--- title: Terry Pratchett's Final Novel The Shepherd's Crown Published description: Bookstores across the U.K. and the British Commonwealth released Terry Pratchett's final novel on Wednesday night canonical: https://time.com/4012628/terry-pratchett-final-novel-the-shepherds-crown-published/ author: Nash Jenkins article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2015-08-27T03:24:52.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-08-04T07:58:03.234Z article:section: Entertainment og:title: Terry Pratchett's Final Novel Published Posthumously og:description: 'The Shepherd's Crown' was written during his struggle with Alzheimer's. og:url: https://time.com/4012628/terry-pratchett-final-novel-the-shepherds-crown-published/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5721debdb9f1b2fe/6988611e35ba6f1c4bc0ee1f/gettyimages-451550060.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 7360 og:image:height: 4140 og:image:alt: Terry Pratchett Portrait Shoot og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Terry Pratchett's Final Novel Published Posthumously twitter:description: 'The Shepherd's Crown' was written during his struggle with Alzheimer's. twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5721debdb9f1b2fe/6988611e35ba6f1c4bc0ee1f/gettyimages-451550060.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Terry Pratchett's Final Novel _The Shepherd's Crown_ Has Been Published Posthumously > Sponsored content. 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Terms and conditions apply. * Savings buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Savings Account. * No ATM fees from Ally Bank at Allpoint and Moneypass ATMs plus we reimburse for fees charged by other ATM owners nationwide up to $10 per statement cycle. * Early direct deposit offers eligible direct deposits up to two days sooner. * Spending buckets are a feature of Ally Bank's Spending Account. ## Video: Best Free and Cheap Ebooks Sites [Watch (HLS stream): Best Free and Cheap Ebooks Sites](https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/35n2mZWt.m3u8) (1:42)  _Published 2014-06-25. Some of our favorite places to go for summer reading on the cheap._ by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Aug 27, 2015 3:24 AM UTC  Portrait of English fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett, photographed to promote the 40th novel in his Discworld series, Raising Steam, on September 18, 2013. Portrait of English fantasy author Sir Terry Pratchett, photographed to promote the 40th novel in his Discworld series, Raising Steam, on September 18, 2013. SFX Magazine—2013 Future Publishing by [Nash Jenkins](https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/) ## Nash Jenkins Aug 27, 2015 3:24 AM UTC Bookstores across the U.K. and British Commonwealth released Terry Pratchett’s final novel on Wednesday night, five and a half months after the celebrated fantasy writer died of Alzheimer’s disease. _The Shepherd’s Crown_ is the 41st book in Pratchett’s Discworld series, a collection of fantasy works that rejuvenated the clichés of the genre by infusing them with comedy and an angle of social commentary. The franchise began with Pratchett’s first novel, _The Colour of Magic_, published in 1983\. _The Shepherd’s Crown_ is his last, written throughout his worsening struggle with Alzheimer’s. “It was a hard book to complete because Terry’s health was declining in the last year,” Rob Wilkins, a friend of the author’s, [told the BBC](http://www.bbc.com/news/entertainment-arts-34067207). “But he was still enjoying the writing.” Many bookstores across the U.K. held midnight launch parties to celebrate the book’s publication. Within hours of its release, a number of Pratchett’s fans took to the Internet to say they had already finished reading it. > [](https://twitter.com/Danimeh/status/636671472770027521) > [](https://twitter.com/nineoclocktiger/status/636725319810940928) ## Transcript [00:00] Summer's here, don't believe me? Look at my face, it's [00:02] all burned from sitting on the beach, reading [00:04] e- books. I do that almost every weekend in the [00:05] Summer. The 25 year old version of myself, thinks the [00:08] 35 year old version of myself is a total square. But the [00:10] 35 year old version of myself knows the 25 year old [00:12] version of myself is a complete idiot. Both versions of [00:15] myself however, are cheap. So, our friends at [00:18] Techlicious have cobbled together a list of places to [00:20] get inexpensive, and or free e- books. Both versions of [00:23] myself can enjoy. The best place to start for free [00:26] books is your local library and the same old's true for [00:29] ebooks. I wanna stop you right there because a library, [00:32] is where you get paper books. You can get ebooks at [00:35] the library? Are you serious? Find out what books are [00:38] available near you, visit your local library in person or [00:40] search online on the Over Drive website at [00:43] overdrive. com. If you're looking for free classic books, [00:46] Project Gutenberg has tens of thousands. Head over to [00:50] gutenberg. org, to check out all the titles. Every day [00:52] Amazon discounts various Kindle books, to between a [00:54] buck and four bucks. Check out the Kindle Daily Deals [00:57] section of the site for more details. And if you pay a [00:59] hundred bucks a year for Amazon Prime you have [01:01] access to the Kindle Owners' Lending Library, which [01:03] will let you take out a free book at a time from a [01:05] catalog of over 500, 000 titles. I actually have a free [01:08] book from the Kindle Owners' Lending Library on my [01:10] Kindle right now. It's from Oprah's Book Club. And I will [01:11] not say which one it is. Some things need to [01:17] remain private. And if you own a Samsung Galaxy S5 [01:20] smartphone, you have access to a special library of [01:22] Kindle books. You get four prominent books to choose [01:24] from every month, up to a total of 12 per year. And if [01:27] you read a lot and want access to a nice library of [01:29] books, both Oyster and Scribd are Netflix- style [01:31] services that let you read an unlimited numbers of [01:33] book for around nine to ten books a month. For more [01:36] info, as well as links to various services, head over to [01:38] time. com and search for free and cheap e- books. ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4012628/terry-pratchett-final-novel-the-shepherds-crown-published/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4012628/terry-pratchett-final-novel-the-shepherds-crown-published/"},"headline":"Terry Pratchett's Final Novel The Shepherd's Crown Has Been Published Posthumously","datePublished":"2015-08-27T03:24:52.000Z","dateModified":"2026-08-04T07:58:03.234Z","description":"The Shepherd's Crown is the 41st installation in Pratchett's Discworld series","url":"https://time.com/4012628/terry-pratchett-final-novel-the-shepherds-crown-published/","keywords":["Books","United Kingdom"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5721debdb9f1b2fe/6988611e35ba6f1c4bc0ee1f/gettyimages-451550060.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Nash Jenkins","jobTitle":null,"url":"https://time.com/author/p-nash-jenkins/"}],"articleSection":"Entertainment","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt5721debdb9f1b2fe/6988611e35ba6f1c4bc0ee1f/gettyimages-451550060.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"Terry Pratchett Portrait Shoot","caption":"Terry Pratchett Portrait Shoot","creditText":"SFX Magazine—2013 Future Publishing","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/section/entertainment/","name":"Entertainment"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/tag/books/","name":"Books"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4012628/terry-pratchett-final-novel-the-shepherds-crown-published/","name":"Terry Pratchett's Final Novel The Shepherd's Crown Has Been Published Posthumously"}}]},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"VideoObject","name":"Best Free and Cheap Ebooks Sites","description":"Some of our favorite places to go for summer reading on the cheap.","thumbnailUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/v2/media/35n2mZWt/poster.jpg?width=720","uploadDate":"2014-06-25T15:53:11.000Z","contentUrl":"https://cdn.jwplayer.com/manifests/35n2mZWt.m3u8","embedUrl":"https://time.com/4012628/terry-pratchett-final-novel-the-shepherds-crown-published/","duration":"PT1M42S","potentialAction":{"@type":"SeekToAction","target":"https://time.com/4012628/terry-pratchett-final-novel-the-shepherds-crown-published/?jw_start={seek_to_second_number}","startOffset-input":"required name=seek_to_second_number"}}] ```