493 pages
Russian language
Published Nov. 14, 2005 by E ksmo, Domino.
As a first step in destroying humanity, evil men in Discworld try to undermine belief in Hogfather by abducting him. The plot is ruined by Death who takes Hogfather's place in his sleigh drawn by pigs. Part parody of Christmas, part meditation on the role of faith.
My favorite bit in this book is the amazing rhyme between the beginning and the ending. Monstral relativism!
How would you go about killing someone who was never really alive – not in the usual sense of the word? Mr Teatime (pronounced teh-ah-tim-eh) knows exactly how he'd do it.
As philosophical textbooks go, this is a stonker. What is the nature of belief? How do beliefs interact with reality? How do they colour our view of reality?
As for zingy and/or pithy moments … this books got them in spades.
“The phrase 'Someone ought to do something' was not, by itself, a helpful one. People who used it never added the rider 'and that someone is me'.”
As a novel, though, this one falls a bit short. The plot meanders a bit too much for my liking.
Very good, but not Sir Pterry's finest.
