Discworld - The End

So when I started the Shepherd's Crown, I read the dedication:

For Esmerelda Weatherwax

-- mind how you go.

I swear that if I hadn't been on the BART platform, I would have started crying.  That's because of what Rhianna Pratchett reported her last words to her father were.  Then as I started reading the book, I started to wonder, and when I got to the office, I found a high resolution picture of the Paul Kidby cover.

Then, I did let go of a few tears.

That's a hi-res picture, so for those who read the Discworld, click on it and see why.

And of course there was my reaction to Chapter Two.

But I finished the book Sunday night.  It is obvious as the afterward states that Pratchett wasn't quite done with this.  But after enjoying Raising Steam so much more after rereading it, I'm sure that the next time I read this it will be a smoother read.

So that's my marathon/tribute read for Terry Pratchett.  I've got a few more of his books to read like The Long Utopia, and the four Science of the Discworld books that compare earth (Roundworld) to the Discworld alternating science chapters with story chapters as well as the Dodger and Raising Steam companion books.  But I'll scatter those in with all of the others in my now much more full reading queue.

------

Recurring characters and themes appearing in this book:

Agnes (Pedita) Nitt

Annagramma Hawkin

Awfully Wee Billy BigChin, gonnagle

Big Yan

Black Aliss

Boffo

Cabbage

Casanunda

Daft Wullie

Death

Dimity Hubub

Dr. Bustle

Dr. Lawn

Drumknott, secretary

Duchess Keepsake

Eskarina Smith

Events in Equal Rites

Events in Hat Full of Sky

Events in I Shall Wear Midnight

Events in Lords and Ladies

Events in Wee Free Men

Events in Wintersmith

Goldeneyes Silverhand Dactylos

Granny Aching

Granny Esmerelda Weatherwax

Hamish

Havelock Vetinari, patrician

Herne the Hunted

Hex

Hodgesaaegh

Horace the cheese

Ibid

Igor

Jason Ogg

Jeannie, kelda

Jolly Sailor Tobacco

Lancre

Leonard of Quirm

Letitia, baroness

Long Tall Short Fat Sally

Lucy Warbeck

Magrat Garlick, queen of lancre

Millie Chillum

Miss Perspicacia Tick

Mr. and Mrs. Aching

Mrs. Eunice Proust

Mrs. Lettice Earwig

Mustrum Ridcully, archchancellor UU

Nanny Gripes

Nanny Ogg

Offler, the crocodile-headed god

Om

Petulia Gristle

Ponder Stibbons

Preston

Rob Anybody

Roland, baron

Shawn Ogg

The Ankh-Morpork Times

The Clacks System

The Goode Childe’s Book of Faerie Tales

The High-Energy Magic Building

The History Monks

The Lady Sybil Free Hospital

The Low Queen (formerly king) of the Dwarves

The Nac Mac feegle

The Queen of the Elves

The Quirm College for Young Ladies

The Ramtops

The Stick and Bucket Dance

The toad

Tiffany Aching

Twoshirts

Uberwald

Verence II, king of lancre

Wee Mad Arthur

Wentworth Aching

Xeno

You, the cat

Young Esmerelda

The Pain of Chapter 2

I won't expound on the title beyond saying that if you have not yet read Terry Pratchett's The Shepherd's Crown, then make sure someone you love is in the room with you when you do.

I started reading this book this morning.  It's been difficult emotionally.  I read some more this evening, and it hasn't gotten much easier.

While I was laying in bed trying to sleep and the tears kept coming, a thought came to me that while many famous people, important people in my fandom, have died that it all means something more to me.

Robin Williams taking his own life was a life ending much too soon.  It was depriving me (and us) of someone who has been entertaining me since "Mork & Mindy".  He had made me laugh through multiple comedy albums and movies.  And now, he's gone.

Leonard Nimoy died, and while it hurt and I thought it was sad, I thought more of the people close to him who were hurting the most: his family and, of course, William Shatner, who had lost a very close friend.

And then Terry Pratchett died and I was without my favorite author.  He was an writer whose books I have been reading for almost 30 years.  He was sick at the end, fighting a disease with no cure.  And now I'm reading possibly the last work of his that the world will ever see.

And what else has happened in this last year?  

Friends have gotten divorces.  Other friendships that were so amazing and fulfilling have been cut off.

And then there's the big news that most of you already know.  A little less than a year ago, my mom was been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer.  She's beaten the odds so far and looks to break through the one year mark when she had been given only six months.  But we're still afraid, and we're still sad.

And so I come to this book, and this chapter, and I am devastated.  Because of all that has come before, and all that lays before me, and all that is happening now.

The Shepherd's Crown

So, I got this in the mail today...

I nearly made it to completing the Discworld saga before receiving the last book.  I am presently reading Raising Steam which is the fortieth book written; The Shepherd's Crown is the forty-first.

I've got it on my shelf now, waiting for me.

I'm almost as emotional as I was when I first heard the Sir Terry had died.