Skip to content

A Hat Full of Sky

A Hat Full of Sky

FantasyHigh Fantasy
Pages
352
Published
2004
Language
English

Synopsis

Tiffany Aching is eleven years old and has gone to learn witchcraft properly — apprenticed to Miss Level, a witch with two bodies who lives alone in the hills. But something ancient and predatory has noticed Tiffany: a hiver, a creature that possesses minds and feeds on identity. As it takes over Tiffany's body and the Nac Mac Feegle scramble to rescue her, Granny Weatherwax arrives. The second Tiffany Aching novel, and the book where Tiffany learns what witchcraft actually requires.

Prose complexity
6/10

Vibe

FunnyEmotionalThought-ProvokingWhimsical
Coming of AgeMentor FigureSecond ChanceSurvival

Genres

Fantasy High Fantasy YA Comic Fiction Humor

About the author

T
Terry Pratchett

Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was an English author best known for the Discworld series, a sequence of forty-one comic fantasy novels set on a flat world carried through space on the backs of four elephants standing on a giant turtle. Across four decades, the Discworld grew from a parody of sword-and-sorcery fantasy into one of the most sustained works of social satire in English literature, examining politics, religion, science, gender, race, capitalism, and the nature of stories themselves. Pra...

Characters

Tiffany AchingProtagonist

Eleven years old and beginning her formal training as a witch — only for a possessing creature to take advantage of the space she has left in herself.

Granny WeatherwaxSupporting

The Disc's most powerful witch, who makes her first direct appearance in Tiffany's story here and whose philosophy of witchcraft shapes everything that follows.

Miss LevelSupporting

A witch with two bodies who occupies them simultaneously — Tiffany's first formal mentor and a patient teacher.

Rob AnybodySupporting

Chief of the Nac Mac Feegle, now serving as Tiffany's frantic protectors against the possessing hiver.

The Nac Mac FeegleSupporting
All characters in A Hat Full of Sky

Frequently asked questions

  • When was A Hat Full of Sky published?

    First published on 6 May 2004 by Doubleday. It is the thirty-second Discworld novel and the second Tiffany Aching book.

  • What is a hiver?

    A hiver is an ancient creature — very old, made of many fragments of stolen minds — that possesses a living host and uses them until they burn out. It is drawn to people of power and ambition, which makes young Tiffany a target.

  • Why is Granny Weatherwax's appearance here significant?

    Granny Weatherwax becomes Tiffany's primary mentor in this novel, establishing the relationship that defines the rest of the Tiffany Aching books. Granny's philosophy — 'headology', the power of personality, and the idea that witchcraft is mainly about taking responsibility — shapes Tiffany's entire development.

  • What does the title refer to?

    The title is a Scottish expression meaning a head full of ideas or plans — 'a hat full of sky' suggests ambition beyond what one can currently hold. It speaks to Tiffany's tendency to take on more than she can safely manage.

  • Is A Hat Full of Sky suitable for adults?

    Yes, though it is written for younger readers. The themes — identity, what it means to be yourself, the cost of ambition — are handled with the depth that characterises the best children's fantasy.

Read all 5 reviews