Thief of Time

Many of you have probably read books from Terry Prachett's Discworld series before; if you haven't, or if you missed out on Good Omens , one of the funniest books ever, you should begin to rectify your mistakes. I've reviewed Prachett's most recent installment in the long-running Discworld series, Thief of Time.

Thief of Time author Terry Pratchett pages 336 publisher HarperCollins rating 8 reviewer hemos ISBN 0060199563 summary Time is managed by an order of monks, who store time. However, their order is threatened with the construction of the mostaccurate clock ever -- heavy satire ensues.

As always, attempting to explain the plot behind a Prachett novel is ... difficult. Lemme do the best I can: In Discworld, where the series takes place, Time is a resource that is managed by the Monks of History. They store, divvy it out and generally make it so that the world has enough time. However, outside forces are trying to stop Time, by constructing the Discworld's most perfect clock -- if the clock starts ticking, then the world will stop.

Our heroes include one of the preeminent cleaners from the Monks of History, his young "grasshopper," Susan, the Granddaughter of Death, oh, and the fifth member of the 4 Horsemen. And I nearly forgot the Son of Time. Or Sons. Or something like that. Yes, it's a Prachett novel at it's best. Also make regular appearances are series perennials DEATH and DEATH OF MICE. Personally, I've never been a huge fan of DEATH OF MICE, but I do find DEATH to be one of the best characters.

Plot of this particular book aside, here's the lowdown on the Discworld series -- it's satire. Yes, Virginia, even in this day and age of heavy cyncism, there's still good authors writing satire. In the past, the Discworld series has dealth with such fun issues as freedom of the press, gender relations, international relations, the telephone/telegraph/internet and role of government. The thing that's fun about the Discworld series is that Prachett's usually right on, at least from my point of view. Thief of Time is a look at that resource that everyone in our day and age claims to have not enough of, and is scrambling around for. While Prachett's satirical devices can be a bit cutesy at time -- some of the Monks of History parts, in particular, I thought were a bit over the top -- the underlying point is still the same: people create the sense of time deprivation around us. We are the ones responsible for making ourselves feel like we don't have time.

Beyond just our own interactions with time, the main anatognists in the book, the people behind the scenes, also have a serious issue with human life and all that entails. In dealing with them in the book, I get the feeling that Prachett is trying to tell us to wake up and smell the morning coffee. Being human is pretty darn cool, and we should appreciate all the crazy stuff that's around us, and enjoy life.

The Discworld series is not written for those with a dour sense of life or themselves. This, and the other books in the series are easy reads, and don't take long to go through -- but you are almost always guaranteed to laugh out loud at least several times. And somehow, despite the humour, he still manages to make a point about life, and lampoon what's around us. And hopefully the next book will have Captain Carrot.

You can purchase this book at Fatbrain.