Aphelion Review # 39

A Hat Full Of Sky

A Young Adult Discworld Novel
By Terry Pratchett

Review by Dan L. Hollifield

Type of music/work:

Fantasy / Humor
3rd novel in the young adult series.

Musicians/Performers/Author(s):

Terry Pratchett
terrypratchettbooks.com
Published by HarperCollins Publishers
Published by HarperCollins Children's Books
ISBN: 0-06-058660-5

General impressions of the album/book:

Terry Pratchett yet again turns his considerable talents toward writing books for young adults. In this volume he brings us the further adventures of Tiffany Aching, Discworld's newest Witch-in-training. The Wee Free Men are along for her protection as well, which is always a delight to read.

Specifics:

Terry's writing gets better and better with each book. All the books in the series merit reading over and over again, if only to see what you missed before because you were turning the pages too fast. With this volume, Terry returns to his set of Discworld novels for young adults, teens, and children of all ages. Terry's characters are top-rate, they live and breathe and are as real as you and I are. The reader comes to care about them within a few scant pages, and by the end of the book you want to go visit them. The story moves the reader along at a comfortable pace, yet it seems to fly by so fast that when you finish the book, you want to keep going into more story. Sorry, Terry has another, different book to finish before he can return to Tiffany's adventures. We all just have to wait- No matter how hard the waiting is. Good thing that Terry's books are well worth waiting for.

If you've never read anything by Terry Pratchett, you should! If you are looking for a good book for your kids to read, this is it! Fun, adventure, excitement, growing up, drama, loyality to one's family and friends, ethics, characters building strength through adversity-- It is all here.

Well? What are you waiting for? Go out and get yourself a copy! In fact, you may want to go out and get several copies to give out as gifts, once you've read this one. Go ahead, later on you can thank me for clueing you in to this great book. Background info:

Terry Pratchett has been a published author since 1971 and has more books out now than I can count. The first Discworld novel "The Color of Magic" was published in 1983. As I said above, there have been over 30 other Discworld novels since then. A non-Discworld book, Good Omens, his 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman, has been a long-time best-seller as well. He has also written two science fiction novels and seven for younger readers.

Quoted from terrypratchettbooks.com: 'Regarded as one of the most significant contemporary English-language satirists, Pratchett received the British Fantasy Award for best novel (Pyramids), in 1989, was named an Officer of the British Empire "for services to literature" in the Queen's Birthday Honours of 1998, and received an honorary Doctor of Letters degree from the University of Warwick in 1999. His acclaimed novels have sold more than 28 million copies worldwide and have been translated into 27 languages. Terry Pratchett lives in England with his family, and spends most days at his computer, writing.'

Review Copyright 2004 by Dan L. Hollifield




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