Bookshelf

                           By Sue

Hogfather - author Terry Pratchett
            Gollancz, hardback œ15.99

Ho, ho, ho. It's the night before Christmas ... I mean Hogswatch
... on the Discworld. Children all over the disc are hanging up
stockings and waiting for the Hogfather to come along and fill
them with presents. There's only one problem; he's missing, maybe
even dead. So someone has to stand in for him.  Picture a
cadaverous figure, positively skeletal, trying hard to be jolly
with an echoing 'HO, HO, HO' and aided by an ugly 'pixie' called
Albert. Put a red robe and a false white beard on him and give him
a sack of presents to carry down the chimney. No, it's no good,
whichever way you look at it, it's _still_ Death dressed up.

Meanwhile other characters are preparing for Hogswatch. Susan
Sto-Helit, Death's granddaughter, is working as a governess and,
because of her ancestry, has a most original way of dealing with
bogeymen. An assassin called Mr Teatime (pronounced Teh-ah-tim-eh)
has gathered a motley crew of unsavoury characters and NOT because
he's organising a Hogswatch party, far from it.  Death of Rats has
palled up with a raven with an eyeball fixation. The Auditors, who 
first appeared in Reaper Man, are back, and something v-e-r-y
strange has happened to reality so that various obscure gods and
other spirits are popping into existence just because people think
of them. Meanwhile Ridcully, Archchancellor at the Unseen 
University, is getting Modo the gardener to unblock a door which is 
clearly marked 'Do not, under any circumstances, open this door' 
... can things get any worse?

Probably.

Hogfather is another excellent Discworld novel, the 20th in the
series. Long may they continue, is all I can say. Though the tales
are getting somewhat blacker, there is still a lot of humour in
all of them and this book is no exception. Terry P has an

inventive mind, capable of looking at an every day tale and
twisting it just enough to fit it into Discworld mythology.

Though it's aimed at Christmastime, I'd recommend you read it
whatever time of the year it is.














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