Thud!, by Terry Pratchett, is a good book. It's also the traditional sound that a Troll club makes when it hits a Dwarf on the head. Which is one of the headaches that Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch has been saddled with.
Commander Vimes and all of the old favorites from the City Watch are trying to find out who killed a Dwarf holy-man...er dwarf. And at the same time are trying to prevent the latest re-incarnation of the Battle of Koom Valley - the formal beginning of the animosity between Dwarf and Troll, now coming up on its 1000th anniversary. (A battle in which both sides claim to have been ambushed by the other.)
All of this is happening in Ankh-Morpork - melting pot of the Disk. A flat world resting upon four giant elephants who stand atop Atuin, the great space-swimming turtle. (And this is no local myth. It has been scientifically proven by brave adventurers who have gone to the edge of the Disk and looked down.)
Thud! is a fun who-dunnit set in a world of sarcastic fantasy. The Diskworld is a place where dwarfs, wizards, men and trolls all exist within the same city. Albeit not necessarily peacefully. And there be dragons as well. Watch out for them, because if they eat the wrong thing, the next sound you hear is very loud hiss followed by an even louder pop.
So read Thud and follow Commander Vimes as he digs down to find the dwarf-murderer and learns what really happened at the Battle of Koom Valley one thousand years ago...
Rating: 5 out of 5
Posted by GEBIV at October 21, 2005 08:28 AM | TrackBackYup. Not the place for new readers to start with Pratchett, but a damn fine addition to the series.
Posted by: Pixy Misa at October 21, 2005 08:42 AM