I've been meaning to write this book review for a while now, since I've already read 5 other books in the meantime. That probably says a lot about my personality, but I'm not willing to delve too deeply into that right now...
Thud! is a mix of The DaVinci Code, The Lord of the Rings, a police detective novel (in the vein of Michael Connelly) and a little Brittish humor all baked together to make one tasty cake. Parts of it made me laugh out loud. Parts of it make me think "Ahhh, how cute". Parts of it were page-turningly exciting. But the whole thing kept me locked up and entertained. I thoroughly enjoyed reading Thud! and I can't count the number of times I recommended it to Erin while I was reading it.
In this book we follow Sam Vimes (who besides being my favorite character so far in all of the Discworld books I've read, is the commander of the city guard) hears rumors about the murder of Grag Hamcrusher, a dwarf extremist religious leader. With racial tensions already at a fever pitch between Dwarves and Trolls, this is the last thing Commander Vimes needs in his not-so-fair city of Ankh-Morpork (which has the dubious city motto of "Pure in heart and water"). The book follows Sam on his journey to discover the truth behind Hamcrusher's death and along the way, to solve the mystery of "The Battle of Koom Valley", a painting created by an insane artist named Methodia Rascal.
Thud! is the 34th book in Pratchet's 36 book Discworld series. While it might be intimidating to jump right into the latter part of such a long series, I thought Pratchet did a marvellous job of making the reader familiar with Discworld (the imaginary world where the story takes place). I had read the first book (The Color of Magic) but nothing else in the series before picking up Thud! and I didn't feel lost at all.
I loved Thud! so much that I have since read 4 other books in the Discworld series (The Light Fantastic, Monstrous Regiment, Night Watch and Going Postal) and am currently reading Equal Rites. In fact, I've made it a goal to read all 36 books now. And Terry Pratchet's got my vote for a 37th as well.
I wish it weren't so late, or I'd go up to campus and see if the library has this book available. Sounds pretty good to me. I've been reading a lot of gory, thriller mystery books lately, and need something that doesn't involve a monster eating the hypothalamus out of human brains. After I finish the book I'm reading, I think this will be my next.
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