The Science Of Discworld

Published by Penguin Random House , 2011, softcover, 417 pages, condition: new.

Teen witch Tiffany Aching returns for a new Discworld adventure -- along with her ever-present allies, the Nac Mac Feegle.

Tiffany Aching, the young witch from The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith is back in a new adventure featuring Discworld characters both familiar to fans (like Granny Weatherwax) and new (meet Wee Mad Arthur, the Nac Mac Feegle on the City Watch). Oh, and there's a shambles, a twist through time, a Cunning Man -- and a Giant Man of chalk.

I didn't become a Terry Pratchett fan until 2009. My twin sister told me numerous times that it would be a very good idea for me to read him. I do listen to my twin, it's just that particular urgency to heed her advice hinges on many factors: did she tell me too much (in the interest of fairness, I do this more to her than she does to me), was I feeling a loner and left out of hyper enthuasism... Probably that last one. Everything good about Terry Pratchet you've probably been told or read (or said and written, if you're a fan) is true. His fans love him to peices. Me too. (It is a very good thing for me that I came to The Beatles and The Smiths on my own with no awareness of fanbases...) (I'm not trendy. Proof of my inbred untrendiness: Welsh roots instead of Irish.)

What decided me? A Buffy the Vampire Slayer comparison on the book jacket of the first Tiffany Aching book. (With 38 and counting Disc World books out there, the four book series is a good place to start. It's not intimidating to have a little slice cut out. That said, you can read any Disc World book first.) (One thing I love about the Disc World books, one person's "It's funny and quite good" can be another person's "My personal favorite!" Don't always go by those four or five star ratings on gr. You could still hit your own "Oh hell yes" Disc World stride. This isn't prolificness for the sake of being prolific. Pratchett has something to say. Tiffany Aching, for instance, came to him as such that he dropped everything else he was doing to write her.) Lots of things are wrongly compared to 'Buffy', of course (probably by people who didn't realize why 'Buffy' was really great). Maybe it was my twin's rec coupled with the Buffy. Whatever it was, Buffy decided me. No, Tiffany Aching isn't Buffy herself, but one thing 'Buffy' the show and 'Tiffany' the series have in common (besides names with unfair reputations. Thank goodness Mariel hasn't yet become a "bimbo" name. I'm flying below the radar he he he) is that everything good you've heard is true. You can open up any line in a Terry Pratchett book and find a line to knock your socks off.

I'll do it right now, for example. (Trust that I'm doing this randomly. No fixed fights.) (John Turturro in Quiz Show is theatrically patting the sweat off his brow.) "The world is full of omens, and you picked the ones you liked." (page 145 of I Shall Wear Midnight, hardback edition). (Turturro: "They made me take a dive!" You could've chosen a better line than that. But I like that one!)

I'm going to try (I said try!) to express why I loved the final Tiffany Aching book (hell, that whole series) so much in a way that doesn't veer into hyperbole that will not make an outsider feel lonely.