Seriously, I loved this one. I didn’t give it a shot until late in reading the entire series, but it’s awesome.
The recurring theme of Death trying to be more than he is (human, like in Reaper Man, or the Hogfather) always gets me. Because in the end, he’s Death–that’s all he can really be–and yet he keeps yearning and trying.
And Nobby Nobbs getting his present? One of the best moments in the entire series.
Not a big fan of this one. I love all the Susan books, but the “Oh God of hangovers” is a one-joke idea that goes on too long, and I get a bit confused with some of the logic of how all the anthropomorphic personifications work together, somewhere along the line.
I love all the Susan ones, but that includes this one. Death’s just a fantastic character. Any of the books where he stands up to the Auditors is great (especially Thief of Time).
Has the TV version been shown over there yet? It’s out on DVD already here. I wasn’t a big fan of Teatime in it, just because I think he should have been more subtly mad. But that’s just me.
(Though I’m afraid they won’t live up to my imagination.
I’m Susan, actually.)
And come on, the OHgod of hangovers is subtle once it’s established that lack of belief begets more belief. He’s quite a servicable character. Sort of like when all the wizards ended up in a shopping mall. It was lame, but it gets the point across.
This is the first Discworld book I ever read. My car was being worked on and I wandered over to the tiny little hole-in-the-wall bookstore a block away to look for something to kill time and picked this one out of the wall of Danielle Steeles, Fabio covers, Stephen Kings, and Harlequins.
Enchanted? Hell, yeah. I’d never even heard of Terry Pratchett before that. Now I have almost all his books. Unfortunately, this particular one got lost some time ago; I need to find another copy.
I remember being very amused by the Veruca gnome, although I’ve never been exactly sure what a veruca is. And I’m rather fond of Susan, too, although Sam Vimes will always be my first love.
I often find myself hoping that he’ll write a book with Vimes, the Witches, Cohen the Barbarian, Susan, and Rincewind and his Luggage all pitted against each other in some way. William de Worde could provide the press coverage and Death would, of course, hang out doing what he does best (making ironic comments in capital letters).
I loved this book. The cheerful fairy was priceless, particularly her blue chicken of happiness.
I only recently saw a movie (Jack Frost, on MST3K) in which “Grandfather Winter” traveled in a sled drawn by pigs. It was a Russian fairy tale inspired movie, but of course I immediately thought of the Hogfather. Terry is the best at including old, forgotten and obscure bits of culture and history in his books. I learn something new with each one.
I posted about the movie not too long ago, and I think it was too faithful to the book. Maybe the makers feared the fan reaction, if they took too many liberties. But a movie needs to reinterpret the source matereial to stand on its own.
Anyway, this is among my top five. Pterry’s got the bickering among the faculty almost perfect, Susan is good, as is Albert with his pork pies and of course DEATH is always fun to read about.
One thing that bothered me though, about the logic behind the story… All these persons are real, I mean *really * real. So why would kids stop believing in the Hogfather? That would be like if we on roundworld were to stop believing in gravity.
They had the children’s teeth. Having a part of a person means you can control them (to some extent). So magic. Besides, what’s logic got to do with how the Discworld works?
I’m going through the series in order (first time) and am up to “Jingo,” although I did read “Small Gods” and “Night Watch” out of sequence. So I just finished it a few weeks ago.
This is the best Discworld book I’ve read so far. It’s sandwiched between “Feet of Clay” and “Jingo,” both of which I think are quite weak. I guess I’m just not all that fond of the City Watch.
I think that Pratchett is definitely at his best when he’s dealing with belief, and this is the best of the best (so far) in that regard. He also seems to have put his ability to draw characters into overdrive for this one.
I ran through the entire series in the last few months after ignoring Pratchett for decades. I read “Colour of Magic” when it came out, and thus I never understood why people thought Pratchett was anything special. I am now finishing up with “Eric” (on order/due to arrive Friday) as the last book. Except for the Rincewind books, I think Pratchett is a genius.
Hogfather was another great book. Susan is probably the second best Pratchett character after Sam Vimes. I hope she gets another story soon. My favorite laughs was how she deals with the various childhood monsters.
I am tempted to reread it real quick, so I can report back with better details.
I love this one - the Hogfather-through-time sequence was a great take on how perception shapes our views on our pagan past - how you can go from a winter god to a Coke advert in easy steps. Also, much prefer this Susan over the *Soul Music *kid. Although I don’t think we ever find out what happened between her and Ymp, do we?
Also, my first signed Pratchett - with the “Ho! Ho! Ho!” signature, so also special for that.
