Book Home Books Information Thud!

Thud!

Thud! is Terry Pratchett's 34th Discworld novel, released in the Unites States of America on September 13, 2005 and scheduled to be released in the United Kingdom in October 1, 2005; it may have been released already in other countries, such as Norway and Denmark.

Blurb
"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."

Plot
As the book opens, a dwarven demagogue, Grag Hamcrusher, is apparently murdered. 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 seperate 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.

Trivia
Thud! was released in the USA three weeks before it was released in Pratchett's native UK, to concide 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.