Review: Wintersmith, by Terry Pratchett

[Russ Allbery]

Wintersmith
by Terry Pratchett

Series:    Discworld #35
Publisher: Clarion Books
Copyright: 2006
Printing:  2007
ISBN:      0-06-089033-9
Format:    Mass market
Pages:     450

Wintersmith is the 35th Discworld novel and the 3rd Tiffany Aching
novel. You could probably start here, since understanding the backstory
isn't vital for following the plot, but I'm not sure why you would.

Tiffany is now training with Miss Treason, a 113-year-old witch who is
quite different in her approach from Miss Level, Tiffany's mentor in A
Hat Full of Sky. Miss Level was the unassuming and constantly helpful
glue that held the neighborhood together. Miss Treason is the judge;
her neighbors are scared of her and proud of being scared of her, since
that means they have a proper witch who can see into their heads and
sort out their problems. On the surface, they're quite different; part
of the story of this book is Tiffany learning to see the similarities.

First, though, Miss Treason rushes Tiffany to a strange midnight Morris
Dance, without any explanation. The Morris Dance usually celebrates the
coming of spring and is at the center of a village party, so Tiffany is
quite confused by seeing it danced on a dark and windy night in late
autumn. But there is a hole in the dance where the Fool normally is,
and Tiffany can't keep herself from joining it.

This proves to be a mistake. That space was left for someone very
different from Tiffany, and now she's entangled herself in deep magic
that she doesn't understand.

This is another Pratchett novel where the main storyline didn't do much
for me. All the trouble stems from Miss Treason being maddeningly
opaque, and while she did warn Tiffany, she did so in that way that
guarantees a protagonist of a middle-grade novel will ignore. The
Wintersmith is a boring, one-note quasi-villain, and the plot mainly
revolves around elemental powers being dumber than a sack of hammers.

The one thing I will say about the main plot is that the magic Tiffany
danced into is entangled with courtship and romance, Tiffany turns
thirteen over the course of this book, and yet this is not weird and
uncomfortable reading the way it would be in the hands of many other
authors. Pratchett has a keen eye for the age range that he's
targeting. The first awareness that there is such a thing as romance
that might be relevant to oneself pairs nicely with the Wintersmith's
utter confusion at how Tiffany's intrusion unbalanced his dance. This
is a very specific age and experience that I think a lot of authors
would shy away from, particularly with a female protagonist, and I
thought Pratchett handled it adroitly. I personally found the
Wintersmith's awkward courting tedious and annoying, but that's more
about me than about the book.

As with A Hat Full of Sky, though, everything other than the main plot
was great. It is becoming obvious how much Tiffany and Granny
Weatherwax have in common, and that Granny Weatherwax recognizes this
and is training Tiffany herself. This is high-quality coming-of-age
material, not in the traditional fantasy sense of chosen ones and map
explorations, but in the sense of slowly-developing empathy and
understanding of people who think differently than you do. Tiffany,
like Granny Weatherwax, has very little patience with nonsense, and her
irritation with stupidity is one of her best characteristics. But she's
learning how to blunt it long enough to pay attention, and to
understand how people she doesn't like can still be the right people
for specific situations.

I particularly loved how Granny carries on with a feud at the same time
that Tiffany is learning to let go of one. It's not a contradiction or
hypocrisy; it's a sign that Tiffany is entitled to her judgments and
feelings, but has to learn how to keep them in their place and not let
them take over.

One of the great things about the Tiffany Aching books is that the
villages are also characters. We don't see that much of the individual
people, but one of the things Tiffany is learning is how to see the
interpersonal dynamics and patterns of village life. Somehow the
feelings of irritation and exasperation fade once you understand
people's motives and see more sides to their character.

There is a lot more Nanny Ogg in this book than there has been in the
last few, and that reminded me of how much I love her character. She
has a completely different approach than Granny Weatherwax, but it's
just as effective in different ways. She's also the perfect witch to
have around when you've stumbled into a stylized love story that you
don't want to be a part of, and yet find oddly fascinating.

It says something about the skill of Pratchett's characterization that
I could enjoy a book this much while having no interest in the main
plot. The Witches have always been great characters, but somehow
they're even better when seen through Tiffany's perspective. Good
stuff; if you liked any of the other Tiffany Aching books, you will
like this as well.

Followed by Making Money in publication order. The next Tiffany Aching
novel is I Shall Wear Midnight.

Rating: 8 out of 10

Reviewed: 2023-12-21

URL: https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/reviews/books/0-06-089033-9.html

-- 
Russ Allbery (eagle at eyrie.org)             <https://www.eyrie.org/~eagle/>