Previous book here.
This is the final Discworld novel, and we're all sad about that. But I am happy to say that even though the afterword states that the book "was, still, not quite as finished as he would have liked when he died," the story is fully complete and in my opinion, totally works. The only thing I really wish is that it was well, longer. But ah well.
Anyway, this book starts with the, well, death of Granny Weatherwax (who the book is dedicated to). I am happy to report that she goes out as she'd intend to and even Death himself is a bit sad about it. But don't weep for Granny, her spirit is everywhere. Anyway, she leaves everything to Tiffany, which means that Tiffany is now what the Feegles call "the hag o' hags." Upon inheriting Granny's steading, Tiffany flies back and forth between her homeland of the Chalk and Lancre, doing double duty and looking for possible assistance from others, and watching out for a neglected triplet baby that's named after her. She misses her boyfriend Preston, currently doctoring in Ankh-Morpork, but neither of them quite knows how to resolve their careers and locations, so....who knows there. But as the afterword says, "anything you wish to know more about in here, you are welcome to imagine yourself."
Anyway, there's bigger problems to deal with. the death of Granny means that the fairies (who Tiffany's battled before as a child!) are on the move to invade the Discworld again, and a particular arse named Lord Peasebottom manages to totally defeat the Queen of the Fairies--already weakened after her battle with Tiffany years ago. The Queen is thrown out into Discworld and abandoned, and Tiffany of all people rescues her and does her best to befriend the lady, as well as rally the other witches, the Feegles, and anyone else to fight back against two fairy invasions. Good thing the Age of Steel is upon them all.
This book is great on the hidden depths of people. Magrat makes an amazing comeback! Damn girl, you be awesome. (I wish Agnes had been in it more, but sounds like she's busy having a performing career.) Mrs. Earwig may be a giant Take That at Silver RavenWolf ("your last book was called To Ride a Golden Broomstick. Can you tell me, Mrs. Earwig, how does it fly? Gold is rather heavy."), but turns out to have a hidden talent against the fairies, who knew? And as for the former Queen...well, you'll be touched at her developments. And then there's You the cat...she's very mysterious and fierce and friendly and there are hints about...well, spoilers if you click that link. I think the balance of hints about that particular topic seem to work well enough for the book, though.
In other news, we're introduced to Geoffrey Swivel, who's possibly the first male witch on the Discworld and what Tiffany ends up labeling as a "calm-talker." The kid can pacify almost anyone except his own jerkass father, so he moves to Lancre and becomes some kind of male apprentice to Tiffany. The one real critique of this book I've seen is that Geoffrey is too perfect, and...I really cannot argue that point, he's about 99% perfect. I guess to some degree that's the point of a "calm-talker," but....it is a bit weird when everything else seems so on point and delightfully Discworldly with flaws.
But overall, this is lovely. Tiffany's doing her best to live up to expectations and save her world, and as she says to another witch, "I'm on the sharp edge of witchcraft, which means doing what should be done as best you can. It's all about the people, Mrs. Earwig, not about the books." As for the title object, it ties into Tiffany's heritage and leadership in a pretty way, and I thought this was a pretty dang epic farewell with everyone coming together. It worked for me.
Five stars.
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