My copy of The Shepherd’s Crown arrived in the mail today.
The last Discworld book by Terry Pratchett. It came out last week and I will confess to not waiting for the hard copy version and also buying and reading the ebook on release day so I could read it before I heard any spoilers. I will also confess to crying quite a bit reading it and it takes a lot for a book to make me cry. I liked it a lot. Raising Steam felt to me like he was saying goodbye to Ankh Morpork and the city based characters whereas The Shepherd’s Crown is a farewell to Tiffany and the Chalk and Lancre and the Feegles and the witches, who have always been my favourites (as much as I adore Sam Vimes, the witches are my main gals). As goodbyes are, it was bittersweet.
I don’t want to believe there are no more first reads of a Pratchett book but it’s true. Which sucks a mighty suck (Crivens, it sucks!). But I’ll sit down and read the hard copy soon. More slowly this time. No doubt I’ll read it many times over the years and probably listen to it too, like I’ve read and listened to all the other Discworld books over the years. So thank you, Terry for those happy hours past and to come. Gone too soon but not forgotten.
