Reviews with content warning for Murder - Hogfather

This book was difficult to get through and frequently hard to follow, and that’s entirely not the book’s fault. One of the drawbacks of reading books as audiobooks at work is that I am, in fact, at work and have to be doing other things. The past two weeks at work, I was given two different projects (a large customer order that four other people were also working on and training a new person) that required me to do a lot of coordinating with people. It’s hard to both listen to a book and talk to someone about something entirely different at the same time. So I listened to Hogfather in fits and starts, a few minutes here and a few minutes there, chopping the story up into smaller bits that did not at all help my enjoyment or comprehension of the story.

Which really sucked, because for as much as I’ve struggled with the previous Death books, this one didn’t have a lot of the issues I had with the others so far. Yeah, Death was busy doing things that weren’t his job, but he hadn’t completely stopped doing his own job, and he wasn’t doing other things on a whim. Those other things did actually need to get done. And sure, in the end nothing really changed, but in this story that’s a good thing, as the main point was less making things happen then preventing bad things from happening.

As seems to be the case in the Death series, Death doesn’t get a whole lot of page time. Although there were a lot of other characters doing their own stuff throughtout this book as well.

There were Death and Albert trying to get the hang of delivering toys on Hogswatch night (and making some distinct social commentary about class and wealth disparity in the process).
There was an absolutely off his rocker assassin doing … I’m not entirely sure what. Tooth fairies were involved. Somewhere in my disjointed reading experience I missed exactly what he was up to.
There was Susan, who I actually quite enjoy now that she’s an adult. She is completely Fed Up With This Bullshit, and she may not be able to escape the supernatural nonsense but she can and will hit it with a fire poker. I hope she gets to be a bigger player in future Death books because adult Susan is fantastic.
Then there were the wizards. The bounce in and out of the other characters’ stories, and they’re also doing their own stuff. There’s a bit of musing about the nature of belief and sentience – and also a couple computer programmer jokes – with Hex (Ponder Stibbons’ computer-like invention), and a very weird subplot about Archchancellor Ridcully’s new bathroom. I’ll be honest, I do not at all understand the point or purpose of the bathroom plot.

It’s entirely a coincidence that I picked up the holiday-themed Discworld book around the holidays, but it was fun. There were some musings on the nature of holidays and their traditions, what it means to believe and how belief affects the world, and how different the world looks through the eyes of children, plus mentions of holiday gift-giving as an illustration of wealth inequality and the ancient and significantly-less-cuddly roots of most treasured traditions. And if you wanted to call this book Death and his Granddaughter Susan Save (Discworld’s Version of) Christmas, that would also be valid.

Even reading it in fits and starts, making it unnecessarily confusing and at times hard to follow, this is probably my favorite Death book so far. I can only imagine how much more I would have liked it if I’d been able to read it straight through like normal. I’m really hoping the rest of the Death sub-series is like this, because I had a remarkably good time with this book.

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ageckocalledachilles's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

5.0

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rorikae's review against another edition

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adventurous reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? N/A
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

'Hogfather' by Terry Pratchett is a fun and deeply reflective installment in the Discworld series that delves into belief and the Hogswatch holiday.
The Auditors want to disrupt humanity and to do this, they employ an assassin to kill the Hogfather. But when their plan goes awry, Death steps in to take up the mantle and make sure everyone receives their presents on Hogswatch night. As he travels around the world, his granddaughter Susan is pulled in to help figure out what is happening and how it can be stopped.
Like all of the Discworld books, 'Hogfather' is infused with wit and heart in equal measure. I love the premise of Death having to take over the job of who is essentially the Discworld version of Santa Claus. Where this book fell flat for me was in the middle section. The beginning was engaging and the ending had a lot to say about how humans use belief and the purpose that folklore holds in our lives. The middle was unfortunately a huge slog. I think this story is hurt by the number of perspectives we are jumping frantically between. We follow multiple different characters (at least 4 at a time if not more) and these sections take up only a few pages before we are hurtled along to the next piece. This made the story feel somewhat jumbled and we never spend enough time with one plotline for it to fully feel fleshed out. This is really unfortunate because the story points and the larger pieces that Pratchett is musing on are really interesting and his commentary makes you think.
The ending did save it for me in some respects but it was a lot to get through to get there. I love the ultimate message of this story and what it has to say about belief and the stories that humans tell themselves. This is also the first Discworld book that I've read out of order so I wonder if that had any part in why it was a little bit less enjoyable for me. I will definitely be going back to reading in order after this experience.
I hope to return to this book in the future around the holidays and potentially to check out the adaptation. I wouldn't recommend this as a first experience with Discworld but I do feel that it plays an important part in the wider story (at least as I can see so far).

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helen___'s review against another edition

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adventurous emotional funny hopeful fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Plot
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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laurenvoice's review against another edition

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adventurous funny hopeful mysterious medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? N/A
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

This was the first book I have read in the Discworld series. Now I am not sure whether it was okay to start with Hogfather as some bits that form part of the Discworld may have been explained in other books within the series, well I hope that they are. Nonetheless, Hogfather was the perfect festive read to get me in the holiday spirit.

Hogfather was a fantastical, fun and hilarious read. The fantasy within was truly brought to life, which made me really enjoy the academics/wizards at the Unseen University; they are honestly my favourite parts of the book. Oh, also Death was quite the interesting character, again I have to admit the parts that the character Death occurs were also my favourite. Although this was a fun read some bits had me lost.

I am not going to lie I was confused whilst reading most of this book, and once I realised I only had 130 pages left I knew I was never going to understand what was going on. Maybe this is a good thing, to be lost within a book, but at times I found it annoying. Nonetheless, the message at the end about believing in the small things like the Hogfather or the Tooth Fairy as a child will lead you to believe in good and the bad once you grow up.

With all that being said, I look forward to delving further into the Discworld series, especially the Death subseries, as I thoroughly enjoyed being in the Discworld. If I was a character within this series, I think I would quite like to be one of the wizards at UU. Although maybe I shouldn't say that this early as I have only just begun my adventure in the Discworld.

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