Hogfather
Who would want to harm Discworld's most beloved icon? Very few things are held sacred in this twisted, corrupt, heartless -- and oddly familiar -- universe, but the Hogfather is one of them. Yet here it is, Hogswatchnight, that most joyous and acquisitive of times, and the jolly old, red-suited gift-giver has vanished without a trace. And there's something shady going on involving an uncommonly psychotic member of the Assassins' Guild and certain representatives of Ankh-Morpork's rather extensive criminal element. Suddenly Discworld's entire myth system is unraveling at an alarming rate. Drastic measures must be taken, which is why Death himself is taking up the reins of the fat man's vacated sleigh... which, in turn, has Death's level-headed granddaughter, Susan, racing to unravel the nasty, humbuggian mess before the holiday season goes straight to hell and takes everyone along with it.
Stats for nerds
13recommend
35mentions
29people
2015–2026years
49% recommend51% neutral
Mentions per year
What Hacker News says
- In a very literal sense I wouldn’t have been the man I am if 9 year old me hadn’t stumbled onto a Discworld novel in the late 80’s.
Pratchett’s essential humanism shone (and sometimes shouted) through every page and satirically he was biting but never bitter.
He is without doubt and far away my favourite writer (apologies to Iain M Banks though I’m sure he’d have understood).
I’ve re-read Hogfather every Christmas since it came out.
I was an unsure 17 year old who was uncertain how life would turn out, Now I read it as someone with a family and clear sense of who I am, neither of which 17 year old me would have quite believed possible.
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett.
- Just chiming in to say thanks for the Pratchett quote! I dare say he's about to beat out Douglass Adams for my top author. Feets of Clay and Hogfather should be must reads for people dealing with AI right now imo.
- I loved Pratchett's Hogfather story about little lies. If you as child believe in little lies like tooth fairies and Santa as grown up you will believe in big ones like justice, mercy or duty.
- If you haven't already read it, you might like Terry Pratchett's Hogfather [1].
- There's also a great line in a Terry Pratchett novel, Hogfather:
> Natural stupidity beats artificial intelligence every time.
- Satire/comedy helps me cope with the world. For me, his stories are a nice balance of story, pragmatism, stoicism, fantasy, whimsy, and most of all satire. I particularly love his dialog. I have been searching (in vain) for whimsical/clean satire that helps me cope since Pratchett’s passing.
I second the suggestion to give one a go. Pratchett is not for everyone though. I encouraged my office mate to read Going Postal; he liked it so so, but declined to read another. My flight instructor liked small gods at first, but then didn’t; he wanted to dissect it too literally. I think it bothered him that it didn’t validate his view point as an atheist, instead flirting with many of Pratchett’s common satire of organized religions. My son loved every Sam Vimes book, but didn’t care as much for the others. A good friend tried one, was ok with it, and then read Hogfather, after which he said “give me every one of these that has Death in it.” My daughters really enjoyed Tiffany Aching, I had read Maskerade earlier to them, but only when they did finish Tiffany Aching did they really want more of the witches. My opera trained daughter now counts Maskerade as one of her favorites. As others have pointed out, his earlier works are more whimsical (think Monty Python or Hitchhikers Guide). Near the end of his life, Raising Steam was sadly predictable in its plot as a “tying things up” song. Me personally, I didn’t care for the Rincewind novels, until I watched one of the BBC adaptations, the one with Jeremy Irons, and now I even like the Rincewind/Twoflower/Cohan books. My wife thinks they are all eye rollingly silly and wonders why we get so excited about them.
Which is meant to be a long winded way of illustrating that you may have to poke around a little to find the satire and/or personalities that really resonate with you.
If you’re looking for something that has the closest connection with programmer geek culture, then I suspect Going Postal with its satire on who controls the flow of information (e.g. the web), it’s “code shifters” and the “Smoking GNU”.
