No question but a thanks for doing this. I'd never read the Discworld books in publication order until this. I'd been introduced to them in high school and mostly read them in the order of "whichever one I got loaned next" up until the early 2000s. I read the last 10 or so in order as they came out. It was amazing to read these in publication order with you. It felt like a great tribute after Sir Pterry passed. I saved Shepherd's Crown for this and it was worth it.

I put off reading the last two Raising Steam reviews til now because I haven’t quite brought myself to start TSC yet. I was going to do it with Mark. I downloaded it to my kindle. Maybe I’ll manage to start it today.

Also I really wanted an approach to the title more like the dragons in the Enchanted Forest books - “King is just a job title, I can be a female King”

I’m a couple of weeks behind but I just had to share because I have FEELINGS about this too.

I was also unhappy about this moment. I like both of your interpretations and I have my own...

I wanted a moment that spoke to a much more fluid understanding of gender. One that encourages dwarves to code female or male if they like, or stay gender neutral ‘dwarf’ if they prefer. One that doesn’t feel like copying human society.

We didn’t get that because Pratchett wasn’t answering the current progressive community’s thoughts about gender as informed by the last 20 years of online activism and discourse. Pratchett was resolving the gender issues brought up by Angua that “you can be anything you want as long as you’re one of the boys”.

It’s a valid criticism though. Think about the 90s/early 2000s in media. How did we show a female character was strong? She did traditionally male coded things. How many fantasy/historical fiction novels did I read as a teen/young adult that included a female protagonist’s obligatory statement that she hated to embroider? Yes, this was a revelation in its time because we were getting representation of non-traditionally feminine girls, girls who were fighters. Buffy was a big deal because the blond who died first fought back. Alanna the Lioness was the first female knight in Tortall!

But.

It was all part of a culture that told girls that equality for women with men meant NOT being feminine ever. We devalued anything feminine and tried to claim equality by being “one of the boys”. How many of us nerdy girls in high school knew we were better than those girls who liked makeup and fashion because we didn’t?

(To be fair to Tamora Pierce, she saw this and the later Tortall books do a great job pushing back against it. We got Kel.)

This is the gender plot Pratchett is answering with the Low Queen’s declaration - “I am female, I am pregnant, and I am also in charge and will destroy you if you challenge me and I CAN BE BOTH!”

The problem for Pratchett is that by the time Raising Steam came out, most of us got that. We had moved on. What felt like a hard-hitting point when first uttered by Angua so many books ago now feels meh when resolved by Rhys.

I am so sad that March was so crazy and I missed commenting on all my favorite parts of this book. I had to come back and just say that everything Moist says about money and gold and value is 1000% true.