Jump to ratings and reviews
Rate this book

Discworld - Tiffany Aching #1-5

Tiffany Aching Complete 5-Book Collection: The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith, I Shall Wear Midnight, The Shepherd's Crown – Epic Witch Fantasy Books from the Discworld Series

Rate this book
This collection includes all five Tiffany Aching novels in Terry Pratchett's beloved and bestselling Discworld series, including the final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown.

The Wee Free Men: Armed with only a frying pan and her common sense, young witch-to-be Tiffany Aching must defend her home against the monsters of Fairyland. Luckily she has some very unusual help: the local Nac Mac Feegle—aka the Wee Free Men.

A Hat Full of Sky: Tiffany Aching is ready to begin her apprenticeship in magic. She expects spells and magic—not chores and ill-tempered nanny goats! Surely there must be more to witchcraft than this! Indeed, there is. . . .

Wintersmith: When the Spirit of Winter takes a fancy to Tiffany Aching, he wants her to stay in his gleaming, frozen world. Forever. It will take the young witch's skill and cunning, as well as help from the legendary Granny Weatherwax and the irrepressible Wee Free Men, to survive until Spring.

I Shall Wear Midnight: As the witch of the Chalk, Tiffany Aching performs the distinctly unglamorous work of caring for the needy. But someone—or something—is inciting fear, generating dark thoughts and angry murmurs against witches. Tiffany must find the source of unrest and defeat the evil at its root, for if she falls, the whole Chalk falls with her. . . .

The Shepherd's Crown: Deep in the Chalk, something is stirring. The owls and the foxes can sense it, and Tiffany Aching feels it in her boots. An old enemy is gathering strength. This is a time of endings and beginnings, old friends and new, a blurring of edges and a shifting of power. Now Tiffany stands between the light and the dark, the good and the bad. There will be a reckoning. . . .

1626 pages, Kindle Edition

First published September 1, 2015

Loading...
Loading...

About the author

Terry Pratchett

695 books46.8k followers
Sir Terence David John Pratchett was an English author, humorist, and satirist, best known for the Discworld series of 41 comic fantasy novels published between 1983–2015, and for the apocalyptic comedy novel Good Omens (1990), which he co-wrote with Neil Gaiman.
Pratchett's first novel, The Carpet People, was published in 1971. The first Discworld novel, The Colour of Magic, was published in 1983, after which Pratchett wrote an average of two books a year. The final Discworld novel, The Shepherd's Crown, was published in August 2015, five months after his death.
With more than 100 million books sold worldwide in 43 languages, Pratchett was the UK's best-selling author of the 1990s. He was appointed an Officer of the Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1998 and was knighted for services to literature in the 2009 New Year Honours. In 2001 he won the annual Carnegie Medal for The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, the first Discworld book marketed for children. He received the World Fantasy Award for Life Achievement in 2010.
In December 2007 Pratchett announced that he had been diagnosed with early-onset Alzheimer's disease. He later made a substantial public donation to the Alzheimer's Research Trust (now Alzheimer's Research UK, ARUK), filmed three television programmes chronicling his experiences with the condition for the BBC, and became a patron of ARUK. Pratchett died on 12 March 2015, at the age of 66.

Ratings & Reviews

What do you think?
Rate this book

Friends & Following

Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!

Community Reviews

5 stars
386 (82%)
4 stars
66 (14%)
3 stars
12 (2%)
2 stars
1 (<1%)
1 star
2 (<1%)
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
Profile Image for Henk.
41 reviews7 followers
May 28, 2018
Pratchett at his best!
The 5 books featuring Tiffany Aching are perhaps Pratchett's crowning achievement.
I know, all the Disc World characters are good, and readers like different Pratchett themes, but these books are peerless.
Excellent young adult and adult literature.

Profile Image for Marianne Reese.
Author 16 books13 followers
April 5, 2026
Terry Pratchett Books:

These are my first Terry Pratchett books. I purchased the 5-book Tiffany Aching collection, but I’ll review each story separately. The series starts out like childrens’ stories with some adult content, and progresses to tween and young adult as Tiffany ages. Each story has thought provoking conflicts and life lessons.

The Wee Free Men:
3.5 stars ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
I had to keep in mind that this was fiction as the MC, Tiffany, is very young making some tough decisions and is able to think things through like someone much older. The story is imaginative, with creative ideas and characters. I struggled a bit with the pictsies vernacular and wasn’t always sure what they were saying, but got the gist of it, and some of their names! Holy cow! Not-as-big-as-Medium-Sized-Jock-but-bigger-than-Wee-Jock-Jock — it’s two lines long on my Kindle! I found myself skipping over his name whenever I came across it. There’s plenty of action, and I liked the way Pratchett weaved lessons into the story. The chapters are really long.

A Hat Full of Sky:
4 stars ⭐️ ⭐️⭐️⭐️
This book has a glossary which made it easier ‘for those of us with a delicate disposition’ to understand the lingo! It also has long chapters like the previous book.
Tiffany is eleven years old in this story, and very smart being able to figure things out that have eluded everyone in the past. The story is imaginative with plenty of action and drama. The names in this story were more ‘manageable’, and I do like Pratchett’s play on words with the names of some characters. Several of the characters from the previous book are in this book which I’m now invested in and curious to see their future rolls and what manifests in the next book.

WinterSmith:
4 stars ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️
Tiffany is thirteen years old in this book. It’s a more coming of age story where she’s learning to navigate her feelings, but also learning more about being a witch. Tiffany is also learning about dealing with consequences from her actions.

I Shall Wear Midnight:
5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
This story starts out with parental abuse and the murder of an unborn child by a drunkard parent (grandparent). Tiffany is nearly 16 years old and dealing with some really heavy situations that no teenager should have to witness or endure, but she’s The Witch and has been handling egregious situations for a while now, which helps to keep the town’s people from engaging in mob mentality justice. There’s a lot of action intertwined with relationship drama. and throughout the story, the importance of remaining positive instead of getting sucked in by the poison of negativity.

The Shepherd’s Crown:
5 ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️ ⭐️
Tiffany feels the weight of trying to fill Granny Weatherwax’s shoes after her passing. She realizes change is okay, she doesn’t have to do things just like Granny Weatherwax, and it’s okay to find her own path in life, and to stay true to herself. With new responsibilities, she soon learns that she can’t keep up with everything that’s been passed on to her, and that it’s okay to ask for help. While battling with the elves, she realizes there’s a fine line between right and wrong, and though it’s hard to do the right thing, she knows it’d be wrong not to.


Profile Image for Godly Gadfly.
621 reviews12 followers
May 6, 2026
Discworld’s “Tiffany Aching” series: Some moments of real brilliance (3 stars)

Terry Pratchett’s famous Discworld series features several recurring characters, often grouped into sub-series of their own. Alongside the “Watch” books, one of the most popular storylines follows the young witch Tiffany Aching. It consists of five novels: The Wee Free Men (2003), A Hat Full of Sky (2004), Wintersmith (2006), I Shall Wear Midnight (2010), and The Shepherd’s Crown (2015), which represent books #30, #32, #35, #38, and #41 in the Discworld series respectively.

Tiffany ages roughly two years between each book, beginning as a nine-year-old in The Wee Free Men and progressing through the approximate ages of 11, 13, 15, and 17. In many respects, the series functions as a coming-of-age story, giving readers the opportunity to grow and mature alongside her, as we observe her physical and emotional development. Each installment also sees her confront a different evil, usually with the help of her allies, the Nac Mac Feegle - otherwise known as the Wee Free Men. These “pictsies” are essentially fighting, drunken, thieving blue smurfs with red hair and Scottish accents (which can take some getting used to). They provide hilarious comic relief throughout the series, and there’s something charming about their loyalty to Tiffany and the way they cry “Crivens!” while attacking everything in sight.

The story begins in The Wee Free Men (book #1), with a light tone that makes fun of many fairy-tale tropes. We meet nine-year-old Tiffany and her family, notably her grandmother, Granny Aching, a highly respected shepherdess with mysterious ways. Tiffany’s adversary in this book is the Queen of the Elves, and along with the Feegles she enters Fairyland to rescue her kidnapped brother. In the process, Tiffany discovers her witching abilities and gets the attention of “chief” witch Granny Weatherwax, who will later become a mentor and moral benchmark that Tiffany herself must emulate.

Tiffany becomes an apprentice to Miss Level in A Hat Full of Sky (book #2). Much of the conflict takes place within her own head, as she must battle a “hiver” that attempts to take control of her mind.

The antagonist in Wintersmith (book #3), is the elemental spirit of Winter, who mistakes Tiffany for the Summer Lady and tries to become human to romance her. It's up to Tiffany to make the cold world of winter return to summer by kissing the Wintersmith.

In I Shall Wear Midnight (book #4), the tone takes a very dark turn from the beginning. A drunken and abusive father beats his 13-year-old daughter, killing her unborn child (which in turn was conceived illegitimately). Tiffany’s primary adversary in this book is the Cunning Man.

In the final book, The Shepherd’s Crown (book #5), Tiffany steps into the shoes of Granny Weatherwax following her death. The elves return as the main threat, seeking once again to invade the world with their mischief and cruelty.

These books are often labeled “young adult,” but in my view they are not appropriate for that audience. While Pratchett seems to try to dial down the innuendo by being more indirect, there are still references to sexual themes and mature subject matter throughout. For instance, I could have done without reading about things like "inflatable pink willies", details about the giant male anatomy of the King of the Elves, and several discussions about the facts of life. In addition, the darker elements in I Shall Wear Midnight are particularly disturbing and confronting. Perhaps the narrative arc away from whimsy deliberately corresponds to the loss of Tiffany’s childlike innocence, but in the process the very thing that made the first three books more charming and endearing is also lost.

At the same time, there is a lot of charm, wit, and clever satire, although this tends to drop off in the final two books, and is largely absent in the final book. The Shepherd's Crown was the last book that Pratchett ever wrote, at a time when he was afflicted by Alzheimer's disease. An afterword acknowledges that it is somewhat unpolished and unfinished. And it shows. Some readers have speculated that his daughter and his assistant played a larger role in shaping the final form of the book than they might care to admit. Even so, there are loose plot ends, and this book lacks the sparkle, wit, and coherence that marks most of the Discworld. The high ratings that The Shepherd’s Crown has received are likely the result of nostalgia, and even many fans would concede that it’s not a great book when considered objectively.

Pratchett is certainly a gifted writer, and has many good insights about human nature that are well worth pondering and reflecting on. The Tiffany Aching series contains some marvellous concepts (e.g. First Sight, and Second Thoughts). A browse through the favourite quotes from each of these books over on GoodReads will give a good idea of the amount of wisdom packed into these books. There’s also a tremendous number of witty puns and clever wordplay, which I enjoyed immensely.

In many ways these books correspond to a coming of age story. Much can be gleaned from Tiffany's journey to maturity, as she evolves from a young girl into a sensible woman who has learned to cope life and handle the challenges that come her way. I especially appreciated the emphasis this series has on Tiffany’s shepherding compassion. She carries on what she learned from her Granny Aching: "Feed them as is hungry, clothe them as is naked, and speak up for them as has no voices." While we do see Tiffany buzzing around on her broomstick and occasionally using magic, more important are the ordinary ways she cares for her community by feeding the poor, helping the elderly, and tending to everyday needs, such as "seeing to broken legs, bad stomachs and ingrown toenails.”

As Pratchett puts it in The Shepherd’s Crown, “Going around the houses - that was what you did if you were a compassionate witch, what she and all the other witches did to fill in the gaps in the world, doing things that had to be done: carrying logs in for an old lady or popping on a pot of stew for a dinner, bringing a herbal remedy for a sore leg or a troublesome ache, fetching a basket of `spare' eggs or second-hand clothes for a new baby in a house where money was scarce, and listening, oh yes, always listening to people's troubles and worries." Being a good witch is primarily about understanding people, being responsible, and caring for others, even when it includes unglamorous and ordinary tasks. These are timeless and important values worthy of embracing today.

I don’t have the same nostalgia around these books that most devoted fans of Discworld do, and this sub-series has also served as my introduction to Pratchett’s universe. I didn’t find it brilliant, and the quality, wit, and lighter tone certainly tapered off in the final two books. But I enjoyed it enough to want to make the highly acclaimed “Watch” sub-series and the popular “Industrial Revolution” sub-series my next reads in Discworld.
2 reviews
January 19, 2022
Awesome set!

I love Terry Pratchett's books! This coming-of-age story about a young girl who is determined to be a real witch instead of a dairy maid grabbed me and sucked me into Terry Pratchett's Discworld where so many interesting people's stories have taken place. Sir Terry left us far too soon.
4 reviews1 follower
July 27, 2025
A fun read. Tiffany Aching strikes a great balance of youthful impulse and developing wisdom, and it's great to see her come into her own throughout the series. I really like Tiffany's logical thinking and the groundedness of the witches' tradition overall. There's great magic, yes, but the daily magic is the daily work and care of the community.
Profile Image for Erin Kowal.
363 reviews
July 6, 2019
Reading Harry Potter didn't make me want to be a witch. Reading Tiffany Aching did.
Profile Image for Susan.
227 reviews
February 16, 2026
Finished the omnibus. I really think the books benefitted from being read all together. I liked the story arc. The final Tiffany Aching book was also Pratchett's last book. It's good.
Profile Image for Cristin.
46 reviews8 followers
February 17, 2026
Tiffany Aching is a powerful young woman who sees the truth of things. These books are appropriate for all ages, and they're well worth the time to read them.
248 reviews3 followers
October 25, 2025
I loved these books. I had to suspend disbelief numerous times to accomodate for how young Tiffany was when she has the experiences that she has. After the 1st or 2nd book, i got kind of tired of learning about new villains. And villains can come back in the later books! But I love Granny Weatherwax, and magic and witches and tales of the Discworld, and (some) coming of age stories. Oh, iirc there are even some vampires at one point! The last of these books was the last novel that Terry Pratchett wrote before his death :(
Profile Image for David Kershner-Leon.
26 reviews1 follower
September 17, 2024
Never finished the last book but I’m sure it’s as wonderful as the rest. Another one of my favorite authors of all time; so witty and funny comparable to lemony snicket. Wee free men is an incredibly fun read and from there it’s hard to put down the following books. Great read all of them. Who knows maybe I’ll finish the last book Terry Pratchet published sometime soon.
Author 51 books28 followers
July 1, 2017
Fabulous. Now I need to read the rest of Pratchett. Should keep me busy awhile.
Profile Image for Bonnie.
141 reviews
March 29, 2025
Charming series

Delightful story in full - a perfect read for any age at a time when the world needs a strong helping of delight.
2 reviews
May 10, 2025
I miss him

I wish we had more Terry. More discworld. More tiffany.
These books are my goto when I need hope and Tiffany aching is my favorite.
Profile Image for Sheila.
23 reviews3 followers
June 23, 2025
This would be so fun too teach! The wee men are hilarious and Tiffany too wise for her age.
Profile Image for Eric Owlington.
Author 1 book
January 12, 2026
Fantastic. Ye must read it, ya wee daftie!

Nobody does silly with heart like Sir Terry.
16 reviews
February 20, 2026
One of the funniest, creative books I’ve read. I wish these characters could come for an afternoon of tea and magic.
Profile Image for Lydia Porter.
71 reviews1 follower
October 3, 2019
Great for all ages

While a wonderful romp through fantasy, this story arch is full of practical advice . It would do many a person good to learn the lessons Tiffany Aching learns as she finds her own place in the world. No one has all the answers, but sometimes knowing the right questions is almost as good.
Profile Image for Bonnie Dale Keck.
4,677 reviews59 followers
March 26, 2017
40 of so books, different collections, some audio, it's pratchett, read and heard some as well, all. Dates wrong.
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews