The great fantasists are more than storytellers, they're mythmakers, and in Hogfather Sir Terry tackles the subject of myth head on. This is Pratchett at his best: the best jokes, biting commentary without being bluntly allegorical, and an ending that uplifts and reaffirms the human spirit. If you like Susan, the wizards, and DEATH, you'll love this book. And the ending conversation, about how stories make us human, and about how the small lies (the Hogfather, Soul Cake Duck) prepare us for the big ones (Justice, Purpose, Mercy) is one of the most inspiring and humane things I've read in a long while.

As a certain red-suited skeleton would say, HO HO HO.