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.