Kaethe

2/14/2008

Inseparable in my mind from a Futurama Christmas episode. Which is not a bad thing at all.

***
6/21/2014

Winter solstice holiday book at the summer solstice, why not? A wintry book can be just the thing on a day it is too hot to move, let alone go outside.

Here is Death, trying to maintain faith in the jolly man in the red suit, Albert along to coach and play elf, while Susan is diverted from her job as a governess to try and hunt the down the missing big guy. There is the creepiest assassin ever, a tooth fairy, the ohgod of hangovers, and strange things afoot at the Unseen University.

There's also a contemporary feel, with Pratchett riffing on Miracle on 34th Street, and A Christmas Story, as well as more modern retail jokes. The particular winter holiday of the story is a Dickensian sort of event in the home where Susan's working, but the overall effect is part of the general trend of bringing a medieval-Londonish fantasy setting up to the modern day. Once again, Pratchett shows how the stories we tell are a huge part of what makes us human.

It is a delightful treat.

Personal copy.