Thud!
The genius of Terry Pratchett in “Thud!
One doesn’t need to have followed Sam Vimes’ journey from street cop to duke to understand his relationship with the city’s ruler, his wife, his fellow cops or the community. If you have read it, it adds an extra richness to the proceedings, but if you haven’t, Pratchett touches on everything just enough so that even new readers won’t be lost. Every Discworld novel is someone’s first, and if they jump on board with “Thud!” not only will they not be disappointed or lost, they’ll have read a strong comedy that speaks to a number of the major issues of the setting — as well as to the real-world issues of ethnic strife and the ability for ancient history to cause blood to continue to be spilled over the centuries — they’ll likely want to pick up all the other novels as well.
For committed Discworld fans, “Thud!” is a romp which finally pulls the dwarf/troll ethnic hatred to the forefront, discusses its roots, its mythical and religious dimensions, how it manifests itself in the realpolitik of Discworld and how it manifests in the teaming streets of Ankh-Morpork. Pratchett isn’t so tied down with his metaphor as to make it possible to draw lines from the conflict to the Middle East or Northern Ireland or Bosnia or any other real world group. Instead, he works on the major elements of all ethnic strife, including demagoguery and the ability of people to suddenly turn on neighbors who were just fine a week before. He also addresses the fairly thorny issue of people not feeling true to their groups unless they manifest these sorts of deep-seated hatreds in a serious way.
The story also includes a potential major change for the setting in the closing pages, potentially even bigger than the arrival of the clacks many books back. Even if one isn’t a fan of the dwarf/troll relationship or the guards’ storyline, it’d likely be worth reading the novel just to understand the future changes to the setting, which could potentially be dramatic.
“Thud!” is one of Pratchett’s best Discworld novels to date and is enthusiastically recommended for fans of the setting, as well as fantasy novel fans in general.
4 Comments »
RSS feed for comments on this post.
Leave a comment
Line and paragraph breaks automatic, e-mail address never displayed, HTML allowed: <a href="" title=""> <abbr title=""> <acronym title=""> <b> <blockquote cite=""> <cite> <code> <del datetime=""> <em> <i> <q cite=""> <s> <strike> <strong>
Don’t you get Josh Kirby’s cover art on your editions?
Comment by Tony — January 4, 2007 @ 1:16
Not unless that’s Josh Kirby art. The current paperback publisher has used this artist for a few years.
Comment by Beau — January 4, 2007 @ 7:47
I hate to say it, because I am a huge Pratchett fan, but I thought Thud was poorly written. Not because of the premise of the story, but because of how Sam Vimes acted. Time and time again I was jolted out of the storyline by the realization that whatever it was that Vimes was doing or thinking wasn’t anywhere near his personality portrayed in the previous books. To see my point, re-read Night Watch – the inner thinking and actions he portrays are completely different.
I’m hoping that this doesn’t herald the onset of the “great writer” syndrome in Pratchett – look at authors such as Tom Clancy, or Larry Niven to see what I am talking about. Their earlier work is extremely accessible and enjoyable to read, and their later stuff is a real chore to slog through.
Comment by Jonathan — January 4, 2007 @ 8:54
He apparently has heard this from fans. The next book, Making Money, about the city mint, is allegedly going to be less serious and more light-hearted.
Comment by Beau — January 4, 2007 @ 10:25