Thud!
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| Terry Pratchett The Discworld series 34th novel – 8th City Watch story  |
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| Outline | |
| Characters: | Samuel Vimes, Ankh-Morpork City Watch |
| Locations: | Ankh-Morpork, Koom Valley |
| Motifs: | Fantasy, racism, trolls, dwarves, The Da Vinci Code, chess |
| Publication details | |
| Year of release: | 2005 |
| Original publisher: | Doubleday |
| Hardback ISBN: | ISBN 0-385-60867-5 |
| Paperback ISBN: | ISBN 0-552-15267-6 |
| Other details | |
| Awards: | |
| Notes: | Companion volume to Where's My Cow? |
Thud! is Terry Pratchett's 34th Discworld novel, released in the United States of America on September 13, 2005, the United Kingdom on October 1, 2005, and may have been released before that date in other countries, such as Norway and Denmark.
Contents |
[edit] Plot introduction
"Koom Valley? That was where the trolls ambushed the dwarfs, or the dwarfs ambushed the trolls. It was far away. It was a long time ago. But 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. With his beloved Watch crumbling around him and war-drums sounding, he must unravel every clue, outwit every assassin and brave any darkness to find the solution. And darkness is following him. Oh...and at six o'clock every day, without fail, with no excuses, he must go home to read 'Where's My Cow?', with all the right farmyard noises, to his little boy. There are some things you have to do." [1]
[edit] Plot summary
As the book opens, a dwarven demagogue, Grag Hamcrusher, is apparently murdered, and the only witness is a confused Gutter Troll called Brick. As ethnic tensions between Ankh-Morpork's troll and dwarf communities mount in the buildup to the anniversary of the Battle Of Koom Valley, Lord Vetinari convinces Commander Vimes to interview a vampire applicant to the Watch. The new recruit, 51-year-old Salacia "Sally" von Humpeding, becomes, along with Angua and Carrot, attached to the investigation surrounding Hamcrusher's death.
Meanwhile, Nobbs and Colon begin an investigation into the theft of the fifty-foot painting The Battle of Koom Valley by the supposedly-insane artist Methodia Rascal from a city museum. Nobbs has a new girlfriend, the exotic dancer Tawneee (pronounced with each 'e' as a separate syllable); Nobby first caught her eye when slipping an IOU into her garter.
A recurring element in the book is Sam Vimes' race to get home every night by six o'clock to read the book Where's My Cow? to his infant son, no matter what; Pratchett uses this theme as a symbol of Vimes' determination never to compromise his own morality. Another is the game Thud, which first appeared in Going Postal; the game, which is a symbolic replication of the Battle of Koom Valley, requires the player to learn to think as both sides.
We learn more about the werewolf/vampire tensions, as Angua resists the urge to fight Sally over every tiny detail.
[edit] Trivia
Thud! was released in the USA three weeks before it was released in Pratchett's native UK, to coincide with a United States signing tour.
Many of the book's elements, particularly mistrust of outsiders, latent racism, and the bringing home of faraway ethnic conflicts, coincide with then-current events in Britain – although the book was completed before the 7 July 2005 London bombings. The character of Grag Bashfulsson echoes a contemporary debate in British Islam about the lack of home-grown imams to preach in local mosques. A young Troll called Brick has a serious problem with Trollish drugs that has dragged him into the lowest part of the gutter. The Dwarfs and Trolls of the Discworld have often been used as allusions to warring ethnic and political factions, especially how Westerners can come to terms with and understand them in a more positive and rational light.
The subplot concerning alleged "hidden messages" in the painting of Koom Valley, and the accompanying conspiracy theory book, The Koom Valley Codex parodies The Da Vinci Code by Dan Brown.
Other references include the BlackBerry palmtop computer (with Bluetooth technology) and the Yo! Sushi restaurant chain, while Bashfulsson's name suggests he is the descendant of one of the characters in Disney's Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. The dwarf sign indicating a mine -- a circle with a horizontal line through it -- parodies the famous logo of the London Underground.
[edit] Editions
 Doubleday edition |
 HarperCollins edition |
- Doubleday (United Kingdom, Australia, and Canada etc)
- ISBN 0-385-60867-5 Hardcover
- HarperCollins (U.S.)
- ISBN 0-06-081522-1 Hardcover
[edit] Notes
[edit] External links
- Information from L-Space.org
- Thud! at Discworld & Pratchett Wiki
- Discussion about the book at Thudgame.com
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