I’ve just finished reading Terry Pratchett’s latest Discworld novel, “Thud”. I’m a bit of a slow reader – a few pages each night before I fall asleep – so I’ve been beaten to the book by three other members of the family.
‘Thud’ is the name of a fictional chess-like strategy game played by dwarves and trolls. Players have to play the game twice, once using the dwarves on the board, and once using the trolls on the board. That way players get to think from the perspective of the other race.
Terry Pratchett uses the ‘Thud’ game as the centre-piece in a murder mystery set in Ankh Morpork (London) and the Valley of Koom (Armageddon?). Inspector Sam Vimes and his police team must solve the puzzle surrounding the death of dwarves in underground tunnels before all hell breaks loose in a re-enactment of the cataclysmic battle of Koom.
This is a satirical insightful exploration of the dynamics behind racial conflict, particularly in the light of the London bombings.
I find Pratchett’s material is multi-leveled. Sometimes my brain will be hurting and I’ll track down one of his books for light relief. Often though end up thinking about about something quite deeply (while laughing out loud). Plus I love an author who uses footnotes in a novel – even if they are in the same tone as the book. There was one about miracles in one book that I’ve used in an NT tutorial on the same topic because it really got to the heart of how people sometimes think about them.
I haven’t read Thud yet but plan to in the near future. Thanks for keeping any spoilers out of the post.