Synopses & Reviews
It's a game of Trolls and Dwarfs where the player must take both sides to win...
It's the noise a troll club makes when crushing in a dwarf skull, or when a dwarfish axe cleaves a trollish cranium...
It's the unsettling sound of history about to repeat itself...THUD!
It's the most extraordinary, outrageous, provocative, insightful, and keenly cutting flight of fancy yet from Discworld's incomparable supreme creator...Terry Pratchett!
Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch admits he may not be the sharpest knife in the cutlery drawer he might not even be a spoon. But he's dogged and honest and he'll be damned if he lets anyone disturb his city's always-tentative peace and that includes a rabble-rousing dwarf from the sticks (or deep beneath them) who's been stirring up big trouble on the eve of the anniversary of one of Discworld's most infamous historical events.
Centuries earlier, in a gods-forsaken hellhole called Koom Valley, a horde of trolls met a division of dwarfs in bloody combat. Though nobody's quite sure why they fought or who actually won, hundreds of years on each species still bears the cultural scars, and one views the other with simmering animosity and distrust. Lately, an influential dwarf, Grag Hamcrusher, has been fomenting unrest among Ankh-Morpork's more diminutive citizens with incendiary speeches. And it doesn't help matters when the pint-size provocateur is discovered beaten to death...with a troll club lying conveniently nearby.
Vimes knows the well-being of his smoldering city depends on his ability to solve the Hamcrusher homicide without delay. (Vimes's secondmost-pressing responsibility, in fact, next to being home every evening at six sharp to read Where's My Cow? to Young Sam.) Whatever it takes to unstick this very sticky situation, Vimes will do it even tolerate having a vampire in the Watch. But there's more than one corpse waiting for him in the eerie, summoning darkness of the vast, labyrinthine mine network the dwarfs have been excavating in secret beneath Ankh-Morpork's streets. A deadly puzzle is pulling Sam Vimes deep into the muck and mire of superstition, hatred, and fear and perhaps all the way to Koom Valley itself.
Review
"As always, Pratchett's latest Discworld yarn is funny, fast-paced, the kind of satire that explores serious issues while making readers love it." Booklist
Review
"More amiable mockery from one of our leading lights....Though Pratchett loses his way a bit towards the end, fans will not be disappointed. Bitingly relevant and laugh-out-loud funny." Kirkus Reviews
Review
"Thud! brings satire, wit, pathos and philosophy to events that mirror our modern world. If you're already a fan, kick back and enjoy. If you're a first time reader, be prepared for a treat." BookReporter.com
Review
"The asides and the general goofiness and the imagination run amok are the point, every time and this time, too....All in all the only thing to be said about a Discworld novel is: Read it. You'll like it." The Washington Post
Synopsis
It's a game of Trolls and Dwarfs where the player
must take both sides to win ...
It's the noise a troll club makes when crushing
in a dwarf skull, or when a dwarfish axe cleaves
a trollish cranium ...
It's the unsettling sound of history about
to repeat itself ... THUD
It's the most extraordinary, outrageous,
provocative, insightful, and keenly cutting flight
of fancy yet from Discworld's incomparable
supreme creator ... Terry Pratchett
Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch admits he may not be the sharpest knife in the cutlery drawer--he might not even be a spoon. But he's dogged and honest and he'll be damned if he lets anyone disturb his city's always-tentative peace--and that includes a rabble-rousing dwarf from the sticks (or deep beneath them) who's been stirring up big trouble on the eve of the anniversary of one of Discworld's most infamous historical events.
Centuries earlier, in a gods-forsaken hellhole called Koom Valley, a horde of trolls met a division of dwarfs in bloody combat. Though nobody's quite sure why they fought or who actually won, hundreds of years on each species still bears the cultural scars, and one views the other with simmering animosity and distrust. Lately, an influential dwarf, Grag Hamcrusher, has been fomenting unrest among Ankh-Morpork's more diminutive citizens with incendiary speeches. And it doesn't help matters when the pint-size provocateur is discovered beaten to death ... with a troll club lying conveniently nearby.
Vimes knows the well-being of his smoldering city depends on his ability to solve the Hamcrusher homicide without delay. (Vimes's secondmost-pressing responsibility, in fact, next to being home every evening at six sharp to read Where's My Cow? to Young Sam.) Whatever it takes to unstick this very sticky situation, Vimes will do it--even tolerate having a vampire in the Watch. But there's more than one corpse waiting for him in the eerie, summoning darkness of the vast, labyrinthine mine network the dwarfs have been excavating in secret beneath Ankh-Morpork's streets. A deadly puzzle is pulling Sam Vimes deep into the muck and mire of superstition, hatred, and fear--and perhaps all the way to Koom Valley itself.
Synopsis
"Start with Douglas Adams's comic science fiction (A Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) and J.R.R. Tolkien's alternative worlds, mix in James Ellroy's gritty realism and Jonathan Swift's unflinching satire and, if you're lucky, you'll get something like Terry Pratchett's Thud " --Wall Street Journal
City Watch Commander Sam Vimes must solve the murder of a prominent dwarf or watch as Discworld is plunged into a bloody civil war in Terry Pratchett's delightful Discworld satire, a brilliant tale of prejudice, ancient feuds, and tender fatherhood.
Long, long ago, in a gods-forsaken hellhole called Koom Valley, trolls and dwarfs met in bloody combat. Centuries later, each side still views the other with simmering animosity that has been heightened of late because of one Grag Hamcrusher. The influential dwarf has been fomenting unrest among a section of Ankh-Morpork's citizenry--a volatile situation made far worse when the petite provocateur is discovered bashed to death . . . with a troll club lying conveniently nearby.
If he doesn't solve the murder of just one dwarf, Commander Sam Vimes of Ankh-Morpork City Watch is going to see it fought again, right outside his office. But more than one corpse is waiting for Vimes in the eerie, summoning darkness of a labyrinthine mine network being secretly excavated beneath Ankh-Morpork's streets. With war-drums beating ever louder, Vimes must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin, and brave any darkness to find the solution. And the darkness is following him, pulling him deep into the muck and mire of superstition, hatred, and fear--and perhaps all the way to Koom Valley itself.
Until six o'clock every day, when without fail, the Commander goes home to read Where's My Cow?, with accompanying farmyard noises, to his little boy. Because there are some things you must do.
The Discworld novels can be read in any order but Thud is the 7th book in the City Watch collection and the 34th Discworld book.
The City Watch collection in order:
Guards Guards Men at ArmsFeet of ClayJingoThe Fifth ElephantNight WatchThud Snuff
Synopsis
Scheduled for simultaneous publication in the United States and the United Kingdom, this new work by bestselling author Pratchett delivers the trademark insight and humor of "one of the more significant contemporary English language satirists" (Publishers Weekly).
Synopsis
Debuting at #4, this "New York Times" bestseller by the popular author of "Going Postal" describes a game of Trolls and Dwarfs, where the player must take both sides to win.
About the Author
With sales of over 30 million copies, Terry Pratchett's brilliantly funny and subtly wise books have been translated into more than 25 languages.
In addition to his novels about the fantastic flat planet Discworld, Mr. Pratchett has written several children's books, including The Bromeliad Trilogy and the books about Johnny Maxwell: Only You Can Save Mankind, Johnny and the Bomb, and Johnny and the Dead.
Mr. Pratchett won the Carnegie Medal for his first young adult novel set in Discworld, The Amazing Maurice and His Educated Rodents, which was also named an ALA Best Book for Young Adults, one of the New York Public Library's 100 Books for Reading and Sharing, and a Bank Street College Children's Book Committee Book of Outstanding Merit.
Mr. Pratchett lives in the English chalk country.