Wintersmith by Terry
Pratchett
Published: Doubleday,
2006
Series: Discworld, 3rd
Tiffany Aching Novel
Awards Won: Locus YA
Award
The Book:
“When the Spirit of Winter takes a fancy to Tiffany Aching, he
wants her to stay in his gleaming, frozen world. Forever. It will take the
young witch's skill and cunning, as well as help from the legendary Granny
Weatherwax and the irrepressible Wee Free Men, to survive until Spring. Because
if Tiffany doesn't make it to Spring...
...Spring won't come.” ~WWEnd.com
Wintersmith continues
the story of the young witch Tiffany Aching, who is now around 13 years
old. I read this as a part of a
read-along, and my spoiler-filled posts can be found here, here and here for
those interested. While this novel
does cover a complete story on its own, I think it would be best read after the
first two books of the Tiffany Aching series (The Wee Free Men and A Hat
Full of Sky).
My Thoughts:
Wintersmith follows
Tiffany into the period of her life where she’s just starting to get an inkling
about romance. Thus, the
beginnings of understanding romance are a large part of the central story of
Wintersmith. Not only is Tiffany
trying to puzzle out her feelings for her close male friend, Roland, she also
gets herself into romantic troubles of the supernatural variety. After trespassing into a seasonal
dance, Tiffany catches the eye of the Wintersmith, the elemental force of
winter. I thought it was pretty
neat to see the different approaches Tiffany and the Wintersmith took to
romance. Tiffany is slowly coming
to a natural understanding of how these things work, while the Wintersmith is
trying his best to force himself to understand, even though he is a force of
nature and not a human at all. As one might expect, that can’t go well on the
Wintersmith’s side.
In addition to the central story of Tiffany and the
Wintersmith, many characters from previous Tiffany Aching novels make an
appearance, and there are a multitude of humorous and entertaining
subplots. One of the most memorable
was the story of Annagramma, Tiffany’s overbearing witch friend. It kind of continues the discussion of
reputation and substance that was started in A Hat Full of Sky, while also including consideration of social
responsibility. Another interesting
subplot focused on Roland, who was struggling to solve his own family problems,
without relying on Tiffany for help. With other appearances by popular
characters such as the Wee Free Men, Nanny Ogg, Granny Weatherwax, and Death,
as well as the addition of additional side characters, there’s plenty to fill
in around the basic story of Tiffany and the Wintersmith.
As usual, Pratchett’s writing balances light humor with
darker or more poignant topics.
For instance, messing with the seasons is quite a serious problem, and
we see that Summer, as well as Winter, can be deadly when not balanced
properly. At the same time,
Tiffany’s meddling causes a lot of silly problems as well, such as the
appearance of a cornucopia that can pop out endless live chickens, among other
things. The Wintersmith’s quest to
become human was often pleasantly ridiculous, but he was capable of inflicting
incredible damage on the world through his lack of understanding. I enjoy
Pratchett’s sense of humor, and I especially enjoy how it offsets the more
serious moments. Wintersmith is yet
another addition to this YA series that is a pleasure to read.
My Rating: 4/5
Wintersmith is a
solid addition to the Tiffany Aching series. Tiffany is starting to grow up at this point, and she’s just
starting to think about romance.
While Tiffany’s muddling through her feelings about the Wintersmith (and
her friend Roland), plenty of old characters show up to take part in many entertaining
subplots. While there are serious
bits, the story has plenty of Pratchett’s trademark style of humor as
well. All in all, I’m a bit sad
that I didn’t discover this series when I was Tiffany’s age, but I’m glad I can
enjoy it now!
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