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bluejayreads's review against another edition
3.5
As much as I love Commander Sam Vimes as a character, I often struggle with the City Watch books. And much of that is just because of their topics – they tend to be the most overtly political of the Discworld books, and as Commander Vimes is the Discworld equivalent of a police chief, often lean towards the police procedural and/or mystery ends of the plot spectrum. None of these are things I’m particularly fond of.
So for the first roughly half of this book, which primarily a murder mystery about who murdered one particular dwarf, I struggled quite a bit. There were some promising elements, to be sure. I was especially hopeful that we might get some character work as Commander Vimes was forced to confront his racism against vampires – but it ended up being Angua who had to wrestle personal anti-vampire sentiment, and everything on Vimes’ end shook out in a less-than-ideal way. There was definitely a lot more to this plot than a simple murder mystery, and even more than an escalation of the dwarf-troll tensions that have run through the past couple City Watch books. But it took a while to actually get going on that.
Once it actually got going, it was quite good. And if I’m honest, even the early parts weren’t bad – they just weren’t exactly to my taste. This book is one of the heavier entries in the Discworld canon, full of both literal and figurative darkness, a lot of prejudice and hatred, and some very real threats to our protagonists’ life, limbs, and even loved ones. It was well-written and entertaining, but felt confused at many points. The themes and messages got muddled, to the point where I can’t pick out anything beyond the obvious “war bad” and “history is written by biased tellers.” And the plot was fantastically complicated. Commander Vimes struggled to put it all together, and so did I. And it didn’t feel like one of those complex plots that made sense once you knew the answer. In fact, even knowing how everything shook out I felt like I still didn’t have all the answers.
Don’t get me wrong, it’s still an enjoyable read. For all its problems, it’s still well-written, with a cast of interesting characters and enough adventure and zany happenings to keep me engaged, even if I wasn’t always sure how everything fit together. I think it had some potential that it didn’t quite live up to, but it was still a perfectly fine read and I enjoyed it.
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death, Violence, and Injury/Injury detail
Moderate: Racism and Murder
Minor: Child death and Drug use
Possession/mind controlwoweewhoa's review against another edition
adventurous
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
4.0
Content Warnings
Graphic: Death and Drug use
Moderate: Racism, Murder, and Alcohol
pprescott's review against another edition
adventurous
dark
funny
hopeful
inspiring
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
5.0
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism, Violence, Xenophobia, and Murder
Minor: Police brutality and War
crufts's review against another edition
adventurous
emotional
funny
lighthearted
mysterious
tense
medium-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? A mix
- Strong character development? Yes
- Loveable characters? Yes
- Diverse cast of characters? Yes
- Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated
4.75
Thud! is the 34th novel in the Discworld series by Terry Pratchett, and the 7th novel about the Ankh-Morpork City Watch. I would recommend reading the earlier Watch books first to get the background - at least Guards! Guards! (#8) to have the Watch introduced, and Men at Arms (#9) to meet Angua and Detritus.
Work never rests for the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, led by Commander Sam Vimes. As the anniversary of the Battle of Koom Valley approaches, a historic battle between dwarves and trolls, ethnic tensions in the city are growing.
What could be worse than that? Only the theft of a famous painting depicting the battle, stolen from under the noses of the art gallery.
And what could be worse than that? A dwarf religious/cultural leader has been murdered, and clues suggest that a troll did it.
Can Vimes and his Watch find and apprehend the murderer before inter-species riots break out in the streets of Ankh-Morpork?
I enjoyed Thud! from start to finish, constantly wanting to know what would happen next. For starters, it's basically a murder mystery investigated by the Watch, which made for a fascinating plot. It's also very funny, as we've learned to expect from Terry Pratchett, but it still involves serious themes like racial tension and civil integration in an interesting way.
Like the previous novel Men at Arms, there are a lot of moving parts, but the novel didn't feel overly crowded or cluttered.
As far as great characters go, we're spoiled for choice. A bevy of beloved returning characters appear, including Lady Sybil Ramkin, Cpt. Carrot, Sgt. Angua, Sgt. Detritus, Sgt. Cheery (I haven't read her book yet! Gotta get around to reading Feet of Clay), photographer Otto Chriek, wizard university Chancellor Ridculley, Lord Vetinari, etc. It was impressive that the author was able to keep track of all these people and factions running around the city!
Speaking of characters, I liked that the women characters had important roles. Cpt. Carrot contributes to the investigation, but I liked that he was not able to solve everything - a lot of crucial tasks fall to the three Watch ladies (Cheery, Angua, and Sally the newly-hired vampire) since they all have nightvision and much of the investigation is underground. I wasn't completely interested by the Angua/Sally feud but admittedly it did seem in-character for them.
Finally, Commander Vimes being a dad was adorable.
Work never rests for the City Watch of Ankh-Morpork, led by Commander Sam Vimes. As the anniversary of the Battle of Koom Valley approaches, a historic battle between dwarves and trolls, ethnic tensions in the city are growing.
What could be worse than that? Only the theft of a famous painting depicting the battle, stolen from under the noses of the art gallery.
And what could be worse than that? A dwarf religious/cultural leader has been murdered, and clues suggest that a troll did it.
Can Vimes and his Watch find and apprehend the murderer before inter-species riots break out in the streets of Ankh-Morpork?
I enjoyed Thud! from start to finish, constantly wanting to know what would happen next. For starters, it's basically a murder mystery investigated by the Watch, which made for a fascinating plot. It's also very funny, as we've learned to expect from Terry Pratchett, but it still involves serious themes like racial tension and civil integration in an interesting way.
Like the previous novel Men at Arms, there are a lot of moving parts, but the novel didn't feel overly crowded or cluttered.
As far as great characters go, we're spoiled for choice. A bevy of beloved returning characters appear, including Lady Sybil Ramkin, Cpt. Carrot, Sgt. Angua, Sgt. Detritus, Sgt. Cheery (I haven't read her book yet! Gotta get around to reading Feet of Clay), photographer Otto Chriek, wizard university Chancellor Ridculley, Lord Vetinari, etc. It was impressive that the author was able to keep track of all these people and factions running around the city!
Speaking of characters, I liked that the women characters had important roles. Cpt. Carrot contributes to the investigation, but I liked that he was not able to solve everything - a lot of crucial tasks fall to the three Watch ladies (Cheery, Angua, and Sally the newly-hired vampire) since they all have nightvision and much of the investigation is underground. I wasn't completely interested by the Angua/Sally feud but admittedly it did seem in-character for them.
Finally, Commander Vimes being a dad was adorable.
Young Sam pulled himself up against the cot’s rails, and said “Da!” The world went soft.
The pacing was very good overall, although was a section near the end (after the climactic scenes where
Excellent novel, another must-read for Discworld fans.
Content Warnings
Moderate: Drug abuse, Racism, Violence, Religious bigotry, Murder, and War
Drug abuse: A character is addicted to several fantasy drugs ("slab", "scrape", etc), played for humour.Violence, war: The historic battle of Koom Valley.
Murder: The premise of the murder mystery.
Religious bigotry, racism: Fantasy racism between the dwarves and the trolls.
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