I Shall Wear Midnight *Spoilers*

[Tonyblack]

This is the place to post about the book where you can talk openly without fear of giving spoilers.

Warning! If you haven't read 'I Shall Wear Midnight' please consider very carefully before you read any more of this thread as it will contain spoilers.

[Dotsie]

I haven't finished it yet, but I did feel a bit choked when I realised that what Tiffany was saying to Roland about the death of the old Baron was pretty much the same defence that doctors have to use all the time - I didn't kill him, I just took away his pain and he died happy

[poohcarrot]

Finished it. A damn fine read, but hardly a children's book, I'd say.

You'll never guess who the witch is on the cover.

[raisindot]

Damn it, Tony! This topic is the equivalent of the allegorical "bid red button" with the sign over it saying "Danger! Do Not Press This Button Under Any Circumstances!"

Must...resist...



J-I-B

[Tonyblack]

You only have yourself to blame!

[Dotsie]

Not much of a spoiler, but, the kelda is definitely brown!

Alright, so that was a very old conversation, but I just wanted to have the last word

And I think it was lovely (and slighty uncharacteristic ) of Terry to let Tiffany have a happy ending And without the massive helpings of sugar that some authors seem to think the readership actually wants for it's favourite characters

[NeoNico]

Finished it. A damn fine read, but hardly a children's book, I'd say.

You'll never guess who the witch is on the cover.

It was so much darker than Wintersmith, I thought, but I was satisfied with the ending

I feel quite lucky that I've kind of grown up with the Tiffany Aching books- when Wee Free Men was published, I was 11

[The Mad Collector]

Finished it last night, I can see why Terry said this is probably the last Tiffany book as it is difficult to see what he does with her next.

I agree with Pooh it's not really a childrens book or even young adult which is it's official category.

I guessed it was Esk a couple of pages before it was revealed, as oddly I had been wondering if she would ever reappear a few months ago.

[Dotsie]

Haven't got my book here, but didn't Esk just show up without any introduction? Do you mean the old witch who was watching over Tiffany? Because that wasn't Esk!

[The Mad Collector]

I know who the old witch is, Esk is first introduced as Smith and only later does she reveal her first name and suddenly take us back to Equal Rites. Mind you the throw away line about looking after her son has got potential for a further story.

Not sure I like time travel in Discworld though, with Esk it sort of works because she was really odd to start with and was always seen as something really unusual, but Tiffany ?

[poohcarrot]

The thing that annoyed me about Wintersmith was, I thought Tiffany was stupid.
In ISWM she isn't stupid, but when she says to Roland that she will marry him, I thought "Uh oh, being stupid again!"
Very clever how it worked out, and was just a premonition.

[poohcarrot]

Not sure I like time travel in Discworld though,

Eh? You're m-m-m-mad!
Loads of books have some aspect of time travel in them, don't they?
Night Watch
Pyramids
Thief of time
Last Continent
Soul Music
Wyrd Sisters
To name but 6 off the top of my head.

[Dotsie]

The man's right I hadn't realised it was so old hat!

OK as well about Miss Smith, but I was expecting Esk to show up, and I already knew she was the daughter of the smith, so I missed that it was supposed to be a surprise.

[The Mad Collector]

OK, it's the way time travel occurs in this book I'm not sure about. It is different from previous examples. I'm going to reread tonight so I may be happier second time round. A second reading often improves my appreciation of the book. I wasn't keen on Unseen Academicals until the fourth reading when it really started to sink in

[Tonyblack]

I've just this minute finished reading it.

It occurred to me that Tiffany's foe in this book was ignorance. Demonising witches and executing them is something that maybe in the past now, but that type of ignorance is still very much with us with such things as racism and homophobia.

I enjoyed this book more (I think) than Unseen Academicals, because in UA there was a lot of ideas but the story didn't flow so well. In this book, we pretty much follow Tiffany and what happens to her - that makes for a better narrative flow. One of the problems with Wintersmith was the way the story went off in different directions as we followed story threads of various characters. ISWM didn't do that at all and I think the story works better for it.

Nice to see that Angua has a promotion!