The Wee Free Men
1994
- children's fiction
- fairies, fiction
- witches, fiction
- discworld (imaginary place)
- juvenile fiction
- witches
- fiction
- fairies
- fantasy
- disque-monde (lieu imaginaire)
The story
A riotous, wise, and gripping junior Discworld novel from the Carnegie Medal-winning author and acknowledged master of comic fantasy.Nine-year-old Tiffany Aching thinks her Granny Aching - a wise shepherd - might have been a witch, but now Granny Aching is dead and it's up to Tiffany to work it all out when strange things begin happening: a fairy-tale monster in the stream, a headless horseman and, strangest of all, the tiny blue men in kilts, the Wee Free Men, who have come looking for the new 'hag'. These are the Nac Mac Feegles, the pictsies, who like nothing better than thievin', fightin' and drinkin'. Then Tiffany's young brother goes missing and Tiffany and the Wee Free Men must join forces to save him from the Queen of the Fairies-
What it’s like
Brisk, bright and cheerfully scruffy, the feel of this book is a warm, rain-tinged hillside country: wind over chalk downs, sheep-dotted fields, cottage kitchens lit by a single lamp. Pratchett's prose is quick and conversational, full of dry asides and snappy dialogue, with the Scots-inflected brawling of the tiny blue Nac Mac Feegles adding a lively, slapstick rhythm to nearly every scene. The mood is comic and bracing rather than cosy-sleepy: mischief, mud, and sudden flashes of folklore unease, like a headless horseman glimpsed over a ridge or a fairy queen's cold glamour. Violence is cartoonish and bloodless, all bashing, kicking and tumbling, with fairy menace kept at a fairy-tale distance and no real gore or sexual content. It suits an afternoon read, a long train journey, or a comfort re-read when you want something funny and gentle with a little edge. It is aimed at young readers and grown-ups who enjoy witty, big-hearted children's fantasy with a sharp, knowing humour.
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