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Summary: You'd better watch out... you'd better not cry...
Review: If you are a Pratchett fan then I am wasting my time telling you what a genius Terry is... if you're not yet a Pratchett fan, you need to find your introduction book to the master of Fantasy Satire.Myths live forever... or do they. Hogfather is a twisting Helix of two tales. A murder mystery featuring Susan Sto-Helit, Death's Grand-daughter and a Romp through the collective human subconcious with Death and his surly manservant. Laugh and smile and wonder as Pratchett educates us as to the history, nature and evolution of Myth, Faith and the nature of belief. A must have for any fan of Death and Susan Sto-Helit.
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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.
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Summary: Ah a little christmas cheer, Prachett style.
Review: Well well well. Look who has something for every season. Discworld holidays can be a little strange sometimes, but this seems almost normal. Except for the part about killing pigs and birds and such so the sun will rise. This is the kind of book you can pull put at christmas and offend some people. This book in a lot of ways makes a mockery of christmas, as death is running the scene. This is the book I use to get new people into discworld. I hope you like it too. Definitly good to read again and again... ~Rincewind
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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.
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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.
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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.
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Summary: Perfect Pratchett
Review: Hogfather is yet another Discworld novel by English humor and satire writer Terry Pratchett. It is just as addictive and fun as all before and after it. While listening to Death, his unwilling granddaughter and the constantly ill God of Hangovers, the story of the missing Hogfather, a figure similar to Santa Claus, unfolds. The main story is incredibly amusing, but equally engrossing are the stories within the story of minor and rather odd Gods, Death's family discourse, and the existence of bogeymen, beasts and wizards.
This novel appeals to a wide variety of readers. Each person will extract something different from the story. Younger readers will enjoy the humor while older readers will appreciate the upside down philosophy and satire of Discworld. All that is really required to adore Hogfather is a sense of fun and mischief and of course one afternoon to gallivant with Death's granddaughter, the Assassins' Guild and a whole slough of wizards.
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Summary: Terry Must Have Had a Bad Holiday
Review: I just read this one again after a hiatus of about two years, and I like it not. Even more than the Rincewind books, this is the weakest plot, laziest characterization, and least wise & witty dialogue of the Discworld stories, and I've read 'em all except A MONSTROUS REGIMENT. The story is so obvious. Like the Rincewind novels, much of the writing is archly superior, with the usual silly wizards (apologies to Celtic music buffs), the villains painted as utterly idiotic or psychopathic, like Mr. Teatime, and main protagonists, Death and his family, seldom on stage till the second half. It left me wondering what had happened to the humanistic Mr. Pratchett this go-around. Usually I'm very fond of the "Death" and "Susan" books, but not this one. The last couple of chapters do redeem the story to some extent, but all I can figure is that Mr. P. had a really disappointing Hogfathernight just before he wrote this book.
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Summary: Hilarious tale about childhood icons with twists and laughs!
Review: This book was hilarious. Not only did it have the grim reaper playing Santa Claus (or Hogfather as the case may be), but it also has a colorful cast of other "mythical" beings like the tooth fairies, the bogeyman, the "oh god" of Hangovers and the assassin with manners, Mr. Teatime. (That's Te-ah Tim-eh.) This is one of my favorite in Pratchett's Discworld series. It shows the human side to Death himself and his idealistic and childlike yearnings to rob the rich to feed the poor. I recommend it to anyone looking for a wonderful combination of fantasy and laughs (although not without a bit of morale thrown in).
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Summary: Wickedly Funny
Review: It's Hogswatch night in the Discworld... Where is the big jolly fat man? Why is Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho? The darkest night of the year is getting a lot darker... The 20th book in Terry Pratchett's Discworld series is hardly a proper introduction to the series, but for old fans it's one of Terry's funniest works. Readers will rejoice in the return of Death's granddaughter, Susan Sto-Helit (first introduced in 'Soul Music'), who is naturally accompanied by the Death Of Rats and the Raven - as well as large doses of Death, who is probably the most interesting character in the Discworld universe, and always promises great comical scenes, and also a return of the Auditors from 'Reaper Man'. The wizards of Unseen University - Archcancellor Ridcully, Ponder Stibbons, the Dean, the Bursar and the rest - also make a hilarious appearance. As for new characters - 'Hogfather' introduces a lovely villain in the eccentric young Assassin Mr. Teatime, and his group of thugs makes for some great comic relief. More comic relief is supplied by Bilious, the (Oh) God of Hangovers. Some bits of the plot, I must point out - mainly the scenes of Death posing as the Hogfather - are largely inspired, not to say ripped-off, from Tim Burton's 'Nightmare Before Christmas'. That didn't bother me too much, though; Terry's terrific writing makes up for it. 'Hogfather' is a terrific buy for Pratchett fans, as long as you've read 'Mort', 'Reaper Man' and 'Soul Music'.
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