Hogfather (Isis)

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Summary: The best Pterry I ever read.
Review: After reading about 10 Pterrys this is the one book I would give my mother to start reading Terry Pratchett. It's a fantastic story about Death who represents Hogfather, the Discworld version of Santa Claus. Unfortunately Hogfather has some problems with the Revisores (or however they are called in the english version). Susanne, Death's daughter, helps him to rescue Hogfather. I like this book because we learn a lot more about Death and his family and Death actually is the best character in all Discworld books.

Rating:
Summary: One of the Weakest Discworld Novels
Review: An incoherent mess. When a crazed asassin is hired by the Auditors to bring down the Hogfather, the reduction in overall belief allows new gods to pop into being as quickly as they are thought up: the "oh god" (the god of hangovers), the god of indigestion, a sock-eating fairy, and a miscellany of vicious childhood fears all come to life. Death has to take on the Hogfather's job so that people will keep believing in him. This setup has humor potential -- the pagan roots of Christmas could have made for an interesting subject -- but this book comes off as entirely too dark and mean; it plays at presenting a real philosophy, but this is really just a kind of cover or excuse glued on to a wretched excess of weak storytelling and bad editing. The humor features enemas, urinating pigs, vomiting gods, horrifying gluttony, a deranged crow constantly on the hunt for eyeballs to eat, and is largely just distasteful, a kind of Grand Guignol of snow, holly and mistletoe. Teatime is a vicious sociopath. Susan, Death's granddaughter, plays a major role here, and she's a great character, but not likable enough to make the whole book enjoyable. Worst of all, the Hogfather himself doesn't ever actually make an appearance as himself, but only as a sort of mythological object; we never do find out quite what happened to him and how how the army of mind-controlled children actually brought him down. Instead of this much-needed basic storytelling and characterization we get pliers-wielding tooth fairies and developmentally disabled thieves. The effect is rather like the trick played on the diners at a fine restaurant: instead of the delicacies on the menu, they get boiled shoe leather in mud sauce, but like the average reviewer on Amazon, the diners seem unable to taste the difference. Pratchett does supply his usual quota of great puns, and there are funny moments in this book, but speaking as someone who is more cynical about Christmas than just about anyone I know: Pratchett must truly despise the holiday to give us this steaming pile of... um, holiday cheer.

Rating:
Summary: Hogfather: A Novel of Discworld
Review: Another brilliant book by this author. Having read all of his books (several times)I can't say that any one of them ranks as the out and out best, but this one certainly comes close to being my favourite. Any book featuring DEATH as the Discworld's equivilent to Santa has to be good. His attempts to understand human nature are hilarious, especially when he gets things wrong. Albert is also a favourite character of mine. The scene in the fairy grotto is the best in the book. Definitely a laugh-out-loud book.

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Summary: Ho. Ho. Ho. Cower brief mortals.
Review: Everytime I read a new Discworld book, I am ready to declare it my favorite. This time, however, I may have found it. Hogfather brings back dear old Death in a stunning red suit stuffed with pillows. He is filling in for the missing Hogfather, while his granddaughter Susan (who never tells children that monsters don't exsist - she KNOWS they do!) searches for the real Hogfather. And of course the zany wizards, Hex the computer, and Nobby Nobs put in an appearance - along with many others. But don't be fooled into thinking that this is pure humor - there is a very thought-provoking element to Hogfather that adds to its appeal. And now I have nothing more to say save "glingleglingleglingle"...read the book and you will soon understand!

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Summary: The Hogfather is Death serious
Review: It is the night before Hogwatch. Everyone on the Discworld is getting in their best shape to swallow down many courses of pure artery congesting meals. The Dean of the Unseen University in particular is now able to lift a twenty-pound turkey on one fork. Of course, not every table is collapsing under the weight of a Hogwatchnight Dinner. Some people, like the Duck Man, have to be jolly with a marinated leather boot dressed with some nice mud sauce. Still the spirit of Hogwatch is alive and kicking... Let me rephrase this: the spirit of Hogwatch is Death and kicking. Because something awful happened to the real Hogfather, Death has decided to replace him. You do not have to be a genius to know that this is not going to be the usual Hogwatchnight.

The twentieth episode of the highly acclaimed Discworld series proves that the inspiration of Terry Pratchett is far from exhausted. As always the sidekicks are clearly competing for the Award for Most Silly Idiot of the Multiverse, whereas the main characters are too occupied to save the Discworld from more harm than it can possibly contain, which is a lot!

One of the many new features is Hex, a thinking engine with a mouse that eats cheese and a clothes wringer serving as a central processing unit. I would never have expected that the Wizards of Unseen University should be able to concoct such a close nephew of our personal computer and in doing so create an entity that is twice as smart as the most brilliant inhabitant of the Discworld - probably an ant that was trod on by Rincewind a few minutes after its birth. When you are knowledgeable to some historical computer lingo, you will undoubtedly have fun discovering some hilarious puns.

Rating:
Summary: A Book About Belief
Review: More than any of his other books, Terry Pratchett may be guilty of literature in Hogfather. And the result is wonderful, perhaps the best of all the Discworld books.

The book has its hilarious moments, as you would expect. Not the least of them a new character, Bilious, the Oh-God of Hangovers. There's even bathroom humor. But while the humor sugar-coats the story, there's a great deal more here. From the opening pages, when Susan Sto Helit, Death's granddaughter, has to deal with a monster in the cellars, to Death's comments on the final pages, this is a book about belief and the power of belief. On the Discworld, of course, the power of belief is transcendant, but like all of the Discworld books, Pratchett uses the fun house mirror of the Disc to teach us a great deal about our own world.

You can read this book with a great deal of pleasure by just relaxing and enjoying the ride. The laughs are all there, the jokes and parody as wonderful as ever. But the second or third of tenth time through, think a bit about what it might mean, and might be happening on a different level.

One of Pratchett's many gifts is be wildly, hysterically funny, while at the same time sliding a knife of hard truth into your ribs. The Hogfather's holiday sled may be pulled by pigs and not reindeer, but the pigs and the reindeer are all powered by the same thing: belief. It's what makes us human. And in Pratchett's skillful hands, that simple truth takes on whole new meanings.

I may not be able to meet Death's challenge and show him, in the whole universe, a single grain of justice, but I can point to some insight and truth. Read this book and see if I'm not right.

Rating:
Summary: A Good "Christmas" Story -- Discworld Style!
Review: This is a decent story - pretty good. I admit, judging by the pervious books featuring Death's family (not counting Death himself), I expected to be dissapointed, but I wasn't. This is not on a par with "Men at Arms," but it is still good.

Here we have a lot of variety - Death, the Death of Rats, Death's Grandaughter, secret assassins, the Auditors,...

The plot was interesting. The auditors have a nasty plan - get an assassin to kill the Hogfather, the discworld "Santa Claus." The assassin, Mr. Teatime (pronounce the vowels), tries to do that by getting children to disbelieve, thus negating the spirit of Hogswatch. He tries to do that with help from the world of the tooth fairies. Of course, Death takes it upon himself to play "Hogfather" with Albert in tow. And his granddaughter, pretty good at beating up bogeymen and other monsters, has to stop Teatime and foil the auditors.

Most of this story is good. Sto Helit, never really a milktoast like Magrat in the early Lancre books, becomes a fairly aggressive, take charge character. It was fun to watch her wield the fireplace poker against all foes.

Bilious was somewhat funny, and so was the "manifestation syndrome" of objects seemingly appearing when people mentioned them (like the "sock-eating demon elephant"). But after the first one or two times, it got too old. Enough with these insignificant characters adding to the confusion. Also, I know that wizards rarely make sense, but here they waste way too much time talking about non-consequentials - it becomes a big draggy and boring.

The criminals are funny - especially with the brothers who live by what their mother told them. It was funny to watch nursery-rhyme bogeys chasing grown men around screaming, and, while Teatime was not the best bad guy (although pretty good), it was great to see how Death and family finally dealt with him, and how someone finally pronounces Teatime's name correctly at the end.

All in all, a good book, an improvement for several characters. But Death can usually pep up just about any story - he's just such a memorable character. Yopu would never see Death the same way again.

4 well-earned stars.