The final Discworld book, in the Young Adult
offshoot Tiffany Aching series about a good-hearted young
witch, THE SHEPHERD'S CROWN is as much fun as we'd expect.
Sir Terry Pratchett has now sadly left us, but what a
legacy. This was his 41st book.
While going about helping hill dwellers with cures, advice,
midwifery, and toenail paring for the elderly, Tiffany
feels that the ring of stones on the hill is emitting a
sinister tremor. The small blue Feegles in the woods feel
it too and agree to keep a watch. Meanwhile, Geoffrey, son
of Lord Swivel, has decided that the country squire life is
not for him. He stands up to his father and sets off in his
goat-drawn cart to the land of Lancre, where all the best
witches are trained.
This well-populated adventure says goodbye to one of
Terry's best-known characters, both showing that death is a
natural process and precipitating a flood of chaos. Amid
the country funeral scenes we are told that we should not
mourn but cherish good memories. I confess to getting a bit
teary-eyed. Anyway, Tiffany moves up a step in the pecking
order and for one so young she suddenly faces a great deal
of responsibility, including fighting off a sparkly,
glamorous, malicious elf queen.
The Discworld has changed since the Lords and Ladies last
stepped beyond the bounds of Faerie. Goblins now have jobs
as train drivers, and so do second sons of farmers.
Prosperity and travel haven't changed everything, of
course. In the eminently practical footnotes we're advised
to wear a few pairs of flannelette undergarments before
getting on a broomstick. Tiffany is reminded that being a
witch is not about casting charms and wearing costume
jewelry, rather it's doing an old person's washing for
them, concocting cough medicine and sewing back a
lumberjack's sawn-off foot. When magic is needed, though,
she'll have to fight for her life. The elves hate iron, so
they will try to destroy the railway and all it represents.
In this faster-moving, connected Discworld, we find that
rulers no longer hold total power and wealth, and the small
people, the small things, have begun to matter. I love the
neat illustrations at the head of every chapter, so even
newcomers will be able to visualise the inhabitants. THE
SHEPHERD'S CROWN is quite as good a place to start reading
Discworld as it is to finish, and I know we will be re-
reading all of Terry Pratchett's lively, enchanting books
for many years to come.
Terry Pratchett's final Discworld novel, and the fifth to feature the witch Tiffany Aching.
A SHIVERING OF WORLDS
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.
As the fairy horde prepares for invasion, Tiffany must summon all the witches to stand with her. To
protect the land. Her land.
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