IGX

These two audio books (read by an impeccably British narrator) are part of Terry Prachett's "Discworld" series. I'd heard of Prachett, but had no interest in his stuff. But my wife had the first book on CD and wanted to listen to it as we drove across Nebraska a couple of months back, and I figured, why not, I can always bury my nose in my smart phone if the book sucks.

Well, the first one ("Wee Free Men") won me over in the first 10 minutes and when I got the follow up a month later, it had most of the same characters and was just as good. The heroine is a nine year old girl who sets out to fight an otherwordly magical invasion with a frying pan and the help of some of the funkiest faeries you are ever likely to encounter. Hint: they're dyed blue, tattooed all over, speak with a serious Scots burr, bathe once a year, steal anything that isn't nailed down (and most of the nails) and would rather drink and fight than anything else. Lacking opponents, they'll fight each other. At one point in the last third of the second book, the leader head-butts Death himself. (His response (to the young girl): "Is this yours? If I'd known I was going to encounter a nac mac feegle, I'd have worn protective headgear..." )

Prachett can be funny, lyrical, whimsical, creepy, unsettling, and inspiring, often all within the same paragraph, and there were passages that made the hair on the back on my neck stand up. At several points, I found myself moved in ways I hadn't expected at all, especially near the end of the second one. His stuff is made to be read aloud and listened to, and the narrator does a splendid job of both books.

Recommended for anyone who thinks they might enjoy some British humour and intelligent fantasy mixed skillfully together.

He's an excellent writer. Came into his own when he stopped just satirizing fantasy itself and began to really use fantasy to satirize humanity.

You put that perfectly, Schlegal