{"id":5191,"date":"2020-05-29T05:00:40","date_gmt":"2020-05-29T12:00:40","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/?p=5191"},"modified":"2020-05-27T11:10:03","modified_gmt":"2020-05-27T18:10:03","slug":"mark-reads-the-shepherds-crown-chapter-17","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/2020\/05\/mark-reads-the-shepherds-crown-chapter-17\/","title":{"rendered":"Mark Reads &#8216;The Shepherd&#8217;s Crown&#8217;: Chapter 17"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>In the seventeenth chapter of <i>The Shepherd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crown<\/i>, Tiffany addresses the gathered witches about what is coming. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read <i>Discworld<\/i>.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><!--more--><\/p>\n<p>THIS IS ALL HAPPENING SO FAST. I mean\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not. The pacing for this book has been wonderful, but I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m starting to truly feel like I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m about to come upon an ending, and it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a LOT to handle. I do not have much time left with these characters or this world, so reading this was a bit bittersweet. Is everyone going to make it? Will Death loom over the end of this book, just like he loomed over the first few chapters? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know what Peaseblossom and Lord Lankin are about to do, but I agree with Nanny and Magrat: this is a <i>good<\/i> time to be afraid. Because accepting that means that these witches will <i>prepare<\/i> for the worst.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>There are a lot of fun details here, too, and Pratchett calls back to so many past books and characters, like the lovely mention of Hodgesaargh, or the reappearance of all the young witches from Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s first couple of books. Yet even with so many witches in one place, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still the problem of just the sheer numbers:<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153How many witches have we here?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She looked around the room. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Ten, twelve mebbe\u00e2\u20ac\u201dmore if you includes Geoffrey and Letitia, and the young girls still training\u00e2\u20ac\u201dbut only half of us bein\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 senior witches what has much real experience.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>So how does a small group of witches stop an invasion of countless elves, who are going to pour into their world in <i>two<\/i> different locations? Well, before they even get to that, I loved that the few witches who <i>have<\/i> sparred with the elves were like, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153HEY, I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T THINK YOU KNOW HOW SERIOUS THIS IS.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d And it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not like the witches <i>wouldn&#8217;t<\/i> take this seriously! It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just that until you actually experience glamour, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s kinda hard to describe? I say that despite that Nanny, Magrat, and Tiffany are all very accurate in what they say. This all leads to a <i>very<\/i> surreal scene where an ACTUAL ELF is not just in a room of witches, but she uses her glamour on them WITH THEIR CONSENT. As bizarre as it is, I was so happy to find out that Tiffany wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t keeping Nightshade a secret anymore. Hell, she <i>couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t<\/i>. Do you know how much more upsetting it would have been if she revealed her presence AFTER all of this? This was the right time to fold her in.<\/p>\n<p>And holy shit. Y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ALL. Look, I anticipated the waves of revulsion and self-hatred. I figured that Tiffany would be able to resist more than the others. (And I am so, so in love with how the shepherd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crown has come to represent Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s connection to the land <i>and<\/i> herself.) But then Mrs. Earwig, of all characters, surprised me the most.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153Mrs. Earwig, did you not feel as though you were small, nasty, and a waste of space? Totally without redemption?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Letice Earwig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face held nothing but puzzlement.<\/p>\n<p>Nightshade looked at her, and back to Tiffany. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153It was like hitting a rock,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she said. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This one has something interesting\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 something missing.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d She turned to stare again at Mrs. Earwig. \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Are you sure you are not an elf?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d she queried.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>I just\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t deal with this. I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even think that Nightshade is aware of what she did. Mrs. Earwig is unaffected by glamour because SHE IS TOO MUCH LIKE THE ELVES. On video, my mind instantly went to empathy. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s what Tiffany has been struggling with repeatedly as she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s tried to get Nightshade to understand a different way of living. I get why I went there\u00e2\u20ac\u201dI think it makes a ton of sense given Mrs. Earwig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s history. She has a problem seeing the full lives of other people, and her arrogance manifests from that place. But in thinking this through for the review, I wonder if it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s less about empathy and more that Mrs. Earwig thinks so highly of herself that she couldn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t even <i>imagine<\/i> feeling self-hatred. And you know, that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 not really a bad thing, is it? It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s actually kind of powerful, knowing that <i>that<\/i> kind of thing would never work on Mrs. Earwig.<span class=\"Apple-converted-space\">\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p>I am also going to guess that this is why, for the first time, we see Mrs. Earwig tell a JOKE? Actually, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not just that! As I re-read this chapter for this review, I noticed that Mrs. Earwig is not as characteristically cruel or as mean as we usually see her. She asks good questions; she seems genuinely concerned that Tiffany might not have enough support in the Chalk, and then she says one of the funniest lines in the whole book:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>\u00e2\u20ac\u0153And if ye dinnae get that right, your last resort is to nut \u00e2\u20ac\u02dcem.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>Tiffany took in Mrs. Earwig\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s face and said cheerfully, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Could you do that, Mrs. Earwig?\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p>\n<p>She was given a Look, and Mrs. Earwig said, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153I will nut as I see fit.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Maybe I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m just reading a lot into this. (It <i>is<\/i> what I do, after all.) Maybe I won\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t see much of Mrs. Earwig in these final pages. (HATE THAT I TYPED THAT.) But even if that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s true, I like the image Pratchett gives us here: Mrs. Earwig, finally surrounded by witches smiling at her. Everyone has the capacity to change. Isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t that a huge theme of the book?<\/p>\n<p>There are other beautiful and wondrous images that close out this chapter as well. Reading back over this is making me teary-eyed, and I think y\u00e2\u20ac\u2122all are gonna see some eye moisture in the coming videos. I really love Tiffany Aching, and her dream is a reminder of an incredible journey. I think some of Pratchett\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s best, most evocative writing has been in these Tiffany Aching books, and you can see it here, too: the way he writers of her land. The way he took experiences that were difficult and scary and turned them into something positive and informational, like when Dr. Bustle reappears in Tiffany\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s mind. Then there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the way he writes of the land, and you cannot divorce that love from the Tiffany books. You just can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. Pratchett loved where he was from, and he elevates nature in a way to pay reverence. You can see that in how the shepherd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crown is used in the final scene of chapter seventeen. The shepherd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s crown is looking for the very best shepherd, and it takes Tiffany a moment to realize\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s her. That crown made its way to her down the line of Achings for a reason.<\/p>\n<p>I also wonder if the dream means we\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ll see Thunder and Lightning again\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6<\/p>\n<p>https:\/\/youtu.be\/BLJbQinJOJY<\/p>\n<p><b>Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n<p>&#8211; <strong><a href=\"https:\/\/us.macmillan.com\/books\/9781250169211\">You can now pre-order my second YA novel, <i>Each of Us a Desert<\/i>, which will be released on September 15, 2020 from Tor Teen!<\/a><br \/>\n&#8211; Not only that, but my very first pre-order campaign is now live for North American readers! <a href=\"http:\/\/bit.ly\/EachOfUsADesertPreorder\">If you submit proof of pre-order, you can get a limited edition print that comes with the book<\/a>.<br \/>\n<\/strong><strong>&#8211; If you&#8217;d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, <a href=\"http:\/\/eepurl.com\/ey636\">sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>In the seventeenth chapter of The Shepherd\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Crown, Tiffany addresses the gathered witches about what is coming. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld.\u00c2\u00a0<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[463,248,567],"class_list":["post-5191","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-the-shepherds-crown"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5191","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5191"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5191\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5191"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5191"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5191"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}<!-- WP Super Cache is installed but broken. 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