Thief of Time
Thief of Time is a fantasy novel by British writer Terry Pratchett, the 26th book in his Discworld series. It was the last Discworld novel with a cover by Josh Kirby.
Plot summary
The Auditors hire young clockmaker Jeremy Clockson to build a perfect glass clock, without telling him that this will stop time and thereby eliminate human unpredictability from the universe. Death discovers their plans, but cannot act against them directly, so he instead sends his granddaughter Susan Sto Helit. Meanwhile, Lu-Tze of the History Monks leads gifted young apprentice Lobsang Ludd in a desperate mission.Characters
; Death; Jeremy Clockson
; Susan Sto Helit
; Lu-Tze
; Lobsang
; Lady Myria LeJean
Reception
Thief of Time was shortlisted for the 2002 Locus Award for Best Fantasy Novel.At The Guardian, Sam Jordison called it "as complicated, daft, hilarious and satisfying as vintage P. G. Wodehouse: part kung fu epic, part philosophical novel, part mind-bending experiment with chaos theory ", and categorized it as a book to "give hope". At the SF Site, Steven H Silver observed that the book's parodying of action films is "masterful", and commended Pratchett for how "fresh" the humor was—while conceding that "reader may not laugh out loud... but there will be plenty of internal chuckling".
At Infinity Plus, John Grant noted that it has "fewer moments of uproarious humour than" the majority of Pratchett's oeuvre, and that the "narrative fails to engender any sense of urgency in the places where it should", concluding that although "one could swiftly lay hands on a dozen genre-fantasy novels that are less worthwhile", it was not Pratchett's best work.