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    Thud!: A Discworld Novel
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    Thud!: A Discworld Novel
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    Thud!: A Discworld Novel
    Ebook453 pages7 hours

    Thud!: A Discworld Novel

    By Terry Pratchett

    4.5/5

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    About this ebook

    “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 Arms
    • Feet of Clay
    • Jingo
    • The Fifth Elephant
    • Night Watch
    • Thud!
    • Snuff
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherHarperCollins
    Release dateOct 13, 2009
    ISBN9780061795558
    Author

    Terry Pratchett

    Terry Pratchett (1948–2015) was the acclaimed creator of the globally revered Discworld series. In all, he authored more than fifty bestselling books, which have sold more than one hundred million copies worldwide. His novels have been widely adapted for stage and screen, and he was the winner of multiple prizes, including the Carnegie Medal. He was awarded a knighthood by Queen Elizabeth II for his services to literature in 2009, although he always wryly maintained that his greatest service to literature was to avoid writing any.

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    Reviews for Thud!

    4.5/5

    102 ratings84 reviews

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    • 5/5
      I love Thud!. It’s one of my favorite Discworld novels, right up there with Night Watch. However, it is the seventh Discworld novel following Vimes, so you’d be better off starting with Guards! Guards! if you haven’t read the rest of his arc. Or if you’re more generally wanting an introduction to the Discworld, you could try a stand alone novel such as Going Postal, Monstrous Regiment, or Small Gods. Koom Valley is a historic battle between the trolls and the dwarfs, and it is the key point of the conflict between them. As the anniversary draws near, it looks like Koom Valley might break out all over again, this time in Ankh-Morpork due to the murder of a rabble rousing dwarf. It’s up to Vimes to solve the crime before the city collapses into conflict.At it’s heart, Thud! is a novel about not giving into hatred and the darkness inside yourself. It’s one of the darker Discworld novels, which makes me love it all the more.“You can’t call yourself a good guy and then do bad guy things.”Sam Vimes continues to be my favorite protagonist. He’s filled with anger, but he knows better than to let it out. He’s always watching himself, guarding against the darkness inside him.The cast of secondary characters is also wonderful. I particularly adore Angua, the werewolf watchwomen. A subplot of Thud! is the addition of a vampire to the watch, and Angua dealing with her instinctual dislike of vampires and coming to grudgingly have some respect for Sally.“I’ve never been on a girls’ night out before,” said Cheery as they walked, a little uncertainly through the nighttime city. “Was that last bit supposed to happen?”“What bit was that?” said Sally.“The bit where the bar was set on fire.”Additionally, Thud! contains a few hilarious scenes regarding art and artists. If you know anything about me, you can guess how much I love these. In particular, Pratchett touches on the tricky question of how to define art.“He knew in his heart that spinning upside down around a pole wearing a costume you could floss with definitely was not Art, and that being painted lying on a bed wearing nothing but a smile and a small bunch of grapes was good solid Art, but putting your finger on why this was the case was a bit tricky.”As typical with later Discworld novels, Thud! is more plot focused and tightly woven while retaining the warmth and hilarity I associate with Discworld. I don’t know how much else I can rave about this book and this series. I highly recommend them.Originally posted on The Illustrated Page.
    • 3/5
      Thud is unusual but also only an averagely good Terry Pratchett book by his standards, complimented by a spin-off board game. Is Koom Valley, the core of the story, a geographical place or has it become a concept in the mind? What is Koom Valley is a question along the same lines as What is Calvary, a basic hill or a fate or the concept of a stage before redemption that anyone can go through? I can’t be sure whether the Discworld board game (dwarves against trolls) inspired this book or if the book inspired the board game but the game is in parody (not tactical simplification) of the ancient battle described in the book and the book describes the game as if it exists already and which side usually wins, so vice versa. A children’s book called Where’s My Cow? appears to be a secondary spin-off commercialisation of this same novel. Talk about cashing in. In other words, it’s another piece of the convoluted and self-referencing Discworld series. The plot concerns an ancient battleground about which it’s not known for sure whether the dwarves ambushed the trolls or perhaps it was the trolls who ambushed the dwarves. The dwarves and trolls have their own opposing theories, in which they are both the respective victims and that’s why they can never get along, why the feud will never be settled. They get drunk and re-enact their prejudices, which isn’t against the law. This time though there’s been a murder, which is of official interest but who wants to get in the middle of a dwarf/troll argument? Step forth the author’s favourite character, Commander Sam Vimes of the City Watch, a kind of grizzled detective, balancing his own light and darkness of the soul. Pratchett explores in this a parable that could fit into our world, as seen through the distorted lens of fantasy. The humanist message we’re supposed to pick up is that sectarian violence is pointless and leaves no winners. Most of us have a Koom Valley deep within the psyche. It’s often an historical event, usually a piece of ancient craziness or national injustice, which helps to define our identity, a beacon for the disaffected and anchor of tribal identity that we need to feel safe. We weren’t there but do take it personally and will teach the next generation to carry it on. Of course, things rumble on. The Cranberries summed it up with “In your head, they’re still fighting”. George Orwell studied the motivations of socialist intellectuals much like himself and he concluded that if you set aside the words they say, it’s easy to see they don’t actually like the poor and don’t want to help them; they just hate the rich. It’s the psyche gone primal again. So the leaders of both sides say it’s all fun and everyone’s gone mild and reasonable after the long years, in much the same way that diamonds are squishy. Can anyone really win now? Pratchett thinks so and, against the odds and entrenched personalities, there’s hope of reconciliation. I wouldn’t pin much hope on that but this is a fantasy. Thud is a thought-provoking book, but isn’t outrageous fun, just fantasy delivering rationality, a sweetened pill to encourage the reader to re-evaluate whatever they secretly hate but won’t admit to. It says Thud on the cover. You weren’t expecting it to be light?
    • 4/5
      I'm a great Pratchett fan, I turn to his books (or those of P.G. Wodehouse) whenever I need cheering up. Since I've just been down with the flu, I've reread Thud, his discworld story about the famous battle(s?) of Koom Valley, the place where, according to myth, the enmity between dwarfs and trolls has started.Strange things are happening in Ankh-Morpork, and Commander Vimes is feeling very apprehensive about all the muttering about Koom Valley that's going on, and its anniversary coming too. There is rioting in the city, and even in his own Watch, there is trouble between Dwarf and Troll. Something is very wrong indeed in the city...This is a classic Pratchett with all his best features present: a thrilling story, with multiple layers, plenty of well-worked characters, a fair bit of philosophy and morality, and lots of humour. One of the best.
    • 3/5
      This one was very mixed, good troll and dwarf stuff, but the whole "Vimes has to be home by 6 to tell the story" bit was overplayed and boring. And so was the Angua and Sally cattiness.
    • 5/5
      Friends recently recommended the Discworld novels of Terry Pratchett, so I gave this one a whirl.Wow!I'm now hooked on a world whose police force (at least that's what The Watch appears to be, though things often aren't what they appear to be in the city of Ankh Morpork) contains vampires and werewolves as well as trolls, dwarfs, and even a golem or two.
    • 4/5
      I did not find this book as interesting as his early novels.
    • 4/5
      All of the favorites from the Ankh-Morpork City Watch are back, including Commander Samuel Vimes. There is even a new mysterious face on The City Watch, Lance Constable von Humpeding. She is a lovely ethereal vampire who is teamed up with no other than Sergeant Angua.This medieval mystery involves the legend of Koom Valley and the present death of Grag Hamcrusher, a dwarf. The only clue is a heavy club allegedly believed to belong to one of the warring trolls. Naturally, when it comes to Ankh-Morpork, no gets away with murder on Commander Vimes’s watch.The mayhem of trying to keep the peace between two totally opposite factions such as the trolls and the dwarves, being meticulously audited by A. E. Pessimal, and two enamored female officers is hilarious. To add to the fun, the reader is allowed to venture deeply into the ‘strangely peculiar’ world of dwarves and trolls like never before. Idiosyncrasies abound!
    • 4/5
      One could have easily called this book. Commander Vimes and the mystery of Koom valley, or An adventure in which dwarves, humans, trolls, werewolves, vampires, gimps, and Death muck about in an entertaining story whilst being stalked by a dark entity that is millions of years old.What have murder and the theft of an ancient painting in common? Why does it look that this years' Kooms valley memorial day could be the start of a new war between trolls and dwarves within the confines of Ank Morpork city wall?
    • 3/5
      Interesting book. A guards story where you learn more about Vimes' family than most other things. Historically the Trolls and the Dwarves have faught particularly on the anniversary of a historical battle, this looks at what happens when they try to take it onto the streets of Ankh-Morkpork. A number of characters seem to be there to set up more stories in the future.
    • 3/5
      While investigating a series of dwarfish religious killings Vimes becomes infected with a murderous thinggy.
    • 4/5
      The usual high quality of humour, but it is also a detective novel with several twists in the tail. Sam Vimes is a likeable character. Like many of Pratchett's books, Thud! is full of amusing vignettes and one-liners. One of my favourites is when Vimes is having a near death experience, which leads to Death having a near Vimes experience. Death spends it lounging on a folding chair reading a detective novel, and expresses surprise that you can find out who did it just by turning to the last page. "WHAT, THEREFORE, IS THE POINT OF DELIBERATELY NOT KNOWING?" And the question "Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?" is finally answered, in a surprisingly moral way.
    • 5/5
      funny, engaging, a great read (or listen!)
    • 4/5
      Pratchett would be interesting to read if only for the humor, but he always manages to throw in little insights about human (um, and dwarf and troll) nature that are thought-provoking. Here we have a murder, a missing painting of a historical battle, and an impending dwarf-troll war. Will Commander Vimes and the intrepid Night' Watch be able to sort it all out, and will Vimes manage to get home every night and read "Where's my cow?" to his young son? Excellent stuff. (I am a big fan of the Watch books in particular.)
    • 2/5
      Way too slow, glacial in pace and some very laboured points and almost jokes. Not one of the better ones.
    • 5/5
      Discworld genius
    • 4/5
      Man. I love Sam Vimes. Not only does he do what's needed in the Watch, he makes it home by 6 *every night* to read to his son. But now there's something brewing under the city: a civil war. The dwarves and the trolls are going to literally reenact a famous battle: Koom Valley. Also, Sam Vimes learns how to play the game Thud!, so there is a lot of strategy and politics in the book as Sam tries to be both a good Watchman and a good leader. The book seemed to drag on in the middle a bit, but Sam, Vetinari, the troll, the wizards, young Sam - I love all the characters and how they are developed. And I love the Sam Vimes makes it so important to read to his kid. Literacy us important! This book makes me want to shout "IS THAT MY COW??" just like Sam.
    • 5/5
      Thud! is a fantastic addition to the City Watch books.
    • 5/5
      Terry Pratchett is a god who walks among men. The entire Discworld series is a joy and only a strange mad creature cursed by gods and man would refuse to read and love these books!Vimes gets caught up in the biggest crime of all - politics! as the Dwarves and Trolls square up to relive the battle of Koom valley...
    • 4/5
      The tension between Trolls and Dwarfs is coming to a head as the anniversary of the Battle of Koom Valley approaches. Commander of the Watch, Sam Vimes doesn't care about the history. He just doesn't want a riot breaking out on his city streets. As ever Pratchett holds a mirror up to life and takes a hard look at what makes us who we think we are and what happens when the truths we hold dear are shaken to the core.I have a lot of empathy for Sam Vimes. He's just a copper who wants to keep the peace and some how manages to become the vessal for an ancient evil. It's enough to drive a man to drink.This novel is all about the shaking up of the familiar and it feels like a turning point in the Discworld has been reached.
    • 4/5
       This one's quite dark, and there are all sorts of darkness. Some are dispelled by light, some by truth and some by sheer force of will.

      Sam Vimes reads a book to his sone every night at 6pm sharp. Comewhat may, he reads "Where's my cow?" complete with all the animal noises. And he never misses it, because if you'd miss it for a good excuse, you'd miss it for a bad excuse, so for this there are no excuses. He stays good to his word, even if sometimes there is a little bit of easing of the path in order to make sure he's always there.

      There's interspecies trouble in the lead up to Koom valley day, which comemorates the many, many times that the trolls and dwarves have fought each other. There's even a board game based on the species interaction, the Thud of the title. the skill is not to win using your own species, the skill is winning when playing the other side as well. The pieces are moved round the board as the charaters move across the land and it's a close run thing between the truth, light and will power against the dark.
    • 5/5
      One of the review quotes on the back of this book says something like, "Terry Pratchett's books are almost always better than they need to be." I think this is a pretty good assessment. If Pratchett's books were nothing more than humorous fluff, I would probably still read and enjoy them, but the added depth of character that he brings to his novels is what keeps me reading them over and over again.In this enstallment, we find Sam Vimes trying to once again bring a semblance of peace to the chaos that is Anhk-Morpork. The anniversary of Koom Valley, an historic battle between the trolls and the dwarfs, is coming up, and Vimes is doing everything he can to prevent the battle from being re-enacted in the city streets. This isn't easy, especially since a respected dwarf leader has turned up dead, and it looks like a troll may be the culprit. Equally important, Vimes needs to be sure he's home every night to read to Young Sam from The Book, aka Where is My Cow?.
    • 4/5
      The penultimate book in my re-read of the City Watch subseries of Pratchett's Discworld novels. The one features growing tensions between dwarfs and trolls, an art theft, and something evil moving deep down in the dark.This isn't my favorite of the City Watch books. The plot never quite gains the feeling of momentum the previous books have, I think. Plus, Sam Vimes has pretty thoroughly completed his character development by this point, and, much as I still love him, that fact makes reading from his POV a bit less compelling. And the themes Pratchett deals with here are perhaps starting to feel a little over-familiar, even if they're good, worthwhile themes. But, still, we're talking about a very high bar, so that "not my favorite" really just means that it's pretty solidly good, rather than flat-out terrific. It's mostly the smaller things I like the most here, though. I like the way Pratchett continues to put a lot of thought into the world-building of the dwarfs and their culture, this time adding a few small glimpses into the trolls' world, as well, including a few really nice little moments with the troll watchman Detritus. Ite also does a great job with lots of interesting minor characters, many of whom come vividly to life in a surprisingly small number of words.
    • 5/5
      Koom Valley, where the dwarves and trolls first went to war. After generations, it's not so much a place anymore (although it's one h#ll of a place!) as a state of mind. And in Ankh-Morpork, Koom Valley is stirring. It's up to Sam Vimes to make sure the proverbial match doesn't hit the tinder and send the whole city sky high - but when the top dwarf is murdered and all signs point to a troll, will even Sam be able to keep the lid on and still make it home by 6 pm for Where's my Cow?One of my favorites!
    • 4/5
      Fairly funny - if not his funniest. Humane as ever. The Discworld is always interesting and funny.
    • 5/5
      Thud by Terry Pratchett is the 34th Discworld novel. A murder has been committed under Ankhmorpork. Meanwhile, Vimes has been ordered to better integrate the Watch.The murder reveals the underworld vastness of the immigrant society of the dwarves. Vimes in his investigation has a lot to learn about dwarf culture (beyond what Carrot has taught him) and how to best assert the Watch's jurisdiction while avoiding a riot.The murder is also tied up in an ancient war between the dwarves and trolls, reenacted in the game of thud (which is sort of like a lopsided game chess).These Discworld books are at their best when they are focused. This one is pretty much an inner-city police procedural with some eye opening looks at race relations.If you plan to read the most recent Discworld books, namely Snuff and Raising Steam, you must read Thud to understand how Koom Valley has changed everything.For those of you who are parents and a child forever stuck on one particular night time book, I recommend getting the companion book, Where is My Cow?
    • 5/5
      At the heart of this novel is the Commander of Ankh-Morpork City Watch, Sam Vimes.Married to dragon breeding Lady Sybil (who has also taken up Sock Darning: She isn't very good at it, but it is the sort of thing one ought to do, as a wife), and with a young son, Sam, expecting his dad to deliver a daily, 6 o'clock reading of, 'Where's my cow?' - complete with sound effects, The Commander is faced with a situation of developing 'inter-species intolerance' which threatens the very existence of Ankh-Morpork itself.With Lord Vetinari pressing him to take on a Vampire as a member of his force (which doesn't go down too well with the resident Were-Wolf - or with Sam himself, for that matter) and with several of his Dwarf officers leaving, Vimes is forced to try to ease the situation as the Battle of Koom Valley anniversary approaches - and the hundred's of years of bickering (and worse) the anniversary has brought with it.A murder in the closed world of the Dwarf Deep-Downers complicates matters, as do threats to his family.Drug sniffing Trolls don't make matters any easier.And why was a very large picture stolen?On one level this is an enjoyable detective romp through (and under) the streets of Ankh-Morpork, driven by a twisting, turning plot and a cast of regular Disc World characters.But if most detective tales are, `Who-done-its'; and Agatha Christie's Poitrot stories are, `How-done-its'; Thud is a very much a, `Why-done-it?'!What is driving the characters to behave the way they do?This is explored most thoroughly in Vimes himself - who is not immune from the petty prejudices of humanity and who exhibits a growing anger as the story develops.The all too easily justified anger is the most threatening thing in the story and brings Vimes, the Trolls and the Dwarfs to the very edge of destruction.The book is a comedy, however, and like all comedies, it leaves the reader with a satisfying optimism.On Disc-World, conflict will never be far away, but it can be resolved.As in most of Pratchett's books, the themes and observations he makes reflect very much on the real world we find ourselves in.Koom Valley, to me, has deep echoes of Kosovo and the `Field of Blackbird's' in 1389 - a battle which has had murderous repercussions down through history and well into our future. (Ismail Kadare's, Three Elegies For Kosovo, explores the same issues as Pratchett, but in a very different genre).And if some of the characters in Thud are almost cliché - so too are some of the real people driving religious, gender and political intolerance (from whichever side).For those who know the Disc-World stories, this is very much in the tradition of the earlier books - no chapters, footnotes, strong clear plot line and lovably eccentric characters (a 5 star Butler in this one, and totally `heart-of-gold, dumb-blond' pole dancer).
    • 5/5
      One of my favorite Terry Pratchett books! Some of his earlier Discworld books are cute, and certainly readable (PTerry is pretty much always readable), but more a "borrow and read" type to me - this is not one of them. This was a very happy "buy and keep" entry to the series for me! This book is as witty as any Discworld novel (wit being what Pratchett does best), but it also has a tightly woven and dare I say actually somewhat epic plot (and I don't just mean epic in the shallow slangy sense - I mean, an actual epic! As mentioned by other reviewers, an impending war looms over the Disc! Can the Watch stop it in time?). The plot also addresses a longstanding, complex, and highly antagonistic relationship in the series mythology between Trolls and Dwarves. Plus, it stars Sam Vimes, one of the most entertaining and likable (not to mention slightly badass) characters in the Discworld novels. You can't go wrong with Sam Vimes as a protagonist. It is testament to how great a writer PTerry really is, that he can manage to make a children's book called "Where's My Cow?" not only a quite funny running gag, but a weirdly ominous plot point at the same time. Like, literally at the same time! Read through the climax and you'll see what I mean. It's chilling and funny all at once. This book, being a more recent Discworld novel, is Pratchett at his best - a master humorist and surprisingly good suspense writer all in one. Earlier volumes sometimes seemed to be entertaining more because of the ideas and some of the dialogue than anything else (see for example, Carpe Jugulum, an amusing deconstruction of vampire myths) - funny, yes, but nothing particularly special, other than their imagination. As Pratchett's career has gone on though, he's honed his skills, and in later books like this one, it really shows.This novel takes place fairly late in the continuity of the Discworld novels, but if you're new to them, don't worry; any given Discworld book can be read out of order or even by itself, just fine. Yes, there's a certain enjoyment you get from seeing characters go from their beginnings if you read in order (for optimal enjoyment, read the other "Watch" books in order first - that is, books like "Guards! Guards!" that center on Ankh-Morpork's City Watch), but Pratchett always makes them accessible enough that you can jump right in with no problem. I'd recommend this book to any fantasy fan who'd like a good literary romp that's equal parts exciting and fun, especially if they'd like a good introduction to Pratchett's work.
    • 5/5
      This is the 3rd Terry Pratchett’s book that I read, the first one being the Color of Magic while the 2nd one is The Bromeliad Trilogy. I always wanted to read more of TP’s books judging from all those interesting buzzes and comments on his magical discworld but never get the chance of doing so (plus I was so caught up with some other authors such as Robert Jordan, George RR Martin and Robin Hobb to name a few).The story revolves around a historical battle between dwarves and trolls some hundred years ago in a place called Koom Valley. With the battle’s anniversary looming around the corner, both sides are getting edgier by the second. The situation worsens with the death of Hamcrusher, dwarf most prominent figure, while a used troll’s club lying conveniently at the murder scene. It may seem like a no-brainer mystery, so it is up to Ankh-Morpok City Watch Commander’s Samuel Vines ( quote: the straightest guy around but not the sharpest knife in the drawer) with his assorted band of police officers (werewolf, dwarves, trolls, humans and vampire) to prevent Ankh-Morpok from becoming the next Koom Valley. I enjoy reading Thud! very much. It is filled with jokes, satire, interesting and colourful characters. Most of the characters are reoccurring characters from TP previous novels but it doesn’t stop new readers from enjoying it. Thus, my third plunge into TP’s world was not for naught. Can’t wait to get my hand on the rest of his novels
    • 3/5
      Satisfying entry in the Watch Series of Discwoldnovels. This one takes direct aim at prejudice, with a plot that revolves around a legendary battle between drawfs and trolls. As usual. Commander Vimes saves the day, but Sam Vimes grows as a character in this book.
    • 4/5
      The Pratchett take on the DaVinci Code. The clues hidden in the painting lead Vimes on a trail of an amazing historical secret! Whenever you have a setup like that the secret is bound to disappoint - how could any secret live up to its hype? - but it's a worthy try. I love the historical documents of the troll and dwarf races. You really have to wish that Pratchett had a son like Christopher Tolkien who can reveal the real breadth and scope of the Discworld. I live in daily fear that he will retire or die suddenly and I'll never learn any more about this amazing universe.