Book finished: The Shepherd's Crown

The Shepherd's Crown by Terry Pratchett

★★★★☆

I was quite surprised that for this, his last book, this was really well done. As the notes say, he may have been a little rushed to get this done in his last few months with us, but how can we complain? If every generation has even one Terry Pratchett, we're a blessed species.

This is a solid Discworld novel, and a fine capstone to the Witches series. As might be expected, it deals with mortality, and gives hope that even the seemingly irreplaceable people in the world can be, if not replaced, at least a new and different person can fill a similarly sized hole. Not a subtle message, but a welcome one.

Book finished: A Fall of Moondust

A Fall of Moondust by Arthur C Clarke

★★★★☆

Solid, fairly short golden age SF. A tourist attraction on the moon goes wrong, the tourists are trapped in a very unusual situation, the people on board have to survive while those outside have to find them and find a way to rescue them. Clarke as always has interesting ideas. As with much SF of the age, it has facts wrong (no such areas on the moon) but if you can't accept that as a basis for a story you really need to stay away from SF, at least that written more than 10 years ago.