Sir Terry Pratchett’s Final Novel On Sale Nearly Six Months After His Death

The last novel penned by Sir Terry Pratchett, the beloved British author who died earlier this year, has been released.

Last Sir Terry Pratchett Novel Released

Pratchett’s 41st novel in his Discworld series, The Shepherd’s Crown, went on sale in the UK and Australia on Wednesday and will be made available in the US Sept. 1. The Discworld series started off as a fantasy novel parody series, but expanded to satirize all aspects of modern life.

In 2007, Pratchett was diagnosed with a rare form of Alzheimer’s disease. Despite the illness, he was able to continue writing until relatively recently. The Shepherd’s Crown was about 90% completed when Pratchett’s health forced him to stop.

“It was a hard book to complete because Terry’s health was declining in the last year. But he was still enjoying the writing,” Pratchett’s close friend Bob Wilkins told the BBC News. “He wasn’t able to polish it quite as he would have liked and there were a few ideas that he would have loved to have followed up on and he never got the opportunity.”

Pratchett was an incredibly prolific author and had a number of projects in the works at the time of his death. Those writings, according to Wilkins, will not see the light of day, per Pratchett’s request.

“Terry was always well into the next novel while the current one was being edited. But I’m sorry to say they will remain unpublished. There’s 10 titles I know of and fragments from many other bits and pieces,” Wilkins said, adding, “Terry wanted me to have a device connected to his heartbeat so when his heart stopped it would wipe the contents of his hard drive.”

Pratchett passed away Mar. 12, 2015 aged 66. He has sold more that 85 million books worldwide.