You know, you can tell we’ve just got past that time of year, can’t you … ?
Decorations are coming down, plastic Christmas trees are being put back in the attic, shedding tinsel’s being placed gently and reverentially in the bin …
And the interesting crimbo pressies are being oggled …
Yes, I know I’m being a touch self centred, there, maybe.
But there you go …
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At any rate, I mentioned, a day or two ago, I’d been given the latest Terry Pratchett hardback, I Shall Wear Midnight, for Christmas, and how impressed I was with it.
Having actually finished it … ?
I’m still impressed …
I Shall Wear Midnight — the fourth of the Tiffany Aching novels — sees Tiffany going about her day to day work as the only witch in the area she lives: one facing a slowly building climate of suspicion she’s never experienced, until now.
As the novel progresses, she — and we — find that the fear of witches is being caused by an entity called The Cunning Man: an Omnian witch-finder who’d died over a millennium before, after falling in lust with a witch he was due to burn.
An entity who’s found that the one thing he really wants to do …
Is still to persecute witches …
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Now, I said, earlier, that I was impressed … ?
Yes, I did, and I am.
Now, I’ll be honest, I’ve not actually re-read Unseen Academicals, the last Discworld novel: mostly were I felt that Pterry’s condition was seriously starting to show.
That doesn’t seem to be the case with I Shall Wear Midnight.
It is — by turns — frightening, laugh-out-loud funny, romantic …
And uplifting, as only Terry Pratchett can be.
Granted, it may not be his best work.
But I Shall Wear Midnight … ?
Definitely tells me Terry Pratchett is still fighting that demon …
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