I Shall Wear Midnight

I Shall Wear Midnight
By Terry Pratchett
Harper, 2010. 355 pgs. Young Adult

Tiffany first notices the rough music when one of the local men beats his daughter and the crowd gathers to condemn him. She realizes the rough music is growing and that people are beginning to harbor bad feelings against witches. Worried about this, she discovers a shadowy man with no eyes and the foulest order following her. Another witch informs her that this is the Cunning Man, who appears every few hundred years, hardening people’s minds and hearts against the witches and he wants to consume Tiffany. With the help of the Wee Free Men and a local young man, Preston (a wonderful new character to the series), Tiffany plans how to defeat the Cunning Man.

Fans of this series will delight in this newest, and I believe final, addition to the Tiffany Aching series set in Discworld. Tiffany is a fantastic heroine-bright, stubborn, and loyal. The Wee Free Men provide their usual humor and Pratchett makes lots of fun and pointed observations about humans. Readers who haven’t read this series, but like weird, humorous, fantastical adventures, should pick up The Wee Free Men, the first in this series.

MN