Suvudu Universe

To begin, let's discuss Terry Pratchett and his marvelous Disc World series. For those of you who don't know who he is or what he writes, here is a brief synopsis. His books revolve around the Disc World. A place where magic, wonder and sometimes stupidity is never in short supply. The books do not need to be read in any specific order, which makes them all the more interesting, at least in my eyes. What I can say about the books overall, is that they are chaotic and never dull. He does not write with chapters, there are just sort of small breaks in the page with tons of footnotes that can be sort of obnoxious at times. No matter what book you start with, I do suggest you read at least one Terry Pratchett novel in your lifetime, why not make it this one?

Now, onto the Hogfather. This is by far one of his better books. There is a wonderful plot about belief. Not sure if that was his intention, but I felt that he wanted people to recognize the importance of belief in the unknown and the fantastical. The book involves Death, his granddaughter, a bunch of magicians, a bizarre assassin and a few spare magical creatures (if you are curious about the spare magical creatures, I suggest you pick the book up and read it!). There are tons of twists in the plot and at times can be sort of confusing. This is not unlike his other books, but I feel that it is the charm of reading his Disc World novels. As someone in my book club mentioned at the discussion, there is a whole side story that exists for nothing else than to just take up paragraphs and words. I won't spoil the book for anyone, but I will tell you the ending is beautiful. I have read the book several times, usually around Christmas, and it always make me realize why we believe in the Easter Bunny or Santa Clause. This books sort of brought those ideas home to me the first time I read it and every time there after. I will leave you with a teaser of the book. One of my favorite quotes and the point where I think Terry brings the concepts of the books together.

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

I hope after reading this small blurb about the Hogfather, you might be curious enough to go out and read it. I hope you do and I hope you learn to see the fantasy in reality.