Book review: I Shall Wear Midnight, Terry Pratchett
Saturday, June 18th, 2011
Is Sir Terry really suffering from a debilitating cognitive disease? Really? Him? Is probably what you’ll ask yourself after finishing I Shall Wear Midnight – the man’s still got it, where “it” stands in for “a sharp wit”, “great characters”, and “straight-up top-shelf writing know-how”.
So this most recent instalment of the super-long-running Discworld series (“saga” is a better word) returns us to witch-in-training Tiffany Aching, who’s now 15. The Nac Mac Feegle still assist (obstruct?) her in her witchly duties, though said duties are darker and tougher than before: there’s violent dilemmas happening on the chalk downlands where Tiffany lives; she must travel to Ankh-Morpork to inform the Baron’s son Roland – who’s engaged to be married to a girl who isn’t Tiffany, dun dun – that the Baron has died; and, oh yeah, there’s a malevolent witch-hating spirit known as the Cunning Man out to destroy her.
The plot is a bit slapdash, its climax not holding together as well other Discworld instalments, though the final scenes are pretty much perfect. Midnight gives Tiffany a satisfying send-off, though fingers crossed Pratchett is up to writing another adventure for her – she’s one of his best creations. The powerful witch Granny Weatherwax – who has a role here, alongside many other familiar faces (and Esk!) – has long ranked among my favourite Discworld characters, and what’s interesting about Tiffany, I think, is that her stories are basically a chronicle of how these powerful witches are made.
PS, I saw Sir Terry at the Sydney Opera House when he dropped by Australia in April. Perhaps the wisest thing he said was that the world would be a better place if we all allowed for the possibility that even our most strongly held beliefs might be wrong. True dat.
