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... 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).