By Sir Terry Pratchett

And finally, we come to the end. As I said before, this was my first audiobook that I listened to on my first iPod. This means that this is one of the series I have read the most. This was the first book I listened to on long drives. One year, my school took every student who played an instrument to the Netherlands, and on that trip, I listened to this book 2 and a half times, and I did not get sick of it. Also, before we go on, we need to do a bit of housekeeping. Next month I will be reviewing Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol.

“Vampires have come to Lancre, but they’re not what you would expect. Sure, they drink blood and view humans as dinner, but they’re modern and sophisticated. They’ve got style and fancy waistcoats. And they’re not a bit afraid of garlic.

The Magpyr family are out of the casket and want a bite of the future. But they haven’t met the neighbors yet.

Between them and Lacre stands a coven of four- Granny Weatherwax, Nanny Ogg, Magrat and young Agnes- and they don’t take kindly to murderous intruders…”

This was a great book and a lovely end to this series. It is an interesting parody of Hammer horror movies that show what happens when monsters become genre-savvy. It’s absolutely wonderful.

For this book, I have three thoughts.

Firstly, having read through the series there is an interesting pattern where each book goes from the witches leaving Lancre for the plot and in the next book, they must save Lancre. For example, in Witches Abroad, the witches travel to Genoa, and in the next book, Lords and Ladies, they must save Lancre from the fairies.  This pattern also works because in the next book, at the end of The Wee Free Men, the witches show up to save the day, but the local witch Tiffany Aching has already saved the day. Also, fun fact The Wee Free Men was originally a sequel to this one, but Sir Terry Pratchett couldn’t work out how to keep the older witches out.

Secondly, the Magpyr family and the old count. OK, full disclosure, when I first read this, I was deep in a Twilight phase. So, coming back to this in that context is kind of funny because here we have a vampire that is fascinated with a girl where his powers do not work on her. And the family is civilized and modern. it’s as if Bella knew what Edward was, and she is disgusted by him, and the Cullens want to take over Forks. And compare that to the old count, who is a sportsman. By that, I mean he leaves out vampire-killing weapons all around the castle. The fact that the locals prefer the old count is very interesting. This is because the old count would be seen as more monstrous, but because he plays fair, the villages will not do anything too extreme.

Thirdly, Granny Weatherwax says that evil is treating people as things. This is as true on the Disc as it is in this world.  Just think of politicians who don’t care who gets hurt as long as they still have the numbers in the next election (insert your most hated politician)

This was a lot of fun to come back to. I truly enjoyed reviewing this series and until next week in Victorian England.

Happy reading to all and to all a good night.