If you haven't read the book, or the whole series,
why not join in and read along with the rest of us? This week the links to the
other posts can be found at Dab
of Darkness.
This week we read through to the end of the book.
1) What did
you think of Annagramma's blunderings and then her reveal to Tiffany about her
parentage?
Anna is a perfect example of someone who is so
chronically insecure that they can only feel good about themselves by putting
everyone else down. She is obviously very embarrassed about her lowly
background and now suffers from being a terrible snob. I have met quite a few
people like that and I am afraid to say that learning of her background does
not make me feel anymore sympathetic towards her because she is such an unpleasant
person.
2) Lady
Summer makes herself known in this section of the book. How did your
impressions change with each time we saw her?
At first I thought that she was going to be
vindictive and aggressive towards Tiffany, but that would have been a far too
human response to the situation. I really liked the way that we came to
understand her as we followed the Wintersmith on his journey towards being
human. In the end we came to understand that they were both incapable of
understanding the human condition, which made it much easier to relate to their
mindset.
3) Ah, the
Cornucopia, the Horn of Plenty. Was it all you expected? What would you ask
from the Cornucopia if you had it for a day?
I had never expected a Cornucopia to be quite so
useful as a weapon, but it did pretty much what I expected. I loved the way
that it could learn languages and the scene with You and the chickens was pure
genius: at least it did not splat out tons of cat food!
As for what I would ask for . . . I have a favorite
restaurant, which is in Rome, Italy, and I have not been there for three years
now, which is a crying shame. I would love to have some of my favorite dishes
from their menu – the marinated anchovies, spaghetti alla carbonara, pasta with
chickpeas, baked lamb, calf liver, roasted porchini, zucchini, seasonal greens,
gelato and various desserts. All washed down with a jug of the house red . . .
sigh . . .
Ok, total geek out moment – I stuck the
restaurante’s name into Google and they now have their own website!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I am so happy I could almost cry!!!!!! Take a look at Antica Boheme and you will see
some of the food that I dream about! The opera music is because they are just
across the street from the Teatro Dell’Opera and it is a favorite eating spot
for the artists that appear there.
4) Werk,
werk, werk. So many chickens! Which is worse: 5 kilted Feegles hiding under
your bed or a house full of chickens? What would you do with so many of the
feathered egg-laying manure factories?
I cannot imagine that just five Feegles would be
much trouble, but this is a tough decision . . . at least they could get
themselves out of the house and I assume that they do not poo all over the
place at random. On the other hand, the chickens are useful and tasty: I have
friends who keep chickens already, so I could probably find homes for them and
enjoy lots of fresh eggs in the future.
However, on balance I would take the Feegles, because chicken poo is
horribly smelly and would do terrible things to my hardwood flooring! :D
5) The
winter was a harsh one, with wolves in the ice tunnels. However, Mistress
Weatherwax put a stop to the wolves but never said how. What do you think she
did?
I imagine that she just gave them a long, hard
stare, which was enough to make them slink back to wherever they came from. My
other suggestion is even more terrifying: perhaps she simply let You have ago
at them . . .
6) The
immortal who tried to make himself into a man: did you enjoy the Wintersmith's
attempts to make himself a man?
As always, Sir Terry takes traditional themes and
turns them on their heads or rewrites the usual ending. So often we see
elementals like the Wintersmith anthropomorphized and made into a very human
character but here we see that this is an impossible outcome. It is such a joy
to see gods and other mystical creatures or forces of nature as truly inhuman
and unable to think as we do. It also allows quite a lot of humor: I
particularly loved the scene related by the barmaid of him eating a sausage. In
many ways, the Wintersmith was somewhat similar to the Hiver in his desire to
be human and also in his total inability to understand what that meant.
7) Granny
Weatherwax tests Rob Anybody's spelling and then sets him a heroic task. Do you
think she was right to set that in motion or do you think someone else would
have come up with the same idea?
I thought it was fairly obvious that Roland was
going to be the Hero in this story, although I was not sure what he would be
needed to do. It was also obvious that Tiffany was too fixated with the
Wintersmith to even think about releasing the Summer Lady, and the Lady’s
taunts did not exactly help with that. Without Roland and the Feegles, the Lady
would have remained dormant and the balance would not have been restored, so it
made perfect sense that she had to be rescued.
I loved the scene where Rob called the book on
accountancy – I cannot imagine a book that would require more of an heroic
effort to read it all the way through! :D
8) Finally,
did you applaud Tiffany's solution to the Wintersmith dilemma? Did you find the
ending satisfactory?
As with the Hiver, Tiffany made the Wintersmith
finally understand that it could never really be human, so that was a satisfying
ending. I also enjoyed Roland’s transformation into a proper Hero and the brave
decision to show that Tiffany could not handle everything by herself. The fact
that she was totally blind to everything except the Wintersmith was appropriate
because she was more than a little in love with him. It also fits into Sir
Terry’s usual template, where his heroes are not perfect, all-powerful beings,
but simply humans with some extra talents.
However, I was a little disappointed by the ending
because it was over too quickly. There was so much build up that I would have
liked to see it drawn out a bit longer. This was possibly more of a problem
because Sir Terry did not choose to repeat the beginning of the book in any
way. Roland’s journey through the Underworld was excellent and atmospheric, but
seemed a little rushed, as did the final confrontation with the Wintersmith. I
suppose that it did not help that I felt no real fear for Tiffany. Having seen
her defeat the Hiver and travel through the world of Death, it was very
difficult to imagine that she could ever be in true danger. Ultimately this reduced
the impact of the ending because it did not carry the emotional rollercoaster
ride that was needed.
