Each year, as the Christmas season approaches, there is always something new for Terry Pratchett fans. Despite Sir Terry’s health issues, this year there is plenty to tempt his fans. Children’s fiction, non-fiction, a Discworld spin off product and the latest Discworld paperback are all on the way to shelves now. The problem this year will not be what to get your Pratchett loving friends, but how much of it to get.

The Dragons of Crumbling Castle by Terry Pratchett.  This is a collection of 14 stories for children, with an Arthurian twist and the glorious absurdity that we have come to love from Pratchett.
The Dragons are invading Crumbling Castle! Arthur and his knights are away (visiting their granny’s or something) and it’s up to a small boy named Ralph to don poorly fitting armour and save the day. Assisted by Fortnight the Knight and the Wizard Fossfiddle, Ralph must face down the fearsome firebreathers. There’s also some time travel and a whole thing with tortoises, but we won’t got into that now.
This book is really for younger readers, which I don’t expect to deter adult Pratchett readers at all. There will be two editions available, a standard $35.00 hardcover, and a Limited Slipcase Deluxe edition for $60.00. Anyone who wants a copy of the Deluxe edition is advised to pre-order, as they will sell out quickly.

Raising Steam by Terry Pratchett.  This is the 40^th Discworld novel, and the third to feature criminal turned agent of progress, Moist Von Lipwig. Something new has arrived in Ankh Morpork. A great steaming clanking metal monstrosity which appears to have attracted some awkward young men in rainproof coats who seem intent on writing in little notepads. The Patrician too has noticed, and sets Moist the task of making sure the trains run on time. This, unfortunately, requires that he first devise and create the entire network. Beset by problems, Goblins, mad controllers with knuckledusters and more, Moist will struggle not to be run out of town on the very rail he just built.

Mrs Bradshaw’s Handbook  by Terry Pratchett.  This is a companion book for Raising Steam. It is the indispensible guide for anyone seeking to travel the disc by train. Full of useful information about lodgings, sights, local customs as well as tips for that every traveller in the Century the Anchovy should know. Authorised by Mr Lipwig of the Ankh-Morpork and Sto Plains Hygienic Railway himself.   As with previous Discworld sidelines, it is a small hardcover and full of illustrations.
For anyone interested in trivia, the book is modelled on a real book, Bradshaw’s Continental Railway Guide which was first published in 1847 and contained timetables for various European trains as well as hotel guides. George Bradshaw was widely praised and admired for the work, and while anything more than a casual interest in trains has become something of a stigma in the modern world, I think the magic of the Discworld might even be powerful enough to make train spotting cool.

A Slip of the Keyboard – A Collected Non-Fiction by Terry Pratchett.  Last year saw the release of a collection of Terry Pratchett’s short fictional works, A Blink Of The Screen. There were many early works that gave readers an insight into his sense of humour and the genesis of the Discworld.
A Slip of the Keyboard is the companion volume of his non-fiction and brings together his musings on life, mushrooms, what it means to be a writer and the people and causes he is passionate about. This is a mix of the serious and whimsical, culled from the last three decades.
Sir Terry is loved worldwide for his ability to make us laugh, but he has also demonstrated many times that he is also able to make us think. This is the man behind the legend, sharing his hopes and fears, his thoughts on his illness and his own mortality.