Hogfather (Discworld Series) Book

"IT IS THE THINGS YOU BELIEVE IN WHICH MAKE YOU HUMAN. GOOD THINGS AND BAD THINGS, IT'S ALL THE SAME."

Hogfather itself concerns the Discworld, where there are things that control the Universe called The Auditors and they do not like Humans, because Humans are messy. Well, they did invent dullness. And Death is meddling again. His grand-daughter Susan is trying to be normal, but how normal is hitting bogeymen with a poker, really? And we haven't even mentioned the one-eyed Assassin yet, or the fact that no-one seems to believe in the Hogfather any more.

Terry Pratchett's 20th Discworld novel is their version of a Yuletide story, complete with many deaths, lots of Death and some of the most thought-provoking conversations I've ever come across. He has other books that are better written, although I think you'd be hard pressed to find any mistakes here. The depth of characters (considering how many there actually are) is astounding and is brought forward in such a way that you don't really notice it until you close the book and realise that you know more about Ridcully than you do your own Nan.

The humour is typical early-Discworld. It is the same that runs through the entire series, but here it is a bit less rounded than elsewhere. It can often be subtle, or it can very much in your face. It is very much an English-kind-of-Humour book.

What you take from this particular novel, however, is just how important belief is to Human Beings. It is not enough to say that we tell children to believe in Father Christmas just so that they don't understand the value of money and have to work it out later on or because it's "tradition", but it's so we can understand that beliefs are the most important thing to us. If we did not believe, what would we be?

I'm not sure how, but my third read of this made me upgrade it to a full 5-stars. Am I getting in to the Christmas Hogswatch spirit?

Every year I read this. Every year I love it more and more. I am incapable of putting in to words my utter love for this book and everything contained within.

[First read: 9th June, 2013. 3 stars.
Second read: 19th December, 2015. 4 stars.
Third Read: 21st December, 2016. 5 stars.
Fourth Read: 16th December, 2017. 5 stars.]



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