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Hogfather

Hogfather

FantasyHigh Fantasy
Pages
355
Published
1996
Language
English

Synopsis

It is the night before Hogswatch — the Discworld's winter solstice holiday — and the Hogfather has gone missing. Someone has hired the Assassins' Guild to kill him. With the spirit of Hogswatch in danger of disappearing entirely, Death steps in to fill the role of the fat man in the red suit, while his granddaughter Susan investigates what has happened. A novel about the stories humanity tells itself, why we tell them, and what we lose if we stop believing in the small lies that make the big ones possible.

Prose complexity
6/10

Vibe

FunnyDarkSatiricalTense
Reluctant HeroFound FamilySurvivalMystery Box

Genres

Fantasy High Fantasy Comic Fiction Humor Mythology Satire

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

Death (Discworld)Protagonist

Takes over Hogswatch duties while the Hogfather is missing — riding through the sky on a sleigh, delivering presents, and slowly coming to understand why humans need these stories.

Mr TeatimeAntagonist

A brilliant but deeply disturbing young assassin hired to 'kill' the Hogfather. One of the series' most memorable villains, whose uncanny quality the other assassins find unsettling rather than admirable.

Susan Sto HelitSupporting

Death's granddaughter, now working as a governess. Her practical, no-nonsense approach to reality is tested when she must confront an assassin who has moved beyond normal human limitations.

Nobby NobbsSupporting
The LibrarianSupporting
All characters in Hogfather

Frequently asked questions

  • Is Hogfather a standalone story?

    While it is part of the larger Discworld series, Hogfather can be enjoyed as a standalone novel. It features characters and themes that are central to the Discworld universe, but its main plot is self-contained.

  • Is there a TV adaptation of Hogfather?

    Hogfather was adapted into a two-part television film by Sky One, which first aired in 2006. It is generally considered a faithful adaptation of the novel.

  • When was Hogfather published?

    First published on 23 October 1996 by Victor Gollancz. It is the twentieth Discworld novel and the fourth in the Death sub-series.

  • What makes Hogfather unique among Discworld novels?

    Hogfather offers a particularly insightful and often poignant exploration of belief, myth, and the necessity of stories, using the framework of a holiday season. It delves deeply into philosophical concepts while maintaining the series' characteristic humor.

  • What is the novel's central philosophical argument?

    Hogfather contains Pratchett's most direct statement about the role of fiction and belief: that humans need small lies (the Tooth Fairy, the Hogfather) to practice believing larger truths (justice, mercy, duty). Susan's conversation with Death about this is one of the most quoted passages in the series.

  • Who is Mr Teatime and why is he so memorable?

    Jonathan Teatime (pronounced 'Teh-ah-tim-eh') is an assassin prodigy who is deeply disturbing precisely because he takes everything completely literally. His smile never reaches his eyes, he has no social brakes, and his solution to 'killing' the Hogfather is genuinely innovative. He became one of the series' most cited villains.

  • Does Hogfather work as a Christmas story?

    It was adapted as a two-part television film by Sky in 2006 and is widely watched as a Christmas special. The themes — belief, childhood, the stories we need — are directly in the Christmas tradition, even though the setting is Discworld's Hogswatch.

  • What happens when the Hogfather disappears?
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