The last Discworld book by Terry Pratchett.
Book Number 41 is about Tiffany Aching and the Discworld Witches. While we get a few flashes of the larger Discworld, Death, Hex, Vetinari, etc – this is mainly a tale of Witches and Elves and the Nac Mac Feegles. These have never been my favorite characters. I hate the Nac Mac Feegles. I would have preferred the last novel to be about Moist or Rincewind, but then, this was a pretty good book.
The standard Sir Terry formula has been to find a downtrodden group, such as Golems or Trolls or Dwarves or Goblins and show that they can become a productive and useful part of Discworld society. And it appears that this is the road we are heading down in The Shepherd’s Crown. Only the ending here is a little less happy than usual.
We start off with the death of an old Witch, who we can assume is a stand-in for Sir Terry himself. We all gotta go sometime.
Bittersweet seems to be how most people feel about The Shepherd’s Crown and I agree. It’s not a great book, but it’s better than no book at all.
Terry’s love of terrible puns, thick accents, and vast made up vocabularies are all on display here. His love of underdogs pursuing odd career choices sees a man who wants to be a Witch. And there was the usual feeling that this was just one more chapter in a never ending story.
There were a few strong moments and a few shockingly weak ones. There was rather a lot of focus on how being old doesn’t mean being useless. Tiffany is a witch who spends most of her time taking care of old people and seems to have a moral opposition to actually using magic. There are several deaths that are meaningless and several scenes that seem to have no reason for existing. There is a closing note that says Terry didn’t get around to polishing this book before he died and it shows in a few spots.
The Shepherd’s Crown is must reading for any Discworld fan, but like the other Tiffany books, it isn’t much of a Discworld book.
