Bah. Made me cry. Curse you Terry Pratchett! 
 Hat Made of Sky is still my favourite of the Tiffany Aching books, but I might even put this one second. The plot wasn't as tight as he (historically) has been capable of, and the menace of the villain didn't live up to its potential, quite. But there was so much other stuff here to love, and be moved by, and remind me of other things, that I didn't really care. 
 For the first half, seriously, I could only read about forty pages at a time because then I would get sad and have to go off by myself and think about things. I know people complain that the Tiffany Aching books are a bit didactic, or a bit obvious, but I think it's more complicated than that. It's like a beloved grandparent sitting you down and telling you his hard-earned wisdom about what it means to be human, and what's good in life. And, depending where you are in your own life, it may all seem rather trivial and obvious (because you're young and you already know everything, duh), or it may seem the old man is telling you the only knowledge worth knowing (because you've been through those fires, you have fought and lost, and earned this selfsame wisdom for your pains). 
 There's an urgency to these latter books, as if he has looked his own mortality in the eye and said, "Hold on, Death, there's a few last things I want to get off my chest." Maybe it's not as elegantly done as when he was younger, but he still just makes my jaw drop with the things he understands, and the depth to which he understands them. He is a thinker after my own heart. 
 I sometimes feel my reading superpower consists in being able to read between the lines, to see the writer behind the writing. I saw Terry Pratchett behind all the witticisms before he started tipping his hand more deliberately. In this particular book, he is transparent in every sentence; he's not even trying to fade into the background. It's sad, and it's lovely, and it felt like one long goodbye. I cried at the end -- and he actually did manage to surprise me, the old fox, which made me cry the more.