Thief of Time (Charnwood Library) [Import] [Hardcover]

Terry Pratchett (Author)

Product Details

• Hardcover
• Publisher: Charnwood (Large Print); Large Print Ed edition (December 1, 2002)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0708994032
• ISBN-13: 978-0708994030
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 4.4 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (112 customer reviews)

More About the Author

Terry Pratchett sold his first story when he was fifteen, which earned him enough money to buy a second-hand typewriter. His first novel, a humorous fantasy entitled The Carpet People, appeared in 1971 from the publisher Colin Smythe. Terry worked for many years as a journalist and press officer, writing in his spare time and publishing a number of novels, including his first Discworld novel, The Color of Magic, in 1983. In 1987 he turned to writing full time, and has not looked back since. To date there are a total of 36 books in the Discworld series, of which four (so far) are written for children. The first of these children's books, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, won the Carnegie Medal. A non-Discworld book, Good Omens, his 1990 collaboration with Neil Gaiman, has been a longtime bestseller, and was reissued in hardcover by William Morrow in early 2006 (it is also available as a mass market paperback (Harper Torch, 2006) and trade paperback (Harper Paperbacks, 2006). Terry's latest book, Nation, a non-Discworld standalone YA novel was published in October of 2008 and was an instant New York Times and London Times bestseller. Regarded as one of the most significant contemporary English-language satirists, Pratchett has won numerous literary awards, was named an Officer of the British Empire "for services to literature" in 1998, and has received four honorary doctorates from the Universities of Warwick, Portsmouth, Bath, and Bristol. His acclaimed novels have sold more than 55 million copies (give or take a few million) and have been translated into 36 languages. Terry Pratchett lives in England with his family, and spends too much time at his word processor.  Some of Terry's accolades include: The Carnegie Medal, Locus Awards, the Mythopoetic Award, ALA Notable Books for Children, ALA Best Books for Young Adults, Book Sense 76 Pick, Prometheus Award and the British Fantasy Award.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

61 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Simply the Best Yet, May 3, 2001

By 

James D. DeWitt "Alaska Fan" (Fairbanks, AK United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thief of Time (Hardcover)

I admit to enjoying Terry Pratchett very much. I've read all 26 Discworld books. I've got the juveniles and the early experiments like _Strata_. Perhaps the best part of reading so much of his work is that I can see how he has grown and evolved as a writer. _Thief of Time_ is an extremely sophisticated book and, while not his funniest, is plainly his best yet.

Early Discworld books were comedy monologues strung together by a plot. Sometimes a pretty thin plot. As just one example, a whole page was required to set up the famous "felonious monk" pun in _Soul Music_. The early stories tended to be pretty much a structure to support the jokes. Sure, there was more, but it was mostly for laughs.

Somewhere between _Hogfather_ and _Carpe Jugulum_, Pratchett brought his writing to a new level. It's controversial among some of his fans, but the newer books raise deeper issues and work at multiple levels. There are still lots of laughs - you can't read about a raven named "Quoth" without smiling - but there's also a terrific, compelling story to be told. While the humor in _Color of Magic_ could be sophomoric - remember when the imp ran out of the color pink when Rincewind and Twoflower visited the Whore Pits? - there is nothing even slightly sophomoric about the plot or jokes in _Thief of Time_.

This story involves the ongoing struggle between Death and the Auditors, the use and abuse of time, quantum physics, the Monks of Time (appearing for the first itme since _Small Gods_) and the peculiar and completely different aptitudes of two very different young men to manipulate time. As an unexpected bonus, you learn why there are those nagging inconsistencies across the Discworld novels; it turns out its not Terry's fault at all... Oh, and the whole Kung Fu/Mystic Masters thing gets the Pratchett Treatment.

On the Discworld, natural forces and even unnatural forces are personified. Death is a person. Well, maybe three persons, but I don't want to spoil anything. The Auditors - roughly, the heat death of the universe - are more or less persons. Time, as it turns out, is a person. And each of those Personifications has most of the foibles of humans. After all, humans invented them.

Trust me, it all makes perfect sense.

This is a terrific book. Highly recommended. You don't need to know anything about Terry Pratchett, the Discworld or Susan Sto Helit to appreciate this book. I disagree with other reviewers who say that we won't read Pratchett 25 years from now. We will, for the same reason we read Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain and other great satirists: their skewed view of their times that they present helps us understand our past. They help us understand what it means to be human.

The Discworld truly is a mirror of our world and, while it is mostly a fun house mirror, it's still possible to know without doubt what it is you are seeing in that distorting mirror. And it makes you laugh.

19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Rule 19: Never forget Rule 1, July 15, 2001

By 

Marc Ruby™ "The Noh Hare™" (Warren, MI USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thief of Time (Hardcover)

Rule 1: Do not act incautiously when confronting a little bald wrinkly smiling man.<.

Jeremy, a young clockmaker who has always managed to stay just this side of insanity (except for once) finds that he has been enlisted to build a clock that measures time perfectly. He and his assistant Igor attack the problem with zest, never realizing that this perfect clock will stop time forever. It is a plot by the Auditors to rid themselves of human beings.

In a monastery far, far away, where the Monks of History live, young Lobsang, finds he has been apprenticed to the fearsome Lu-Tse, chief janitor, and master of the Way of Mrs. Cosmopilite. Lobsang is assign to Lu-Tse because he seems to be able to steal at the speed of light and always knows the answers to the wrong question. This remarkable pair soon discover that time is being meddled with. They set off to Ankh-Morpork (where everything happens) to put a stop to the putting a stop to time.

Finally, young Miss Susan, instructor at the Frout Academy, and direct descendant of DEATH himself, receives an assignment from her grandfather. You guessed, if time stops, DEATH is out of business. Riding Binky the pale horse, accompanied by Quoth the raven and the Death of Rats (SQUEAK), she too heads for Ankh-Morpork to avert THE END.

Suffice it to say, there is no way to adequately describe the plot of a novel that combines Taoism, a genuine apocalypse, and the fine art of chocolate making between two covers. Pratchett skates from profundity to sarcasm with the kind of facility that comes from writing 26 Discworld novels. Satirizing both the universe's self appointed counters of beans and monastic cults without being offensive to either is another sign of Pratchett's mastery. His plotting is tighter than ever, and he has succeeded in taking some of his oldest shticks and making them seem fresh and new. Even Nanny Ogg makes an appearance.

I am tempted to call this his best yet. I only hesitate because he has written so many that I can no longer remember all of them. But I will never forget the twisted wisdom of Mrs. Cosmopilite, or the strange uses Lu-Tse puts it to. It is simple impossible to go wrong with "Thief of Time." As with most of Pratchett's Discworld series it stands on it's own quite well. If you are a fan of dry wit and a bit of slapstick you will be unable to put it down.

16 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great story, May 15, 2001

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Thief of Time (Hardcover)

This is the twenty-sixth book in Terry Pratchett's series on the Discworld--a flat world, supported on the back of four massive elephants riding on the back of a planet-sized turtle, anything hilarious can happen here, and eventually does. In this book, the Auditors are out to tidy up that messy little loose end called "life" with the help of a very special clock. Death (capital "D", he's the man, or rather the anthropomorphic personification) is ever their enemy, and he recruits his granddaughter, Susan, to stop them. However, Susan isn't alone; Lu-Tze (800-years-old and one of the greatest of all History Monks) and his apprentice Lobsang Ludd (whose command of time is astounding for one so young) are hot on the case, and some of the Auditors seem to have an agenda of their own.

Once again, Terry Pratchett has pulled a great story out of the recesses of his fertile imagination. His command of the language, and his flair for clearly running concurrent storylines, is as strong as ever, and make this a gripping story. This is the fifth Death book, after Mort, Reaper Man, Soul Music and Hogfather, and well worth the cost.

I strong recommend this book. (By the way, in this book you find out that death by chocolate is indeed a possibility.)