The Shepherd's Crown (by Terry Pratchett)

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I first came across Terry Pratchett in the early 1990s, and was introduced to the Discworld series soon afterwards. I gradually acquired those that had already been published, and then as new ones were written we bought them, often in hardback. I read many of them out loud to our sons, and some to myself. But I had never sat down deliberately to read the entire series from start to finish. 

So I started a full re-read of the ‘Discworld’ series just over five years ago, not all in one chunk of time, but interspersed with other books. I finished ‘The Colour of Magic’, first in the series, at the end of March 2019. I haven’t quite managed to read one Pratchett book per month as I had hoped, which is why it’s taken me so long to read the 41 books. But at last I’ve completed them, with ‘The Shepherd's Crown’. It’s fifth in the Tiffany Aching sub-series, and the final volume of the Discworld books, published posthumously. I first read it in 2017, but hadn’t remembered anything much about it. 

Tiffany Aching is one of the most likeable Discworld characters, in my view. We first met her as a young girl in ‘The Wee Free Men’. That book was intended for younger readers: teenagers, or even older children (possibly as a read-aloud) to introduce them to the Discworld series. Unlike the main books, those featuring Tiffany have distinct chapters and a more straightforward storyline. 

In this book, Tiffany is an adult - we don’t know her exact age, but it’s made clear that she’s more than sixteen. And as such, I wouldn’t really recommend it to children, although it would be fine for teenagers. Tiffany has a young man, Preston, who is working as a junior doctor in Ankh Morpork. They correspond, and she would love to spend more time with him; but they are both passionate about their work, and know that it has to come first. Preston appeared in ‘I shall wear midnight’, and I was sorry that he doesn’t come into this story other than in Tiffany’s mind and heart.

The first few chapters of ‘The Shepherd’s Crown’ involve a dramatic and potentially very sad event which I thought was handled very well. Not wanting to give spoilers, it’s hard to say much more except that Tiffany has to take on a lot more responsibilities than she used to, and finds herself over-stretched and very tired. 

Alongside this, we learn that the elves of fairyland are planning an attack on the Discworld. These elves are not like Tolkien’s: they are selfish, manipulative and without any sense of morality or empathy. 

There are references to so many of the earlier books that it would be hard to read this as a standalone novel, even though the story itself is complete. It’s not just the Tiffany Aching ones that are relevant, either. There are references to Tiffany’s forays into elvish territory in the first book about her, but also to the experiences that the older witches had, described in ‘Lords and Ladies’. 

There are also mentions of the railway - which comes to fruition in ‘Raising Steam’ - and the emancipation and personhood of the goblins, which starts in ‘Unseen Academicals’. The Disc has come a long way since the first books, and I love the way Pratchett helped the different races live in harmony - and they really are different races, not just humans with different shades of skin colour.

The Nac Mac Feegles have a lot of action in this book, most of it either raucous or violent or both. There’s a glossary of their pseudo-Scottish vocabulary in the back of the book, but I’m familiar enough with the words, used in earlier books too, that I only referred to it once or twice. 

And then there’s a new character, a sixteen-year-old lad called Geoffrey whose father is abusive, and who has left home. He travels with his highly intelligent goat Mephistopheles, making his way to Lancre where he has an unusual request for Tiffany. Geoffrey is an interesting person, full of diplomacy and also very caring. It’s sad that we won’t learn anything else about him; but his story is encouraging and he’s a nice addition to the book. 

The writing is good, although in places I wondered if there had been some non-Pratchett additions: a few phrases and uses of punctuation didn’t ring quite true to the other books. But it doesn’t much matter. There’s plenty that’s classic Pratchett, complete with literary and other references. It’s a good story, with a positive outcome, and makes an excellent finale to the lengthy series. 

Definitely recommended if you’ve read all or most of the others in the series. 

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