THIEF OF TIME by Terry Pratchett

THIEF OF TIME by Terry Pratchett
Doubleday (Transworld) - May 2001
ISBN 0385601883 - Hardcover / Audio
Comedy / fantasy

Reviewed by Rachel A Hyde, MyShelf.com
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There are Pratchett novels that consist of his characters saying witty things and there are those that have plots and the added bonus of also having a plot. This is one of the latter category and concerns a hitherto largely ignored set of people - the Monks of History - who live in the Discworld's equivalent of a Buddhist monastery in the Himalayas. It is their job to organize time itself and make sure that there is enough to go around for everybody. How this is managed is all rather ingenious and typical of Pratchett at his inventive best, complete with every joke you can imagine about monks, yetis, monasteries and such. Working against them is the enigmatic Jeremy at the behest of the even more enigmatic Lady Myria LeJean who, having provided him with an Igor instructs him to build a glass clock. The last time this was tried time itself was stopped.

Add Susan, Death, the Four (or should that be Five?) Horsemen of the Apocalypse, stir well and leave to settle. The result is very enjoyable and genuinely funny, with a proper story to hang all the jokes and characters on - a very inventive one at that. I am glad to report that the Pratchett magic seems to be undimmed after 26 books (even if they are not all of which are of equal quality) with his humor, observations and ability to create memorable characters still in place. No mean feat and he still manages to be the only one of his kind with his imitators still at the starting post when he is dust down the track.