Schweinsgalopp (1996)

Pratchett gerir stólpagrín að trúnni sem magnar upp tannálfinn og "jólasvein" Diskheims sem heitir Hogfather svo eitthvað sé nefnt. Nú er búið að senda launmorðingja til drepa Svínaföðurinn og á meðan aðalhetjan reynir að bjarga honum hleypur Dauðinn í skarðið fyrir hann á óborganlegan hátt. ( )

He's not dead yet! Reading this in honour of Christmas and Terry being a bit poorly. ( )

I was supposed to be doing this as a buddy read with everyone, but I've not been keeping my end up at all. The cold I thought I'd beaten down made a comeback at the end of last week, so I kept falling asleep every time I tried to get stuck into Hogfather. Which sounds like a terrible condemnation of the book, but is really is NOT. The book was excellent. I'd prove it's excellence with quotes, except all my reading buddies beat me to all the quotes I liked the best.

There's mischief afoot in the Discworld, and the Hogfather is missing. Death decides to step in and play the Hogfather's role, visiting houses, filling stockings and doing his best to ensure that belief in the Hogfather never falters, while his grand-daughter Susan and a host of others do their best to thwart the mischief so Hogfather can come back.

This is a brilliant story - practically flawless. My only two complaints are that:

1. Teatime is a little too evil; it adds an edge to the story that I freely admit is necessary; without it the whole thing would be a little less brilliant. Nevertheless, His story line was the fly in my lemonade; I'd be reading along having a rollicking good time and then he'd show up being manically evil, and it felt like someone let the air out of my balloons.

2. The book kept referring to both dollars and pence. Either this was done on purpose, because it's the discworld and can use any form of currency Pratchett would like, or else it's an editing error that wasn't caught during a transition from UK to international editions. If it's the former, well, that's totally fine. But I don't know, so I kept wondering if it was the latter and I kept getting tripped up by the discrepancy.

In the grand scheme of things, these are inconsequential - this is, hands down, the best discworld book I've read so far. But Teatime's rain on my holiday parade does keep me from going the whole 5 stars.

If you like silly fun with a side of very deep philosophy, read this book.

There's one quote I don't think anyone has beaten me to yet:

Humans need fantasy to be human. To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape.

That might very well be my favourite quote of the book. ( )

*** ITA/ENG ***
Il fatto che Hoghfather non sia ancora stato tradotto in italiano è uno dei grandi misteri della nostra editoria.

Uno dei libri più divertenti che abbia mai letto, con uno dei migliori personaggi di sempre (Morte, ciao!), ma allo stesso tempo con quegli spunti di riflessione più profondi che accompagnano i libri del compianto Terry Pratchett.
***************

One of the most terrible things about this book is that my country has never translated it in italian, so a lot of people are missing its awesomeness.

Terry Pratchett is always excellent at humor, while at the same time carrying more serious themes between the lines. And who doesn't love a book with Death as one of the main characters? Because I do!

Il Club del Libro / DRS
Libro del mese di Gennaio 2018

Libro del mese successivo
[b:The Man in the High Castle|216363|The Man in the High Castle|Philip K. Dick|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1448756803l/216363._SY75_.jpg|2398287] ( )

"Humans need fantasy to be human.
To be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape."

"There is always time for another last minute"
DEATH


Death comes to save christmas. ( )