Thud! [Mass Market Paperback]

Terry Pratchett (Author)

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Starred Review. Ankh-Morpork's City Watch Commander, Sam Vimes, stars in the latest entry in Pratchett's popular Discworld series (Going Postal, etc.). "Thud" is the sound that commences the novel, as a dwarf is bludgeoned to death; it's also the name of a chesslike match that recreates the battle of Koom Valley, a long-ago fight between trolls and dwarfs. As the anniversary of the battle approaches, ancient politics and the present-day murder cause tensions between the trolls and dwarfs to boil. Though Koom Valley was a disaster for both sides, certain community leaders from each side have been spoiling for a rematch—something Vimes is duty-bound to prevent. In the midst of this, a push toward affirmative action forces Vimes to hire a vampire named Sally to the Watch. She's sworn off human blood, but that's cold comfort to the assortment of humans, dwarfs, trolls, werewolves and golems that make up the police force. Vimes and his motley crew of coppers are called upon to not only find the murderer and keep the peace but also, in a jab at The Da Vinci Code, solve the riddle of a painting that reputedly holds the secret to what really happened at Koom Valley. Pratchett's fantastic imagination and satirical wit are on full display.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From The Washington Post

One problem with writing a comic series is that the later books have to include all the brilliant inventions from the earlier books, leaving less room for new brilliant inventions, which are, after all, the reason for writing the series in the first place. Terry Pratchett wrestles with this problem in his latest Discworld novel, Thud!, and mostly pins it to the mat.

Just how many Discworld novels are there by now? I would guess at least 30, though the actual number seems to be as difficult to locate as Unseen University, a magician's college founded in Ankh-Morpork, principal city of the principal continent of Discworld, about 15 years before Hogwarts and a much tougher place in which to matriculate.

The problems inherent in an amassed back story -- very like, I think, those clanking boxes Dickens's Marley had to tow through the afterlife -- are best shown by a comparison between the current installment and the first book to introduce Discworld, The Color of Magic. There the basic structure and what we might call the rules of engagement were laid out. Discworld, in a universe not quite parallel to ours, is, as the name suggests, a giant disc, containing continents and oceans and many populations, and resting on the backs of four elephants, who in turn stand on a giant turtle, who is swimming steadily, relentlessly, across the universe.

If this picture seems familiar, you have seen it in some art from the Indian sub-continent, but Pratchett purloins the concept and goes his own way with it. In The Color of Magic, Ankh-Morpork is a dangerous, seedy, bloody city, whose rulers learn that a tourist has come from some other part of Discworld to take in the sights. Once the disbelief dissipates -- Ankh-Morpork never had a tourist before, nor ever expected one -- the city fathers realize that, if they can keep this tourist alive, they just might have the beginning of a new industry. With this wisp of a hope, they hire a failed magician, a dropout from Unseen University, to follow the tourist around and, if possible, keep him from being slaughtered. That's the setup, and the whole novel is ingenious, brilliant and hilarious.

Terry Pratchett himself is still ingenious, brilliant and hilarious, but by now he has a lot of baggage to lug along. The hero of Thud! is Sam Vimes, an earnest young man who in an earlier book married a wealthy aristocrat, Lady Sybil, which would make him Duke of Ankh-Morpork if he were willing to accept the role. For now, though, he is the local police chief or, to give him the proper nomenclature, Commander of the Watch. And the Watch, instead of the ragtag, corrupt, defeated few hopeless cases who, way back in The Color of Magic, wouldn't even be asked to help keep a tourist alive, is now a serious modern police department suffering from, as so many police departments are these days, political correctness.

An equal opportunity employer, the Watch contains, in addition to Sam Vimes and a few other humans and sorta humans, an array of trolls, dwarfs, golems and one girl werewolf, and is about to integrate their first vampire, a shapely lady named Sally, whose elegance appears to be borrowed from Bela Lugosi's tuxedo.

The primary tasks of this cleaned-up Watch are two: forestall a riot-cum-war between the city's dwarfs and trolls, and solve the murder of a dwarf in a tunnel under the city. The looming riot, if it occurs, will be yet another re-enactment of a battle between the two groups hundreds of years ago, up in the wild country of Koom Valley, a battle out of which both sides emerged feeling betrayed and thirsting for revenge. If an echo of the Balkans comes to mind, I don't think Pratchett would object.

The working out of these two problems, with many asides for Pratchett's corkscrew brain to riff on the material, is the meat of the book. By the end, the members of the Watch even seem to believe they've solved the murder, though I confess I still haven't. But that's all right; the riot is averted, and the farmers and the cowboys -- sorry, the dwarfs and the trolls -- can perhaps be friends. Sally the vampire is becoming girl chums with Angua the werewolf, and peace temporarily stalks the land.

But the plot of a Discworld novel is never the point. The asides and the general goofiness and the imagination run amok are the point, every time and this time, too. And if, for instance, Carrot, the shy six-foot-tall dwarf (you had to be there), seems by this episode to be overstaying his welcome, that's also okay. All in all the only thing to be said about a Discworld novel is: Read it. You'll like it.

Reviewed by Donald E. Westlake
Copyright 2005, The Washington Post. All Rights Reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Mass Market Paperback: 416 pages
• Publisher: HarperTorch (August 29, 2006)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060815310
• ISBN-13: 978-0060815318
• Product Dimensions: 6.8 x 4.2 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (118 customer reviews)
• Amazon Bestsellers Rank: #98,805 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

69 of 75 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Pratchett. Him diamond!, September 13, 2005

By	Matthieu Hausig (Brooklyn, NY) - See all my reviews (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

Amazon Verified Purchase

This review is from: Thud! A Novel of Discworld (Hardcover)

The Watch and its ever growing cast of characters have been at the heart of many of the best of the Discworld novels. This one is no exception.

In Thud!, the simmering tensions between dwarfs and trolls begins to spill over and Vimes is charged with preventing an all out war. In a bizarre twist, at least to longterm readers, the romantic thread of the novel is not between Carrot and Angua but instead involves the least likely candidate, Nobby Nobbs . Vimes is once again at the center of the action and continues to be one of the most interesting and complex characters in the series.

As with most of the recent Discworld novels, Terry Pratchett takes a few satirical jabs at elements of our society. In this case, fundamentalism is one of the prime targets. Pratchett's depiction of the deep down dwarfs and their treatment by surface dwarfs is very cleverly put together.

Overall, one of the novel's strongest points is the exploration of the dwarf and troll societies and the struggle between them. Separately, Angua must also struggle when she is teamed up by the first vampire member of the watch and her prejudices and inferiority complex get the better of her. Of course, comedy is a major part of all the Discworld books and once again Mr. Pratchett does not disappoint.

On an interesting note, Thud!, which refers to a board game played with dwarfs against trolls, was converted into a real game which can be bought and which has received good reviews so far. Also, the children's book which Vimes reads to his son thoughout the novel will be released next month.

Finally, for those who have not read any other Discworld novels before, this is not the book to start with. There are numerous in-jokes and the large cast can be overwhelming. Start with some of the earlier Watch novels that provide more background.

65 of 73 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars How Green Was Koom Valley, September 18, 2005

By	Leonard Fleisig "Len" (Here, there and everywhere) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Thud! A Novel of Discworld (Hardcover)

On June 28, 1389 a combined army of Serbs, Bosnians, Albanians and Romanians waged a fierce battle against an Ottoman army on the Plains of Kosovo. Although details of the battle are obscure and lost in the mists of time the animosity between the parties has lingered. It was no surprise therefore that on the 600th anniversary of the battle President Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia launched his `ethnic cleansing' campaign in Kosovo. Sometimes the oldest animosities burn the brightest.

That is just about the scenario found in "THUD", Terry Pratchett's latest roller coaster ride through Discworld. The origin and outcome of the ancient Battle of Koom Valley between the Trolls and Dwarves has been obscured and the subject of much debate; but, the lingering and long-lasting hatred between them means they are always one spark away from renewed battle.

Grag Hamcrusher is what you might call a Dwarf extremist. Emerging from the depths he rails against those dwarves who have risen close to the surface. He intimates Dwarf residents of Ankh-Morpork who have made accommodations to a life lived above ground. Hamcrusher is a zealot who would like nothing better than to renew a holy war against the hated Trolls. As Thud opens Hamcrusher has just been murdered, thud "being the sound the heavy club made as it connected with the head". The initial evidence, a troll club found near the apparent murder scene, seems destined to bring their historic enmity to a boil. It is up to Commander Vimes and the Watch to find out who killed Hamcrusher and try to avoid a war that could destroy Ankh-Morpork.

The Patrician, not surprisingly, has complicated matters for Vimes. Bowing to pressure to increase the diversity of the Watch, Vimes is obligated to hire his first vampire, a very young, very attractive lady named Sally. This serves to increase the tension in the Watch most notably with Angua, the Watch's werewolf. Sparks fly and the claws are drawn as Angua senses that Sally is more than a bit interested in Captain Carrot. The Patrician has also seen fit to bring in a pencil pushing bureaucrat to audit the Watch's operations. This all serves to make Commander Vimes' own emotional fuse as short as the one keyed to the Trolls and Dwarves.

It is never a good idea to reveal too much of the plot in a review. This is particularly the case for the Discworld books where Pratchett has twists and turns on every page. Needless to say, events race from pillar to post. The furtive nature of the Dwarves, whose emotions are as submerged as the Dwarves themselves and the rather stoic nature of the Trolls (with the exception of Shine who appears to be one droll troll) has Vimes feeling as if he is trying to complete a jigsaw puzzle without any visual image of the puzzle he is trying to solve.

Two elements of Thud put Thud for me in the highest rank of Discworld books. First, we are given very full, textured look at Commander Vimes. The reader is exposed to the growing disconnect between the controlled, outward demeanor and his emotionally charged interior that seem to grow increasingly more uncontrolled as the plot develops. It is both compelling and more than a bit scary. It brought Vimes to life in a very realistic way. Second, I thought the ending to Thud was one of Pratchett's best conclusions. Although I am never happy to see a Discworld book end, this ending was so well done (in my opinion only) that it almost makes up for the fact that it will be another twelve months or so before the next Discworld is published.

Thud is a great addition to the Discworld series.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Top notch Pratchett, September 19, 2005

By	Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)    (VINE VOICE)    (REAL NAME)

This review is from: Thud! A Novel of Discworld (Hardcover)

"Thud!" -- the sound a club makes when hitting a head -- is a Sam Vimes novel, following very much in the path laid down by "The Fifth Elephant" and "Nightwatch", a darker novel than "Going Postal" (the last Discworld novel), but very satisfying. His Grace, Sir Samuel Vimes, the Duke of Ankh-Morpork (but still plain old Sam Vimes, copper, in his own mind) is Terry Pratchett's primary spokesman when it comes to matters of justice and tolerance. Vimes may feel disquiet when dealing with werewolves and the undead and he absolutely loathes vampires, but that does not stop him from believing that everyone -- every thing -- in Ankh-Morpork has the right of life, liberty, and the pursuit of all the happiness you can pry from the greedy grasp of fate.

The principal cast of "Thud!" are the men, women, and creatures of the City Watch, along with Vimes's won family (his wife Sybil and Young Sam), and the story centers upon a good mystery -- who killed the chief grag of the deep-dweller dwarfs of Ankh-Morpork? The dwarfs, naturally, suspect a troll. And we get to learn a good deal about the religion and cultural lives of dwarfs and trolls along the way to solving the crime. We catch glimpses from time to time of various familiar characters as Lord Vetinari, the Librarian, Mustrum Ridcully, and Death.

I couldn't recommend "Thud!" as any reader's first introduction to Discworld, but it is a first-rate continuation of the series.