Automoderated users, Autopatrolled users, Bureaucrats, Comment administrators, Confirmed users, Moderators, Rollbackers, Administrators
213,951
edits
Thud!: Difference between revisions
no edit summary
m (added Category:Literature of the 2000s using HotCat) |
No edit summary |
||
| (12 intermediate revisions by 2 users not shown) | |||
Line 1:
{{work}}
{{Infobox book
| title = Thud!
| image = SummoningDarkstinger 6632.jpg
| caption =
| author = Terry Pratchett
| central theme =
| elevator pitch = With the anniversary of the Battle of Koom Valley approaching, Commander Vimes discovers a conspiracy beneath the streets of Ankh-Morpork. As if troll-dwarf relations weren't bad enough, someone has been digging the dirt on the ancient battle - and Vimes must face someone else's demons to uncover the truth.
| genre = Fantasy
| franchise = Discworld
| preceded by = Going Postal (Discworld)
| followed by = Wintersmith
| publication date = 2005
}}
{{quote|''Mr. Shine, him diamond!''}}
"Thud" is the Discworld equivalent of chess, with pieces portraying dwarfs on one side and trolls on the other, at the legendary Battle of Koom Valley. The anniversary of the Battle is just around the corner. Since this was a very important date for both the Dwarfs and the Trolls (No one knows who won, who started it or what the heck actually ''happened'', but everyone cries "Remember Koom Valley!" when they want to get the blood up), tensions are running high in Ankh-Morpork. Commander Vimes of the City Watch is not happy about this, nor about Salacia Von Humpeding, the new vampire recruit, nor about the Patrician's clerks poking about the Watch. Nevertheless, he takes all this in stride, and still manages to get home every day at six to read his son a bedtime story.
The situation only becomes worse when Hamcrusher, a ''grag'' (a sort of dwarven preacher and lorekeeper, a "deep-down" dwarf fundamentalist) who vehemently speaks out against trolls, is found murdered beside a troll club. Vimes visits the scene, butting heads with Hamcrusher's right-hand man Ardent and a nervous servant named Helmclever, and finding an expansive tunnel system filled with doorways stretching underneath the streets of Ankh-Morpork. While there, he catches his hand on one of the sealed doorways, and it begins to itch...
Not to be confused with [[Thud and Blunder]].
{{tropelist}}
* [[Adult Fear]]: Vimes' nightmares about his son, which involve empty cots and darkness.
* [[All Trolls Are Different]]: Trolls in [[Discworld]] are made out of metamorphorical rock (a pune, or play on words, upon the terms metaphor and metamorphic). Once in a while a special {{spoiler|diamond}} troll will turn up; these trolls tend to be the {{spoiler|kings and leaders}} of the troll race. {{spoiler|This is because diamond trolls are capable of regulating their internal body temperature; troll brains, being silicon-based, work better and faster the colder they get, so diamond trolls are naturally the smartest trolls around, as well as being (literally) the hardest.}}
* [[Arc Words]]: More like Arc Symbols—the mine signs.
** Also: ''Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?''—Who watches the watchmen?
Line 32 ⟶ 48:
* [[Beyond the Impossible]]: A temperance [[Blatant Lies|definitely-not-a-vampire]] has learned how to roll his w's.
* [[Brainless Beauty]]: Tawneee Mobil. Thicker than a yard of lard, but it doesn't really matter.
* [[Brick Joke]]: Koom Valley was mentioned back in ''[[Men at Arms]]'' as the only battle in history where both armies ambushed each other. {{spoiler|It turns out that was a misunderstanding.}}
** Additionally, during Vimes' '''[[
* [[Calling Card]]: Supernatural variant, as scattered objects near the Dark-inhabited Vimes keep arranging themselves into the Summoning Dark symbol.
* [[Cerebus Retcon]]: Vimes' previous joke that he used to be "blackboard monitor" in ''[[
** Also, the revelation of what actually happened at Koom Valley. What was once a humorous [[Noodle Incident]] (both sides somehow ambushed each other) is now {{spoiler|a tragic mistake and conspiracy that led to centuries of needless deaths.}}
* [[Character Development]]: Vimes is forced to compromise on two of his most strongly held principles, which go back to ''[[
** Also, paralleling the way computer technology has gone from a gimmick to mainstream use in police work, he finally learns how to use one of his Dis-organizers and puts it to good use. Granted, he finds a person to do the same work for him, but he seems quite fond of Gooseberry.
** More likely, Gooseberry will read whatever Pessimal deems important and give a summarized account to Vimes.
* [[Continuity Nod]]: In the barricade scene, when the Watch stands its ground between two mobs of battle-crazy dwarfs and trolls, Fred Colon asks Vimes if he remembers 'another barricade.' Colon is of course referring to the barricades erected by the Watch and the citizenry of Ankh Morpork on the night of the Glorious Revolution, at which both Colon and an 18-year old Vimes had been present. Colon also mentions Sergeant Keel, who 'pulled a trick or two that night'. The 'Sergeant Keel' Colon refers to was in fact Vimes himself, who traveled back thirty years into his own past during the events of ''[[
** Vimes also mentions, sardonically, that [[
** Mention is also made of Detritus's girl, [[
** Mr. Pony is mentioned briefly as the head of the Guild of Artificers, quite a step up since ''[[
* [[Cowboy Cop]]: Vimes refuses to become this, and it is ''awesome.''
{{quote|"Because you can't call yourself a good guy and then do bad guy things."}}
Line 80 ⟶ 96:
{{quote|''Watchmen across half the continent will say that Sam Vimes is as straight as an arrow, can't be corrupted, won't be turned, never took a bribe.''}}
** Though Vimes is a [[Deconstruction]]: the reason he is incorruptible is his constant vigilance against his dark side.
* [[Innocent Swearing]]: Sam Vimes reads his son his own version of ''[[
* [[Insistent Terminology]]: Vimes can tell the difference between "Mr. Vimes" and "Mister Vimes" and only allows people who have fought alongside him to call him "Mister".
** Judging from the audiobook, the issue seems to be not so much that Vimes can hear the difference between Mr. Vimes and Mister Vimes as that in the original manuscript, Brick accidentally called him Missus Vimes, and somewhere along the line an overzealous copyeditor "fixed" the "typo."
Line 92 ⟶ 108:
* [[Noodle Incident]]: Non-comedic example in the Battle of Koom Valley. All they know is that dwarves fought trolls and vice-versa.
** Also non-comedic example: Mrs. Oldsburton, whom Vimes remembered fell into the [[Despair Event Horizon]] after the death of her baby and began compulsively cleaning the house non-stop, in a mobile version of an [[Angst Coma]].
* [[Malevolent Architecture]]: Anything designed by Bloody Stupid Johnson, such as Empirical Crescent, which continues his [[
* [[The Men First]]
* [[Nightmare Fuel]]: In-universe, Vimes quietly thinks this of his butler. He defended himself against an assassination squad in the cellar using an ice knife. A knife used for cutting foot-wide blocks. It's a foot and a half of steel.
Line 159 ⟶ 175:
{{reflist}}
{{Discworld novels}}
[[Category:{{
[[Category:Literature of the 2000s]]
| |||