A Book Review: The Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett (Discworld #30)

"If you trust yourself...and believe in your dreams...and follow your star...you'll still get beaten by people who spent their time working hard and learning things and weren't so lazy."

            - Terry Pratchett, The Wee Free Men

After thirty six books, I arrived at the final sub-series in Discworld. This sub-series, marketed as young adult novels, consists of five books, and they feature a young heroine called Tiffany Aching. Many reviews on Goodreads rave about how good these books are. What is it about Tiffany Aching that people adore so much? Two weeks ago, I read The Wee Free Men, and I too became very fond of this character. What I like about Tiffany the most, is her propensity to question the things that most people take for granted and then basing her conclusions on evidence. Not many literary heroes and heroines possess this quality. However, just like all other Discworld books, there is so much more about The Wee Free Men than meets the eye. My short review will not do justice to this book, but I am hoping to provide you with a brief overview, and some of my thoughts, about the book. Let me begin my review, with a synopsis for the story.

Synopsis:

Chalk, a green and sun-filled country town, is the home to a budding witch called Tiffany Aching. Her little brother was kidnapped by the creatures of the fairyland, and young Tiffany was determined to rescue him. Armed with a frying pan and her common sense, Tiffany set out on a quest in the domain of the elven queen, and nothing will stop her from bringing her baby brother home. On the way, Tiffany made allies with the Wee Free Men (AKA Nac Mac Feegle), this is a clan of six inch tall blue men. Whatever the Wee Free Men lacked in size they made it up with their ferocity, humor, and their love for stealing sheep.

Together, Tiffany and clan Nac Mac Feegle journeyed to a world where the reality entwined with nightmare, but it is Tiffany alone who must confront the queen of the elves...

My thoughts about this book:

This book is marketed as an young adult novel, but adult readers will also appreciate the story's complexity and its important themes. One of Sir Terry's best quality was that he never patronized or condescended his readers, and he approached the underlying themes in his books open-handedly. The Wee Free Men embodies this quality; here Terry Pratchett trusted that his readers, especially the young readers, are capable to think for themselves about the far-reaching themes that he embedded in the story. 

There are many themes in The Wee Free Men. The themes that stood out to me the most, are the ones about "supernatural" and "power". Let me put it this way, The Wee Free Men, and the Discworld series as a whole, subverts the archetypes about the supernatural found in the traditional myths, and that is a good thing!

The traditional archetypes slap the "supernatural" into the stories to solve problems, and also to fill the gaps left by the unexplainable. This is when "destiny", rooted in the supernatural, happens to a hero by special and divine appointment, to fight big wars between good and evil. Furthermore, these archetypal heroes were also given supernatural powers to aid their epic battles against evil. When you think about it, none of it makes sense. For example, Harry Potter and Jon Snow came back to life, but how does that work? Here is another one, Frodo cast a magical ring into a volcano and a distant stone tower exploded into pieces, but how? It is almost as if this archetype is telling us that our best chance at improving things and finding answers to questions is waiting on the acts of supernatural forces!

More importantly, these archetypes can lead us to a contemptuous view about justice. It tell us to accept the status quo; it portrays that what really matters is the big war between the good and the evil, order versus chaos, where a few chosen elites (such as Aragorn, Harry Potter, and Jon Snow) get to be heroes because of their special "bloodlines and powers". And so if you are an everyday citizen, then you better stop complaining about the injustices experienced by the normal folks, and leave the heroes to fight the big wars and saving the world.

Needless to say, these archetypes, when transposed to the real life, is most unhelpful. We have seen these archetypes in ancient myths and they are still prevalent in our modern culture. If history is a teacher, then it shows us that these archetypes led our ancestors to a world of blood and fire; the witch hunt, the crusade, the medieval church's superstitions and its persecution of scientists, the corrupt noble class who caused the French Revolution, the anti-vaccination movements and prayer healings, not to mention, the ongoing, thousand year old struggles in the Middle East. These are all tragic consequences of ancient archetypes about mysticism and the supernatural. 

Discworld, on the other hand, subverts these traditional archetypes and then it gave us a better alternative. Terry Pratchett turned the troupe of "supernatural and magic" on its own head. Discworld is a fantastical place where magic is a reality, but in these stories, using magic often caused more troubles than solving problems, and the results are hilarious. In Discworld, the characters are surrounded by the supernatural, but they still maintain some level of common sense, which they use to come up with ridiculous but hilarious ways to stating that that is"just how things are". This is often depicted humorously in the stories, but it is a recurring theme in the series. What is Terry Pratchett's view about it all? I believe he already spoke about his view through his Witches books, but his view of the subject is more apparent in The Wee Free Men. In this book, Tiffany faced mysteries galore. Where many would have faltered, Tiffany's level head and analytical reasoning exposed the fairy queen's facade and her supposed dominance over the realm. In the end, the witches respected Tiffany and saw her as one of their own, because being a witch in Discworld is about using "headology" to get ahead - that is, using reason and her own knowledge to solve the problems, it is not about throwing fireballs, casting spells and abusing magic as a tool.

The Wee Free Men's  major themes also include "identify" and "perseverance". At the beginning of the book, in a village where everyone took things for granted, Tiffany, a farmer's daughter who lived in a feudal society, questioned everything. She did not feel the sense of belonging. Her identify, however, gradually came into its own as things went on. In the book, Tiffany took life by the reign and she did not wait for the Baron to rescue her brother like in the classical fairy tales. No mysticism and supernatural force could dissuade Tiffany from rescuing her brother. During her quest, Tiffany endured hardships but she remained level-headed, and ultimately she saved her brother. In other words, Tiffany subverts the archetypal heroes of the traditional myths. Where the archetypal heroes were entrusted with supernatural powers and destinies by special appointments, Tiffany is just a nobody who took life by the reign and she is equipped with nothing but good common sense and an iron determination. Very early on in the book, Ms. Tick, a teacher, expressed her observation that Tiffany was not some blank book waiting to be filled by teaching, but a young girl who was determined to challenge anything she did not believe in or could not understand; these were the qualities the witches were looking for in their kind.

There is much more to discuss about this book, but it suffices to say that The Wee Free Men, though marketed as an young adult novel, is no less serious and humorous than Sir Terry's thirty six other Discworld novels intended for adults. It is also worth mentioning that the parts of the book with Nac Mac Feegle are the funniest moments in this book. The Wee Free Men is set in a fantastical world, yet it is grounded in the real world. It is an entertaining story with good moral lessons. This book subverts the harmful archetypes found in the traditional myths, and then handing us a better alternative. I think The Wee Free Men is one of Terry Pratchett's best books, and I highly recommend it.

P.S. To my dismay, I discovered that a beautifully illustrated edition of The Wee Free Men is out of print, where a second hand copy would cost me an arm and a leg. Hopefully the publisher will reprint the illustrated edition (like when they reprinted the illustrated Eric), because I would love to add it to my collection. The above illustrations were taken from that book.