I’ve finally just finished reading Thud! by Terry Pratchett and I have to say, for my second read fantasy novel, it was pretty damn good. Yeah, I know it’s been a while since my last “What I Read” post but just so you know, I don’t actually take this long to read a book. It’s a matter of getting the time between work, writing and websites to sit down and read a decent chunk of it at a time. If I get a chance to really get going in a book, it’ll take me all of three days to finish it if I’m enjoying it. Granted, at this point, I don’t have to force myself to read books I don’t like so yay for not having any more school to put me through that.

Anyway, on to Thud! In all honesty, please don’t hurt me, when I was first getting told to read books by Terry Pratchett, I thought he was a she. Hey, Terry’s a pretty androgynous name but I tend to make it more feminine as a default. My bad. But the only notion I had going into reading his book was that he’s funny. He’s certainly not the snort your soda type of funny but it’s a dry, British wit that if you don’t get the satire, you’re just not going to get it. I got it and thought some of his lines were absolutely hilarious. Tawneee’s nose going blort when she blew it tickled me in just the right way (but not that way, if you catch my drift).

It’s a sardonic, bored-with-life-but-never-coming-up-short-with-things-to-mock type of funny that really makes you appreciate humor. Anyone can slip on a banana peel or miss-sit on a toilet seat and have it be funny but the poignant words and the near intricacy of Pratchett’s funny bone is remarkable. This is the type of humor that takes true talent. It’s all in the order of the words, how he chose them, what he chose and then just how they spring up on you, as if from out of nowhere. There’s little to no build-up and the hilarity is often told in something of an aside, an off-handed comment that’s there and gone before you know it. Poosticks, for example. Poosticks!

On the fantasy side, it’s pretty high fantasy but without all of the floofy, tweedle dee, prance around in a tutu type of high that tends to come with such a subgenre. It’s a work that’s very grounded in a world that isn’t our own but could be, surrounded by magical creatures of all kinds that had acclimated to society as if it were part of their normal evolutionary track. It’s a fantasy that’s grounded in reality which means, at least to me, that it wasn’t an awe-inspiring type of fantasy filled with glitter and pixie farts. It could have rightly been a parallel world that could have existed in place of our own and we really wouldn’t have noticed save for a few trolls (I could roll with that, but I’ll leave it for now).

Perhaps it’s the satire itself that makes it seem so real. The discord between the trolls and the dwarfs could easily mimic any kind of racial or political divide that exists now. Or perhaps it’s the parody, Pratchett taking the stereotypes of a token butler and putting them all into Willikins gives him an astounding air of Ben Stein calm mixed with Jason Statham ass-kicking. Be it the satire, the parody or the drive for Vimes to be a good dad to his son regardless of the obstacles in his way, or all of these elements and then some combined into one, it all probably plays a part into this fantastical reality of Pratchett’s.

I know I read the books out of order, mainly because I started reading Night Watch just after I finished this one and Vimes is steadfast in his decision not to take on a vampire as part of the Watch when we’ve already seen Sally in all her swarming, bat-like glory in Thud! But, that’s one of the best things about these books. I’m sure the details piece together a little better if they were read in order but jumping into Discworld I can only imagine where in the series, I didn’t feel like I was missing any information. It seems that Pratchett’s written them so that this is exactly how they’re read. Yes, they’re part of a series but each book is capable of standing on its own if need be. It won’t take away from the story any as I know it certainly didn’t for me.

I don’t know if I’ll read this one again for a while because, to me, this kind of humor in book form is good the first time through and each subsequent time it’s read its impact lessens if read too consecutively. The voice is amazing, I love the way it’s written but I’ll probably only put one more read into it (because I was a little distracted in some of the parts, thanks to outside forces) before putting it down and not coming back to it for a while. A book like this needs its time to sink in to really appreciate everything it has to offer before getting picked up again. It needs its space but deserves to be read more than once throughout its lifetime.

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