Read books from women and non binary
authors. Read books from people who are not
white. Read books from people who are not
from the United States, United Kingdom,
or Canada. Read books from people who are not
straight or cisgender. These are things
we should all do in an attempt to
increase diversity and representation in
books because we need that! That being
said, one of my favorite authors is the
old, straight, white guy from the UK named
Terry Pratchett. He does write a sub
series of his Discworld series about
Tiffany Aching, who is a remarkable which
of Discworld. And the last book he wrote
before he died was The Shepherd's Crown:
One last story about her and about all the
witches of the Discworld really. And I
wanted to make a video talking about it
because I just finished reading it!
See?
[music]
Happy Monday, PaulTalkers and other
viewers! I am NOT a booktuber, but the
Discworld is a geeky topic, right? It's
fantastical! So this is still on brand
for me! I suppose that before I get
started I should tell you whether or not
there are going to be any spoilers in this
video. I'm gonna try to avoid that, but I
should also define what I think of as a
spoiler: I think that a spoiler is a fact
about the story that reveals a plot
development. Something that is not talked
about in the summary, the blurb, or the
trailer for the story, if it's a movie. I
mean blurbs, summaries, and trailers
sometimes do contain spoilers, but that's
not my fault! For example, here is a
spoiler about the original Star Wars trilogy :
Darth Vader is Luke Skywalker's
father!
That was a spoiler. 
This is a fact
about Star Wars that I think is not a
spoiler: Han Solo flies the Millennium
Falcon. Not a spoiler. The Wookiee's name is
Chewbacca. Not a spoiler. Okay? so I knew
going into the story...
...that Granny Weatherwax
dies right at the beginning. Whew. That's rough! I've
been reading the Discworld series since
I was in, I think, junior high school or maybe
even elementary school? And Granny
Weatherwax was introduced early on so
that's most of my life!
I've known her most of my life!
Sure, as a fictitious character, but still!
I did like seeing all the other
characters react to her death. I mean it
made me cry-- everything makes me cry -- it
was really neat to see how many lives
Granny Weatherwax had affected. But the
plot of The Shepherd's Crown isn't
really about that. It's really about the
fact that because Granny Weatherwax was
no longer protecting the Discworld, that
opened the way for invaders from fairy
lands to come in and attack. And seeing
how all the witches of the Discworld
respond to that.
This felt like a reunion
story, because we got to see so many
cameo appearances with characters of
volumes past. Characters I hadn't thought
about in years. And it was just really
kind of wonderful. I like that so much!
I was nervous that one character, Geoffrey,
was introduced as a way of pulling focus
away from the women of the story to a
male in the story and if you're a feminist who's
read the story, please chime in and let me know your
thoughts, but I don't think that happened.
I think what we saw instead was a way of
taking a male space and introducing more
respect for women into that space, which
is good! As opposed to what I feared,
which was that men would just invade a
women's space. In recent years I have
looked at the fantasy and science
fiction stories that I've read with a
different eye and seen that there's a
lot of gender essentialism and gender
conformity and outright sexism in so
many of these stories. And so I've been
nervous that I would see that in Terry
Pratchett's stories as well. Especially going
back and rereading them. I think that he
actually tries to challenge that.
Admittedly some characters in his
stories are definitely sexist
or all about gender conformity, but those
are the characters that the characters
that we like fight against and oppose. That's what I
want to see! And in The Shepherd's Crown I felt
there was even a suggestion of non-binary gender which is amazing and great!
I might be reading too much into that, 
but I'm hopeful. The crux of the story is
definitely around Tiffany Aching she is
a remarkable witch of Discworld!
Maybe the most remarkable ever! Or second
most. When I was first introduced to the
witches of Discworld, I wasn't sure if
they had actual supernatural magic
abilities or if it was all "headology" as
Granny Weatherwax put it. They definitely
have some powerful magic! And it usually
takes the form of something elemental.
They work with water and fire and metal
and stone, but that's not the source of
their power. My interpretation is that
the source of the power for witches
comes from two things: 1) they care
about people and 2) they believe in
themselves. How amazing is that!? That the
witches are magic because of that! Because
of empathy and confidence! And all
witches have that, but Tiffany Aching has
that the most. There's definitely humor
and action and conflict in this story
and it's all really, really great, but I
don't want to give away the story. So let
me just bring up one more aspect of this
story, and in fact the entire Discworld
series. Another reviewer wrote this, I'm
sorry I can't remember who it was. All the
characters in the Discworld books, if you
give them enough time, become interesting
characters with whom we can sympathize.
And I think that says a lot about how
Terry Pratchett views the world. The longer
he went on, the more he cared about
everyone, the more he expanded his
worldview to care about more people,
including expanding the definition of
what makes a person. In the Discworld,
ogres, trolls, and golems, and even
vampires and goblins, eventually became
people and not others.
And the fact that we've been able to see
that happen over forty plus books is so
wonderful!
It actually reminds me of a line from
the current TV show Girl Meets World.
Cory says this as a teacher. He says the
secret of the universe is: people change people.
Maybe it's silly for me to put
too much stock into a line from a kids
show, but it's a really good kids show!
And if you take that idea and you combine it with
empathy, then you get: people keep getting
better and that's-- that is true in
The Shepherd's Crown as well. We see
redemption for a couple of characters. It
doesn't necessarily come in the way that
you expect, but it's kind of great. And it
gives me hope! I suppose I should give
you an evaluation of the story, but I
don't like rating systems I don't like
giving stars or numbers to stories,
because that's so quantitative and my
feels are all about qualitative. So I can
tell you this: I loved this book. It was not
necessarily the best Discworld book or
Terry Pratchett book, but I loved it
because it had characters in it who I
loved and the things that happened to
them were pretty much the things I
wanted to have happen to them.
A really nice goodbye story. And I think
it made me a better person! So I loved it.
And I love Tiffany Aching. And I love Terry Pratchett.
So if you like the Discworld books or
Tiffany Aching or Terry Pratchett, then I think you
might also like The Shepherd's Crown. But
you don't have to take my word for it!
How do I end a book review video? If
you've read the book or you want to read
the book, let me know in the comments
below. If you have a take on it please
let us know. If you're going to spoil
something maybe start off your comment
with [spoiler] or tell me anything that
matters to you, because I want to know
what matters to you. If you like this
book review video of mine please give me
a thumbs up. That will help my video get
more exposure, or you can just
that directly and share my video wherever
you like to share it. That would be great! If you
want to hear more of me talking about
stuff, please subscribe if you have not
yet subscribed. In the comments on my
last video, Kat Willhite, I think that's
how you pronounce your last name,
asked if I had paid any attention to the
"Dear Fat People" thing going on, on the
Internet.
Yes, I was aware of that. However, I don't
think that I need to make a video to
give my opinion on the topic. That would
feel like just jumping on a bandwagon,
which I don't need to do. Instead I will
direct you to Meghan Tonjes and Grace
Helbig's videos, I'll link to them in the
description. Watch what they have to say. I pretty
much agree with them. I'm definitely not
on Nicole Arbour's side of this situation.
NOPE. Thank you for watching all the way
to the end of my video! This is where I
always say
Tomorrow
will be even better!
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