Wintermsith is the third book book in the Tiffany Aching series, which is set in the Discworld universe, but is geared towards children. Tiffany is a witch in training who has caught the attention of the Wintersmith, the personification of winter, which you can kind of tell from the name. But don’t imagine some older, mature fellow; he’s more like if Jack Frost from Rise of the Guardians had no idea how to be human. So on top of learning to be a witch, dealing with her fellow apprentices, and apparently being wooed by the local lord’s son, Tiffany now has to figure out how to let someone whose idea of courtship is freezing entire villages down gently. Luckily Tiffany has people in her corner; mainly the Nac Mac Feegles (little blue Pict-like people who like drinking, fighting, fighting while drinking, and drinking while fighting), Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg, Miss Tick, Roland (the aforementioned noble’s son), and her own village.
(An average day in a Feegle clan)
Whenever I need a pick-me-up, I read Terry Pratchett. Doesn’t matter what has brought me down, doesn’t matter what book; Terry Pratchett makes me feel better. I feel about his books the way my mother feels about Sue Grafton’s Alphabet series; his worst book is frequently better than other authors’ best books. I had read every Discworld book except for Tiffany Aching because as long as there is at least one book I haven’t read yet I can pretend he’ll always write another one, but I realized even that hope had to come to an end sometime. So far, the series has not let me down in the slightest. Pratchett said he based Tiffany on his own daughter Rhianna, and you can tell. Tiffany is a great, and incredibly realistically written protagonist; she makes mistakes, like all adolescents do, but she always learns from them and tries a little harder. The writing is as good as it has even been. Pratchett, like all good satirists, knew how to write so you can take his books on two levels; the base enjoyment and the deeper subjects he touched upon. It’s also interesting to see the dynamic between Tiffany and Granny Weatherwax; they have a relationship that is a mix of mentor/mentee and power struggle between two similar personality women that I can’t wait to find out where it winds up. And any book that includes Nanny’s cat Greebo (aka the feline equivalent to a landmine) is a good book indeed.
If you have not read Terry Pratchett yet, rectify that quickly. Start with The Wee Free Men, the first Tiffany book. Start with one of the other Discworld novels (they have an order, but they are slightly more forgiving if you dip in and out of the series). I don’t care how you read them, just read them if you can.