Two more Terry Pratchett novels set for posthumous publication
When Terry Pratchett died last week at the age of 66, he left behind a body of work that includes 40 novels set in his beloved Discworld, alongside a couple dozen further titles. It is a substantial bibliography by any standard, and one that his fans will no doubt take great comfort and pleasure in revisiting over the coming months. Those fans, however, can take further solace in the knowledge that the day when they have no more Pratchett left to read hasn’t arrived just yet: the author completed two final novels that are both likely to see publication this year.
One of those is the 41st (and presumably final, unless Pratchett’s daughter Rhianna takes up his mantle, as he had given her his blessing to do) Discworld title, The Shepherd’s Crown. The book is the fifth to feature apprentice witch Tiffany Aching, the lone recurring Discworld protagonist whose exploits are explicitly aimed at a young adult audience. It follows previous Aching adventures The Wee Free Men, A Hat Full of Sky, Wintersmith and I Shall Wear Midnight. Paul Kidby – who has illustrated the Discworld novels since 2001’s The Last Hero – claimed on his blog in February that the book would see publication this autumn, but publisher Transworld says no release date has been set as yet.
The other as yet unreleased title, however, does have a concrete release date: The Long Utopia – the fourth in a series of science-fiction novels Pratchett co-authored with Stephen Baxter, following The Long Earth, The Long War and The Long Mars – will see publication on 18 June through Random House. The two authors were signed to a five book deal, and have produced a novel a year together since The Long Earth‘s 2012 publication, but it remains unclear at this point whether or not Baxter will see the series through to completion by himself.
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