The Wee Free Men

Rating:
Summary: The Terrror of Having Your Dreams Come True...
Review: "The Wee Free Men" is Terry Pratchett's second foray into Discworld-for-Young-Adults coming a year and a half after "The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents" and six months after his last 'regular' Discworld book, "Night Watch". It revisits ground from "Lords and Ladies" and "Carpe Jugulum", which is fine, because with usual Pratchett flair, he tosses in enough wry satire, strange humor and generally good storytelling that you don't always notice when he goes back to some of his older material.

While the Nac Mac Feegle (the Wee Free Men last seen in "Carpe Jugulum"), little woad-tattooed Pictsies, do feature in a large chunk of the book, the heroine is Tiffany, a nine-year-old witch's granddaughter and budding witch herself who must be the singularly most sensible (but still likeable) character I've ever read in a book directed at an audience less than 18 years old. She struggles to cope with the death of a grandmother who, even though she died more than a year ago, has still had a huge impact on her life. She also struggles with making sense of the world - both as a young girl and as a human being, and she struggles with the Queen of the Elves/Fairies (last seen in "Lords and Ladies") in what becomes a metaphor for maturity and clarity in a large, scary world. Pratchett's moral is that just because you're not yet officially an adult, it doesn't mean that you can't understand the world any less well. This is a theme he's played with before, but it's always appropriate no matter how many times he brings it out.

As a huge Discworld fan, I really enjoyed this book - possibly even more than "The Amazing Maurice...", although it's probably not at quite the same level of literary excellence as his previous work. Fans of Pratchett in general will undoubtedly appreciate his jabs at academia, fairy tales and the Harry Potter series (which future books about Tiffany may someday parody more explicitly). For fans of Discworld, not only are Tiffany and the Nac Mac Feegle two of his more interesting creations (which is saying something), but the cameo by Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg at the end is delightful. Missing, though, is the obligatory cameo by Death - possibly for the first time ever in a Discworld book.

Anyway, I recommend this book to anyone regardless of age or knowledge of Discworld. As with "The Amazing Maurice..." the Discworld cosmology is relatively light, so if you're not familiar with the Disc, it won't get in the way of enjoying the book. If you are, though, his subtle touches and revisitations throughout the book make it a more integrated work than his last foray into Discworld-Young-Adult. Either way, though, it's a great book.

Rating:
Summary: It's as much a Fairy-tale as anything...
Review: ...but can easily be called a Discworld novel, a children's book, or both, because it happens in Discworld and has a young protagonist solving the problems that adults fail to notice.

Tiffany Aching is the second-youngest in a long line of Aching shepherds and farmers who have "the land in their bones" because they've been there so long and are as much a part of the land, called The Chalk (or the Wold, by the old) because of what lies inches below the dense grass that has survived centuries of sheep.

The first youngest Aching person is her little brother Wentworth, a perpetually sticky child who's turned potty-training into a form of extortion. Maybe it's his stickyness, or some sense of cosmic justice, but fairytales - real faerie-tales with the Queen and pixies and things made out of dreams in keeping with faerie-lore traditions from outside Discworld - are out to get him.

The suprising thing is that Tiffany, who thinks he's sticky and noisy and useless, is out to get him back, with the aid of a big iron frying pan and some very small blue people with kilts and swords. The little blue men are rebels against anyone and everything, and call themselves the Wee Free Men. They know the rules of fairytales that Tiffany has been pondering, the way to get Wentworth back, and how to give anything and everything a good fierce kicking.

If you're a fan of Discworld, you'll enjoy this book because it explores folklore the way "Lords and Ladies" and "Hogfather" do and magic/spirituality the way just about anything with the Lancre Coven or the Unseen University staff does. If you like fairytales and folklore, you'll enjoy this book because it explores what happens when the tales and the people they're told to interact directly. If you like children's books that regard children as intelligent beings trying to make sense out of the world and doing a fairly good job of it, you'll like this book.

Rating:
Summary: Foul-Mouthed, Scottish Smurfs - What's Not to Like?
Review: Although this particular Discworld novel is considered a children's book, it was still a surprisingly enjoyable read.

The Wee Free Men follows the exploits of Tiffany, a nine-year-old girl who also happens to be a witch, though she doesn't yet know it. She is forced into battle against "The Queen", a miserable other-dimensional ruler who is kidnapping children from our world so that they can entertain The Queen in her world. Aiding Tiffany are the Nac Mac Feegle (the Wee Free Men) who offer up a strong offense against the Queen minions, as well as a great deal of comic relief for the reader. For those who read the series, this would technically fall into the "Witches" subseries of books, but they really only appear towards the end.

This one started off slow, but once the Nac Mac Feegle came onto the scene it kept me entertained the rest of the way. The Feegle are pint-sized Scottish parodies that fight, steal, make rude gestures, and have an uncanny fear of lawyers. Tiffany's no-nonsense approach in dealing with them works beautifully and you finish the book hoping that she becomes a regular in the Discworld universe. Classic Pratchett all the way.

Rating:
Summary: Probably his best
Review: Chalk country is about to be over run. Wee blue men shouting "Waily, waily, waily!" and things less savory are everywhere. These same blue men hit life, and everything else, head on, and worry about the details later. They steal coo beastie and ship, one to each hoof. A hole is developing and the faery are coming back. Not the faery of our fancy, but the faery that steal babes in the night.

A young girl discovers that her smaller, sticky, brother is missing, taken by the Quin, sorry Queen of Faery. Now, while she is technically a witch, she is also technically a small girl, with all the associated problems.

However, with the help of her First Sight, Second Thought, the wee free men, a toad, and the strength of the bond with her long dead granny (a witch in her own rite, pun intended), our hero sets off to claim what's hers, however sticky the small boy may be.

I must tell you, of all his discworld books, this is the only one that brought tears to my eyes. But there were enough outright belly-laughs to even it out. Bravo.

I like this book far more than his "Maurice and His Educated Rodents" and and a good many of his adult level discworld books. I have turned the book over to my 12-year-old and he agrees with my review, except the teary-eyed part.

Rating:
Summary: This is NOT Just a Teen Book
Review: I don't care what the "official" write-ups for this book say: this is not just a book for teens. Outside of the fact that the protagonist is a child and some of the behavior/situations are somewhat simplified, this is standard Discworld fare. I've marked the book down from five stars to four because of this mild "simplification," but other than that, it's wonderful. Also, the book is much more funny than the latest Discworld novels have been. This is an excellent book to read with good pacing, a good story, and, probably most importantly, a very satisfying ending. Very enjoyable. Read it.

Rating:
Summary: It's just so... so...
Review: I don't know the exact words to describe how I feel about this book. Thank goodness I got a library copy. I gave up on the book an hour ago, at page 97. For some reason, it just suddenly got... boring. The beginning was okay, while we were being introduced to Tiffany's life as a dairymaid. But it got too much of a bother to try to figure out the Wee Men; it wasn't just the accent they were given, it was just, I felt that they weren't convincing? Yeah, they weren't convincing for some reason.

I also do not enjoy cheap laughs. Painful to see Pratchett milking the Aching name for all it was worth.

Borrow, don't buy this.

Rating:
Summary: Ages 10-14? More like 10-110.
Review: I don't really see where the age suggestion of 10-14 came from. I thought the book was very much in line with Pratchett's other books and if I may suggest, I thought Wee Free Men was better than the newest Discworld book at this time, Monstorous Regiment.

The main character of the book is a child in for a very Alice in Wonderland type of adventure, but the style and humor is pure Pratchett at his finest, with some cameo appearences from regular Discworld characters. I won't go into the detail that other reviews have already covered, I just wanted to emphasize that if you're somewhat well over the age of 14 and were wondering if this might still be enjoyable, wonder no more. If you liked Guards! Guards!, Carpe Jugulum and the other Discworld books, I'm sure you'll enjoy Wee Free Men.

Rating:
Summary: Wee Free Men dialect makes for one difficult read
Review: I have read at least a dozen of Terry Pratchett's books and have enjoyed every one of them. I pre-ordered this and was going to pass it on to my niece who is 13 when I was finished. This was a very difficult story to read in part to the speaking and then writing of dialect of the Wee Free Men. I found that it wasn't funny and as the story progressed, they spoke even more making it even more difficult to read as an adult let alone a child. This is supposed to be a children's book isn't it? I didn't think the story to be nearly as good as "Amazing Maurice", "Soul Music", "Mort", or "Unequal Rights". Those all highlighted the wit of Pratchett as well as his different sense of humor. I found this missing throughout this book. Not a bad story but not equal to his previous efforts. Discworld is his strength, with characters such as the witches Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlick,the Archchancellor Mustrum Ridcully, the Librarian, Rincewind, the Bursar, the Watch, Vertineri......He should stick to his strengths. Anyway not a bad book just not up to his other works.

Rating:
Summary: Not funny, Magee
Review: I never thought I would live to say this about Terry Pratchett, creator of an adopted dwarf who could be played by Arnold Schwarzenegger, but this book is simply not funny. Like Wentworth the toddler, it has only one joke: The pictsies are Scottish rebels and Rob Anybody is Rob Roy. Got it. The first time. Instead of humor, he is selling our birthright for a pot of message: stories and myths are bad, as though he does not use every myth and story he can get his hands on. So please let's have more about Captain Carrots and his collegues, and less about those big bad stories.

Rating:
Summary: Amazing
Review: I really enjoyed this book. It beats Maurice hands down as a kids book. I think the major problem with some of the reviewers is that they didn't realise that it's a children's book. How can you expect Pratchett at his all time best when he has to take into account that his readers porbably definately haven't read Oedipus Rex or don't know the socio-political status of the world and its countries. That's not to say that the book is dumbed down because it's not. It's vastly hilarious and you can't help but love the Nac Mac Feegle. It gives you great insight into Pratchett's Witches and also offer's a new light on fairytale's to kids. All in all, another great discworld book and I hope to see the wee free men and tiffany back. hopefully even in the adult series.

I have the brittish version and the cover is way better. check it out