I Shall Wear Midnight - Terry Pratchett

The fourth, and probably final, Tiffany Aching book.

First of all, I really, really enjoyed this book. It does have a sense of finality to it however. Between this and some of the trends in the the recent Disc books, I'd suspect that the series is moving to a conclusion. In Tiffany Aching's case, she's growing up.

Midnight has Tiffany, now nearly 16, single handedly seeing to the Witchcraft needs of nearly every village on the Chalk. She's gained a not insignificant amount of respect from people for what she does, but as the book opens the tide of public opinion has been turning against Witches, and old women have been forced out of their homes and left to starve in the cold for being too much like the stereotypical Witch.

While this is all happening, Tiffany gets caught up in events concerning the death of the Baron and the reappearance of a centuries old Witch-Hunter called the Cunning Man. Despite the presence of several senior Witches, Tiffany takes it upon herself to deal with the Cunning Man and the hatred of Witches he inspires herself.

The one thing that stands out as a little out of place is the Nac Mac Feegles, who feel like they're only in this book solely because the Feegles are always in Tiffany books. Other than that, it's pretty entertaining and tells a good story of how Tiffany has come into her own as a full fledged witch. There are several cameos by established Discworld characters which come pretty close to over-doing it, but worked well for me, as it felt like Tiffany was finally properly a part of the Discworld setting, and on an equal footing with the Watch and the Wizards.

As in all the Tiffany books the plot is mostly concerned with her ability to face up to responsibility and take on the tasks that no one else wants to do. And after it's all over, it definitely feels like Tiffany's training is done and she has more than earned her place as the Witch of the Chalk. Along the way we get a good look at the Witch Tiffany will become one day - which helps to lends a sense of closure to the series as well.

Which brings me to my earlier point about the book's sense of finality. After 38 novels, 2 animated movies, 3 TV movies, and countless other tie-in books I definitely feel like the series may be coming to an end. Perhaps Sir Terry feels like he should bring his work to a finish while he still can. There are at least two more books announced though - Snuff, a new Samuel Vimes book and Raising Taxes, the third Moist von Lipwig book. So there's some way to go before the end, but I can kind of see how it might end already. Captain Carrot replacing Sam Vimes as Commander of the Watch, Granny Weatherwax's position as First Amongst Equals passing to Tiffany and Mosit von Lipwig as the newly elected Patrician of Ankh-Morpork. And, of course, Rincewind off on one last, great adventure.

I've been reading the Discworld novels myself now for 15 years and for the most part loving each one. I'm glad there are more to come, but perhaps it's time to see our beloved characters reach the end of their stories, wave goodbye to them and move on to newer things. I, for one, would like to see Terry Pratchett give them the send off they deserve before he stops writing.

Declare - Tim Powers

A little while back I posted about a book called Declare. Since then, I've finished it.

IT was pretty damn good. A slow start but once it gained momentum it got me hooked and dragging me with it to the end. What I never realised - not being familiar with World War 2 espionage history - was that the character I'd grown to love to hate was a real person.

I won't go on at length about the book itself other than to recommend it to anyone interested in modern day occult stories as it does a fantastic job of tying the mythology of the djinn into the secret war found behind the scenes during the early 40s as World War 2 drew to a close and also into the Cold War espionage of the early 60s. And it does so with Power's usual flair for twists and turns in the story as it goes.

What I did want to talk about was the author's afterword - where Tim Powers talks about how he became fascinated by the gaps in Kim Philby's history, and wondered what might have happened in those periods not recorded by history. In his own words, he "kept being nagged by a feeling that the central element of the story had been omitted."

He compares the process to how astronomers find new planets - detecting the wobbles in the orbits of planets they're aware of, or disturbances in light from distant suns and infer what is missing by it's affect on what they can see. By studying what was known of Philby, his father, Guy Burgess and the nigh legendary Lawrence of Arabia and looking for what might fit in the spaces between these fact, and sticking by an ironclad rule not to change any recorded facts or dates Powers put together the story that ties them all together.

And what comes out of it all is a neat little piece of occult fiction that's all the more compelling because in a world where the mystical powers from this book could exist, it would so neatly explain so much of what went on in the lives of these people. What were no doubt either ordinary intrigues of the spy's life or just random happen stance of everyday life could so easily have been a battle to control the power of a colony of djinn. By blurring the lines between fact and fiction, Powers drew me into a genre I would not normally be all that keen on (espionage, that is - not modern occult. I have no problem with that).

So I thoroughly recommend this book to anyone who'd like a cold war occult story or just wants to read an example of how a fascinating fictional story can be weaved into recorded history.