Thud!

By: Terry Pratchett

Narrated by: Stephen Briggs

Length: 10 hrs and 31 mins

Publisher's Summary

Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch will be damned if he lets anyone disturb his city's always tentative peace, and that includes a rabble-rousing dwarf from the sticks who's been stirring up trouble on the eve of the anniversary of one of Discworld's most infamous historical events.

Centuries earlier, in a hellhole called Koom Valley, trolls met dwarfs in bloody combat. Though nobody's quite sure why they fought or who actually won, each species still bears the cultural scars and views the other with simmering animosity. Lately, an influential dwarf, Grag Hamcrusher, has been fomenting unrest among Ankh-Morpork's more diminutive citizens. And it doesn't help matters when the pint-size provocateur is discovered beaten to death, with a troll club lying nearby.

Vimes knows the well-being of his city depends on his ability to solve the Hamcrusher homicide. But there's more than one corpse waiting for him in the vast mine network the dwarfs have been excavating beneath Ankh-Morpork's streets. A deadly puzzle is pulling Sam Vimes deep into the muck and mire of superstition, hatred, and fear, and perhaps all the way to Koom Valley itself.

©2005 Terry Pratchett (P)2005 HarperCollins Publishers

Critic Reviews

• 2005 Publishers Weekly Listen Up Award, Science-Fiction/Fantasy

"Pratchett's fantastic imagination and satirical wit are on full display." (Publishers Weekly)

Better with each novel

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.

27 of 27 people found this review helpful

Irony, parody and some really great laughs

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.

12 of 12 people found this review helpful

For Pratchett fans

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.

10 of 10 people found this review helpful

A Pratchett Masterpiece

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.

6 of 6 people found this review helpful

One of the best of the best!

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.

3 of 3 people found this review helpful

Great writing and superb narration.

Any additional comments?

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.

2 of 2 people found this review helpful

Wonderful Listen

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!!!

4 of 5 people found this review helpful

One of my favorite stories

I loved my experience listening to this story and I feel moved to get another one.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

One of his better ones

What did you love best about Thud!?

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

What did you like best about this story?

I liked the darkness of it

Have you listened to any of Stephen Briggs’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Stephen Briggs is ALWAYS fabulous

1 of 1 people found this review helpful

Great Book in the Series.

Where does Thud! rank among all the audiobooks you’ve listened to so far?

I love all Terry Pratchett books

What did you like best about this story?

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.

What about Stephen Briggs’s performance did you like?

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.

Was there a moment in the book that particularly moved you?

Not really. It's very funny.

1 of 1 people found this review helpful