Thud!: Discworld #30

Pratchett started out writing unusually good satire, began to develop character and story, became better and better at all three. With Thud! he goes beyond satire to allegory, makes characters breathe before our eyes and tells a story that is both painful and triumphant.

This is not the book to start reading Pratchett however. Go back to Men at Arms, then on to Feet of Clay, Jingo, The Fifth Elephant, and after going through the power of Night Watch you will be ready for Thud. Of course there are many other Pratchett stories to read in addition, these are just the ones that concentrate on Sam Vimes.

Reviews always mention how funny these books are. They are funny. But they are a great deal more than that.

Terry Pratchett's latest Vime's work is a wonder. Somehomw he manages to seemlessly weave parodying Da Vinci Code together with confronting the horrors of racial hatred and classic parental angst to create a story that is truly an entertaining marvel. Although, I can't say this is his best book it certainly is a lot better than some of his early work and follows his consistently trend of steady improvement. Terry Pratchett is a marvel of creative skill and talent and his latest outing is no exception to his extraordinary skill.

Commander Vimes and the watch are back, sorting out an explosive situation between trolls and dwarves. This book shows Pratchett's characteristic clever word-play and has an underlying social commentary on fundamentalism and conflict. I enjoyed the reading very much, but cannot recommend this except to those who have already read at least six or so of Pratchett's books. The cast of characters is large, and it helps to know a lot about Vimes, Colon, Nobby, and the rest before tackling this book. This book also has an unusual lack of "Diskworld" aspects: there is a bit of magic, but the world seems a little less weird than the world in most of Prachett's novels.

It is hard to write a review of your favorite Sam Vimes/Discworld book. Nothing is good enough - I have enjoyed listening to it many many times, in between other audios, about a month goes by and I am in the mood to hear it again. I even ordered the signed hardback and I usually resist any 'big fan' activity like that.
*Not just worth a credit-
-It's worth paying full price.

I have been a fan of Terry Pratchett for almost 20 years. This book represents the peak, in my opinion, of his writing. It is captivating, intelligent, hilarious, witty, and shows an amazing depth of human interaction and psychology (of course it does so by using many non-human analogs). This book mostly follows Vimes as he endeavors to stop a traditional war between the dwarves and the trolls from destroying his city. Stephen Briggs' narration, as always, just adds to the enjoyment of the story.

I must admit a bias toward Nigel Planar as the narrator of the Discworld books, but Stephen Briggs does a fantastic job in this book. His voicing of Cmd. Samuel Vimes is superb, as is his voicings for the various dwarves and trolls. I have to agree with the previous reviewer, though, that this book is not suited for the new reader. There's much about the Discworld and Ankh Morpork that Pratchett assumes the reader already knows. BTW, if you enjoyed this book, go out and buy the children's book "Where's My Cow?" that's mention in this novel. ...yes, he really did publish "Where's My Cow?" :D Its fabulous!!!

An excellent story with drama, pathos, humor, suspense ... all the good stuff!

I liked the darkness of it

Stephen Briggs is ALWAYS fabulous

I love all Terry Pratchett books

I had listened to snuff and really liked that. This is the a prior book in the series and I have grown to love the Characters.

He is amazing. I, unlike others who review narrators, like the multiple voice/Multiple character style. The books are very humorous and so is the performance.

Not really. It's very funny.

This was the first Discworld book I read and it was what made me read the whole series. I thoroughly recommend this book for anyone whether a fan of the series or as an introduction to Terry Pratchett wonderful fantasy world.

Love the characters. Love the dialog. Love the story. Very funny and clever in an english dry wit sort of way. The jokes and funny bits fly by so fast that sometimes they are easy to miss. I would frequently rewind to catch a subtle funny part. Reminds me of dialog in a Quentin Tarantino movie or Monty Python.

None of this would work well with the wrong sort of narrator. No worries, Briggs is as good as it gets. His spectrum of accents and voices are off the charts. The Audible versions are better than reading because of this.