Terry Pratchett: Thud!

Terry Pratchett started way behind, but he's gaining on me. I was in my late teens when he began writing Discworld novels. I'm in my late 30s now, and there's nearly a Discworld book for every year of my age. This man writes faster than the Earth moves round the sun.

In itself there's nothing notable about that. The world is full of prolific writers. But it has a smaller population of first-rate writers, and few names belong on both lists. I'll go out on a limb, in fact, and make a prediction: of the authors who currently release bestselling books once or more a year, only Pratchett will still be being read in 50 years.

The Discworld books began as fantasy satires, but quickly developed into something richer and more interesting, a blend of
broad-spectrum social satire, adventure and straight-up comedy. Each book stands alone, and strictly speaking you can tackle them in any order.

Pratchett followers have lengthy and inconclusive debates over the best entry point into the series — though most agree it isn't the earliest books.

One of the pleasures the books offer is watching for recurring characters, and seeing them develop. For this, you want to start where the characters do. The latest book in the series is the seventh to focus on my own favourite character, Sam Vimes, commander of the Ankh-Morpork city watch.

When we first met Vimes, in 1991's Guards! Guards!, he was the drink-sozzled leader of a handful of hapless coppers, ignored by criminals and held in universal contempt by the citizenry.

As Thud! opens — with the line "Thud ... that was the sound the heavy club made as it connected with the head" — Vimes is one of the most
distinguished men in the city, happily married with a baby son, and commands a formidable police force.

The trajectory which brought him to this point is well worth retracing or, to put it another way, read this book but don't read it first.

Those already initiated into Pratchett's landscape will be pleased to hear that the new book also sees new wrinkles in the
development of Anhk-Morpork, which Pratchett originally created as "a cutout cardboard skyline against which things could happen", and which is now fully convincing as a major cosmopolitan city.

This means, among other things, ethnic tensions. Old enmities between the dwarves and the trolls are about to flare up again, unless Vimes, widely respected as someone who despises no species more than he despises all the others, can put a stop to it.

A new Discworld novel in time for Christmas is one of the year's most dependable pleasures. As per usual, Pratchett doesn't let you down.

* David Larsen is an Auckland reviewer
* Doubleday, $45