“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
Industry Reviews
"Pratchett's imagination and satirical wit are on full display." -- Publishers Weekly (starred review)
"Imgenious, brilliant and hilarious." -- Washington Post
"A delight from beginning to end." -- Fantasy & Science Fiction
"One of the darker Discworld tales, Thud! does not disappoint." -- Sunday Express (London)
"Pratchett, ever inventive, offers up his usual fun and games with typography and footnotes, a full complement of parody, word-play and swift allusion. . . . But Thud! moves from a comedy of multi-culti Ankh-Morpork manners into a pungent exploration of prejudice and dread, hypocrisy and rage. For all its magic carriage rides, technomancy and gloriously absurd transfigurations, on Discworld, the death of innocents (and innocence) is never cause for laughter." -- New York Newsday
"As always, Pratchett's latest Discworld yarn is funny, fast-paced, the kind of satire that explores serious issues while making readers love it." -- Booklist
"Funny, poignant, complicated and character-driven." -- Locus
"The usual quick-moving, amusing and entertaining Pratchett tale. Pratchett has never shied away from using his settings and characters to offer commentary on the world, and [THUD!] is no different . . . . [Pratchett]'s his usual brilliant self here -- sarcastic, ironic, and just laugh-out-loud funny." -- Associated Press
