Tiffany Aching is ready to begin her apprenticeship in magic. She expects spells and magic – not chores and ill-tempered goats! Surely there must be more to witchcraft than this.
What Tiffany doesn’t know is that an insidious, disembodied creature is pursuing her. This time, neither Mistress Weatherwax (the greatest witch in the world) nor the fierce, six-inch-high Wee Free Men can protect her. In the end, it will take all of Tiffany’s inner strength to save herself… if it can be done at all.
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.
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.
