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A review by teokajlibroj
Thud! by Terry Pratchett
2.0
I don't enjoy Discworld anymore. I know it's practically sacrilege to disrespect such a classic, but all the charm is gone. There's hardly any jokes left, the characters are flat, the plots are repetitive and even Vimes annoys me.
I got sick of the constant reminders that Vimes is a good old fashioned copper and always did the right thing. He struck me as really hypocritical in this book. Pratchett constantly reminds us that Vimes is straight as an arrow, yet shows us that Vimes believes he is above the law. He follows the book except when it doesn't suit him. He is supposed to be honest, yet casually turns a blind eye to corruption and police brutality in the force (yet Pratchett somehow makes the inspector sent to stop this, seem like a meddling bureaucrat).
He gives a big speech about doing the right thing and the importance of always following the law, then goes and drugs a thousand to citizens (to stop a riot), hijacks vehicles and closes roads just so he can get home quicker (an abuse of power he would rail against if anyone else did it). He supposedly stands up for the ordinary people yet he thinks of them as nothing but idiots, an unthinking mob.
Every book starts with him expressing a prejudice against a species (in this case vampires) but he completely accepts them by the end of the book. The problem is that nothing happened in between. There was no character arc or growth, no insight to change his mind, it's like he just forgot.
Pratchett is often praised for his depiction of race relations, but I find it very shallow. This book could be summed up as "trolls and dwarves don't like each other, but they probably should." There's no great insight, no lesson, nothing that will make anyone view race relations in our world in a new light. Pratchett's message is basically "Hey, why don't you try not to be racist?"
I could go on and on about other flaws (but I'll probably save it for a blog post) like how the other characters just feel like filler and only exist to tell Vimes messages, or how poor the female characters in general are or how Sybil is just a stereotypical nagging wife who does nothing except make Sam food or what was Pratchett thinking when he wrote "jerk syndrome" (I don't know if that was supposed to be comedy or insight because it was neither.).
I got sick of the constant reminders that Vimes is a good old fashioned copper and always did the right thing. He struck me as really hypocritical in this book. Pratchett constantly reminds us that Vimes is straight as an arrow, yet shows us that Vimes believes he is above the law. He follows the book except when it doesn't suit him. He is supposed to be honest, yet casually turns a blind eye to corruption and police brutality in the force (yet Pratchett somehow makes the inspector sent to stop this, seem like a meddling bureaucrat).
He gives a big speech about doing the right thing and the importance of always following the law, then goes and drugs a thousand to citizens (to stop a riot), hijacks vehicles and closes roads just so he can get home quicker (an abuse of power he would rail against if anyone else did it). He supposedly stands up for the ordinary people yet he thinks of them as nothing but idiots, an unthinking mob.
Every book starts with him expressing a prejudice against a species (in this case vampires) but he completely accepts them by the end of the book. The problem is that nothing happened in between. There was no character arc or growth, no insight to change his mind, it's like he just forgot.
Pratchett is often praised for his depiction of race relations, but I find it very shallow. This book could be summed up as "trolls and dwarves don't like each other, but they probably should." There's no great insight, no lesson, nothing that will make anyone view race relations in our world in a new light. Pratchett's message is basically "Hey, why don't you try not to be racist?"
I could go on and on about other flaws (but I'll probably save it for a blog post) like how the other characters just feel like filler and only exist to tell Vimes messages, or how poor the female characters in general are or how Sybil is just a stereotypical nagging wife who does nothing except make Sam food or what was Pratchett thinking when he wrote "jerk syndrome" (I don't know if that was supposed to be comedy or insight because it was neither.).