Low Fantasy, Young Adult

Review: The Wee Free Men

Jay
Cover of "The Wee Free Men," featuring a drawing of a sheep's head with six small blue-skinned men with wild red hair and beards wearing kilts.

Title: The Wee Free Men

Series: Discworld #30 (Tiffany Aching #1)

Author: Terry Pratchett

Genre: Low Fantasy

Trigger Warnings: Kidnapping, death (mentions), death of family members, grief, body horror (mild)

Spoiler Warning: This book is 30th in a series, but the first in the Tiffany Aching sub-series, so this review won’t contain any spoilers of the previous book.

Back Cover:

Armed only with a frying pan and her common sense, Tiffany Aching, a young witch-to-be, is all that stands between the monsters of Fairyland and the warm, green Chalk country that is her home. Forced into Fairyland to seek her kidnapped brother, Tiffany allies herself with the Chalk’s local Nac Mac Feegle – aka the Wee Free Men – a clan of sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men who are as fierce as they are funny. Together they battle through an eerie and ever-shifting landscape, fighting brutal flying fairies, dream-spinning dromes, and grimhounds – black dogs with eyes of fire and teeth of razors – before ultimately confronting the Queen of the Elves, absolute ruler of a world in which reality intertwines with nightmare. And in the final showdown, Tiffany must face her cruel power alone…

Review:

My very first foray into the Discworld series was Wintersmith, the third book featuring Tiffany, but I remember almost nothing from it. The Wee Free Men introduces Tiffany, a nine-year-old living in the Chalk, a sheep-farming community based on hills of chalk covered by sod, who is more intelligent and observant than most people in her community are prepared to deal with and who desperately wants to be a witch.

Then in very short order, she discovers that she is, in fact, a witch, and she needs to figure out how to use her powers right away because her world is colliding with another one, the Queen has kidnapped her little brother, and she’s the only person around who can do anything about it. With the help of the local Nac Mac Feegle, a bunch of tiny blue Scottish men, Tiffany goes up against living nightmares, dream-controlling creatues, spoiled little boys, and the Queen of Fairyland herself, armed only with a frying pan, her witchy wits, and a bunch of tiny blue men.

And, like every Discworld adventure I’ve read so far, it’s absolutely delightful. It’s full of Terry Pratchett’s usual witicisms and clever turns of phrase, and many moments of humor and mirth, but it also covers a lot of deeper themes – Tiffany’s own fears about being a selfish person, the grief of her grandmother dying that she hadn’t processed yet, her motives for rescuing her brother even though she doesn’t love him and her fear that that makes her a bad person. It’s a great combination of deep and lighthearated that made me tear up a few times, both from mirth and feelings.

I was a tiny bit weirded out by the fact that Tiffany was nine years old during these events. She seemed a lot older – or at least, not that young. It’s emphasized that she’s bookish and very intelligent for her age, but it just seemed like a huge disconnect between how Tiffany was acting in this book and how I remember my sister at nine years old. Although she did remind me of my own self-perception when I was around that age, so perhaps it’s told more from a nine-year-old’s sense of how she is as opposed to how an outside reader would perceive her.

I very much enjoyed this book, and surprisingly it spoke to my own insecurities. It makes me want to be a Discworld witch, which is less about magic spells and more about observation and common sense. But above all, it makes me want to read more Discworld books, and especially more of the ones about Tiffany.

The Discworld Series:

  1. The Colour of Magic
  2. The Light Fantastic
  3. Equal Rites
  4. Mort
  5. Sourcery
  6. Wyrd Sisters
  7. Pyramids
  8. Guards! Guards!
  9. Eric
  10. Moving Pictures
  11. Reaper Man
  12. Witches Abroad
  13. Small Gods
  14. Lords and Ladies
  15. Men at Arms
  16. Soul Music
  17. Interesting Times
  18. Maskerade
  19. Feet of Clay
  20. Hogfather
  21. Jingo
  22. The Last Continent
  23. Carpe Jugulum
  24. The Fifth Elephant
  25. The Truth
  26. Thief of Time
  27. The Last Hero
  28. The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents
  29. Night Watch
  30. The Wee Free Men
  31. Monstrous Regiment
  32. A Hat Full of Sky
  33. Going Postal
  34. Thud!
  35. Wintersmith
  36. Making Money
  37. Unseen Academicals
  38. I Shall Wear Midnight
  39. Snuff
  40. Raising Steam
  41. The Shepherd’s Crown