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ampharos906's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.25
Content Warnings
Moderate: Animal death, Blood, Death, Murder, and Violence
Minor: Injury/Injury detail
erebus53's review against another edition
dark
funny
informative
lighthearted
mysterious
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
I read this book when it first came out and I don't know if I finished it, but it was a looong time ago so I thought it was worth revisiting. This is unashamedly Pratchett having a go at his own rendition of A Nightmare Before Christmas swapping in Death as the spooky stand-in for the missing gift giver.
Mysterious forces have engaged the Assassins' Guild to annul the Hogfather; a feat that has only ever been contemplated by the curly brained Assassin, Teatime. Susan has to cover for her grandfather who is of gallivanting in a SLAY er.. sleigh, and she is none too happy about it. The longer she spends in her role as ever-being, the less like the Sensible governess she seems.
As an audiobook I do like the style of having multiple narrators. Having a woman telling much of the story it makes the DEATH scenes a lot of fun by contrast. The only thing that irked me was that I felt like the narrator was continually mispronouncing Teatime's name... which is understandable considering it's really a text based joke. when reading it I always reflexively pronounce it the way the man refers to himself, unless it's being mispronounced by another character.
<blockquote>It's pronounced Teh-ah-tim-eh, sir, said Teatime</blockquote>
Yes.. I'm a bit weird. When I first heard it said in the audiobook, I thought
"'ere 'ang on? isn't it said Te-ah-ti-meh?"
I thought it was interesting looking at some of the underlying social constructs that it talks about. For one, there is the difference in gifts you get compared to your family means. DEATH in his typical hyper-literal fashion assumes that a mall Santa.. er.. Hogfather, HO..HO..<i>ho?</i> is supposed to give the children what they ask for. Those of us who have lived this tradition know that this is a practice of getting used to the lies we tell children, and learning to adjust one's expectations to fit family income. It is also an exercise in not asking for gifts that require a huge capital outlay or ongoing care (no ponies!), and learning the finesse of keeping your own head down and not bragging about something you got, because those who got more will laugh at you, and those who got less will be upset, or commit some just retribution by breaking or nicking your stuff, or taking violent revenge.
The story also discusses the practice of charity at Christmas and the power disparity of those who Bestow gifts on those who never asked for anything. If Pratchett left it at that I'd be irritated but he follows through with the concept of providing the supports that people actually need and can do something with, in ways that protect their dignity, by first knowing them and not expecting them to fawn in gratitude.
One of the primary supporting characters of the story is slow witted. He's loyal to his brother and a bit of a prick to others. It's cool having a nuanced character that people try to take advantage of but who is both protected and exploited by his brother. It feels real.. if not very nice, and I appreciate that this character gets better luck and more autonomy as the story progresses.
Chock full of puns, a familiar cast of Discworld characters and a few other bit characters, I think it's a solid 4 and a not-bad Christmas read.
Mysterious forces have engaged the Assassins' Guild to annul the Hogfather; a feat that has only ever been contemplated by the curly brained Assassin, Teatime. Susan has to cover for her grandfather who is of gallivanting in a SLAY er.. sleigh, and she is none too happy about it. The longer she spends in her role as ever-being, the less like the Sensible governess she seems.
As an audiobook I do like the style of having multiple narrators. Having a woman telling much of the story it makes the DEATH scenes a lot of fun by contrast. The only thing that irked me was that I felt like the narrator was continually mispronouncing Teatime's name... which is understandable considering it's really a text based joke. when reading it I always reflexively pronounce it the way the man refers to himself, unless it's being mispronounced by another character.
<blockquote>It's pronounced Teh-ah-tim-eh, sir, said Teatime</blockquote>
Yes.. I'm a bit weird. When I first heard it said in the audiobook, I thought
"'ere 'ang on? isn't it said Te-ah-ti-meh?"
I thought it was interesting looking at some of the underlying social constructs that it talks about. For one, there is the difference in gifts you get compared to your family means. DEATH in his typical hyper-literal fashion assumes that a mall Santa.. er.. Hogfather, HO..HO..<i>ho?</i> is supposed to give the children what they ask for. Those of us who have lived this tradition know that this is a practice of getting used to the lies we tell children, and learning to adjust one's expectations to fit family income. It is also an exercise in not asking for gifts that require a huge capital outlay or ongoing care (no ponies!), and learning the finesse of keeping your own head down and not bragging about something you got, because those who got more will laugh at you, and those who got less will be upset, or commit some just retribution by breaking or nicking your stuff, or taking violent revenge.
The story also discusses the practice of charity at Christmas and the power disparity of those who Bestow gifts on those who never asked for anything. If Pratchett left it at that I'd be irritated but he follows through with the concept of providing the supports that people actually need and can do something with, in ways that protect their dignity, by first knowing them and not expecting them to fawn in gratitude.
One of the primary supporting characters of the story is slow witted. He's loyal to his brother and a bit of a prick to others. It's cool having a nuanced character that people try to take advantage of but who is both protected and exploited by his brother. It feels real.. if not very nice, and I appreciate that this character gets better luck and more autonomy as the story progresses.
Chock full of puns, a familiar cast of Discworld characters and a few other bit characters, I think it's a solid 4 and a not-bad Christmas read.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Ableism, Death, and Classism
Moderate: Violence
Minor: Alcohol
indieandajean's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
5.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Alcohol, Murder, Death, Animal death, Kidnapping, Sexism, Mental illness, and Violence
readerette's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? No
4.0
Funny and pretty lighthearted given heavy focus on death and lost gods.
If you have some experience with Discworld or other works of Terry Pratchett, this book would certainly make more sense to you than it did to me. It was still a fun winter holiday read, but there was a lot of hand-waving about how the magic and magical creatures in this world work. I wouldn't have wanted the book any longer than it was, but I got lost in some of the attempted (and abbreviated) explanations of various powers and magical circumstances, so I had to do a lot of accepting and moving on. It would have been better for me to have fewer threads and more clarity on what was happening in each thread.
If you have some experience with Discworld or other works of Terry Pratchett, this book would certainly make more sense to you than it did to me. It was still a fun winter holiday read, but there was a lot of hand-waving about how the magic and magical creatures in this world work. I wouldn't have wanted the book any longer than it was, but I got lost in some of the attempted (and abbreviated) explanations of various powers and magical circumstances, so I had to do a lot of accepting and moving on. It would have been better for me to have fewer threads and more clarity on what was happening in each thread.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Violence and Death
_al's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
inspiring
lighthearted
reflective
relaxing
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? No
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Kidnapping and Violence
Minor: Ableism, Sexism, and Vomit
bluejayreads's review
4.5
This book was difficult to get through and frequently hard to follow, and that’s entirely not the book’s fault. One of the drawbacks of reading books as audiobooks at work is that I am, in fact, at work and have to be doing other things. The past two weeks at work, I was given two different projects (a large customer order that four other people were also working on and training a new person) that required me to do a lot of coordinating with people. It’s hard to both listen to a book and talk to someone about something entirely different at the same time. So I listened to Hogfather in fits and starts, a few minutes here and a few minutes there, chopping the story up into smaller bits that did not at all help my enjoyment or comprehension of the story.
Which really sucked, because for as much as I’ve struggled with the previous Death books, this one didn’t have a lot of the issues I had with the others so far. Yeah, Death was busy doing things that weren’t his job, but he hadn’t completely stopped doing his own job, and he wasn’t doing other things on a whim. Those other things did actually need to get done. And sure, in the end nothing really changed, but in this story that’s a good thing, as the main point was less making things happen then preventing bad things from happening.
As seems to be the case in the Death series, Death doesn’t get a whole lot of page time. Although there were a lot of other characters doing their own stuff throughtout this book as well.
- There were Death and Albert trying to get the hang of delivering toys on Hogswatch night (and making some distinct social commentary about class and wealth disparity in the process).
- There was an absolutely off his rocker assassin doing … I’m not entirely sure what. Tooth fairies were involved. Somewhere in my disjointed reading experience I missed exactly what he was up to.
- There was Susan, who I actually quite enjoy now that she’s an adult. She is completely Fed Up With This Bullshit, and she may not be able to escape the supernatural nonsense but she can and will hit it with a fire poker. I hope she gets to be a bigger player in future Death books because adult Susan is fantastic.
- Then there were the wizards. The bounce in and out of the other characters’ stories, and they’re also doing their own stuff. There’s a bit of musing about the nature of belief and sentience – and also a couple computer programmer jokes – with Hex (Ponder Stibbons’ computer-like invention), and a very weird subplot about Archchancellor Ridcully’s new bathroom. I’ll be honest, I do not at all understand the point or purpose of the bathroom plot.
It’s entirely a coincidence that I picked up the holiday-themed Discworld book around the holidays, but it was fun. There were some musings on the nature of holidays and their traditions, what it means to believe and how belief affects the world, and how different the world looks through the eyes of children, plus mentions of holiday gift-giving as an illustration of wealth inequality and the ancient and significantly-less-cuddly roots of most treasured traditions. And if you wanted to call this book Death and his Granddaughter Susan Save (Discworld’s Version of) Christmas, that would also be valid.
Even reading it in fits and starts, making it unnecessarily confusing and at times hard to follow, this is probably my favorite Death book so far. I can only imagine how much more I would have liked it if I’d been able to read it straight through like normal. I’m really hoping the rest of the Death sub-series is like this, because I had a remarkably good time with this book.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Murder
Moderate: Blood, Injury/Injury detail, and Violence
Minor: Ableism and Death of parent
Unrealitynialiversuch's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
slow-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Violence, Vomit, and Alcohol
Moderate: Death
rorikae's review against another edition
adventurous
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
3.5
'Hogfather' by Terry Pratchett is a fun and deeply reflective installment in the Discworld series that delves into belief and the Hogswatch holiday.
The Auditors want to disrupt humanity and to do this, they employ an assassin to kill the Hogfather. But when their plan goes awry, Death steps in to take up the mantle and make sure everyone receives their presents on Hogswatch night. As he travels around the world, his granddaughter Susan is pulled in to help figure out what is happening and how it can be stopped.
Like all of the Discworld books, 'Hogfather' is infused with wit and heart in equal measure. I love the premise of Death having to take over the job of who is essentially the Discworld version of Santa Claus. Where this book fell flat for me was in the middle section. The beginning was engaging and the ending had a lot to say about how humans use belief and the purpose that folklore holds in our lives. The middle was unfortunately a huge slog. I think this story is hurt by the number of perspectives we are jumping frantically between. We follow multiple different characters (at least 4 at a time if not more) and these sections take up only a few pages before we are hurtled along to the next piece. This made the story feel somewhat jumbled and we never spend enough time with one plotline for it to fully feel fleshed out. This is really unfortunate because the story points and the larger pieces that Pratchett is musing on are really interesting and his commentary makes you think.
The ending did save it for me in some respects but it was a lot to get through to get there. I love the ultimate message of this story and what it has to say about belief and the stories that humans tell themselves. This is also the first Discworld book that I've read out of order so I wonder if that had any part in why it was a little bit less enjoyable for me. I will definitely be going back to reading in order after this experience.
I hope to return to this book in the future around the holidays and potentially to check out the adaptation. I wouldn't recommend this as a first experience with Discworld but I do feel that it plays an important part in the wider story (at least as I can see so far).
The Auditors want to disrupt humanity and to do this, they employ an assassin to kill the Hogfather. But when their plan goes awry, Death steps in to take up the mantle and make sure everyone receives their presents on Hogswatch night. As he travels around the world, his granddaughter Susan is pulled in to help figure out what is happening and how it can be stopped.
Like all of the Discworld books, 'Hogfather' is infused with wit and heart in equal measure. I love the premise of Death having to take over the job of who is essentially the Discworld version of Santa Claus. Where this book fell flat for me was in the middle section. The beginning was engaging and the ending had a lot to say about how humans use belief and the purpose that folklore holds in our lives. The middle was unfortunately a huge slog. I think this story is hurt by the number of perspectives we are jumping frantically between. We follow multiple different characters (at least 4 at a time if not more) and these sections take up only a few pages before we are hurtled along to the next piece. This made the story feel somewhat jumbled and we never spend enough time with one plotline for it to fully feel fleshed out. This is really unfortunate because the story points and the larger pieces that Pratchett is musing on are really interesting and his commentary makes you think.
The ending did save it for me in some respects but it was a lot to get through to get there. I love the ultimate message of this story and what it has to say about belief and the stories that humans tell themselves. This is also the first Discworld book that I've read out of order so I wonder if that had any part in why it was a little bit less enjoyable for me. I will definitely be going back to reading in order after this experience.
I hope to return to this book in the future around the holidays and potentially to check out the adaptation. I wouldn't recommend this as a first experience with Discworld but I do feel that it plays an important part in the wider story (at least as I can see so far).
Content Warnings
Graphic: Murder, Violence, Animal death, Alcohol, and Death
Moderate: Kidnapping
helen___'s review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
hopeful
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Plot
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? It's complicated
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
Content Warnings
Minor: Death, Violence, and Murder
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