Hogfather - Terry Pratchett

'Has the energy of The Hitch-Hiker's Guide to the Galaxy and the inventiveness of Alice in Wonderland' Sunday Times

The Discworld is very much like our own - if our own were to consist of a flat planet balanced on the back of four elephants which stand on the back of a giant turtle, that is . . .

OH, THERE HAS TO BE SOMETHING IN THE STOCKING THAT MAKES A NOISE, said Death, OTHERWISE WHAT IS 4:30 A.M. FOR?

Superstition makes things work in the Discworld and undermining it can have Consequences. It's just not right to find Death creeping down chimneys and trying to say Ho Ho Ho . . .

It's the last night of the year, the time is turning, and if Susan, Gothic governess and Death's granddaughter (sort of), doesn't sort everything out by morning, there won't be a morning. Ever again . . .
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The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Hogfather is the fourth book in the Death series; a festive feast of darkness (but with jolly robots and tinsel too).