“I Shall Wear Midnight” is the fourth book in the Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett, which, in turn, is part of the larger discworld series. The first three books in the Tiffany Aching series are: “The Wee Free Men“, “A Hat Full Of Sky“, and “Wintersmith“. I recommend to read them in that order before starting on “I Shall Wear Midnight“.

I Shall Wear Midnight

Tiffany Aching is 16 and finished her training to become a witch, not just a witch but the witch of the Chalk, or hag o’ the hills as the Nac Mac Feegle would say. She does what witches do: doing her rounds, delivering babies, salving wounds, being there when people die, bandaging legs, taking pain away, and cutting old ladies’ toenails.

Then things start to go bad, an evil has awakened and with it come all the old stories, the stories about evil old witches. It starts with whispers, murmurs, and looks. Then someone picks up a stone. Before you know it they start looking for fire-wood. The evil has set its eyes on Tiffany. I don’t want to spoil the story, so I will just mention that Tiffany Aching ends up in Ankh-Morpork with a bunch of Nac Mac Feegles, meets a city witch and a legend, … before returning to the Chalk to face the evil on her own turf and on her own terms, and finds some unexpected allies.

These last couple of years some new elements have entered Terry Pratchett’s novels: sentiment, romance, drama, tragedy, and some novels have become darker, like this one. This came at the expense of what made the discworld series of comic fantasy novels so unique; a mix of great storytelling, wit, humor, satire, parody, and littered with puns, allusions and culture references. Those elements are not gone, but they are not as abundant as before.

It is a very good story, but it is not a very good traditional discworld story; the tumbling-down-the-rabbit-hole kind of fun has gone. I miss the shear joy, sarcasm, and wittiness of “Going Postal“, “The Wee Free Men“, “The Last Continent“, “Eric“, “Pyramids“, “Thief of Time“, …

Rating:

I have been a discworld fan since I read my first one some 15 years ago. Terry Pratchett is one of the maybe a handful of writers of which I keep on rereading the books, some even for the 5th time. I keep on discovering new jokes and references. For those not familiar with Terry Pratchett’s work, his books contain lots of references to contemporary society, economy, politics, computer networks, Shakespeare, the press, religion, movies, TV-series, Taoism, … While rereading his work, you sometimes discover new references.

Unseen Academicals by Terry Pratchett

Unseen Academicals

Football has come to the ancient city of Ankh-Morpork — not the old fashioned, grubby pushing and shoving, but the new, fast football with pointy hats for goalposts and balls that go gloing when you drop them. And now, the wizards of Unseen University must win a football match, without using magic, so they’re in the mood for trying everything else.

The prospect of a Big Match draws in a street urchin with a wonderful talent for kicking a tin can, a maker of jolly good pies, a dim but beautiful young woman, who might just turn out to be the greatest fashion model there has ever been, and the mysterious Mr Nutt, who no one knows much about. As the match approaches, four lives are entangled and changed forever.

Because the thing about football – the important thing about football – is that it is not just about football. (Text was taken from the cover)

Review

How does Unseen Academicals compare to the other discworld novels? Well, for a discworld novel it’s below average. I would rate most discworld novels 9 or 10 on a scale of 10 and this one only deserves an 8/10 or 4 stars. However, a book with a 4 star rating is still a very good book.

The quality of the book is uneven. The first half is wittier and better worked out than the second half, which feels a bit like a rush job. There are several plots that go nowhere. The second half is also darker than the first half.
It’s a typical Pratchett book in the way he takes on issues in contemporary society (self-worth, xenophobia, power games, football, idolization). He is still a master of sarcasm and parody, and one of the funniest and wittiest authors around, but this book sparkles a bit less. Some people think that Alzheimer’s disease is starting to affect his writings, but I don’t want to go there. This book still shows his genius, but especially the second half could have used some more fine-tuning and editing.
I also expected a greater role for Rincewind, but he might have well been no part of this story at all. There are 3 well-known discworld protagonists that gain a lot of depth in this novel, but that will only appeal to and be noticed by experienced discworld readers.

Conclusion

Rating: 8/10 or
Has this book worth? Yes, it sure does.
Is it a good book to start reading the discworld series? No, The Colour of Magic, Small Gods, Pyramids, The Wee Free Men, Going Postal … are better suited for this.

I am looking forward to the next discworld novels Raising Taxes and I shall Wear Midnight.