Wintersmith: 07/28/14

Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett is the 35th Discworld book and the third of the Tiffany Aching series. Tiffany is now working for Miss Treason, the scariest witch she's yet to apprentice with, a woman who sees through others' eyes and lives in a house painted completely black, inside and out.

While with Miss Treason to observe the Dark Morris, a dance to usher in winter, Tiffany is carried away by the thrill of it all and ends up catching the eye of the Wintersmith. Now her slice of the Disc is facing an ice age unless Tiffany can figure out how to set things to rights (with help from Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg).

Wintersmith in my mind is where Tiffany really comes into her own as a character. In the first book, Wee Free Men she had raw determination, her talent with cheese, and her frying pan. In the second book she showed that she had the raw powers to be witch of some reckoning. But it is here that she finally learns that witchcraft (or any other position of power) isn't all or nothing. She learns how to be in balance and when and where to make a show of things to encourage people to act, rather than either forcing them to or doing everything alone. Basically she learns the fine art of Boffo.

Wintersmith has become a bit of an addiction for me. OK... much of Terry Pratchett's work has recently but this book is on the special shelf along with Going Postal and Snuff and Raising Steam. I own three, yes three versions of the story: a lovely hardcover, the audio read by Stephen Briggs (who MUST go back and read ALL of Pratchett's books), and the folk album by Steeleye Span.

Five stars

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