June 27, 2008

Thief of Time by Terry Pratchett

I finished this book a few days ago but had to think about how I could write about it. I loved it from the very first page. It's funny, strange, deep, and complicated. It doesn't use elevated vocabulary, but it still requires slow methodical reading in order to grasp what is being said. And it's worth it.

This book is like Harry Potter for grown-ups. Not in the sense of wizardry, though there is a degree of that, but in the sense of this book and its subject matter being so completely new and yet so completely old and so well done that it's mesmerizing, and as soon as you finish it you want to read it again. It's like a mix between Kurt Vonnegut, Monty Python, Douglas Adams, Paulo Coelho, Ray Bradbury, James Bond, and the Bible.

As silly as this book seems at times, it tackles some very deep subjects in a way anyone can swallow. Like how we are connected to our bodies, how they ground us and inflate us at the same time. What time really is, how it works, whether it matters at all.

What would happen if Death had a granddaughter? If Time had a son? If it were possible to manipulate time with devices like prayer wheels and meditation? If the horsemen of the apocolypse rethought their lives? If the world could be saved with chocolate?

I LOVED this book. It is going on my top ten list, and that's saying a lot. In fact there aren't even ten books on my top ten list, I'm that picky.

7 comments:

  1. Sounds...interesting. I'm not sure if I would like it or not, but I might check it out at some point. Right now my stack of "to-be-read" books is growing at an alarming rate.

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  2. Okay....a cross between Kurt Vonnegut, Monty Python and the Bible? I gotta read it just to check that out.

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  3. I just added this book to my list. Thanks for the review. It sounds like a very interesting book.

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  4. I love Terry Pratchett. He is so funny without being silly and at the same time his books have depth.

    You should definitely read Mort. It also features Death. I loved it.

    You may want to check out this site that provides a Reading Order Guide for Pratchett's books. The one I like best is the Microsoft Excel. You really don't need a guide as the books can be read in any order. I use this to keep track of the books I've bought mostly.

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  5. The first book I read featured a sentient suitcase that followed its master around the world and provided for his needs, something like a butler to include protecting him like a pitbull. The author was at home in England and got the idea while watching an American lady drag a wheeled suitcase at the airport with a little leash. My son sorted thru his books to find other books that included that suitcase and my love grew from there. You can read the books by theme for example those with wizards, or witches or Death ... or even the suitcase. We went to a booksigning in PA and met Pratchett last year.

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  6. This book sounds incredible! I've passed up Terry Pratchett so many times in the bookstore for authors I know I love, but I think I've really been missing out. (And I thought it was a given that chocolate saves the world. Daily.)

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  7. My dh read Terry Pratchett but I never have but i think this sounds like something I would like.

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