  A Discworld murder mystery
A dwarf is found dead from a blow to the head given with a weapon favoured by trolls. The problem is the body was found in a location no troll could possibly have reached unnoticed. To Commander Vimes, it smells of a cover up.
He investigates, but is hampered by being forced to take on his staff a Black Ribonner, i.e. a vampire who's taken the pledge and forsworn human blood (or dwarf blood for that matter, and let's not even think of troll blood). He's also got an auditor nosing around the place to make sure everything is done properly.
While Discworld novels are always hilarious comedies, Pratchett also uses them to make discrete social commentary. In "Thud!" he explores the consequences of racial intolerance. No one is comfortable around vampires even if they've given up their favourite drink; trolls and dwarfs hate each other and periodically go to war; werewolves are a social embarrassment.
Oh, and Pratchett makes the point that some things are more important than anything else. There are some duties which must be performed no matter what because to miss them even once, for even an excellent excuse, would lead one to miss those duties again perhaps for a lesser excuse. So get out of my way, thinks Commander Vimes, it's nearly six o'clock and there's something I've GOT TO DO!
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
I wanted to like it more than I did
I've always been a fan of the Discworld books, but there are a few that just miss, and this is one of those. The sad thing is that all the right elements are there, but it felt as if Pratchett let his brain wander off somewhere when it came to pulling them all together. The resolution of the plot depends upon numerous things that are logically improbable, even for the Discworld: ancient dwarfs and trolls encased in stone (who, despite having supposedly been washed to their location by a flood, are frozen in the act of playing a game that hadn't been invented yet); a demonic creature who keeps appearing in brief snippets, but whose purpose remains confusingly vague until it becomes a sort of warped deus ex machina; an answer to the "Rascal" mystery that doesn't jive with the known facts; and Sam Vimes' sudden, inexplicable ability to shout the words of his son's favorite book so they can be heard 10 miles away from underground. It feels as if Pratchett took one of those drugs-that-start-with-S as he got near the end of the book. The result is a story with a lot of good bits in it, but which fails, in the end, to come together into a coherent whole.
Loved it!
Although his sense of humor may not apply to everyone, I find Terry Pratchett's work to be clever and very funny- I think that 'Thud!' may be his best work as he parodies issues of discrimination and the nature of 'history'- plus a vampire and a werewolf have to work together- what's not to like?
Another good Discworld novel!
While I run the risk of sounding like a completely rabid fan of the Discworld series, I do think that it's near impossible for Pratchett to put out a Discworld novel that isn't entertaining in one aspect or another. (Please don't prove me wrong, Terry!)
This particular novel follows Vimes & the Watch as things start heating up around the city. Kooms Valley Day, the day that the trolls & dwarves supposedly had a big war (nobody survived, so nobody knows for sure all of what happened) is rapidly approaching & tensions are high. If that wasn't bad enough, a well respected dwarf has been found dead & trolls are supposedly to blame for it. Vimes has to figure out what exactly happened & why, as well as make it home every day by 6 pm so he can read "Where's My Cow" to his son.
I have to admit, it did take me a while to initially get started in this novel because, to be quite frank- a LOT happens in this book. To be honest, there's enough stuff in here for two stories- one about the troll/dwarf affair & the one about Angua & Sally. Pratchett does put it together & the story is nice, but I felt like the tensions between Angua & Sally could've been a little more fleshed out. It didn't ruin the book or anything, but I just felt like it was a bit underserved in this book.
Still, the book was pretty good & I enjoyed reading it. It's not going to be my favorite Discworld novel ever, but it is one that I think would be well served if the BBC were to make a movie of it.
Da Vinci and Dwarfs and Trolls (but no Zombies)
I feel the book's title needs an explanation. Thud is a game sort of like chess combined with Risk or Stratego that's played by trolls and dwarfs on the Discworld. The object of the game is to reenact the legendary battle of Koom Valley, in which dwarfs and trolls fought each other over a thouand years earlier. There's been bad blood (or whatever trolls have) between the two races ever since.
And thud is also the sound made when a troll club whacks a dwarf over the head. That dwarf is a rabble-rouser in the metropolis of Ankh-Morpork who has been rallying dwarfs to fight trolls on the eve of Koom Valley Day. The murder takes place deep underground in a dwarf mine, which complicates things for Sam Vimes and the City Watch, as the dwarfs are not keen on outsiders wandering around their mine.
The murder is only the tip of the proverbial iceberg, though. Even as the whole city seems ready to explode, a strange dwarf sign begins cropping up all over the place. As well, a priceless painting of the battle of Koom Valley has disappeared from the city museum. Somehow Vimes has to put all these pieces together to find out who murdered the dwarf--and why. Oh, and he has to do it all by six o'clock when he must read Where's My Cow? to his infant son--with all the appropriate noises.
This installment of the series I take it was supposed to be like The Da Vinci Code (or a lesser extent the National Treasure movies) in that there's a murder that leads to the unraveling of an important historical mystery. While I think overall Pratchett is a much better writer, Brown's story probably moved along a little better; Thud seems to plod along until an ending that generally makes it worthwhile. It probably needed a couple of good chase scenes thrown in there to get things moving.
On problem I had in particular was I really became bored with the Angua werewolf character. This is the fifth book that features her in a significant role, but all she ever seems to do is whine about being a werewolf--that and smell stuff and threaten to rip people's throats out. By now it's like, "I GET IT! Being a werewolf sucks! Let's move past it, shall we?" But that's the problem is that none of the secondary characters are really allowed to grow much. The relationship between Angua and Captain Carrot hasn't really moved forward since the beginning. You'd think after what's probably ten years or more they'd be getting serious, or something.
Vimes is the only character who seems to be given any development. Since appearing in "Guards! Guards!" (volume 8) he's gone from a lonely drunk to a civic leader with a wife and son. That kind of growth is what allows you to like the character more, not to mention it keeps him from stagnating like the others. It's too bad some of the others (like Angua or Carrot) aren't really given this same opportunity to develop.
Anyway, it was still an entertaining book, with a good message about racial tolerance and all that. And as I said earlier, it picks up in the end to make up for some of its deficiencies in the thrill department. It really could use a better title, though if you look at all 36 series titles, none of them really seem especially clever. I suppose it's what's on the inside that counts--isn't that what they always say?
That is all.
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