Thud! - Reviews & Commentary
Brief Review (no spoilers)
Rating: 4/5
"Thud!" is the latest Terry Pratchett novel, and is likely to be enjoyed by most Pratchett lovers. It features Commander Vimes, and the familiar Ankh-Morpork Watch characters, as they investigate a murder which could have explosive consequences for the city.
The book is very good, and the only disappointment is that it promised to be even better - the early chapters raised some expectations that weren't fully met.
Full Review (includes spoilers)- TO BE WRITTEN
Full Review (includes spoilers)
Rating: 4/5
To be written
Below is the "running commentary", written while I was reading the book. This is full of spoilers, so not recommended for anyone that has not read the book.
Thud! - Running Commentary
Currently I'm on page 128. Vimes has just asked Carrot if he saw the body, and Carrot replies "... I think so... you had to be there".
I'm going to go back and skim through from the beginning to remind myself of any major points I want to comment on up til here.
First Impressions
The cover is excellent, it's probably the first Pratchett cover that does justice to his style. Serious and light-hearted, going back and forth from heroic fantasy to making fun of heroism and fantasy. And I love chess, so I love that it's a chessboard.
"The first thing Tak did, he wrote himself."
One of the best first lines ever. And the Dwarf and Troll mythologies that make up a kind of prologue are brilliant, evoking the Dwarf & Troll views of the world in just a few words.
A strong central plot is set up right from the start. (Unlike Going Postal, and other Pratchett that is less satisfying.) The Dwarf-Troll conflict is laid out, its potential for igniting A-M is clear, there's a murder. Then Vimes appears, as we know and love him. Right away it matters what happens, and you're pulled into wanting to know what's going on and where this will go.
A vampire applies to join the Watch. So that's another angle on what is presumably the theme, inter-species conflict and species prejudice. Pratchett doing what he does, which is look at humanity, in this case all the stupid hatreds in the world over stuff that happened years ago, in the medium of silly-serious fantasy.
So it all looks very meaty and promising.
Art Theft
A nice subplot about the stolen painting, of The Battle of Koom Valley. Fun with Colon and Nobbs, fun with the art world, and more spooky mysteries. A painting that talks - maybe. Strange notes left behind by the painter. Yes, stranger than his reminder to self, "I am not a Chicken". Who stole it, and why? And how? (Love Nobbs' cunning plan for how it could be done.) Does the painting reveal some great secret?
Very funny, but thickening the plot at the same time. And Colon & Nobbs keeness to stay out of the way of trouble builds the expectation of trouble ahead.
Vampires, Dwarves, Trolls
An interview with the vampire. Why does she want to be a copper? Maybe another interesting story there. And I like that she can turn into a *lot* of bats, because the mass has to go somewhere. Looking forward to hearing more about her.
Visiting the Deep Downers, and nice observations about the city dwarves regarding them with awe, with respect *and* with embarrassment. Has the ring of truth to it. The fascinating upside down world of the Deep Downers where "he has seen the light" is a major slur, and writing must never be erased. Would love to learn lots more about Dwarf life, and hopefully we will!
The creature that swam through a mind, and had found work for 10,000 years as a superstition. Like a meme, a fragment of mind or language, that is a non-corporeal being. He's introducing some really great ideas. Hope he gets to explore them all fully, cos that would be wonderful! How does it all tie up?
Chrysoprase the Troll in the Pork Futures Warehouse. The Pork Futures might've once been a very witty idea, but by now this kind of thing seems like Discworld cliche. Why don't trolls always stick to freezing rooms? But nice to bring back intelligent trolls, and now we have the troll pov on the situation. A film noir type mystery, with Vimes in the middle. I like film noir, and I'm liking this.
An aside - The running commentary isn't really
This was meant to be a running commentary on my thoughts, but because I was already well into the book, it hasn't really been that. More like attempting to reconstruct my original thoughts, because I read the book at different times than I write in LJ. For the same reason my reading has moved on faster than the commentary. The commentary still hasn't quite caught up to p128 where I was when I started it, and by now I've read up to p316!
Where's My Cow?
The dash to get home is so-so, but I'm never that interested in chase sequences or people rushing down a corridor to save the day. But this quote is wonderful: "No excuses. No excuses at all. Once you had a good excuse, you opened the door to bad excuses." Classic Pratchett insight about life and the way human beings work.
And seeing the father side of Vimes is also a great idea, showing how he's a different person in different situations. Though for me those fatherly feelings weren't very vividly or movingly done in this part. (Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it at the the time.) But the book is maybe trying to do too many wonderful things in too short a space, so they are just hinted at instead of fully developed. I'm wishing it was a lot longer, and lingered in the different areas it deals with.
To be continued...
Or perhaps not?
Well now I've actually finished the book, though I am (selectively) re-reading parts of it again. Perhaps it makes sense to stop the running-commentary, and write a review?
Rating: 4/5
"Thud!" is the latest Terry Pratchett novel, and is likely to be enjoyed by most Pratchett lovers. It features Commander Vimes, and the familiar Ankh-Morpork Watch characters, as they investigate a murder which could have explosive consequences for the city.
The book is very good, and the only disappointment is that it promised to be even better - the early chapters raised some expectations that weren't fully met.
Full Review (includes spoilers)- TO BE WRITTEN
Full Review (includes spoilers)
Rating: 4/5
To be written
Below is the "running commentary", written while I was reading the book. This is full of spoilers, so not recommended for anyone that has not read the book.
Thud! - Running Commentary
Currently I'm on page 128. Vimes has just asked Carrot if he saw the body, and Carrot replies "... I think so... you had to be there".
I'm going to go back and skim through from the beginning to remind myself of any major points I want to comment on up til here.
First Impressions
The cover is excellent, it's probably the first Pratchett cover that does justice to his style. Serious and light-hearted, going back and forth from heroic fantasy to making fun of heroism and fantasy. And I love chess, so I love that it's a chessboard.
"The first thing Tak did, he wrote himself."
One of the best first lines ever. And the Dwarf and Troll mythologies that make up a kind of prologue are brilliant, evoking the Dwarf & Troll views of the world in just a few words.
A strong central plot is set up right from the start. (Unlike Going Postal, and other Pratchett that is less satisfying.) The Dwarf-Troll conflict is laid out, its potential for igniting A-M is clear, there's a murder. Then Vimes appears, as we know and love him. Right away it matters what happens, and you're pulled into wanting to know what's going on and where this will go.
A vampire applies to join the Watch. So that's another angle on what is presumably the theme, inter-species conflict and species prejudice. Pratchett doing what he does, which is look at humanity, in this case all the stupid hatreds in the world over stuff that happened years ago, in the medium of silly-serious fantasy.
So it all looks very meaty and promising.
Art Theft
A nice subplot about the stolen painting, of The Battle of Koom Valley. Fun with Colon and Nobbs, fun with the art world, and more spooky mysteries. A painting that talks - maybe. Strange notes left behind by the painter. Yes, stranger than his reminder to self, "I am not a Chicken". Who stole it, and why? And how? (Love Nobbs' cunning plan for how it could be done.) Does the painting reveal some great secret?
Very funny, but thickening the plot at the same time. And Colon & Nobbs keeness to stay out of the way of trouble builds the expectation of trouble ahead.
Vampires, Dwarves, Trolls
An interview with the vampire. Why does she want to be a copper? Maybe another interesting story there. And I like that she can turn into a *lot* of bats, because the mass has to go somewhere. Looking forward to hearing more about her.
Visiting the Deep Downers, and nice observations about the city dwarves regarding them with awe, with respect *and* with embarrassment. Has the ring of truth to it. The fascinating upside down world of the Deep Downers where "he has seen the light" is a major slur, and writing must never be erased. Would love to learn lots more about Dwarf life, and hopefully we will!
The creature that swam through a mind, and had found work for 10,000 years as a superstition. Like a meme, a fragment of mind or language, that is a non-corporeal being. He's introducing some really great ideas. Hope he gets to explore them all fully, cos that would be wonderful! How does it all tie up?
Chrysoprase the Troll in the Pork Futures Warehouse. The Pork Futures might've once been a very witty idea, but by now this kind of thing seems like Discworld cliche. Why don't trolls always stick to freezing rooms? But nice to bring back intelligent trolls, and now we have the troll pov on the situation. A film noir type mystery, with Vimes in the middle. I like film noir, and I'm liking this.
An aside - The running commentary isn't really
This was meant to be a running commentary on my thoughts, but because I was already well into the book, it hasn't really been that. More like attempting to reconstruct my original thoughts, because I read the book at different times than I write in LJ. For the same reason my reading has moved on faster than the commentary. The commentary still hasn't quite caught up to p128 where I was when I started it, and by now I've read up to p316!
Where's My Cow?
The dash to get home is so-so, but I'm never that interested in chase sequences or people rushing down a corridor to save the day. But this quote is wonderful: "No excuses. No excuses at all. Once you had a good excuse, you opened the door to bad excuses." Classic Pratchett insight about life and the way human beings work.
And seeing the father side of Vimes is also a great idea, showing how he's a different person in different situations. Though for me those fatherly feelings weren't very vividly or movingly done in this part. (Maybe I just wasn't in the mood for it at the the time.) But the book is maybe trying to do too many wonderful things in too short a space, so they are just hinted at instead of fully developed. I'm wishing it was a lot longer, and lingered in the different areas it deals with.
To be continued...
Or perhaps not?
Well now I've actually finished the book, though I am (selectively) re-reading parts of it again. Perhaps it makes sense to stop the running-commentary, and write a review?