Thief of time

click here for more details, find new or used items	Terry Pratchett Used from £0.01 Pages: 320 (Hardcover) ISBN: 0385601883 Pub: Doubleday Pub date: 2001-05-01 Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 161988

Editorial Review:

There is an attractive darkness to much of the humour here--Pratchett is often at his best when at his darkest.--Roz Kaveney

Reader Reviews:

Thief of Time book! (0/0 people found this helpful)

Hi there. The book came very quickly and it is in tip top condition. Thanks for a great service!

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Being the daughter of Death, one wouldn't want to make her angry (0/0 people found this helpful)

I suppose Terry Pratchett is not accessible to everyone. People without a sense of humour, perhaps, or those who just can't bring themselves to read a book that's based on a world very different from their own, won't get along with Pratchett's disc-world novels. Such readers are missing something both enjoyable and profound, but there's no accounting for taste, which might almost be one of the sayings in Lu-Tze's philosophy of the Way in this book of the series, Thief of Time. Lu-Tze learned his philosophy at the hands of his landlady, Mrs Cosmopolite, and will impart the Way in turn to his apprentice Lobsang, who has very strange origins indeed.

Pratchett plays with ideas, turns them on their heads, juggles with them, twists them out of all recognition and then makes them sing, dance and turn cartwheels. Dealt with to mind-blowing satisfaction in this inch-perfect fantasy novel are: Chaos Theory; the nature of time; why history isn't serial, and what makes human beings distinctive forms of life. There's a schoolteacher who takes her class by means of the imagination and has absolutely no discipline problems (being the daughter of Death, one wouldn't want to make her angry); the fifth horseman of the apocalypse, who these days runs a dairy business in Ankh Morpork; and a twice-born child delivered by Nanny Ogg, Witch of Lancre.

The villains of this book are the Auditors, a group of beings who can't stand the world being so various and unpredictable and have sent one of their number, in human form (Lady Le Jean), to oversee the creation of a clock that will stop time and make everything tidy by putting things back in their proper place. The only problem is, Lady Le Jean in human form, with a mind, organs and an individual brain, is presented with ideas such as "free-will", "appetite" and "senses", which, understandably, begin to seem much more desirable than Auditing. All of which leads eventually to a scenario where the human weapon of choice turns out to be chocolate.

If you want fun, wit, an occasional skewed peek at our own world in another format, and a roller-coaster ride that won't make you dizzy, read this novel.

The Romance of Pratchett (0/1 people found this helpful)

This author just gets better, its a shame that he has an illness which will put an end to his writing. This book is amazing, its set on several different levels that eventually come together in such a beautiful way.

The romance? Well its an unlikely combination of Death's Grand daughter and the son of Time. Not an ounce of smut, not even a kiss but you can't help but believe it exists. Recommended to Pratchett veterans and new comers alike.

Complex, Gripping Pratchetty Fun (0/1 people found this helpful)

I'll be short and sweet. This is one of Pratchett's finest novels. The plot focusses on the characters of Death, Susan (Death's granddaughter - readers are advised not to ask :), and the History monks). The Auditors play the villains of this novel and we are left in hysterics to how they interact with a material world.

Ignore other reviewers - this is a great introduction to Pratchett. One of his most complex and gripping plots to date.

Going strong as always (0/0 people found this helpful)

In "Thief of Time" we see the Auditors once again. They are still not satisfied with the chaos that follows humans and are setting out to change that by creating a clock to stop time.

Young Jeremy is given the task (by the auditors) of creating a clock that needs to measure the tiniest increments of time. He is an especially gifted (though rather strange) clockmaker. He ends up with an Igor and a humanized auditor to help.

Again we meet Death and his granddaughter Susan Sto Helit. Death draws an unwilling Susan into the difficult task of finding the clock maker and setting things right. All the time he rides off to gather the 4 horsemen (or was it 5) and ride off to the Apocalypse.

All the while The Monks of History in the person of Lu-Tze and his apprentice Lobsang (who is also quite talented when it comes to time) are on their way to find out where The Clock is in order to stop its completion.

Terry Pratchett's books are wonderful. There is always action and fun and some deep thinking involved in his books. Pratchett's books create a sense of satisfaction after reading them. "Thief of Time" is no exception.

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