Thief of Time

Rating:
Summary: Brilliant
Review: What people say everyday without thinking, things we take for granted and the odd traits of people we know all masterfully blended to pull you into the story and not let go. I received Thief of Time and Awakening by Alexander Degrate as a gift. One very satisfied reader. No disappointments, both a must read.

Rating:
Summary: Simply the Best Yet
Review: I admit to enjoying Terry Pratchett very much. I've read all 26 Discworld books. I've got the juveniles and the early experiments like _Strata_. Perhaps the best part of reading so much of his work is that I can see how he has grown and evolved as a writer. _Thief of Time_ is an extremely sophisticated book and, while not his funniest, is plainly his best yet.

Early Discworld books were comedy monologues strung together by a plot. Sometimes a pretty thin plot. As just one example, a whole page was required to set up the famous "felonious monk" pun in _Soul Music_. The early stories tended to be pretty much a structure to support the jokes. Sure, there was more, but it was mostly for laughs.

Somewhere between _Hogfather_ and _Carpe Jugulum_, Pratchett brought his writing to a new level. It's controversial among some of his fans, but the newer books raise deeper issues and work at multiple levels. There are still lots of laughs - you can't read about a raven named "Quoth" without smiling - but there's also a terrific, compelling story to be told. While the humor in _Color of Magic_ could be sophomoric - remember when the imp ran out of the color pink when Rincewind and Twoflower visited the Whore Pits? - there is nothing even slightly sophomoric about the plot or jokes in _Thief of Time_.

This story involves the ongoing struggle between Death and the Auditors, the use and abuse of time, quantum physics, the Monks of Time (appearing for the first itme since _Small Gods_) and the peculiar and completely different aptitudes of two very different young men to manipulate time. As an unexpected bonus, you learn why there are those nagging inconsistencies across the Discworld novels; it turns out its not Terry's fault at all... Oh, and the whole Kung Fu/Mystic Masters thing gets the Pratchett Treatment.

On the Discworld, natural forces and even unnatural forces are personified. Death is a person. Well, maybe three persons, but I don't want to spoil anything. The Auditors - roughly, the heat death of the universe - are more or less persons. Time, as it turns out, is a person. And each of those Personifications has most of the foibles of humans. After all, humans invented them.

Trust me, it all makes perfect sense.

This is a terrific book. Highly recommended. You don't need to know anything about Terry Pratchett, the Discworld or Susan Sto Helit to appreciate this book. I disagree with other reviewers who say that we won't read Pratchett 25 years from now. We will, for the same reason we read Jonathan Swift, Mark Twain and other great satirists: their skewed view of their times that they present helps us understand our past. They help us understand what it means to be human.

The Discworld truly is a mirror of our world and, while it is mostly a fun house mirror, it's still possible to know without doubt what it is you are seeing in that distorting mirror. And it makes you laugh.

Rating:
Summary: time
Review: This book is the coolest discworld book ever

Rating:
Summary: They say...
Review: They say that Order can never beat Chaos. Because Chaos is better organized. And you wonder what Chaos does for a living to maintain his skillset.

They say that when out of all teachers you can get, Miss Susan is the best. And you wonder how she can make all those foreign places appear so real in your classroom. And your parents wonder how she can maintain such perfect order (knowing what a rude little creature you are)...

They say that when the Four Horsemen ride again, at least one of them is bound to leave a worrying wife behind.

They say that there is no time like the present.

They say a lot. Too much probably.

(They say: buy this book. I say: if you give 5 stars, there is no room any more for perfection.)

Rating:
Summary: Spectacular! Pratchett does it again!
Review: A century or so ago, a madman constructed a perfectly accurate clock which, as a side-effect, splintered the universe until the History Monks restored it, piecing bits of space and time back together. Now the world's most sane man (or at least, so he SEEMS) is going to reconstruct the clock. But if he does, and the universe is again splintered, the Monks can't fix things this time.

This is the basic plot behind "Thief of Time," the latest in the Discworld series. The only ones who can stop Jeremy Clockson are Lu-Tze and Lobsang, two of the Monks; Miss Susan, the schoolteacher who is the granddaughter of Death; and the mysterious Fifth Horseman of the Apocalypse.

This is a very good book, hampered only by Miss Susan. She's the favorite character of many readers, but to me she's always been a bit irritating (except in SOUL MUSIC). ... Still, Pratchett takes a step to remedying that here, by letting other characters (and thus us) see one or two of her personality flaws for just that, not 'quirks.'

Even with Miss Susan, this is recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Terry Pratchett is one of my favorite authors
Review: I look forward to every book. Don't get me mistaken; his books are not crowning literary achievements that will be remembered in centuries to come but they are very, very funny. And that's why I love them. So if you don't try this book, at least try one of his other ones. You'll laugh so hard you're stomach will hurt, and you will get strange stares from people around you.

Rating:
Summary: My first Discworld book, and I loved it!
Review: I just finished reading "Good Omens" byt Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett last week, and was hungry for more. Fortunately, I ran into some Pratchett fans in the bookstore, and they recommended "Thief of Time" as a good book to start with. I can't remember ever enjoying an author so much since Tolkien! (Not to mention that Pratchett is quite a bit funnier!) You don't need to have read any of the other books in this series to follow along, by any means. I alternated between laughing, thinking so hard that my head nearly exploded, and laughing again. I never thought I would enjoy something like this, based on the description on the back of the book, but I'm so grateful I gave it a try because I'm hopelessly hooked now. I would say that the only downfall to reading this is that it may cost you quite a bit of money to keep up with your "Pratchett Fix" afterwards! Fortunately, it looks like I'm going to have plenty of his books to read, so I won't be going into withdrawals anytime soon! You don't need to be a fantasy or science fiction lover to enjoy this book; just someone who loves a dry sense of humor and a good read!

Rating:
Summary: . . . TICK . . .
Review: Of the fifteen or so books I've read in the Discworld series, this is the most esoteric and metaphysical -- and, perhaps for that reason, it tends to drag in the middle, when Pratchett is having to come up with explanations and the main characters are mostly on the road. The plot revolves around the Monks of Time, ensconced in a monastery way up in the high mountains near the Hub. Their job is to see that things happen. Not merely the "right things" -- just things. They've learned how to move time from slack periods in history to those points where it's really needed. And perhaps the most important person in the monastery is not the 800-year-old abbot (presently enduring an infantile reincarnation) but the 700-year-old lowly sweeper, Lu-Tze, who takes under his wing a novice named Lobsang, an orphaned ex-thief from Ankh-Morpork, who turns out (of course) to be very important to the survival of Time itself. Because there's a young clockmaker in the city who is about to construct a crystal clock with the ability to stop the progress of time. All this happens because the non-human Auditors want everything nice and tidy. My favorite character this time, though, is Miss Susan, whom we've met before. She's DEATH's granddaughter and she shares a certain number of his abilities (even though she's adopted, but genetics works in more ways than one), which she uses mostly in her job as a grade-school teacher. This is not one of Pratchett's best efforts, especially for his later work, but it's still far, far from being a waste of time.

Rating:
Summary: A Pinnacle of Writing
Review: Terry Pratchett surpassed all of his previous creative achievements in "Thief of Time." Ideas and themes that have been touched up in his previous works break forth in a new level of expression. All while keeping a lighthearted innocence and freedom that keeps bringing people back to his world again and again.

Pratchett has spent years developing a rich fantasy world populated with vivid and memorable characters. He makes good use of those characters to explore the fundamental question, "What does it mean to be human?"

In this novel Pratchett applies his own unique view to the subject of Time.

Pratchett explores time through three distinctive parings. Fist he presents us with a group of people who specialize in smoothing out all of the wrinkles in time. This group is called the Monks of History. We see the Monks of History as presented to the apprentice Lobsang Ludd by the infamous time saving here, The Sweeper, aka Lu Tze. Lu Tze is an ancient, down to earth monk working in a world of ivory tower idealists, as well as a rascal, a maverick and an accomplished trickster. He is one of the most charming and delightful characters that Pratchett has ever brought to life.

A second paring of characters features the never-ending dance between the anthropomorphic personification of Death and his "granddaughter" Susan. Here Death is at his most human, trying to once again save the world from the dreaded Auditors while obeying the limitations of his appointed role. By presenting Susan with an irresistibly tantalizing offer, Death is able to motivate Susan to help save the world from certain doom.

A third pairing features the clock making genius Jeremy Clockson and his patron, the mysterious Lady LeJean. Jeremy has been commissioned to make the perfect clock, and if he succeeds then it will have unimaginable consequences for everyone.

This is a delightful read for the both dedicated fan and for the first time visitor to Discworld.


Rating:
Summary: My first Discworld book, and I loved it!
Review: I just finished reading "Good Omens" byt Neil Gaimen and Terry Pratchett last week, and was hungry for more. Fortunately, I ran into some Pratchett fans in the bookstore, and they recommended "Thief of Time" as a good book to start with. I can't remember ever enjoying an author so much since Tolkien! (Not to mention that Pratchett is quite a bit funnier!) You don't need to have read any of the other books in this series to follow along, by any means. I alternated between laughing, thinking so hard that my head nearly exploded, and laughing again. I never thought I would enjoy something like this, based on the description on the back of the book, but I'm so grateful I gave it a try because I'm hopelessly hooked now. I would say that the only downfall to reading this is that it may cost you quite a bit of money to keep up with your "Pratchett Fix" afterwards! Fortunately, it looks like I'm going to have plenty of his books to read, so I won't be going into withdrawals anytime soon! You don't need to be a fantasy or science fiction lover to enjoy this book; just someone who loves a dry sense of humor and a good read!