Week 49. The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett.

Terry Pratchett. The Shepherds Crown. Corgi Books, London 978-0-552-57447-1.

The 41st, and last, Discworld novel, and the 5th featuring Tiffany Aching. The novel was mostly complete when Terry died in early 2015. According to his personal assistant and amanuensis Rob Wilkins, the book was not quite what Terry would have liked, and he would have written more. Neil Gaiman has revealed Terry wanted to write a different epilogue, for which there are a number of pointers throughout the book, but died before he had the chance to make the revision.

Despite being not quite completed, there is a complete story, and it's a good one. The novel also brings a degree of closure to some of the disparate threads making up the Discworld. There were places where I felt there was a bit of hand-waving or glossing over of detail, where scenes seemed in need of a bit of fleshing out, but I'm glad this was published and didn't end up going under the steam-roller (in 2017, per Terry's instructions, his computer hard drive, with all the drafts and story ideas he was working on when he died, was destroyed by being run over by a steam roller).

Stats to Date

Books Read: 49

Books by Male Authors: 41
Books by Female Authors: 8

Books by Australian Authors: 6

Fiction Books: 42
    Genre Books: 34
Verity Books: 7
    Literature Books: 3
    Science Books: 2
    History Books: 1
    Fitness Books: 1

Big Catch Up

Suffered a major bout of depression, and as I came out of it I started re-reading old favourites. So here's the list of what has been read since my last post, at least as well as I can recall (there may be others I've read but missed):

Neil Gaiman

The Graveyard Book
Neverwhere
Stardust

Neil Gaiman and Terry Pratchett

Good Omens

Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle

The Moties

The Mote in God's Eye
The Moat Around Murcheson's Eye

David Eddings

The Belgariad

Pawn of Prophecy
Queen of Sorcery
Castle of Wizardry
Magician's Gambit
Enchanter's End Game

The Mallorean

Guardians of the West
King of the Murgos
Demon Lord of Karanda
Sorceress of Darshiva
Seeress of Kell

David and Leigh Eddings

The Redemption of Althalus

Prequels to The Belgariad and The Malloroean

Belgarath the Sorcerer
Polgara the Sorceress

Piers Anthony

Incarnations of Immortality

On a Pale Horse
Bearing an Hourglass
With a Tangled Skein
Wielding a Red Sword
Being a Green Mother

[Note to self: need to read volumes six and seven]

Stats to Date

Books Read: 48

Books by Male Authors: 40
Books by Female Authors: 8

Books by Australian Authors: 6

Fiction Books: 41
    Genre Books: 33
Verity Books: 7
    Literature Books: 3
    Science Books: 2
    History Books: 1
    Fitness Books: 1

Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career

Miles Franklin, My Brilliant Career and My Career Goes Bung. Angus & Robertson, 1990. The debut novel from one of Australia's first major authors, and the follow up (not so much a sequel as a subversion), bound as an omnibus edition. The former, written in 1899 and published in 1901, was a milestone in Australia's early literary history. It describes the coming of age of a young woman in the Australian outback during a period of drought, when families on the land were struggling to hold onto their properties. The later, written in 1902 but not published until 1946 due to the manuscript being lost for many years, is a less significant work, but still and interesting read.

Stats to Date

Books Read: 24

Books by Male Authors: 17½
Books by Female Authors: 6½

Books by Australian Authors: 6

Fiction Books: 17
    Genre Books: 9
Verity Books: 7
    Literature Books: 3
    Science Books: 2
    History Books: 1
    Fitness Books: 1

Week 26: The Dragons of Eden by Carl Sagan

Carl Sagan, The Dragons of Eden. Coronet, 1977. Another re-read from the last millenium. Subtitled Speculations on the Evolution of Human Intelligence, Carl Sagan discusses what was then known about how intelligence and the brain evolved. Obviously any 40 year old science book is going to show its age, but it still offers a fascinating insight into the development of intelligent life on Earth (and the speculation that other primates and the cetaceans share many of the same characteristics as humans as regards self-awareness and language).

Stats to Date

Books Read: 22

Books by Male Authors: 17½
Books by Female Authors: 4½

Books by Australian Authors: 4

Fiction Books: 15
    Genre Books: 9
Verity Books: 7
    Literature Books: 3
    Science Books: 2
    History Books: 1
    Fitness Books: 1

Week 25: Training for Cycling

Davis Phinney and Connie Carpenter with Peter Nye, Training for Cycling. Perigee, 1992. A re-read of a book I haven't read in a long, long time. Although pitched at competitive cyclists, a lot of the material is still of use to recreational cyclists. I did the Rapha Challenge last year, and while I successfully completed it (unlike about 65,000 people who signed up and didn't finish), I'd like to do better this year, so I need to do some training.

Stats to Date

Books Read: 21

Books by Male Authors: 16½
Books by Female Authors: 4½

Books by Australian Authors: 4

Fiction Books: 15
    Genre Books: 9
Verity Books: 6
    Literature Books: 3
    Science Books: 1
    History Books: 1
    Fitness Books: 1

Week 24: The Three Musketeers

Alexandre Dumas père, The Three Musketeers. Wordsworth Classics, 1993. For once on of my books coincides with the weekly book bingo, as this one is set in the 17th century, during the reign of Louis XIII.


Stats to Date

Books Read: 20

Books by Male Authors: 16
Books by Female Authors: 4

Books by Australian Authors: 4

Fiction Books: 15
    Genre Books: 9
Verity Books: 5
    Literature Books: 3
    Science Books: 1
    History Books: 1

Week 24: Henry James

Henry James. The Turn of the Screw and The Aspern Papers. Penguin Classics, 1984.
This is an omnibus edition of two of James’ tales, which I have been reading for some time while commuting on the bus, and have finally finished.

The Aspern Papers (1888, revised 1907–9). This took a long time to read, far longer than the length would suggest, even given that it was read on relatively short commutes, which accords with the novella failing to hold my interest.
The Turn of the Screw (1898, revised 1907–9) on the other hand was riveting—to the point of becoming lost in the story and being carried some 3½ kilometres beyond my bus stop. A horror novella which works not by jumps or explicit gore, but by simply and slowly ratcheting up the tension. It’s never clear whether the ghosts really exist, or whether they are entirely the narrator’s delusion.

Stats to Date

Books Read: 19

Books by Male Authors: 15
Books by Female Authors: 4

Books by Australian Authors: 4

Fiction Books: 14
    Genre Books: 9
Verity Books: 5
    Literature Books: 3
    Science Books: 1
    History Books: 1

Week 23: Professor Challenger

Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. The Lost World and Other Stories. Wordsworth Classics, 1995.

This is an omnibus edition of Doyle’s three Professor Challenger novels (more like two novellas and a novelette) and two short stories.

The Lost World (1912) is the prototypical “lost world” novel, where explorers in some remote, uncharted area (the Amazon) discover an area which somehow has been isolated from the rest of the world (geological uplift causing unscalable cliffs) filled with prehistoric life. Quite an enjoyable read.
The Poison Belt (1913) is an early science fiction novel, where the earth enters a poisonous region of space and the consequences it has on the human race. Interesting read, the more so because I finally caught Doyle mading an error of fact (trains have deadman’s brakes, so if something happens to the driver they don’t go careering on at full speed into a crash).
When the World Screamed (1928) and The Disintegration Machine (1929) are two science fiction shorts, both good reads.

So that’s four good works in one volume.


The Land of Mist (1926) is otherwise. Doyle was for most of his later life a Spiritualist, and the novel spends far more pages proselytizing than it spends on story-telling. What little story it does tell consists of the conversion of the main characters from The Lost World and The Poison Belt to the cause of Spiritualism. Thoroughly disappointing.

I’m certain I’ve read The Poison Belt and When the World Screamed at some point in the (dim, dark, and distant) past, and may have read The Disintegration Machine, but it didn’t have quite the same level of déjà vu.

Stats to Date

Books Read: 17

Books by Male Authors: 13
Books by Female Authors: 4

Books by Australian Authors: 4

Fiction Books: 12
    Genre Books: 8
Verity Books: 5
    Literature Books: 3
    Science Books: 1
    History Books: 1