As all Disc World books begin we see the universe and flying through it on the backs of four elephants standing on a turtle named the great A'Tuin is the Disc World. This edition tells the tale of a winter holiday, not unlike that of our Christmas, called Hogswatch.
On this Hogswatch Eve a problem has arisen, the Auditors have hired the assassins' guild to put an end to the HogFather. The head of the guild has assigned the account to Mr. Teatime, who has spent time thinking of how this very thing could be done. Death himself is forced to intervene, or the whole of the world will cease to be.
Meanwhile, Death's granddaughter Susan is slyly tricked into finding out what's happened to the real Hogfather. She visits his Castle of Bones only to find the hung-over Bilious, the "Oh God" of Hangovers whom she rescues before the castle collapses due to the lack of belief. In an endeavor to treat Bilious hangover, Susan visits the Unseen University, where it is discovered that several of these small gods and beings are being created.
The University's new and experimental thinking machine, Hex, explains that there is 'spare belief' in the world, due to the absence of the Hogfather, which is being used to create them.
Susan and Bilious then travel to the land of the Tooth Fairy, through a child's painting, where they discover that Jonathan Teatime has 'killed' the Hogfather by collecting millions of children's teeth and using them to control the children, forcing them to stop believing in the Hogfather a very ancient magic. Upon defeating the Assassin, Susan clears the teeth away, sets several characters stories right, and brings back the Hogfather by rescuing him from the Auditors, who have taken the forms of dogs. They cannot return to their original state and so cannot stop themselves falling off a cliff.
Afterwards, Teatime tracks Susan to the Gaiters' nursery, but is killed by Susan using a poker, which passes through Death because "it only kills monsters". Susan and her Grandfather come to some understanding after their long estrangement.
I loved not only the book but the BBC production. Susan, and Death are some of my favorite characters in the Disc World. While some say that Prattachett is a copy of Adams in style and country, my only comment is âwell, someone has to do it,â
On this Hogswatch Eve a problem has arisen, the Auditors have hired the assassins' guild to put an end to the HogFather. The head of the guild has assigned the account to Mr. Teatime, who has spent time thinking of how this very thing could be done. Death himself is forced to intervene, or the whole of the world will cease to be.
Meanwhile, Death's granddaughter Susan is slyly tricked into finding out what's happened to the real Hogfather. She visits his Castle of Bones only to find the hung-over Bilious, the "Oh God" of Hangovers whom she rescues before the castle collapses due to the lack of belief. In an endeavor to treat Bilious hangover, Susan visits the Unseen University, where it is discovered that several of these small gods and beings are being created.
The University's new and experimental thinking machine, Hex, explains that there is 'spare belief' in the world, due to the absence of the Hogfather, which is being used to create them.
Susan and Bilious then travel to the land of the Tooth Fairy, through a child's painting, where they discover that Jonathan Teatime has 'killed' the Hogfather by collecting millions of children's teeth and using them to control the children, forcing them to stop believing in the Hogfather a very ancient magic. Upon defeating the Assassin, Susan clears the teeth away, sets several characters stories right, and brings back the Hogfather by rescuing him from the Auditors, who have taken the forms of dogs. They cannot return to their original state and so cannot stop themselves falling off a cliff.
Afterwards, Teatime tracks Susan to the Gaiters' nursery, but is killed by Susan using a poker, which passes through Death because "it only kills monsters". Susan and her Grandfather come to some understanding after their long estrangement.
I loved not only the book but the BBC production. Susan, and Death are some of my favorite characters in the Disc World. While some say that Prattachett is a copy of Adams in style and country, my only comment is âwell, someone has to do it,â
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