Thud! – Terry Pratchett
Terry Pratchett OBE is apparently one of the most popular authors alive today. He has sold an awful lot of books in his series about the Discworld. Although varing in quality, it is safe to say that all of them are very readable, but some less memorable than others. Thud! Appears to be the 30th in the series. It concerns the further adventures of Sam Vimes, Commander of the Night watch of the city of Ankh-Morpork, and not only his family including his young son, his wife, and his butler, but also the rest of the “old lags” from the watch that we have met in a number of previous volumes, such as Guards! Guards!, Men at Arms and Night Watch. This time, Terry has written a story concerning the curious mixture of religious hatred and adventure quest novels such as Dan Brown’s The Da Vinci Code. Modern day intolerance has been subtly disguised as the eternal rivalry between dwarves and trolls of the Discworld. A long time ago, in Koom Valley there was a battle where trolls were ambushed by dwarves, or possibly dwarves were ambushed by trolls. In order to prevent a re-enactment of the battle in the streets of Ankh-Morpork, Sam Vimes is keen to solve a riddle concerning the battle and a missing painting that is 10 feet x 50 feet long. To make matters worse, his initial enquiries trigger an assignation attempt on his family. And to make matters even more stressful he has to be home every night at 6pm to read his son a bed time story called Where’s My Cow? with all the right noises in the right places. Sam Vimes and his friends are always a nice comfortable read. The sub-plots concerning their lives are developed further. And the plot hangs together well apart from one minor quibble – there is a need in the plot for Commander Vimes to exhibit racial intolerance, and he does so against vampires. However he is such a thoroughly nice guy that I found it difficult to believe that he doesn’t like vampires. But heh that’s probably just me. Thud! will be available in paperback on 21-Sep-2006. Where’s My Cow? Is already available in hardback. I have not had the opportunity to inspect Where’s My Cow?
Publisher: Doubleday Date: 2005 Pages: 362 Pages Price: £17.99 ISBN: 0-385-60867-5 Format: Hardback Reviewed by: Rod Cameron Date Reviewed: July 2006
Where's My Cow By Terry Pratchett & Melvyn Grant Publisher: Doubleday Date: 2005 Pages: 32 Pages Price: £10.99 Format: Hardback