The Shepherd's Crown
Ratings81
Average rating4.2
It's almost painful to give this book 3 stars. It's THE LAST DISCWORLD BOOK EVER. And I liked it, and it finished off the Tiffany Aching series nicely but it's just not as good as earlier Pratchett (much like “Raising Steam”). Lots of cameo moments and attempts to tie up loose ends but the the level of prose just isn't there. But still 3 stars for Pratchett is probably 4 for almost anyone else!
GNU Sir Terry Pratchett
4.5* rounded up to 5 because it's Discworld and that's the best world. I love these books for their strange yet familiar worldscape with plots, people and places that are often a version of Earth's own.
This was a witches novel, which are amongst my favourites of the series - featuring, as they do, my hero Granny Weatherwax. I'm loathe to go into the ins and out if the reasons I didn't give it 5* so I'll just say - spoilers!
Terry Pratchett was a literary genius and will be greatly missed, I'm sure he'd have done a bit more tinkering on this if he had the chance.
If I wasn't crying my eyes were filled with tears. I highly recommend the Tiffany Aching subseries of Discworld for adults and teens alike, even if you haven't read the other books, although I do suggest the witches subseries.
I really liked the Tiffany Aching series of YA books, and this is a very fine final book for both the series, and Terry's work as a whole.
Pratchett's last book, not really finished when he died. Very rough around the edges, like the last 3-4 Guards novels. Endings, beginnings, and edges....
A fitting last book for the master that is/was Pratchett. I picked up Tiffany Aching after reading a review from Patrick Rothfuss, an author who I admire and respect, and she quickly made a home in my heart.
Goodbye, Sir Pratchett. You've created amazing world's. And I hope you have your luggage with you.
That's that, then. I'll never again read a Terry Pratchett book I haven't read before. This isn't a bad way to go out. The witches have always been one of my favourite Discworld strands, and this one is positively full of them. It's a long way from his best, and sometimes it's all too obvious that it was at least one draft away from being quite finished, but it's also nowhere near the worst. Pratchett's virtues of compassion and a kind of exasperated love for the common man shine through here. It's a capstone to a fine career, and he'll be missed.
It's a perfect last novel. Took me until about halfway through that I stopped tearing up.
I saved this book for a while, as it's the last ever Discworld novel. I enjoyed it, but said enjoyment was tinged with sadness, knowing that Sir Terry is no longer with us.
Ah the last Disc World novel. It is not his best as you can tell that Terry wasn't finished. However, it is still well worth reading and is a fitting end to the series.
The fact that he managed to finish 5 novels after being announcing that he had been diagnosed with a nasty form of early onset alzheimer's is nothing short of miraculous.