I originally intended to read
Thud! quite some time ago. I got my
hands on a copy not long after reading
Going Postal and being on a bit
of a Pratchett-kick, thought I’d give it ago. Then something else came up…
considering the time when it was published I’m fairly certain that something was
the Kathy Reichs books which devoured as quickly as I could get my hands on.
Thud! sat on my bedside table for a while, then was moved to a
different pile of books, which was in turn moved until it surfaced when I was
tidying my room and I handed it off to another family member to read.
Until now!
I honestly knew nothing about this book before starting it. I love looking at
the covers of Terry Pratchett books and trying to work out what’s going to
happen inside. I knew that the game Thud had been mentioned by Vetinari in
Going Postal so I guessed from the title and the picture of a giant
Thud board on the front that this was going to place a significant part (I’m so
good at deducing things, I could probably be in the Watch!) but aside from that,
I had little to go on. The blurb told me that it involved Sam Vimes, the on
going feud between the dwarfs and the trolls, and a book called
Where’s My
Cow? all sounded good to me.
I realise I say this every time the subject of Discworld novels comes up, but
I’m a) getting low on new Discworld material, and b) now reading Discworld books
I’ve never read before. All of the books I have left to read (all, what? six of
them) are brand new to me. I might have heard odd things about them, but I will
never have read them myself before. It’s kind of thrilling. I feel as though I
should be savouring them but I couldn’t help but tear through this one in three
days and I suspect that this is going to be the case for the others as well
(though the fact that I was using
Thud! to avoid actually finishing off
my EMA may also have been part of the reason).
“*Vimes had never got on with any game much more complex
than darts. Chess in particular had always annoyed him. It was the dumb way the
pawns went off an slaughtered their fellow pawns while the kings lounged about
doing nothing that always got to him; if only the pawns united, maybe talked the
rooks round, the whole board couldn’t been a republic in a dozen
moves.”
Page 86
The Watch books are among my favourite of the series (there are quite a few
of them now as well). I love how the character of Sam Vimes has developed. In
the course of the books we’ve seen him go from a beaten down alcoholic, to a
married man (and Duke to boot) who turns the Watch around and says pretty much
what he likes to Vetinari with relatively painless results, and now who has a
young son; Young Sam. I love the contrast between Vimes at work and Vimes with
his son.
“‘I suspect I shall feel the same when when I go out there
with a megaphone and should, “Hello boys, welcome to the replay of Koom Valley!
Hey, let’s hold it right here in the city!”’
‘I don’t think your should
actually put it like that, sir,’ said Carrot.”
Page 170
Of course, a large part of Vimes’ relationship with his son revolves around
the reading of a particular picture book every evening at six o’clock. The book
in question is called
Where’s My Cow? and features a farmer looking for
his cow but finding virtually every animal but. I do remember being in Greenock
and almost buying myself a copy of
Where’s My Cow? but deciding against
it, now I’m regretting that decision and I think I’ll have to look up a copy
from somewhere, just to complete the collection you understand.
I’ve also reworked the story of
Where’s My Cow? into a version for
Tara regarding our van. Tara loves travelling by car (even if she has decided
that she likes eating bits of the car interior just recently) but she likes the
van more, and will happily try and get into any vehicle she’s given half a
chance. Whereas
Where’s My Cow? goes ‘Where’s my cow? Is that my cow?
It goes ‘baa’. That’s not my cow. It’s a sheep!’ my version goes along the lines
of ‘Where’s my van? Is that my van? It has no roof. That’s not my van. It’s a
pickup truck!’ Tara doesn’t seem to appreciate it very much, but it keeps me
amused.
And back to
Thud!
“‘By the way, how did it go in Turn Again Lane?’ he said,
stretching and breathing deeply.
‘Oh wonnerful, sir,’ said Detritus happily.
‘Six alchemists an’ fifty pound o’ fresh Slide. In an’ out, quick an’ sweet, all
banged up in the Tanty.’
‘Didn’t know what’d hit ’em, eh?’ said
Vimes.
Detritus looked mildly offended at this. ‘Oh no, sir,’ he said, ‘I
made sure they knew I hit ’em.’”
Page 198
During my review of
Cross Bones, I pointed out the connection to
The Da Vinci Code (in terms of the whole did Jesus have kids? What
happened to his family? thing) which I suspected what trying to cash in on the
succession that Dan Brown’s book had generated. Well not even Terry Pratchett
can resist joining in the fun, Discworld has it’s own mystery involving
The
Koom Valley Codex with a painting of the battle of Koom Valley which the
painter supposedly hit a clue to the mystery in. Koom Valley, I should note,
occurred hundreds of years before, involved the trolls and the dwarfs one of
which ambushed the others and which is the cause of a great deal of racial
tension in modern day Ankh-Morpork. The painting is by Methodia Rascal who
believed that he was either turning into a chicken or being followed by one and
who did in fact make a discovery which Vimes finds himself trying to
unravel.
That’s what I love about Pratchett’s Discworld books, they’re so clever and
convoluted and they parallel the real world so well. I love the little jokes;
both the ones which are tied in to the series and the ones which link to our
world, especially the latter because I like it when I get them, hehe. Despite
being smelly and dangerous, I would love to visit the Disc, although then I
wouldn’t get to see the footnotes.
“‘Oh, shoes,’ said Cheery. ‘I can talk about
shoes. Has anyone seen the new Yan Rockhammer solid copper
slingbacks?’
‘Er, we don’t go to a metalworker for our footwear, dear,’ said
Sally.”
Page 331
What’s a little bit unusual about this copy of
Thud! is that it has
a preview of the first chapter of
Wintersmith, the next Discworld book
in the series at the end.
Wintersmith is one of the young adult
Discworld novels featuring Tiffany Aching (who I’ve not seen since
A Hat
Full of Sky) and it’s enough of a teaser to make me want to pick it up
right now… I’m resisting temptation though, between
Thud! and
Wintersmith I’ve got
Bones To Ashes,
Mockingjay and
three ebooks to read (and review). Better get started there quickly then…
“… YOU SEE, YOU ARE HAVING A NEAR DEATH EXPERIENCE, WHICH
INESCAPABLY MEANS THAT I MUST UNDERGO A NEAR VIMES EXPERIENCE. DON’T
MIND ME. CARRY ON WITH WHATEVER YOU WERE DOING. I HAVE A BOOK.”
Page
388