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An introduction to the bizarre and entertaining Discworld (a world that is actually shaped like a flat disc, carried by four elephants who stand on the back of the great turtle A'Tuin). We follow the hapless (but lucky) tourist Twoflower, his semi-unwilling guide, the wizard (of sorts) Rincewind, and Twoflower's luggage made of sapient pear-tree wood, as they traipse about and see various parts of this strange world - from the seedy, greedy inhabitants of Ankh-Mopork, to a forest with dryads and a temple for an ancient, unspeakable evil, through the dry seas to the Rim of the great disk, where the waters spill off the edge of the world into space, and finally they become the unwilling guests of the Krull, who have constructed a metal fish to fly off the edge of the world and take a closer look at the great turtle.

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While going about his usual business, Death notices that something is wrong - that the Hogfather (the Discworld equivalent to our Santa Claus, with a sleigh drawn by huge pigs or boar named Tusker, Snouter, Gouger, and Rooter) is in danger, in fact very near to whatever the equivalent of death is for an immortal being. At the same time, a group of the Auditors has come to the Assassin's guild in Ankh-Morpork with an unusual request: end the Hogfather. But they offer enough money, and there happens to be an unusual member of the Assassin's guild who as a hobby has considered how one might end the Hogfather, the Tooth Fairy, or even Death-- so Mr. Teatime undertakes this request. In the meantime, Death decides to fill in for the Hogfather-- leaving footprints and presents and removing the treats left for the Hogfather (his assistant, Albert, is along with him eating the goodies and helping Death to be more jolly), in order to help instill belief in the Hogfather to help him survive. As he's doing his rounds (dressed in a red suit with a pillow and a fake beard), Death stops by the house where his granddaughter Susan works as a governness-- and warns her very carefully that she shouldn't get involved, of course knowing full well that this will result in her doing exactly that.

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A young girl (12) named Tiffany Aching sees a monster come out of the river, and decides to take care of it. She is helped by some new friends .. six inch men who are blue and kin to Celtic warriors. They talk with wonderful accents, and will fight anything that moves. Their heads are weapons, and one headbutt can down a horse. They are quite hilarious. Tiffany's younger brother (who is sticky and always wants more sweets) is stolen, and she must go to save him. To do so, she must go to another land, which is touching theirs (and is evil). It is a land of nightmare, where there are webs in which one can be caught that make you dream, and if you eat any food, you stay in the dream forever. And nightmare dogs that are also horrible. There is a queen who is in charge of all the dreams, causing people to join in her dream, and not allowing them to leave.

The little blue men are my favorite part of this story. They are hilarious. “We are a famously stealin' folk. Aren't we, lad? Whut's it we're famous for?” [their leader] “Stealin'!” shouted the blue men. “And what else, lads?” “Fightin'!” “And what else, lads?” “Drinkin'!” “And what else?” There was a certain amount of thought about this, but they all reached the same conclusion. “Drinkin' and fightin'!” “And there was summat else,” muttered the twiddler. “Ach, yes. Tell the hag, lads!” “Stealin' and drinkin' and fightin'!” shouted the blue men cheerfully. [pages 99-100]

Title:	The Wee Free Men
Author:	Terry Pratchett
Date published:	2003
Genre:	Fantasy, Humor
Series:	Discworld
Number of pages:	375
Notes:	recommended by jewell and levi

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Neil Gaiman & Terry Pratchett's humorous take on the apocalypse-- the antichrist has been misplaced (accidentally switched and given to the wrong family at birth). The two central characters are an angel and a demon, the field agents of heaven and hell who have more in common with each other than their respective home bases. In fact, they go way back-- all the way back to the graden of Eden. Crowley (then called Crawly) was the serpentine tempter, and Aziraphale was the Angel who was supposed to stand guard Eden to keep Adam and Even from coming back (in fact, he thought they looked cold so he gave them his flaming sword to keep warm). Aziraphale and Crawley both really like Earth and humans and they don't want everything destroyed in the coming Armageddon.

This is a really funny book-- I think I was laughing within the first few pages. There are even footnotes which are quite hilarious (one footnote explains the British money system, and then states that they never went to a metric system because it would be too complicated). Even the "about the author" paragraphs made me laugh. I discovered, however, that one of the trade-offs with a humorous novel like this is that it's harder to get invested in the characters-- I didn't really care that much about the apocalypse because I knew the world wouldn't be destroyed (since that wouldn't be funny).

Title:	Good Omens
Author:	Neil Gaiman, Terry Pratchett
Date published:	1990
Genre:	Science Fiction, Humor
Number of pages:	367

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