Thief of Time

Another entry in Pratchett’s Discworld series. In this entry, the story revolves around time: can it really be wasted, made up, sped up, slowed down, lost, and made–words we use every day to describe our relationship to time. But what if, rather than metaphors, these were actual things? This is the premise of Pratchett’s book.

There is a hidden valley where time stand still, and is tended by monks. One of the most senior monks, a lowly sweeper, is assign d an apprentice. But both the sweeper, and the apprentice, turn out to be much more than they appear. Add in the four (or is it five) horsemen of the Apocaplypse, a death rat, and a clock maker, and we have the makings of yet another great story…with lots of deep philosophy woven in.

One of my favorite books in this favorite series. I love all of them and am very sad that I’m finally running out of books and Terry is no longer with us to write more. What a wonderful world he wrote! This one is an important part of the “mythology” of Discworld, so be sure to read it before you get very far into the series. It explains a lot and will make other books more sensible — or at least as “sensible” as anything ever is in the Discworld 🙂

I am an avid fan of the Discworld series and have read them from the order they were published up to Thief of Time. Pratchett performs as expected in creating (or carrying forward) his charming characters and visual scene development, but for me the plot was too thin to hold my interest for more than a few pages each time I read in it. Of course, we expect to see the narrative unfold according to the well-established formula–that is part of what we enjoy in the works of our favorite storytellers. That being said, even fairy stories have to create credible worlds; that is, they must follow the rules within the parameters of the universe they create. In this instance, Pratchett broke his own rules.
As a rule, I have found Pratchett’s observations about politics, religion, society, and people in general to be astute, clever, or amusing. In this volume, however, he seemed more preachy than in his previous tales. Perhaps that happens even to the best of us as we grow old.

This Disc World novel was captivating not only because of Terry Pratchetts clever wit, but because of his cast of new and old characters. Susan, the teacher with unusual talents; Death; Lady LeJean; an Igor; a Yeti; Lu-Tze, the hero Sweeper; Lobsang, the apprentice with unusual talents; Nanny Ogg; Ronnie, the extraordinary milkman; and more keep this story lively. Life on Disco World is threatened and extraordinary efforts by an eccentric unmatched team is required to restore balance. Once again, Terry Pratchett demonstrates how he is the master of his own genre within the fantasy universe. Clever, witty, rapid-fire.

The last few weeks, my reading has been monopolized by the mind of Terry Pratchett. I have been sucked into the Discworld, and I am just fine with that. I sought out experts on which order to read the books, since there is no one straight linear way to read the books.

I read the entire sequence centered on Death (and his extended family) first, since my introduction to the world of the Disc was the movie version of _Hogfather_.

I bought the first one, _Mort_, just to see if I would like it. I liked it well enough; I bought the next two books in the series on the Death story-arc. A quarter of the way through the second book, I bought the final two books of the arc.

I neared the end of one of those books and I bought the first three books from the “Guards” story-arc. At this point, I have only read one of those books, the first _Guards, Guards_. I was pleased, since I have to admit that I was a bit worried about the continuity of quality between story-arcs. Was I just interested in the character of Death, or did I like the world as a whole?

It turns out that I like the world as a whole, and this is a huge strength of Pratchett. I want to learn about all the inhabitants and read all the stories, no matter how tangential. I don’t usually keep many books in my wish list, but it is now filled up with Discworld books. He builds a world like Vonnegut did. There are many familiar elements of the world we inhabit but there is the magic element that rips from genre fiction: what Vonnegut did with science-fiction, Pratchett does with fantasy elements.

There are a couple of things about the series generally that I really enjoyed. The first is what you try to develop as a writer, a unique voice. I’ve been struggling on finding the right word to really describe what I would characterize as Pratchett’s voice. It is arch and tongue-in-cheek and just fun if you’ve read enough. He’s a post-modern Tolkien, but that’s a little off.

Secondly, he is funny, and he’s not afraid to go for the easy joke. There are puns-galore, if you like that sort of thing. I happen to. There is one very memorable one that he just sort of sneaks in during _Soul Music_. He takes the reader 90% of the way to the pay-off but allows the slow dawning to set on the reader, so that a bad pun feels like it was done masterfully. Which it is, it really is.

If I had to make a critique of the books in the series that I have read so far is that I have read them too fast. My wife often tells me to slow down and enjoy the books you like, but I seldom listen to her. I should have here. There have been a couple of times that I enjoying the ride so much, I didn’t even bother to remember what I had just read. I had to go and reread the last 50 pages of _Guards, Guards_ because of this. I enjoyed it too much.

Otherwise, this is an unqualified recommendation for the Discworld books. Spend some time there, you won’t regret it.

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