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The Wee Free Men: A Story of Discworld
Written by Terry Pratchett
Narrated by Stephen Briggs
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Armed only with a frying pan and her common sense, Tiffany Aching, a young witch-to-be, is all that stands between the monsters of Fairyland and the warm, green Chalk country that is her home. Forced into Fairyland to seek her kidnapped brother, Tiffany allies herself with the Chalk's local Nac Mac Feegle – aka the Wee Free – a clan of sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men who are as fierce as they are funny.
Together, they battle through an eerie and ever-shifting landscape, fighting brutal flying fairies, dream-spinning dromes, and grimhounds – black dogs with eyes of fire and teeth of razors -- before ultimately confronting the Queen of the Elves, absolute ruler of a world in which reality intertwines with nightmare. And in the final showdown, Tiffany must face her cruel power alone...
In a riveting narrative equal parts suspense and humor, Carnegie Medalist Terry Pratchett returns to his internationally popular Discworld with a breath-taking tale certain to leave fans, new and old, enthralled.
A HarperAudio production.
Book Actions
Start ListeningBook Information
The Wee Free Men: A Story of Discworld
Written by Terry Pratchett
Narrated by Stephen Briggs
Description
Armed only with a frying pan and her common sense, Tiffany Aching, a young witch-to-be, is all that stands between the monsters of Fairyland and the warm, green Chalk country that is her home. Forced into Fairyland to seek her kidnapped brother, Tiffany allies herself with the Chalk's local Nac Mac Feegle – aka the Wee Free – a clan of sheep-stealing, sword-wielding, six-inch-high blue men who are as fierce as they are funny.
Together, they battle through an eerie and ever-shifting landscape, fighting brutal flying fairies, dream-spinning dromes, and grimhounds – black dogs with eyes of fire and teeth of razors -- before ultimately confronting the Queen of the Elves, absolute ruler of a world in which reality intertwines with nightmare. And in the final showdown, Tiffany must face her cruel power alone...
In a riveting narrative equal parts suspense and humor, Carnegie Medalist Terry Pratchett returns to his internationally popular Discworld with a breath-taking tale certain to leave fans, new and old, enthralled.
A HarperAudio production.
About the author
Reviews
A new witch is born in the Discworld as Tiffany Aching comes into her own by making friends with the Nac Mac Feegle, crossing over into the world of faerie to save her brother from the snow queen, and learns to open her eyes and then open them again. It's enough even to impress the likes of Nanny Ogg and Granny Weatherwax. I'm now something like thirty books into the Discworld series and can finally say that I've turned the corner from just fair-to-middlin' enjoying them to actively loving them. Pratchett has hit a stride with these last few books that really works and I hope it continues for the next ten or eleven books.
Rating: 5Tiffany Aching is 9-year old who comes across the "Wee Free Men" as she is searching for her younger brother who has been stolen by the "Quin" (a.k.a. Queen). The Wee Free Men are about 6 inches tall, love to drink and fight, are painted blue, wear kilts and have fabulous Scottish accents! They are helping Tiffany find her brother, and at the same time, she is also learning about becoming a witch.I am not a big fan of fantasy, but this was an easy one to get into. I think the Scottish accents helped, too! ;-) Of course, there is plenty of humour to be found in the book as well, which really helps those of us who aren't big fantasy readers enjoy the book even more. I really liked it.
Rating: 4When a monster appears in a stream near her home and tries to eat her brother, Tiffany Aching, who has recently decided to be a witch, goes in search of a magical education.Nobody can turn a phrase quite like Sir Terry. Though I'm not as much of a Discworld aficionado as some, I do love to visit there every once in a while, and the Tiffany Aching books are a lovely, self-contained bit of the sprawling Discworld universe. Plus, they have the Nac Mac Feegle, which are well worth the price of admission. Crivens!
Rating: 5No Death! Chapters! Good read tho!
Rating: 4The Wee Free Men is one of several novels (Carpet People, Truckers, Wings, Diggers, A Hatful of Sky, I Shall Wear Midnight, Maskerade) where this author returns to his tiny person fixation (he said this was inspired by T.H. White’s book Miss Masham’s Repose, in which a colony of Lilliputians is discovered in someone’s garden). They’re just like homo sapiens every time but their physical form has been greatly scaled down and their personalities have been outrageously scaled-up. In Wee Free Men, the little folk (Nac Mac Feegles) are miniature Glaswegian bandits, who serve on the apron strings of their female Kelda. They make friends with a trainee witch and then have to combat big, bad problems, which they do so with a blithe disrespect for safety and personal property. Unlike Rowling’s indoor wizard school, the educational environment for trainee witches appears to be the open countryside. As with many other Pratchett books, there has to be something nasty for them to face or you wouldn’t be able to see them be tested and how they deal with emotions like loss. There’s also the sense of our world of knowledge and control being very small and always surrounded by this huge background of fuzzy chaos and the unknown, always trying to pop something malign into our realm which someone odd and special (in alliance with uniquely talented and amusingly irresponsible friends) is going to have to deal with. This is a good book but the stereotypes might be funny to some readers and insulting to others (I thought funny, but you never know) and the author seemed unable to move on from the idea of small slapstick people bumping into each other like the Time Bandits.
Rating: 4I heard this was a good place to jump into Discworld. Fun read.
Rating: 4This was a fun read! It didn't take itself very seriously and that was nice. It only took me forever to read because of personal issues that arose in my life, it had nothing to do with this book. It had some much heart to it, in ways I was not expecting. I could see this being a great book for someone dealing with feelings of grief over the loss of a loved one. Also this book just has such a quality of not taking itself seriously that it makes you keep wanting to read to see what direction the story goes in.
Rating: 4Love!
Funny, heartwarming, exciting.
Rating: 5Funny, heartwarming, exciting.
I don't know how the narrator, Stephen Briggs, was able to read this book without cracking up in the middle of every line about the Wee Free Men. Their Scottish accents and strange outlook on life made everything funny. And Tiffany's attempts to understand them just underscored their crazy. And they are crazy. Headbutting horses. Thinking they are dead already. Dressing up like birds to scare a cat. It was all great. And they were excellent guides for Tiffany as she figures out how to become a witch with no teacher except a talking lawyer frog. Tiffany goes I'm search of her little brother, who she doesn't really like, but he is *hers* so she *will* save him. And she learns that the world is quite a but bigger than she at 9 years old ever really knew. It was weird to have Pratchett speaking through a 9 year old girl, and sometimes it was kinda jarring. But in the end I just liked to have Pratchett speaking to me at all. He has such cool thoughts.
Rating: 5This book seemed distinctly more Young Adult than the other Pratchett books I've read, which may be the case and is not necessarily a bad thing. It was plenty funny with, as always, an absurd cast of characters, a delightful adventure, and hilarious moments.
Rating: 4A fun and funny tale with a strong, young heroine!
Rating: 5Good, I guess. But it felt too much like Henson's Labyrinth.
Rating: 4I really like dhow this book could tell in the same time that all the bizarre and in lack of better word magical things you experience are real (so you can learn magic and be a witch that way) and also how practical things and lgoical thinking can make you a witch. It's not less magical because you know how it's made. Great advice and adventorous story.
Rating: 4What a delightful read! My wife read this aloud to our sons, replete with a host of voices for the Nac Mac Feegles, and I listened in off and on to the laughter. Pratchett was brilliant with the side vernacular and humor in this one. I should have read this long ago. I'll surely move on to the next Tiffany Aching...and more of Rob Anybody and Daft Wullie, and likely missing No'-As-Big-As-Medium-Sized-Jock-But-Bigger-than-Wee-Jock Jock.
Crivens!
Rating: 5Crivens!
This is the first standalone Pratchett novel based on Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mac Feegles. I enjoyed the book very much, although you have to bear in mind that this is a novel aimed at Young Adults (YA), rather than adults. The Scottish-type dialogues are full of humour. Tiffany Aching, as a self-discovered witch, will learn from experience. Also, like in a picaresque novel, the Baron and his son are made fun of, in such a way that higher social classes don't mean anything when it comes to working the land. Furthermore, bravery is not indicative of a higher social rank, as the plot clearly demonstrates. This is a good book, I will probably read the following ones in the series, but it does not have the same impact as Pratchett's other adult novels, for which I hold a particular interest - the Witches, Death, the Guards, etc.
Rating: 4Although this is billed as a Young Adult novel, it lives up to Terry Pratchett's "adult" novels.
Rating: 5Nine year old Tiffany sets off to find her baby brother Wentworth, who has been stolen by the evil faerie queen. She is helped immensely all along the way by tiny men, feegles with red hair and kilts, who temporariiy claim her as their leader.
Rating: 4This was a hilarious audio about Tiffany Aching's mission to rescue her little brother from the Queen of Faeries. Along the way, she gets help from the Wee Free Men, little blue men in kilts who are good at fighting and drinking. Stephen Briggs does an excellent job reading this audio. He does all the voices really well.
Rating: 5Fun! I read some of the first Discworld novels (The Colour of Magic, I think) and kind of burned out on them. It's been a good many years since I read a Pratchett, but this one pulled me right in. The Nac Mac Feegle are...amusing, and annoying, and occasionally very rich. Tiffany is fascinating, as she figures out her talents (most of which are very prosaic...except when they aren't). The Queen, and the dromes, are weird and wonderful - I like the drome that gets lost in the sea-dream, it's neat. Tiffany also lays a foundation for her future, with Roland - if he remembers matters correctly (no, I do not mean romance!). I want to read the next one, but given my previous experience, I'm going to wait a little while before I start the next.
Rating: 4This is the first of five books in one of my favourite Terry Pratchett series so far. Tiffany Aching, is a nine-year-old girl growing up in the Chalk district of Discworld who admired her granny and wants to be just like her. However, she never realised that Granny Aching was a witch, as witches aren't the openly powerful and evil creatures people have assumed they are. While fighting off Fairyland monsters, Tiffany runs into the Nac Mac Feegles (or as they call themselves, the Wee Free Men) and lots of fun and crazy adventures ensue.
With just the help of a magical toad and the Wee Free Men, she must take on the wicked Queen from Fairyland and rescue her annoying little brother.
Tiffany grows as a character in this story and it is amusing to see how down to earth and logical these witches are.
Rating: 4With just the help of a magical toad and the Wee Free Men, she must take on the wicked Queen from Fairyland and rescue her annoying little brother.
Tiffany grows as a character in this story and it is amusing to see how down to earth and logical these witches are.
This late entry in the DiscWorld series is also the start of the Tiffany Aching subseries. Tiffany is a 9-year-old girl who wants to be a witch when she grows up. In this book, she meets the 'wee free men,' also know as Nac Mac Feegles -- a race of 6" tall pictsies who love to fight, steal and drink and can move very, very fast.I liked the Feegles and Tiffany but this young-adult/children's entry in the series lacked much of the social satire that I love so much in the other DiscWorld books.
Rating: 4The queen of fairy land has stolen a baby and the baby's sister must figure out how to get him back, armed with a frying pan and with the help of a bunch of Pictsies and a talking toad.
Rating: 5There's trouble on Aching farm. A strange green monster has appeared in the river. A headless horseman has been seen riding about. Things from nightmares have been spotted in the hills. And now Tiffany's little brother has gone missing and it's up to her to get him back. She grabs her weapon (a frying pan), her magic book (granny's old copy of Diseases of Sheep) and some unlikely allies, the Nac Mac Feegle, the Wee Free Men, the fightin', thievin', tiny blue-skinned pictsies who were thrown out of Fairyland for being Drunk and Disorderly. Feeling as prepared as she'll ever be Tiffany sets off on her quest to find her brother and put a stop to the strange goings on around the farm.The Wee Free Men is Terry Pratchett's the 30th Discworld book and first in the Tiffany Aching story line. This is designated as a YA book which I found odd because, aside from Tiffany being a 9-year old girl, this book easily stands up with the rest of the Discworld novels. This time around Pratchett takes on classical fairy tales and gives them his own imaginative twist. This is combined with his typical moments of laugh out loud funny situations and a surprising philosophical depth that those familiar with the series have come to expect. All the new characters are wonderful. Tiffany is a highly capable young lady who thinks she may be a witch like Granny Aching was and has taken it upon herself to rescue her brother when he's abducted by the Fairy Queen. Not because she really likes him exactly, he is sticky and whiny, but because he's hers. Tiffany has the First Sight and Second Thoughts, making her uniquely qualified for her trip into Fairy Land. She also has a frying pan and is not afraid to use it! The Nac Mac Feegle are a group of "pictsies" and are a mad, drunken, fightin' family of wee free men that have decided to help Tiffany on her quest. They a decidedly Scottish feel to them by speaking with brogue and wearing kilts and I found them absolutely charming. They have a full history and a surprising amount of depth and nuance to their characters and motivations. If you are a Discworld fan and have not picked up the Tiffany Aching books due to the YA classification, put those fears aside. This is an absolutely delightful entry to the series.
Rating: 4I am not a big fan of fantasy. Maybe this isn't even considered fantasy, but The Wee Free Men was so much fun, I'm sure I'm going to read it again someday. Tiffany is a witch on a quest to get her little brother back from the Queen of the Fairies who kidnapped him. She uses her gifts (First Thoughts, Second Thoughts) to overcome obstacles along the way. She has the help of "The Wee Free Men", a group of tiny, hilarious, beings who enjoy fighting and drinking among other things. In fact, if there's nobody to fight, they'll fight among themselves, just to keep in practice. There were so many things in this book that made me laugh out loud, including the names of many of the characters. (Rob Anybody was one of my favorites.) I read it because my husband was adamant that I'd enjoy it and I DID! A whole lot of fun.
Rating: 4Tiffany Aching wants to be a witch when she grows up - but in the meantime she puts her incipient skills to good use rescuing her small and very sticky brother from the clutches of The Queen, aided only by a toad, a frying pan and a band of tiny, blue-skinned barbarian pictsies.I wasn't sure whether I'd like the Tiffany Aching books, given that I don't read a lot of YA lit. Beyond the fact that the main protagonists (well, the human ones) are children and the relative simplicity of the verbal puns, there's not a lot of difference between this and the adult Discworld books.Tiffany is an excellent character whose self-awareness grows a lot through the course of the book. I adored the Nac Mac Feegle, who hurtle with riotous abandon through the pages leaving chaos (but nothing that isn't nailed down) being them.This is a gloriously effervescent story, which has me really looking forward to A Hat Full of Sky and Wintersmith.
Rating: 5Of all the Discworld books I've read, and admittedly there haven't been that many, this has got to be my favorite. I knew it was going to be a great book as soon as the protagonist walloped Jenny Green Teeth in the face with a frying pan. And I'm not sure it's possible to read this book and not love the Nac Mac Feegle.I don't actually have anything bad to say about this book, so I think I'll stop the gushing there. Suffice it to say, it was fantastic and I highly recommend it.
Rating: 5
If you love Terry Pratchett's Diskworld stories and audiobooks, you truly must get a copy of "Wee Free Men" into your ears. We love it so much we listened to it twice in a row, back to back. It is laugh out loud funny. I want Pictsies to come live with me!
Rating: 5Very funny book. I really liked it. Sort of like Time Bandits meets the seven dwarfs
Rating: 5Delightful story, impish word play, empowering book for girls. Narration is outstanding.
Rating: 5Terry Pratchett was and will always be a law-unto-himself and cannot possibly be defined, categorized, or compared to other authors. This is the first (audio)book featuring Tiffany Aching and the Nac Mag Feegles, and G_d thanks there is an entire series to read and listen to. Narrator Stephen Briggs' rendition and delivery of the story is just right and his ability to find the right tone makes this an all-time-favorite!
Rating: 5