Wee Free Men by Terry Pratchett

[classicdrogn]

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No King! No Queen! No Lord! We won't get fooled again!

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The universe is more complicated than it looks from outside

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Wee Free Men is only very loosely connected to previous Pratchett books, though it is set on the Discworld and his established witches Granny Weatherwax and Nanny Ogg show up for the epilogue - mostly it's about sheep, and 'pictsies,' and and something of a rebuttal to the Harry Potter vision of an introduction to the world of magic that's under a young girl's nose... and I quite like it. It's better by far than any of the other recent Discworld books, and while it verges on too head-trippy for my taste, it doesn't quite fall in.
...and I want to steal Thunder and Lightning, and Rob Anybody MacFeegle, and I can't think of any justification at all to use them in anything I've got in progress or serious consideration. This is somewhat annoying, but at least you know I'm sincere in my flattery.

7/10, recommended, strongly recommended if you've liked any of his previous work - I'll probably reread it when I have another slow afternoon. (It didn't look like particularly large text, and it's 370-something pages, but it only took me about four hours to read, which translates to around 400k of text, usually. Perhaps reading about Fairyland slows time like being there?)
- CDThat which does not kill us... has made its last mistake.
SERVO: Loook *deeeeply* into my eyes... Tell me, what do you see?
CROW: (hypnotized) A twisted man who wants to inflict his pain upon others.
" It's crazy to try to spell out all the mega-nooks and hyper-crannies of a Borg contrivance." - Doug Drexler
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"Anko, what you do in your free time is your own choice. Use it wisely. And if you do not use it wisely, make sure you thoroughly enjoy whatever unwise thing you are doing." - HymnOfRagnorok as Orochimaru at SpaceBattles
woot Med. Eng., verb, 1st & 3rd pers. prsnt. sg. know, knows

[DHBirr]

The connection's nae sae loose as all that; the pictsies, a.k.a. Nac mac Feegle, played a pretty significant role in Carpe Jugulum -- "Dere c'n onlie be whin t'ousand!" -- and if I'm telling anyone here anything they didn't know, you need to run, not walk, to the library or bookstore and read the book. Of course, I'd make much the same comment for just about any of the Discworld books.
"But what can they do?" said Magrat.
"Well ... Greebo's frightened of 'em," said Nanny.
...The witches were impressed. Greebo had once brought down an elk. There was practically nothing that he wouldn't attack, including architecture.DHBirr
"If you keep me imprisoned long enough, eventually I will die.... [We] humans cannot live without our freedom. So, if you see me lying lifeless in my cage, come on in, because I'm dead. Really."
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Big Brother is watching you.  And damn, you are so bloody BORING.

[robkelk]

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...and I want to steal Thunder and Lightning, and Rob Anybody MacFeegle, and I can't think of any justification at all to use them in anything I've got in progress or serious consideration.

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Dae ye nae know that a pictsie din nae need a 'justification' ta be in a story? If he has a ken ta be in a story, then he gets inta it! Pictises go where they want!!
(Okay, my pseudo-Scottish accent needs work. Lots of work. )
Oh, yes - if you liked Wee Free Men, you'll love the sequel, A Hat Full of Sky...
-Rob Kelk
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Rob Kelk
"Governments have no right to question the loyalty of those who oppose
them. Adversaries remain citizens of the same state, common subjects of
the same sovereign, servants of the same law."

- Michael Ignatieff, addressing Stanford University in 2012