Clara’s Verdict
A Hat Full of Sky is the book where Tiffany Aching truly comes into her own, and where Pratchett’s gift for writing young people without a trace of condescension shines brightest. Tiffany is eleven, freshly apprenticed and quietly furious that witchcraft seems to involve so many chores and so few spells, and the story that grows out of that impatience is one of the most tender and clear sighted on the whole Disc. This is the thirty second Discworld novel and the second Tiffany Aching adventure.
What I admire most is its honesty about power. The book understands that the real danger is not the creature stalking Tiffany from the outside but the temptation that comes from within, the pull of doing a thing simply because you can. Granny Weatherwax presides over it all, the Wee Free Men supply the chaos, and beneath the comedy runs a lesson about responsibility that never once feels like a lesson.
There is a particular ache to this book that sets it apart. Tiffany is old enough now to make real mistakes, and Pratchett lets her make them, then shows her living honestly with the consequences. It is a generous, grown up way to write for young readers, and it treats the whole business of becoming yourself with exactly the seriousness it deserves.
About the Audiobook
Tiffany Aching is ready to begin her apprenticeship in magic, only to discover that life as a trainee witch is not at all what she imagined. She expected spells and wonder, and instead she gets chores and ill tempered goats, and she cannot help wondering whether there is truly more to witchcraft than this. There is, and she is about to need every scrap of it.
Something has come after Tiffany, an insidious, disembodied creature that means to have her, and this time neither Mistress Weatherwax, the greatest witch in the world, nor the fierce six inch high Wee Free Men can keep her safe. In the end it will take all of Tiffany’s own inner strength to save herself. This is the second book in the Tiffany Aching sequence and the thirty second Discworld novel, and while the series can be listened to in any order, it follows on beautifully from The Wee Free Men.
The world of the witches is drawn with wonderful specificity, from the daily grind of caring for those nobody else will help to the fierce, funny loyalty of the Wee Free Men. Tiffany’s apprenticeship turns out to be less about wands than about attention, about learning to see clearly and to take responsibility, and the threat pursuing her forces precisely that lesson home.
The Narration
Indira Varma returns to narrate across nine hours and twenty minutes, and she is wonderfully attuned to Tiffany’s mixture of stubbornness and doubt. She gives Granny Weatherwax real steel and lets Tiffany grow audibly across the story, so that the girl at the end sounds a little older and a great deal wiser than the one at the start.
As with the other witches titles in this series, the production is richly cast. Bill Nighy delivers the footnotes, Peter Serafinowicz voices Death, and Steven Cree throws himself into the Nac Mac Feegles with infectious glee, all set to James Hannigan’s theme. At just over nine hours it is a beautifully judged length for the story it has to tell.
At just over nine hours it is among the more approachable Discworld audios, and Indira Varma’s warm, clear reading makes it an easy one to recommend to a younger listener taking their very first steps into the series.
What Readers Say
The audiobook has an average of 4.8 stars from 5 ratings, and the reviews are full of admiration. One reader, who had found the previous Tiffany book absorbing, judged this second instalment a clear degree of excellence above it, describing how the eleven year old leaves home for the first time to learn what being a witch really means.
Another called it the master at his peak, praising a plot that is fantastical yet wholly convincing and characters who feel true to life. A third loved its central lesson, that sometimes just because you can do something does not mean that you should, and hailed Pratchett as a master storyteller. Even the single four star review, while preferring the first book, still found this one a great romp, which tells you exactly how high the bar sits.
Who Should Listen?
This is a perfect listen for younger readers ready for something with real depth, and for adults who never quite stopped loving a good coming of age story. Fans of the witches will feel immediately at home, and anyone meeting Tiffany for the first time will want to follow her the rest of the way.
If a young witch facing down a creature from the dawn of time sounds like your kind of tale, you can Listen to A Hat Full of Sky on Audible and watch Tiffany find her strength.
