Time for a change and he delivered: (Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett)

Member Name: mpeh

Product:	Thief of Time - Terry Pratchett
Date:	25/08/01 (72 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Slick, Funny, Ludicrous

Disadvantages: None

I have all the discworlds (bar one the cat ate, or my little brother stole or something), I have read them from the Colour of Magic all the way through and they have improved slowly and kept on improving. I would say there was a small glitch with the Hogfather and then Terry was back on track. His last couple have been unnassailable, brilliant and thoroughly enjoyable. This book, in my opinion breaks the trend by being not quite as good as the previous one but it's still brilliant so don't worry too much.

Based around new characters not a bundle he's written about before (like the Truth book 25) the Thief of Time tells the convoluted story of an apprentice monk Lobsang, his guardian and master and a clockmaker. As usual with Pratchett all sorts of things happen within the story but the basic plot outline could be given to be something like this:

1. Genius orphan, given to clockmakers guild in Ankh Morpork wants to make the perfect clock

2. Genius orphan from Ankh Morpork rescued from Thieves guild by a monk of time (more later)

3. One saves the other from a fate worse than fate with a whole host of rediculous happenings along the way.

As usual the things that make the book so good with Pratchett are the little concepts he slides in all over the place. The gentle prod at typical western views of eastern monks, trained in deadly fighting techniques and mysteries of the world we couldn't comprehend is very subtle and clever. The monks of time are taught to control time, spin it out slower or reel it in faster. They can slice it to allow themselves to do two actions in one instant (I think that's how it was supposed to work) and thus are deadly martial artists, or temporal artists one might say.

The characters are all likable, as usual, and I connected with them well. The best character is probably the master, well the sweeper one of teh monks of time, a legend within his own lifetime and a cynic.
I always like Pratchett's cynical characters, Vimes is easily my favourite, and I envy the ease with which he makes them all completely different without making them into charicatures. The outlook on life and the rules he adheres to (the character now) are so daft as to almost make sense and thus be hugely entertaining.

There are an abundance of other little touches that make this all Pratchett. The reinventing Yetis (just read the book) to name just one. The title of this review said Time for a change, well: Pratchett has been moving away from out and out one line funnies in his books and this is a good thing. They have, in general been getting less laugh out loud amusing and more satirical and sarcastic and in many peoples opinions, mine included, better rounded products. I felt it was time for him to do something slightly different to show us he still could and here Pratchett has delivered exactly that, a more 'traditional' discworld novel with more ludicrous scenarios and 'one liners' than the last few. I would like to see the genral trend of Pratchett's books stick to the satire and cynical comments but with the odd 'traditional' one thrown in. This is Pratchett at his best (yawn cliche) and long may he continue (yawn cliche).

Summary: