Thud!

Commander Vimes never has enough time. He's got an ever-expanding watch to supervise including their first-ever vampire watchman, a brewing war between trolls and dwarves to quell, and baby Sam expects their daily picture book reading of Where's My Cow? to begin at 6pm on the dot, no excuses. When an extremist dwarf is murdered, apparently by a troll, Vimes is determined to get to the bottom of it, even if the bottom is buried deep beneath the site of a legendary battle of dwarf vs. troll. With help from a pocket organizing demon (a hilarious running joke on Blackberries) from Lady Sybil, Vimes may just be able to find out what those extremist dwarves are up to under Ankh-Morpork, how they're connected to a stolen mural, what really show more happened in the legendary battle between dwarves and trolls, and still manage to read to young Sam. Of course, he may have to do all of that at once while battling an ancient dwarf curse lodged in his consciousness.

Thud! is as funny, insightful and entertaining as any of Pratchett's other Discworld novels, and is deftly organized around Vimes' daily reading of Where's My Cow?, young Sam's favorite picture book. At the climax, Vimes' investigation of the budding dwarf/troll war entwines with the text of Where's My Cow with hilarious results. show less

Even when I don’t love a Discworld novel, I still love it, ya know? Pratchett is so funny– sometimes outright laughter-provoking, sometimes by his sly commentary on human nature and civilization. Thud wasn’t my favorite, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t a good read. I don’t think this book stands alone as much as some of the other ones– you will appreciate it more if you have read the City Watch sub series and followed Sam Vimes in his career and life. It terms of the Discworld series as a whole, the book is good, but not a shining star.

Thud! is a solid City Watch novel, not up to the lofty heights of Jingo or Night Watch, but a solid adventure with some interesting things to say in the line of, say, Men at Arms. There's ethnic tensions brewing between trolls and dwarves, both in and out of the city, and Vimes has to (as usual) simultaneously investigate a murder and stop mass political violence as well. There's a lot of fun stuff here: the auditor who becomes a Watch member himself, another Nobbs and Colon investigation, the high-speed trip to Koom Valley, Vimes's devotion to his daily ritual with his son. But some of the threads don't feel effectively drawn through, and I got a bit confused at all the stuff with the Summoning Dark, a demonic sigil accidentally show more absorbed by Vimes. show less

Thud - Pratchett
Audio performance by Stephen Briggs
4 stars

More fun with Sam Vimes and the Watch in Ankh - Morpork and Uberwald. It’s silly, very silly. More than enough good laughs and just enough underlying truth and wisdom.

As usual, Commander Vimes copes with the overseeing the Watch while containing the crimes and criminals of Ankh-Morpork. But, his most pressing commitment is his daily exploration of literature with his infant son. Anyone who has ever gone down the text wormhole of a young child’s favorite inane text will appreciate the the predicament of Sam Vimes reading, Where’s My Cow?. Pratchett absolutely nails it. All of the plot points, the character interaction, the wordplay and nonsense of this book boils down to show more the overriding importance of the bedtime book ritual. It’s such a winning combination; absurdist humour with all the fuzzy warm feels of love and loyalty.

And then there was this little side plot. Sargeant Angua (werewolf) and Sergeant Cheery Littlebottom (dwarf), inaugurate Constable Sally von Humpeding (vampire) into the Watch with a girl’s night out. Somehow this ends with the two shape-changing characters returning to human shape, naked and in the mud in the basement of a strip club. This is truly high class, priceless literature. It’s possible that some people might have been offended. Does it expose Pratchett as a sexist pig? I don’t know. I just know that I laughed until tears came. show less

Jeeze, every time I read a Discworld novel, it's always like coming back to a very funny home full of angry dwarves and pissed trolls doing their best to get drunk and start a war over some ancient grudge that no one alive actually understands.

In other words, like Thanksgiving Dinner.

Or something like that.

Indeed, it's actually a police procedural with the glorious Vimes as he tries to stop another civil war on the streets of Ankh-Morpork the best way he can... by cutting through all the red tape and bull-heading his way through every single problem.

Or going berserk while yelling a kid's bedtime story, thoroughly destroying the morale of his enemies.

It's the little things.

I love these books. :)

"Quis custodiet ipsos custodes? Your grace."

"I know that one," said Vimes. "Who watches the watchmen? Me, Mr. Pessimal."

"Ah, but who watches you, your grace?" said the inspector, with a brief smile.

"I do that, too. All the time," said Vimes. "Believe me."

[b:Thud!|62530|Thud! (Discworld, #34; City Watch #7)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320495268s/62530.jpg|819104] continues the tradition of the City Watch series digging into bigotry and racism. There's the feud of centuries between the dwarfs and trolls on the anniversary of the long ago battle of Koom valley which no one remembers for sure who first attacked who. But does it really matter? They hate each other. They've always hated each other.

At the same show more time, Vimes' watch has been adding more and more diverse officers over the books. Now, he finally has to accept one he never accepted: Sally the Vampire. She's an interesting character, but in particularly, it's really interesting to read her interactions with Angua. It's the same tension of centuries on a much smaller, more personal scale.

Overall, it's the little details of the world that really make this story. It's not as funny as the early Discworld books, but it's a lot more solid. There's a reason people suggest that you start with the City Watch books, [b:Thud!|62530|Thud! (Discworld, #34; City Watch #7)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1320495268s/62530.jpg|819104] in particular.

With that, there's only one more in the City Watch subseries: [b:Snuff|8785374|Snuff (Discworld, #39; City Watch #8)|Terry Pratchett|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1302694636s/8785374.jpg|13659124]. It's bittersweet. I'm looking forward to it... but I don't really want them to end.

So it goes.

Aside:

“Would a minute have mattered? No, probably not, although his young son appeared to have a very accurate internal clock. Possibly even 2 minutes would be okay. Three minutes, even. You could go to five minutes, perhaps. But that was just it. If you could go for five minutes, then you'd go to ten, then half an hour, a couple of hours...and not see your son all evening. So that was that. Six o'clock, prompt. Every day. Read to young Sam. No excuses. He'd promised himself that. No excuses. No excuses at all. Once you had a good excuse, you opened the door to bad excuses.”

With a 16 month old little boy at home, the scenes where Vimes (et at) moves heaven and earth to make sure he's back at precisely 6pm to read to his 18 month old son are pretty awesome. show less

folks, we've hit a sweet spot. Yes this has some of Sir Terry's Patented Benign Racism, which makes me roll my eyes, but then yknow makes up for it with the ending. (But also good god please Sir Terry.) It also has things I LOVE--Vimes being competent even when he doesn't know all the clues, Vimes having People to Protect (the addition of Young Sam is the smartest thing Sir Terry ever did to keep me personally reading,) Sybil being a badass and also competent, The Colon and Nobby Show... It's just like a beautiful mix of so much that I already love about these characters, all rolled up into one.

Just a real delicious payoff of all the previous Watch books I've read, a delightful fun time, and a good ending that made me feel good.