Roo's Reaction Reviews: The Shepherd's Crown (Part One)

[hyaroo]

Here we go. The book is ready, and so am I.

The Shepherd's Crown is the 41st Discworld novel... but not the 41st Discworld book. If we include books like the four Science of Discworld books, the two children's books Where's My Cow? and The World of Poo, and the short stories/writings all collected in A Blink of the Screen, the number of Discworld books is probably more like "somewhere between forty and fifty." I'm not 100% sure, but I think that would make the Discworld series the longest fantasy series ever, at least that was written by one single person. Or if not, it's at least up there. There have been series with more books, but they have usually been shorter and/or been written by more people.

It's also the sixth YA Discworld book, the fifth book in the Tiffany Aching series, and the eleventh book about the Discworld Witches and their undisputed not-a-leader-honestly, Granny Weatherwax. Twelfth if you include the The Sea And The Little Fishes story as a separate book.

But however else you want to put it, this is the last one.

Let's just start with the cover:



Now that's a nice cover. It's done, of course, by our old friend Paul Kidby, and while this probably isn't his best cover ever (The one for Night Watch beats most of them) it looks great. It's Tiffany Aching, as we've come to know her -- but no longer the little girl she was in the beginning; she's definitely an adult woman now. If I'm to guess, she's probably in her early twenties here, given that she was seventeen in the previous book, and there tends to pass a few years between books.

But she hasn't changed more than we've come to know her; she still wears pale green, and she's still accompanied by the irrepressible Nac Mac Feegle -- the main source of wild rowdiness and comedy relief of the books. Imagine a race of hard-drinking, violent Smurfs, who will fight anything bigger than them, steal anything that's not nailed down (and if it is nailed down, they'll steal the nails) and speak in Scottish accent. While Tiffany is the unquestioned central character in the book and the Nac Mac Feegle are usually there more for comedy relief than anything, they add a lot of energy and fun to the books.

There's also a white cat, probably Granny Weatherwax's cat "You" (as in "Stop that, You," or "Get down from there, You,"), which was given to her by Tiffany a few books back.

Let's open the book and see what waits us inside!
Well, first there's an "About the Book" bit, so let's read that first:

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.
There will be a reckoning...
THE FINAL DISCWORLD NOVEL

Well, that sounds ominous. I wonder if the "old enemy" is yet another of the ancient evil-or-possibly-not beings that Tiffany seems to end up fighting in most of her books, or if it's a recurring villain? The "fairy horde" gives me hope that it might be the Queen of the Elves -- one of the few recurring villains in the series and in my opinion the most interesting one. Most of the Discworld villains tend to only last for one book, but the Queen has been in three so far; she first showed up in Lords and Ladies to antagonize Granny Weatherwax; then she was the main villain of the first Tiffany Aching book, The Wee Free Men, where she kidnapped Tiffany's baby brother Wentworth. Her last (so far) appearance was in the second Science of Discworld book, where she and her elves invaded our world and Rincewind and the Unseen University wizards had to stop them.

Now I really hope she makes a fourth appearance in this book.

Prologue's up next... but before we begin, there's a dedication:

For Esmerelda Weatherwax - mind how you go.

Yeah. I might have accidentally peeked at a review that mentioned a detail about the book, so I think I know what this means... but we'll get to it.
PROLOGUE

The prologue is very short, and not very much happens in it -- or possibly a lot of things happen, just not in detail. A small unidentified sea creature lives and dies, and its shell ends up fossilized (I think) and is found ages later by a shepherd named Daniel Aching -- an ancestor of our own Tiffany. Who thinks it looks neat and keeps it, likening it to a crown... huh. I think we've found our titular Shepherd's Crown already. There's a vague hint that Something Mystical may be going on here, but we'll see what happens.

The shell is noted as being kept by the Aching family, and passed down through the generations, so I doubt we have seen the last of it. My guess is that Tiffany will manage to find out its ancient secret...

Dun dun DUUUUUN! (Dramatic cliffhanger-music.)


CHAPTER ONE: WHERE THE WIND BLOWS

Firefox Internet shortcuts are the absolute worst, only rivalled in plain suckiness by Livejournal's useless autosave feature.

Sorry, that must have come out of nowhere for you. What happened was that I'd written a pretty lengthy bit about the first chapter, writing as I went along like I always do, and then as I shifted between browser tabs, Firefox in its infinite wisdom decided to interpret one of my backspaces as a command to go back three pages. And the Livejournal autosave in its infinite wisdom decided that since I'd left the writing page in such a hurry, I wouldn't possibly want to save any of the text I'd spent more than an hour on, or anything except the title. Yay.

Well, now I've installed a plug-in that lets me disable all those Internet shortcuts, and I've only kept the CTRL+F one for "search page" because honestly, using the keyboard to navigate web pages is useless when you're trying to write stuff.

But, since I really don't think I can write the scene-by-scene reactions all over again for this chapter, let me just sum it up and add some of my thoughts to it instead: This chapter starts three separate plot threads that are more than likely going to intertwine very soon.

First out, Tiffany Aching, our heroine and Witch of the Chalk, feels in her witchy boots that Something Is Going To Happen, and has taken a trip up to the stone circle where she back in The Wee Free Men entered Fairyland to save her brother. I take this as a good sign, because my theory about the Elf Queen returning seems more likely by the minute -- I just really want to see the Elf Queen again, don't judge me. She also meets up with Rob Anybody, the major Nac Mac Feegle character of the book, and they go to the Feegle mound where the Nac Mac Feegle of the Chalk live, to talk to the kelda (Rob's wife and "mother" of most of the Feegle clan), who has also felt that something is happening... and is worried that someone or something might break through from Fairyland.

It was about here that I noticed that Tiffany wasn't quite her old self here. She comes across as tired, almost burned out with all her responsibilities and duties as a witch. She's been tired before, especally in the previous book (I Shall Wear Midnight), but there was always this core of energetic steel there, a stubbornness that refused to bow down. But here she just comes across as weary, which is kind of troubling. Maybe it's the fact that her love interest Preston is away at Ankh-Morpork (though in true Tiffany style, she's annoyed at any suggestions that she "needs" a husband and resents helpful matchmakers), or that she's taking on more responsibilities, but she's clearly tired and not going to be able to keep up for long. Probably another lesson about witchcraft is about to present itself.

The second plot involves the third and youngest son of a Lord, whose name is Geoffrey, and whom we know straight away is going to be important because not only is he the third and youngest son, but he's a bookworm who thrists for knowledge, who thinks fox hunting is barbaric, and who has a pet goat named "Mephistopholes." Pratchett is usually good at making even his minor characters fun and memorable, but this guy really has to be a major or at least important character.

My suspicions were confirmed when he expressed a desire to be a witch -- and I went WHOA. That's a book-end I honestly didn't saw coming. In Discworld, witches and wizards are fundamentally different -- in more ways than just the general differences between men and women -- but the very first witch-centric Discworld book, Equal Rites, did introduce us to Eskarina, the first girl who went to Unseen University and became a wizard. Here then is the flip-side, a boy who wants to become a witch. (I hope reviews aren't going to whine about this and liken it to Disney's The Little Mermaid 2; I seriously would like to see where this is going.)

Anyway, Geoffrey seems like he could be fun; he certainly wins some points with me in the scene where his oafish brute of a father yells at him and beats him for thinking fox hunting is brutal and for not wanting to smear himself with fox blood after the hunt -- and Geoffrey more or less goes "bugger this, I'm out of here" and leaves together with his pet goat, heading towards Lancre.

And the third plot thread involves Granny Weatherwax pretty much being Granny Weatherwax, going around and aiding people best as she can while being her normal grouchy self about it.  The chapter, however, ends on an ominous note, and... this is where I feel I have to address that thing I mentioned before, that I learned from the review:

Granny Weatherwax is going to die in this book.

I suppose it isn't such a surprise. Granny Weatherwax is one of the most beloved characters of the Discworld series; at first she (together with co-witches Nanny Ogg, Magrat Garlik and Agnes Nitt) was the star of the popular "Lancre Witches" books; six of the Discworld books (and one short story) starred her, but Pratchett allegedly began having problems thinking up plots for her because she was growing too powerful. However, Granny got a new lease on her literary life in the Tiffany Aching books, where the main character, the one who went through all the trials was someone else (Tiffany, natch), and Granny was the grouchy but fair old mentor. She ended up playing important roles in all the Tiffany books (ecxept the first, where she only had a cameo in the last chapter) and got to be as great and Granny Weatherwax-y as she could, not changing one bit just because she happened to be in a series of YA books.

But the thing about mentors in YA books is... they tend to die. They might be a long time about it, but in the end they need to step off the stage so that their young protege can fully develop. And over the course of the Tiffany Aching books, it become clearer and clearer that Tiffany is, or at least is going to be, the "Granny Weatherwax" of her generation; the leader that the witches swear that they don't have.

But there is another thing too: This is the last Discworld book. Very probably, Pratchett knew it was going to be when he began writing it. The previous book, Raising Steam, got a bit of flak from some readers for all the "unnecessary" cameos by old characters, but in the wake of Pratchett's death, it seems pretty obvious that this book was his goodbye to the Ankh-Morpork setting, and he included as many old characters as he could for one last appearance and a final hurrah. This book is where he says goodbye to the Ramtops setting, the countryside and the witches... and to the world as a whole. And it fits that the last book would have a major death... and what's more, Granny Weatherwax is probably the character who most fits the part of the character who dies with her creator.

Let me just enjoy her while she still is here.



CHAPTER TWO: A VOICE IN THE DARKNESS

There's a picture of Death above the title. Yeah.

It's actually a bit of relief that Pratchett isn't trying to drag it out; already from the start the experienced Discworld reader knows what is coming. It's a pretty well-established Discworld rule that witches and wizards know when they're going to die. Well, to be precise, they know when they're going to die if allowed to die of natural causes -- they can't predict murder or accidents. But if their life is about to end, they know. And they make Preparations. Wizards generally have a last party, borrow as much money as they can from all their friends and go out with a bang (sometimes literal), but witches, who are more practical, spend their last days making sure that things are in order for after they're gone. And Granny in the opening of this chapter is Preparing. She cleans her house, she makes sure her goats and her cat are fed, she says goodbye to her bees, and she bathes and dresses up before laying herself neatly out. And probably goes out Borrowing (riding in animals' minds) for one last time, though this isn't explicitly said.

The cat knows something's up, too, and stays with her throughout... it's actually rather touching. And this is where Granny Weatherwax and Terry Pratchett kind of begin melding together, because Granny's death mirrors Pratchett's own in many ways.This is written by a Pratchett who has come to terms with his own death, and Granny -- one of the characters that, for all her comical grouchiness and meanness, was one of the closest to Pratchett in ideals and morals -- is the one to go out with him. And, as if to really hammer in the parallels though Pratchett couldn't possibly have planned it that way, both of them die peacefully and in the company of a pet cat.

And then... well, I'm not 100% sure, and I'm not going to go through forty books to chack, but she has what might be the most notable death scene in all the forty.one books. Perhaps not so much the death itself; she has a polite and slightly-longer-than-usual chat with Death (who seems to be in an unusually contemplative mood; he probably realizes that he's here for one of the most major and most beloved characters of the series) and characteristically manages to both spout some life wisdom and completely get the wrong meaning of some words, and overall she seems rather cheerful about the entire thing. There is a bit of talk about her "replacement" -- no names are mentioned, but we all know it's Tiffany.

But her death is more than just that. Because then we see that her death is felt by magic-users all over the Disc. Those we see the reactions of are old friends, of both Granny and the reader. Some of them, like Nanny Ogg and Greebo, have been present and in focus all the time; others have been minor or even gone for a while, like Eskarina, Magrat and Agnes -- I was glad to see Agnes in particular; she hasn't appeared in a book since Carpe Jugulum, but she was my first favorite Discworld witch and I still have a soft spot for her. We also find out where she's been all this time; apparently she went to Quirm, became a singer and has wild parties. (There's also a few funny asides, like Lord Vetinari's cameo where his crossword puzzle fills out itself, or when all the whoopee cushions in a joke shop starts "trumpeting in doleful harmony.") And in Ankh-Morpork, in Unseen University, the magical computer HEX knows what's up, and unless I'm much mitaken this means that we'll likely see our old friend Archchancellor Ridcully in this book too.

And in Fairyland, an elf named Lord Peaseblossom knows that hey, one of the more powerful humans that hindered us from conquering the Discworld is gone. Party time!

This was... one of the more satisfying death scenes I've read. And while I don't doubt that Granny really is dead, I have a suspicion that this isn't quite the last we've seen of her.



CHAPTER THREE: AN UPSIDE-DOWN WORLD

Well... a title like that just asks for it.

It's fun to be in an upside-down world;
There's fish that fall out of the sea!
There's upside-down clocks that make everyone late!
Upside-down food that won't stay on your plate
In an upside-down world,
In an upside-down world!

There's upside-down everything all over town;
It all looks so funny that I've got to frown --
'Cause a frown is a smile when it's turned upside-down,
In an upside-down
In an upside-down,
what-side-down,
whoops-side-down,
oops-side-down,
what-side-down,
upside-down-woooooorld!!!!!

Okay, there, got it out of my system, so now I won't start wondering if Bert and Ernie are going to show up in this chapter. Let's move on!

After death comes life -- this chapter opens with Tiffany being midwife and helping a set of triplets into the world -- and being a little concerned because the family are fussing a lot more over the two strapping boys than they are over the last-born, a smaller girl, so she decides that she'll keep an eye on this family (and she gets to name the baby girl after herself, because nobody else seems to care enough to give her a name, and... I think she places some kind of spell on her, but we'll see if that comes up later). And then You the cat shows up to fetch her. Somehow I'm not surprised. Well, I am a little surprised that Tiffany doesn't seem to have noticed Granny's death the way so many others did, but it might be because she was busy. A few Nac Mac Feegle also show up, and so girl, cat and Feegles fly over to Lancre, to Granny's house.

There's no wolves there, but there is Nanny Ogg, who is unusually somber -- but then her best friend just died. It's good to see Nanny, really; she remains my very favorite Discworld character and even when she's not really doing a whole lot she tends to make a scene better just by being in it, and it's good that Tiffany gets to have Nanny with her when she gets it confirmed that yes, Granny is dead -- through the end of one of the more long-running running gags of this series: Granny's "I ATEN'T DEAD" card, which has now been scribbled on so that it reads: "I IS PROBABLY DEAD." It's a bit of a sad ending to a running gag, but it's kinda funny too. Typical Pratchett;  tragedy and comedy hand in hand.

On the back of the card is a message for Nanny, and a sort of will; basically Tiffany inherits it all except for the cat (who will "go where she wants to.") And exchept for the pink jug and basin set, because Nanny gets that. Is it too much to hope that You will stick with Tiffany? She was on the cover, after all, and Tiffany was the one who once gave her to Granny.

As Tiffany sits with Granny during the night it begins to sink in on her what we've known all along: That Granny is expecting her to be her replacement. We all knew it would happen, but Tiffany is not at all confident of her own ability to fill Granny's shoes... but then, I think Tiffany probably is the best candidate. Except for Nanny Ogg, who had a lifetime of practice, Tiffany was probably the one who understood Granny the best. It's not going to be easy, and she has a bit to learn still. but I don't doubt she can pull through in the end.

We get a few more reactions to Granny's death out in the world; characters who don't have magic to tell them now get to react. I get a feeling that the most important one is going to be Mrs. Earwig (pronounced, as a footnote helpfully informs us, "Ah-wij"), who has been a foil to Granny in a few books before, but the most surprising one is Lord Vetinari's. I had no idea he kept an eye on who led the witches, but then again... why wouldn't he? Yet another of those things that makes sense when you think about it. And here's Ridcully, who of course is leaving for Lancre at once to attend the funeral.

And in Fairyland, Lord Peaseblossom is having so much fun being gleeful that he just keeps on being gleeful.



CHAPTER FOUR: A FAREWELL -- AND A WELCOME

And next time on "opposite words you should know"...

So, Nanny and Tiffany bury Granny, which feels right -- her oldest friend and her youngest friend. Of course, Tiffany ends up doing most of the actual digging, because Nanny Ogg is still Nanny Ogg and takes any opportuntity to shirk work. Granny didn't want a big funeral or anything like that. Nanny pretty much tells Tiffany outright that she's going to have to become the new Head Witch and that this was what Granny wanted -- and it's clear that Nanny agrees with the decicion one hundred percent. Tiffany tries to protest, that she's too young ("If I wasn't a witch, I'd only be thinking of boyfriends!" she says, ignoring the fact that she is a witch and that she doesn't) but Nanny can be just as stubborn as any witch when she sets her mind to it. And as I hoped, You has decided to stick with Tiffany.... and Tiffany, as the narrative says, "wondered." I bet I can guess what it is she's wondering... we'll see if I'm right. I think she's wrong, though.

People come to pay their respects; first of all Ridcully, who afterwards has a brief chat with Tiffany and basically says that he knows about her and that if she ever needs a friend, to call on him -- I wonder if she'll take him up on it, or if this is the last we'll see of him? Time will tell, I suppose. Then, lots of other people show up -- of course, Mrs. Earwig, and, hey, Agnes! Whom Tiffany immediately likes, so that's good! And there's Petulia, Tiffany's best friend, whom I rather liked in previous books, and the Feegles are dancing on the roof and misquoting Shakespeare...

....and then the senior witches are having a Meeting, to Discuss Who The New Not-At-All-Head Witch is supposed to be, and Nanny makes a pretty nice speech about why it's Tiffany no matter what anyone else says.

And even Mrs. Earwig can't protest when Granny's bees fly out of their hive, circling around Tiffany like a halo and land on her to "welcome her home."

Y'know, if this had been anyone else but Tiffany, or for that matter any other writer than Pratchett, it probably wouldn't have worked. But this is at the end of a forty-to.fifty-book long series, and Tiffany has proved herself for four books straight. Both Tiffany and Pratchett have earned this. (Besides, it's helped a little that there's a sneaking suspicion that Granny probably planned this as well, what with her implied Borrowing and all before she died.)

No sign of Lord Peaseblossom this chapter; possibly he's gone off to be gleefully gleeful somewhere else and will be back when he's done.



CHAPTER FIVE: A CHANGING WORLD

Well, I guess the world isn't upside-down anymore. If one of the upcoming chapters is called "A Different World," I'm going to laugh.

But that's for later, for my hope proved to be spot-on: Here is the Queen of the Elves, right there in Faerie, and being all arrogant and Queen-like and whatnot. She too has noticed that a "barrier" between fairyland and the Discworld has lifted, and is anticipating having her revenge on Tiffany, who humiliated her back in The Wee Free Men.... Oh. Sorry. I just had a flashback to this really awfully-written Twilight fanfic and had this mental image of Tiffany slapping the Queen so hard that she falls over, and then shouting in ALL CAPS: "I JUST HUMILIATED YOU!!" No, no, I know that didn't happen. Forget it. Move on.

The Queen does notice that Peaseblossom isn't there (guess he's still off being gleeful), but she has a more immediate problem now; a goblin prisoner is being cheeky towards her. Apparently, the goblins of Fairyland have started getting ideas above their station... a clear reference to things that have happened in the last couple of Discworld books, what with goblins (previously thought of as worthless vermin) have started to be accepted as actual citizens with real civil rights and stuff; not to mention, they have been rather heavily involved in the development of the railway.

The result? For some reason the goblins suddenly don't want to bow and scrape and kowtow to tyrannical elves anymore, much less work for money that vanishes the next day, when humans give them money they can actually spend. They also have an extra bit of leeway now, because the railway is made of iron, and elves and iron... don't mix. I think that the Queen's plan for going to the Disc and "having some fun" there might run into a bit of problems here. The prisoner does clue her in that Granny Weatherwax is gone, though, and she decides to go and check... but she'll take him with her, so that if he lies she can have his tongue cut out. Ah yes, the old elven charm.

And back in Lancre, Tiffany is trying to get used to the fact that she now lives in Granny's cottage and Granny isn't there anymore, trying to clean up everything even if it's already clean, taking care of the animals, trying to brave the herb garden and so forth. She's a little uncertain about what to do about her witching routine on the Chalk, if she's supposed to live in Lancre now -- she can fly between the two places, but the trip is long enough that the commute might be a little rough. In any case, after making sure the animals are looked after, she does return to the Chalk, with the Feegles clutching to her broomstick.

Hah, I thought as much; she's returned to the house of the triplets she delivered. She notices that the two boys look a lot more well-fed than the girl, so she has Words with the mother. That spell she placed on Baby-Tiffany back in chapter three seems to have been a sort of tracking magic to let Tiffany know if Baby-Tiffany is being harmed. I'll be disappointed if this doesn't come up again.

She also goes to the Feegle mound to talk to the Kelda again -- and there's a pretty funny bit with some of the older Feegle children wearing saggy pants that keep threatening to fall down. I can almost hear them muttering about how the adults don't understand that this is what's cool these days. Tiffany once again tells that she doesn't think she can ever replace Granny, and Jeannie pretty much tells her the same as Nanny Ogg did: You're good enough, girl, deal with it. But she also mentions that, oh, by the way, something's probably getting ready to attack or at least exploit the fact that Granny Weatherwax is gone.

Well, the "weary" Tiffany from the first chapter seems to be making a return, and with better cause than ever, because now she had two places on her beat, Lancre and the Chalk, and even for Tiffany this might prove to be a little too much. We do get a pretty nice bit with her family, and hey, here's Wentworth; strapping young lad "not quite old enough for the pub yet, but certainly old enough to hang around outside." I've known boys like that. And he's talking about the railway, because that's what's cool these days.

The Shepherd's Crown from the prologue makes a return. It kinda seems like a "shepherd's crown" is some real thing (wouldn't be surprised; Pratchett often did this kinda thing); at least Tiffany talks as if they're quite common and easy to find. Tiffany's father, though, insists that this one is special. He gives it to her and reveals that he got it from Granny Aching's place... you know, now Tiffany has two dead Grannies. This got sad. And Tiffany seems to think so too, becase she cries. Or it may be stress and exhaustion leading up to it. But it is nice to see her family so supportive and caring, even if they don't quite understand why she hasn't married Preston and had a couple of kids yet.

Speaking of Preston, there's a pretty cute scene where Tiffany reads the letters from him in bed. I hope he actually shows up in this book; I liked him.

So far, so good. I don't have to say, do I, that this is so much better than Peter Pan's Neverworld that it's not even funny? I notice that the writing seems smoother and easier, less rambly, than the previous couple of books... but also, perhaps, a little less detailed? Not really as much funny dialogue as I'm used to from Pratchett? I suspect this book was rather heavily edited, and I would have liked a bit more funny banter... but you know, that's a nitpick. So far, this book is good. It's great to be back on the Disc for a final round, and as far as I'm concerned both Granny and the series as a whole are getting a worthy send-off.

I'll be eagerly following the rest of the chapter to see what happens. We have a potential invation from the elves, Granny's death having had a lot of repercussions, and then there's You and Baby-Tiffany, and of course Geoffrey... haven't heard from him since the first chapter, and we know he's on his way to Lancre and wants to become a witch.What will happen? We'll see!

Next post up soon....