Thief of Time is my favorite Discworld book, hands down. I think it has the most well-thought out plot, as opposed to just relying on satire, characters, and laughs to pull through. Not that I’m averse to the former, but it gives ToT an extra dimension, a kind of solidity.
Then there’s the great cast of characters: Susan Sto Hellit, Lu-Tze, and Nanny Ogg all in one book, along with the Five Horsemen of the apocalypse, Lobsang and Jeremy, the Auditors, Qu, the Death of Rats, Lady LeJean, and of course, Jason.
Another thing I liked about ToT is the underlying theme of what it means to be human. The Auditors, Susan, Horsemen, Jeremy, and LeJean each, in their own way, have to deal with the benefits and detriments of humanity, or near humanity.
And the Angel Clothed in White with the Iron Book was great comic relief.
The story is very good, I think one of the best ones in the series. Lu-Tze is a great character, the scenes in the monastery are fun, Suzan is getting more and more interesting, and I always like Igors, so yeah, I liked it a lot.
My fave discworld book, and the one I’ve re-read the most! I love the scene with the procrastinators spinning out of control, as the monks try to deal with the time surge.
Susan takes on a more human aspect, even as she embraces her timeless nature, and the phenomenon of auditors trying to cope with human senses is most thought-provoking.
Nanny shows she’s tough as nails, and equal to Granny in her own way, by standing up to Death and dealing with Time out of control.
OK, now I’m going to have to break out one of my copies and give it a re-read. I’ll likely be home sick from work tomorrow, so that will give me something to do other than suffer through another cold passed on by my ungrateful,* diseased*** little wretches of students!**
I like it. The monastery, the whole Kung Fu thing, as well as the timeslicing. The twins thing was a bit predictable…then wasn’t. And I really like Lady LeJean.
Didn’t much care for the shoehorning of Chaos into the Horsemen there, it was almost a bit too message-y for my tastes.
It’s message-y about Chaos Theory - how emergent behaviour and chaos mathematics is at the heart of Life, the Universe, Everything…kind of like Malcolm’s expositions in Jurassic Park, only personified. Pterry has a thing for chaos maths, and it shows.
I really liked this one, although the one thing I was disappointed about was that Lobsang wears a robe - I was really looking forward to the apperance of The Trousers of Time.
