Discussion: 16 Tasks of the Festive Season: Hogfather Buddy Read • Booklikes Bookish Bingo Club • BookLikes

#16 by: Tannat date: 7 years ago discussions stats

The Auditors have shown up before. I think Death explains who they are to Susan at one point. Basically, they're Auditors of Reality, and they'd really like it if all the humans just stopped existing because humans are intellectually messy. They'd really like it if the universe consisted of just rocks and was completely sterile.

#17 by: Themis-Athena's Garden of Books date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #16 (show post):

Death explains this towards the end of "Hogfather" -- if anywhere else, too, I wouldn't know.

I think the book can be read like a supernatural mystery as far as they are concerned, though ... trusting that who they are and what is their role in the grand scheme of things will be explained when necessary; if nowhere else, in the final wrapup. They worked rather well for me as the mysterious shadowy bad guys in the background when I read "Hogfather" for the first time, not knowing anything about them.

#18 by: Portable Magic date: 7 years ago discussions stats

I definitely have days when I am of the same mind as the Auditors!

You know that old Twilight Zone episode where a guy digs himself out of the rubble of the New York library and finds he's the only survivor of a nuclear war and he's delighted that all the people are gone but he's got the entire library of books that he can now read without interruptions? That's me, some days.

#19 by: Themis-Athena's Garden of Books date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #18 (show post):

Ah, but do you believe in the Hogfather?

#20 by: BrokenTune date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #19 (show post):

A very good question!

#21 by: BrokenTune date: 7 years ago discussions stats

I keep laughing out loud throughout...and it isn't my first read of this. But what strikes me most on this read is how well balanced the story is. I really like the switches between the story lines - Susan & Raven & Grim Sqeaker, Ridcully and the Wizards, Death & Albert - all in pursuit of doing the right thing, even if none of them really knows (or seems to know) what the right thing is.

#22 by: Murder by Death date: 7 years ago discussions stats

It seems I passed out last night in the middle of reading, so I'm still behind everyone else, but I'm loving it so far.

Except Teatime. I know I'm not supposed to like him, but I doubly dislike him because he's killing my book buzz. Bastard.

#23 by: BrokenTune date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #22 (show post):

Bastard, indeed!

#24 by: Portable Magic date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #19 (show post):

I *want* to believe in the Hogfather. More specifically, I want to live in a world where the Hogfather is.

#25 by: Portable Magic date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #22 (show post):

I'm pretty sure he's Randall Flagg's second cousin, twice removed. All that grinning...

#26 by: Murder by Death date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #25 (show post):

And I can't help but wonder if Pratchett was a coffee drinker...

#27 by: BrokenTune date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #26 (show post):

How so?

Btw, there are other elements that make me want to live in Discworld on occasion, not just the existence of the Hogfather. :D

#28 by: Murder by Death date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #27 (show post):

Because he named a character so vile "Teatime" - so, is he a coffee drinker making a statement? :)

#29 by: BrokenTune date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Reply to post #28 (show post):

"The name "Teatime" is very likely a tribute to fellow fantasy writer Douglas' Adams work, The Long Dark Tea-Time of the Soul. The central premise of the novel is that the gods were created by the human compulsion to personify forces. They never completely die, but rather become more and more powerless as fewer people believe in them, and eventually end up as a sort of divine vagrant. In Adams' novel the gods are quite easily taken advantage of by unscrupulous humans."

from https://wiki.lspace.org/mediawiki/Jonathan_Teatime

#30 by: Murder by Death date: 7 years ago discussions stats

Ah - that's very cool; I love the possibility of a tribute! Although I must admit I'm a little disappointed that he wasn't having a go at us tea drinkers. (I'm feeling perverse today, apparently.)