Niko reviewed A Hat Full of Sky by Terry Pratchett
Good fun
5 stars
Mystery! Comedy! Suspense! Adventure! Mean girls! What more could I ask for?
349 pages
English language
Published April 27, 2004 by Doubleday Children's Books.
4 stars
(4 reviews)
A Hat Full of Sky is a comic fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, set on the Discworld and written with younger readers in mind. It is labelled a "Story of Discworld" to indicate its status as children's or young adult fiction, unlike most of the books in the Discworld series. First published in 2004, it is set two years after The Wee Free Men, and features an 11-year-old Tiffany Aching. The book is also a sequel to the Discworld short story "The Sea and Little Fishes", which introduced the Witch Trials and Mrs Earwig. It is followed by Wintersmith.
Bart Libert reviewed A hat full of sky by Terry Pratchett (Discworld, Book 32)
Tiffany's still not fully my cup of tea
3 stars
This is a good book, but it's certainly not my favourite Terry Pratchett book. Just like in the first Tiffany book, the Feegles are overused, to the point that they become annoying. Also, there is a very long (sometimes a tad boring) buildup, but the conclusion to the story seems really rushed. There are obvious flashes of brilliance and hints at what's to come, so I have high hopes for the next books in the Tiffany series, but this one is a bit wanting.
Optional reviewed Ein Hut voller Sterne by Terry Pratchett (Manhattan)
Can't stand on its own
2 stars
This is the second book in the "Tiffany Achings" series, following the excellent Wee Free Men—which I read thrice when I first encountered it!
Why am I talking about the first book? Well, because much of this book is dedicated to recap or summarize parts of it. Characters are reintroduced in detail and relevant plot points are retold in great detail. BUT, these recaps focus very much on the content and "facts" without repeating the witty prose, jokes and puns that accompanied these events in the first book. Overall, these parts just make you want to reread the first book to (re-)experience these events properly.
Next to retellings of the first book we thankfully do get a new plot and some new quirky characters. But overall, I'd say that these new characters aren't as interesting and the plot is also not as exciting. Our protagonist Tiffany is very passive …
This is the second book in the "Tiffany Achings" series, following the excellent Wee Free Men—which I read thrice when I first encountered it!
Why am I talking about the first book? Well, because much of this book is dedicated to recap or summarize parts of it. Characters are reintroduced in detail and relevant plot points are retold in great detail. BUT, these recaps focus very much on the content and "facts" without repeating the witty prose, jokes and puns that accompanied these events in the first book. Overall, these parts just make you want to reread the first book to (re-)experience these events properly.
Next to retellings of the first book we thankfully do get a new plot and some new quirky characters. But overall, I'd say that these new characters aren't as interesting and the plot is also not as exciting. Our protagonist Tiffany is very passive and mostly gets pushed around while we are dragged along. This changes only at the very end—on the last 50 pages—when Tiffany finally acts with intelligence and agency and themes of identity and self are discussed in interesting ways.
That ending alone is worth 5/5 stars, but 300 pages of mostly mediocre fluff really drag down this book as a whole. I'm very curious to see where the next book falls.
Subjects
- Discworld (Imaginary place) -- Fiction.