Thief of Time (Mass Market Paperback)

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.

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.

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.)