Saturday, 23 May 2026 08:39 pm
Book Review: The Wee Free Men
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deckardcanineAs planned, I finished this novel right on my birthday. I knew to expect humor from Terry Pratchett, but I didn't realize it had a Discworld setting. Apparently, the titular characters had a role in Snuff too minor to mention in a synopsis or remember after 13 years.
Eccentric rural nine-year-old Tiffany Aching can detect what most humans can't: fairies. In a moment reminiscent of the setup of Labyrinth, her obnoxious toddler brother Wentworth gets kidnapped by the Queen of Fairies, and Tiffany takes it upon herself to venture into danger for him. Fortunately, the local clan of Nac Mac Feegle, a mostly male tiny fairy race, respects her as the granddaughter of a good bygone witch and anticipates that she will grow in magic, so they join her quest. As does the nameless talking toad of nearby witch Miss Tick, more useful for information than anything else.
What are the Nac Mac Feegle like? Apart from the two females, namely the kelda (matriarch) and her daughter, they love burglary, tippling, and combat, often by headbutting, which might explain their low intelligence. They talk like Scots, as befits "Pictsies." For some reason, they believe this world to be their heaven, giving them delusions of immortality even as comrades go "back to the land of the living." They claim to accept no ruler, yet they always defer to their kelda. There are too many for Tiffany to learn all their names, one of which is longer than a line on the page, and they behave so similarly that I hardly bothered to keep them straight.
If you haven't read any other Discworld entries yet, don't worry: The text doesn't presume any prior canon knowledge. The only character names I recognized were Weatherwax and Ogg, who show up at the end as new acquaintances to Tiffany. I didn't notice any familiar geography. This approach makes sense for what's advertised as more kid-friendly than usual for the series.
That said, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as young as Tiffany. For starters, it runs 375 pages. While there's no gore, following the Queen's dream-based illusions and Tiffany's insights against them can get pretty dizzying. Several pages of dialog concern the disturbing prospect (thankfully never realized) of Tiffany marrying a Feegle and bearing lots of offspring by him someday soon. And it's nice to go in knowing a few things about folklore, such as Jenny Greenteeth.
For older fantasy readers, well, why not? TWFM is engaging even when not particularly funny. It makes worthy philosophical points without playing up the protagonist too much. I might just go on to the direct sequel, A Hat Full of Sky, excerpted at the back of this edition.
My next read will be a new birthday present. I'm thinking Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty.
Eccentric rural nine-year-old Tiffany Aching can detect what most humans can't: fairies. In a moment reminiscent of the setup of Labyrinth, her obnoxious toddler brother Wentworth gets kidnapped by the Queen of Fairies, and Tiffany takes it upon herself to venture into danger for him. Fortunately, the local clan of Nac Mac Feegle, a mostly male tiny fairy race, respects her as the granddaughter of a good bygone witch and anticipates that she will grow in magic, so they join her quest. As does the nameless talking toad of nearby witch Miss Tick, more useful for information than anything else.
What are the Nac Mac Feegle like? Apart from the two females, namely the kelda (matriarch) and her daughter, they love burglary, tippling, and combat, often by headbutting, which might explain their low intelligence. They talk like Scots, as befits "Pictsies." For some reason, they believe this world to be their heaven, giving them delusions of immortality even as comrades go "back to the land of the living." They claim to accept no ruler, yet they always defer to their kelda. There are too many for Tiffany to learn all their names, one of which is longer than a line on the page, and they behave so similarly that I hardly bothered to keep them straight.
If you haven't read any other Discworld entries yet, don't worry: The text doesn't presume any prior canon knowledge. The only character names I recognized were Weatherwax and Ogg, who show up at the end as new acquaintances to Tiffany. I didn't notice any familiar geography. This approach makes sense for what's advertised as more kid-friendly than usual for the series.
That said, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone as young as Tiffany. For starters, it runs 375 pages. While there's no gore, following the Queen's dream-based illusions and Tiffany's insights against them can get pretty dizzying. Several pages of dialog concern the disturbing prospect (thankfully never realized) of Tiffany marrying a Feegle and bearing lots of offspring by him someday soon. And it's nice to go in knowing a few things about folklore, such as Jenny Greenteeth.
For older fantasy readers, well, why not? TWFM is engaging even when not particularly funny. It makes worthy philosophical points without playing up the protagonist too much. I might just go on to the direct sequel, A Hat Full of Sky, excerpted at the back of this edition.
My next read will be a new birthday present. I'm thinking Six Wakes by Mur Lafferty.