Wednesday, February 27, 2013

Read-Along: Part 2 of The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett


It's a bit late in the day, but here are my responses for part 2 of the read-along, which covers chapters 6-9.  Much thanks to Dab of Darkness and Little Red Reviewer for organizing, hosting and providing discussion questions.  There's only one week of reading remaining for this fun little book, after today! 

From here on out, there are spoilers through Chapter 9 of The Wee Free Men.


1.  Do you think Tiffany will be able to hold up her end of the bargain that she made with the Kelda? 

I don't think she and Rob are going to have 'hundreds of wee babbies", but I think she'll try to do her best by the Feegles until they get a new kelda.  With their superior knowledge of Fairyland, they're more looking out for her at the moment than she is for them.  I get the feeling that's going to turn around at some point.

2.Do you think Tiffany and Fion will ever be friends?

I think they'll eventually come to respect one another, but I doubt they'll ever be having sleepovers and braiding each other's hair.  I think Fion will be much less resentful of Tiffany when she's kelda of her own clan of Feegles.

3. What do you think of the Queen's world? How does this interpretation of Fairyland mesh with other interpretations you've run into in other books?

I think this is probably my favorite interpretation of Fairyland.   At the very least, it is up in my top Fairylands, which also includes the Fairyland from Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell (which is also quite a deadly place). I liked the nightmare creatures, the danger, and how it is too little reality stretched over too large a space.  I wonder about the worlds where it picked up some of those creatures. 

4. What do you think of Roland? Will he be a help to Tiffany or a hindrance?

He doesn't seem very helpful at first glance, but then again, he has managed to not die in Fairyland for a while.  I wonder if he was actually kidnapped by the Queen, or if he actually just wandered in.  If the Queen took him, how did he get away from her?  Considering all this, I think he'll be a help to her, though she might have to twist his arm a little.

5. I don't know about you, but I do NOT want to run into a Drome!

Yeah, I would like to never encounter one of those, too. I'm pretty good at telling when I'm dreaming, but I don't know if that would even be a good enough defense.  If the Drome puts you in the state of mind you find while mostly unconscious, I don't know if I would be able to choose to leave a pleasant dream.  

8 comments:

  1. hmm.... so Tiffany just needs to find another clan of Feegles, a new family for Fion? I so want them to be come friends, or at least allies, but Fion is being such a snob about the whole thing.

    ooh, good questions about Roland!! He's been doing decent in Fairyland, is he even going to want to return to the real world when push comes to shove?

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    1. I bet that would help their relationship, though I don't know how Tiffany would find another clan! I'm guessing Fion's snobbishness is probably mostly because she feels like Tiffany's usurped 'her' place (though I don't think she was planning on marrying her brother :) ). I hope she'll calm down enough about it for them to be allies soon!

      I'm really looking forward to learning more about what Roland's been up to all this time!

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  2. It would take Tiffany like 5 minutes to braid Fion's hair. And it would take Fion like.....12 hours to braid Tiffany's hair? Seems like Tiffany would get the most torture out of that.

    Hmmm...someone needs to add Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell to their sooner-rather-than-later TBR pile.

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    1. Hmm, I don't know, I bet Tiffany could accidentally tug the hell out of Fion's hair, with her big job finger muscles. That sounds pretty torturous all around, now that you bring up the details. I guess mutual hair-braiding would not be an ideal friend activity for them, in the first place :).

      Jonathan Strange & Mr. Norrell is a really unusual book, it has a kind of dry, humorous, historical feel (with lots of footnotes). I think it's one of those love-it-or-hate-it books, but I loved it!

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  3. I can see Tiffany questioning the validity of hair-braiding as a friendship-building exercise...

    Also, I think I have Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell in my reading pile somewhere, but it's one of the ones I haven't gotten around to yet ... I should fix this ... (I should fix this for a lot of books, but hey, what's one more?)

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    1. Ah, I know what that's like. So many books, so little time!

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  4. If I was Tiffany, I wouldn't let Fion anywhere near my hair! :D

    I have a copy of Jonathan Strange somewhere . . . maybe I should dig it out . . .

    Interesting to think that Roland might have simply stumbled into this nightmare world. Hopefully we will find out a little about how he got there.

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    1. Yeah, I'm hoping we learn more about Roland and how he ended up here, too. He might be a lot more resourceful than he seems on first impression.

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