Tiffany Aching took on the Fairie Queen with only an iron skillet; shes finally going to learn proper witchcraft as an apprentice to Mistress Level, who apparently has two bodies. However that is the only thing extraordinary about Tiffanys experience with Miss Level because instead of magic, shes just doing chores and learning practical knowledge. Yet unknowingly Tiffany is doing magic as she has immense power in borrowing just like Granny Weatherwax, but unlike the areas most renowned witch Tiffany doesnt know how to defend herself from those wanting to borrow her. While Tiffany doesnt realize the danger shes in, the Chalk Clan of the Nac Mac Feegles keep an eye on their wee big hag and know whats stalking her and go racing to the rescue with hilarious results. But in the end itll have to be Tiffany who gets her body back from this immortal foe.

The second book of featuring Tiffany and Feegles goes right into the story quickly while also giving information about both early on without taking away from the narrative or unnecessary exposition. One doesnt need to have read The Wee Free Men to learn information about the Feegles culture as Pratchett also included a nice little article about them before the story begins, mainly to allay fears from parents that the Feegles are cussing in a childrens book. Frankly the only negative from the point of view of an adult is that one could see the major plot points coming, it was just how Pratchett would make them entertainingwhich he certainly did.

While A Hat Full of Sky is a young adult book, Terry Pratchetts satirical and narrative writing makes it a great addition to the overall Discworld series. Both new readers and longtime fans will have a good time reading Tiffany learning about being a witch.

Everything The Wee Free Men did, A Hat Full of Sky does even better – and when you take into account how good Wee Free Men was, that’s a heck of an accomplishment. Sky takes place not long after Men ends, with Tiffany coming to terms with who she is and starting an apprenticeship under the tutelage of a local witch. Of course, the Nac Mac Feegle are never far behind her to keep her safe, but neither is something else – something that seems to have malevolent intentions and an unnerving focus on Tiffany. It would be easy to focus on how much Sky made me laugh – and it made me laugh a lot, and really hard – but to do so would run the risk of giving away so many of the best lines and moments, even though pulling them out of Pratchett’s beautiful prose would ruin some of the magic anyways. (That being said, the disguise implemented by the Feegle creates some of the funniest moments I can remember reading in a book – not just Pratchett, but any book, period.) But I also want to focus on the raw beauty and magic that Pratchett can create, most notably in the book’s climax, which stands much of what we’ve assumed on its heads, (literally) opens new doors into whole new worlds, and gives us a glimpse of a universe that’s staggering in its complexity and surprising depth and humanity (so to speak). As I said about Men, Sky is technically a YA novel, but there’s no difference between this and Pratchett’s other work – it’s just as complex, just as solid, just as funny, just as wonderful, without a hint of the patronizing tone that so often sneaks into YA books written by “adult” authors. I put off the Tiffany Aching books for a bit; now, I’m just glad to have more Pratchett to dive into all over again.

What a fantastic story. Not surprisingly from Terry Pratchett but this story ticks all the boxes. It’s funny, poignant, with lots of social comment and witty remarks. I loved it.

The characters are brilliant, with brilliant names and traits they capture your imagination for the start. I loved them all, even then villains.

This is a must read, but do read the series in order. Highly recommended.

I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett since his works were first published many years ago and have remained a fan ever since, All of his books are very good but those of the Discworld series are possibly his finest. I own the whole Discworld series of books in hardback so it seemed only logical to buy them in Kindle as well in order to have a portable Terry Pratchett collection.

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