Wintersmith: A Story of the Discworld

\ \ Wintersmith\ \ \ \ By Terry Pratchett\ \ \ HarperTeen\ \ \ Copyright © 2006\ \ Terry Pratchett\ All right reserved.\ \ ISBN: 0-06-089031-2\ \ \ \ \ Chapter One\ \ \ The Big Snow \ When the storm came, it hit the hills like a hammer. No sky\ should hold as much snow as this, and because no sky could,\ the snow fell, fell in a wall of white.\ There was a small hill of snow where there had been, a few\ hours ago, a little cluster of thorn trees on an ancient\ mound. This time last year there had been a few early\ primroses; now there was just snow.\ Part of the snow moved. A piece about the size of an apple\ rose up, with smoke pouring out around it. A hand no larger\ than a rabbit's paw waved the smoke away.\ A very small but very angry blue face, with the lump of snow\ still balanced on top of it, looked out at the sudden white\ wilderness.\ "Ach, crivens!" it grumbled. "Will ye no' look at this? 'Tis\ the work o' the Wintersmith! Noo there's a scunner that willna\ tak' 'no' fra' an answer!"\ Other lumps of snow were pushed up. More heads peered out.\ "Oh waily, waily, waily!" said one of them. "He's found the\ big wee hag again!"\ The first head turned toward this head, and said, "Daft\ Wullie?"\ "Yes, Rob?"\ "Did I no' tell ye to lay off that waily business?"\ "Aye, Rob, ye did that," said the head addressed as Daft\ Wullie.\ "So why did ye just do it?"\ "Sorry, Rob. It kinda bursted out."\ "It's so dispiritin'."\ "Sorry, Rob.\ Rob Anybodysighed. "But I fear ye're right, Wullie. He's come\ for the big wee hag, right enough. Who's watchin' over her\ doon at the farm?"\ "Wee Dangerous Spike, Rob."\ Rob looked up at clouds so full of snow that they sagged in\ the middle.\ "Okay," he said, and sighed again. "It's time fra' the Hero."\ He ducked out of sight, the plug of snow dropping neatly back\ into place, and slid down into the heart of the Feegle mound.\ It was quite big inside. A human could just about stand up in\ the middle, but would then bend double with coughing because\ the middle was where there was a hole to let smoke out.\ All around the inner wall were tiers of galleries, and every\ one of them was packed with Feegles. Usually the place was\ awash with noise, but now it was frighteningly quiet.\ Rob Anybody walked across the floor to the fire, where his\ wife, Jeannie, was waiting. She stood straight and proud, like\ a kelda should, but close up it seemed to him that she had\ been crying. He put his arm around her.\ "All right, ye probably ken what's happenin'," he told the\ blue-and-red audience looking down on him. "This is nae common\ storm. The Wintersmith has found the big wee hag-noo then,\ settle doon!"\ He waited until the shouting and sword rattling had died down,\ then went on: "We canna fight the Wintersmith for her! That's\ her road! We canna walk it for her! But the hag o' hags has\ set us on another path! It's a dark one, and dangerous!"\ A cheer went up. Feegles liked the idea of this, at least.\ "Right!" said Rob, satisfied. "Ah'm awa' tae fetch the Hero!"\ There was a lot of laughter at this, and Big Yan, the tallest\ of the Feegles, shouted, "It's tae soon. We've only had time\ tae gie him a couple o' heroing lessons! He's still nae more\ than a big streak o' nothin'!"\ "He'll be a Hero for the big wee hag and that's an end o' it,"\ said Rob sharply. "Noo, off ye go, the whole boilin' o' ye!\ Tae the chalk pit! Dig me a path tae the Underworld!"\ It had to be the Wintersmith, Tiffany Aching told herself,\ standing in front of her father in the freezing farmhouse. She\ could feel it out there. This wasn't normal weather even for\ midwinter, and this was springtime. It was a challenge. Or\ perhaps it was just a game. It was hard to tell, with the\ Wintersmith.\ Only it can't be a game because the lambs are dying. I'm only\ just thirteen, and my father, and a lot of other people older\ than me, want me to do something. And I can't. The Wintersmith\ has found me again. He is here now, and I'm too weak.\ It would be easier if they were bullying me, but no, they're\ begging. My father's face is gray with worry and he's begging.\ My father is begging me.\ Oh no, he's taking his hat off. He's taking off his hat to\ speak to me!\ They think magic comes free when I snap my fingers. But if I\ can't do this for them, now, what good am I? I can't let them\ see I'm afraid. Witches aren't allowed to be afraid.\ And this is my fault. I: I started all this. I must finish it.\ Mr. Aching cleared his throat.\ "... And, er, if you could ... er, magic it away, uh, or\ something? For us ...?"\ Everything in the room was gray, because the light from the\ windows was coming through snow. No one had wasted time\ digging the horrible stuff away from the houses. Every person\ who could hold a shovel was needed elsewhere, and still there\ were not enough of them. As it was, most people had been up\ all night, walking the flocks of yearlings, trying to keep the\ new lambs safe ... in the dark, in the snow....\ Her snow. It was a message to her. A challenge. A summons.\ "All right," she said. "I'll see what I can do."\ "Good girl," said her father, grinning with relief. No, not a\ good girl, thought Tiffany. I brought this on us.\ "You'll have to make a big fire, up by the sheds," she said\ aloud. "I mean a big fire, do you understand? Make it out of\ anything that will burn ...\ (Continues...)\ \ \ \ \ \ \ \ Excerpted from Wintersmith\ by Terry Pratchett\ Copyright © 2006 by Terry Pratchett .\ Excerpted by permission.\ All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.\ Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.\ \

\ Elizabeth WardPratchett sets this drama in a frozen landscape worthy of Hans Christian Andersen's Snow Queen or the White Witch of Narnia, "everything glittering like tinsel," but leavens the dread with his trademark quicksilver wit. The man never met a convention—be it witchery, mythology, education or language itself—that he couldn't have fun with…A Hat Full of Sky felt slack and, in parts, silly compared to The Wee Free Men, as if Pratchett had written it at half-throttle. With Wintersmith, he gets this bewitching series brilliantly back on track.\ —The Washington Post\ \ \ \ \ Publishers WeeklyIt's back to Discworld for a new Tiffany Aching Adventure, Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett. In a starred review of The Wee Free Men, PW called the witch-in-training "funny, sassy and spirited." Here Tiffany unwittingly attracts the attention of the titular spirit of Winter when she interrupts the Dance of the Seasons-and must enlist the aid of the six-inch Wee Free Men to put Nature back in order. The publisher is simultaneously repackaging the first two paperbacks to tie into this third adventure: The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky, with the same ISBNs. Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ VOYABritain's second most popular--remember Rowling?--and certainly most prolific series author returns to the adventures of Tiffany Aching, apprentice witch from The Wee Free Men (HarperCollins, 2003/VOYA August 2003) and A Hat Full of Sky (2004/VOYA June 2004). Now thirteen, Tiffany is living with a 113-year-old witch called Miss Treason, who is blind but borrows other eyes (mouse, raven, Tiffany's) to see. Despite Miss Treason's reputation for extreme weirdness, Tiffany likes her and picks up a useful bit of witchcraft lore. For a witch, it is all about appearances, even appearances contrived with mail-ordered witch props. But then Tiffany foolishly joins a black Morris dance and attracts the elemental spirit of Winter. The infatuated Wintersmith quickly causes problems. Think Tiffany-shaped snowflakes and icebergs, not to mention quantities of snow. Miss Treason dies and Tiffany, still pursued by the Wintersmith, goes to live with Nanny Ogg, a witch with a past. Tagging along are the Feegles-blue, six-inch-high, tartan-wearing, hard-drinking pictsies happily dedicated to protecting Tiffany, particularly if it calls for a good fight. Ultimately the Feegles and a young hero called Rob go to the Underworld and rescue the imprisoned spirit of Summer, Winter's true consort, who replaces the Wintersmith, as summer inevitably replaces winter. Does it all make sense? Well, not exactly, but not necessarily either. Bits in the middle drag a little, but overall it is great fun-vintage Pratchett, in fact. Tiffany Aching fans will love the book, and newcomers to Pratchett will love it as well. In short, this book is not to be missed.\ \ \ \ \ VOYATiffany Aching, witch-in-training, serves her apprenticeship with Miss Treason, living in her cottage accompanied by the Nac Mac Feegles, the diminutive blue pictsies, who protect her. When Tiffany and Miss Treason attend an arcane moonlight Morris dance marking the change of the seasons, Miss Treason warns Tiffany not to speak or move. Entranced by the rhythm of the drums, Tiffany ignores her advice and jumps right in, attracting the affection of the orchestrator of winter itself, the Wintersmith, who mistakes her for the spirit of Summer. Tiffany-shaped snowflakes start falling, Tiffany-shaped icebergs appear, and bouquets of ice roses decorate the lawn. The cold wind whispers, "Be mine." Tiffany is flattered but frightened, having attracted the amorous attention of an elemental. The other witches attempt to protect her from the Wintersmith's advances, but none of them anticipate the depth of his affection until he plunges them into an intense and endless winter in an effort to win Tiffany's heart. The Nac Mac Feegles save the day, restoring "Summer" to her proper place, freeing Tiffany, and bringing spring at last. While the Nac Mac Feegles' brogue may be tedious for some young readers and the pace here is a bit slower than most Discworld novels, the spells and witchery are loads of fun, and as always, the text is crammed with puns, double entendre, and absurdity (like a naughty cheese named Horace). Liberally laced with wisdom and humor, this fanciful farce follows A Hat Full of Sky (HarperCollins, 2004/VOYA June 2004).\ \ \ \ \ KLIATTWhen young witch-in-training Tiffany Aching joins in the dance of the seasons, despite being told not to, she catches the eye of the Wintersmith, the spirit of winter, with potentially catastrophic consequences. It's flattering at first to have snowflakes created in your image, but it's quite another issue when winter never ends and the besotted Wintersmith is determined to make himself human and claim Tiffany as his bride. It takes the intervention of the Wee Free Men, tiny blue-skinned gnomes who live to fight, to help make the world right again. In the process, Tiffany learns more about the real responsibilities of being a witch, and the power of becoming a myth. Funny, wise, and suspenseful, this is yet another wonderful fantasy from the popular author of The Wee Free Men and A Hat Full of Sky, two other Tiffany Aching adventures set in Pratchett's Discworld universe, as well as many other delightful novels. For all libraries. (A Tiffany Aching Adventure.). KLIATT Codes: JSA*--Exceptional book, recommended for junior and senior high school students, advanced students, and adults. 2006, HarperCollins, 336p., $16.99 and $17.89. Ages 12 to adult. \ —Paula Rohrlick\ \ \ \ \ Children's LiteratureComedic little blue men better known as Nac Mac Fleegles assist Tiffany Arching, a thirteen year old witch-in-training, to make things right between the boy Winter, known as Wintersmith, and the Lady of Summer. Tiffany learns diplomacy from Granny Weatherwax, and she learns the secret of Boffo, that which makes a powerful witch, from Miss Treason. She assists other young witches in their learning and faces the boy Winter, who thinks he is in love with her because of her accidental interruption of the Dances of the Seasons. He tries to become human, but cannot. He acts like any other human boy smitten with first love, but goes back to his elemental ways when Roland, Tiffany's human young man, pays back a favor by rescuing the Summer Lady from the Underworld so that Tiffany can set the seasons right.\ \ \ \ \ School Library JournalGr 6 Up-Winter must die, and Summer must sink into the ground; it is all part of the Story, and Tiffany Aching has danced into the middle of it. On the last day of autumn, Tiffany travels to the woods to witness the Black Morris, the traditional dance of the gods heralding the arrival of winter. In a moment of heedless excitement, her rollicking feet draw her to the music, and she crashes headlong into the Wintersmith. He is fascinated by the girl and proceeds to "court" her in his own fashion-all the snowflakes are made in her image and giant Tiffany-shaped icebergs appear in the sea. Meanwhile, Tiffany begins to show characteristics of the goddess Summer-the touch of her bare feet makes things grow. All the attention from the Wintersmith would be quite flattering were it not for the deadly winter that threatens the shepherds of the Chalk. As the situation is very dangerous and death is certain, the Nac Mac Feegles (along with an especially lively cheese named Horace) are directly in the fray protecting their "big wee hag" along with Annagramma, Granny Weatherwax, Miss Tick, and other favorites from past adventures. All are skillfully characterized; even the Wintersmith elicits sympathy as he joyfully buries the world in snow in his attempt to win Tiffany. Replete with dry and intelligent humor, this latest in the series is sure to delight.-Heather M. Campbell, Philip S. Miller Library, Castle Rock, CO Copyright 2006 Reed Business Information.\ \ \ \ \ Kirkus ReviewsCrivens! When almost-13-year-old Tiffany Aching, apprentice witch, dances into the Dark Morris, she dances into one of the oldest stories of all-the endlessly repeating cycle of the seasons-and wins the heart of the Wintersmith. As the lovestruck god piles Tiffany-shaped snowflake onto Tiffany-shaped snowflake, winter threatens to choke the world, and naturally, it's up to Tiffany and the tiny and raucous Nac Mac Feegles to put the story to rights. Pratchett once again delivers a sidesplittingly funny adventure that overlays a deeply thoughtful inquiry into the nature of narrative and identity: how the stories we tell shape our understanding of ourselves and of the world we inhabit. This is what readers will understand with their Third Thoughts; their First Thoughts will delight in the return of Tiffany, the Feegles and the not-quite-hero Roland, and their Second Thoughts will revel in the homely details of the relationships among the witches and the people they serve. As Wee Billy Bigchin says, "A metaphor is a kind o' lie to help people understand what's true." This one is verra weel done indeed. (Fiction. 10+)\ \