In the tenth part of Thud!<\/i>, Vimes worries. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld<\/i>.<\/p>\n
Well, this book has introduced something new to Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s characterization: his son. We\u00e2\u20ac\u2122ve already seen his dedication to Young Sam, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a horror spelled out here in Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s little daydream that I imagine will continue to play out in this novel. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s one I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t personally understand, since I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have children, but I know plenty of parents who begin to experience this sort of anxiety once they have children. My brother has spoken about some of the dreams he\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s had that he wasn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t really prepared for, and I imagine Vimes is also adjusting to the fear of his son getting harmed. I suspect that Pratchett is including this here for another reason, but I haven\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t figured out what that reason is. Regardless, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something I have to keep in mind: Vimes\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s life is so different now. Well, not entirely<\/i> different. Amidst this all, there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a comfort in Sybil, who darns socks terribly, who sits near Vimes while he gets updates from his Watch officers. As chaotic as this world is, Sybil is not, and I like that she\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just a constant presence in this entire scene.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n So! We finally get information on Hamcrusher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s body, and\u00e2\u20ac\u00a6 this is real bad. Which we know! Pratchett manages to pass along a whole lot of dread to us here, and a lot of that comes from the unknown. Exactly how<\/i> did Hamcrusher die? If the opening scene is an indication, he was hit over the head, but this scene confirms that the troll club hit Hamcrusher\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s head after<\/i> he was dead. The last section made it clear he was killed elsewhere, so the reader is confidence in feeling like this was all staged. But I like that Pratchett makes a distinction between this\u00e2\u20ac\u201dwhich feels obvious\u00e2\u20ac\u201dand the fact that this solves nothing. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s still possible that the trolls and the dwarfs will fight one another on the anniversary of Koom Valley anyway<\/i>. How can Vimes succinctly explain the reality of this murder so that Ankh-Morpork doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t descend into chaos? He can\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t. He may have suspicions, but that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t translate to something that can diffuse this nightmare.\u00c2\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n This whole \u00e2\u20ac\u0153The Following Dark\u00e2\u20ac\u009d bit isn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t helping either. There\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s wonderful work done here to build the world of the mines, and I still love that there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s so much worldbuilding in the Discworld<\/i> books that has nothing to do with a joke. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m sure this is nothing new to any of you, but I am now aware of how some people talk about the Discworld<\/i> series in the genre world. These books are obviously comical, but there\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a dismissive way the world itself is described, as if Pratchett was only doing all of this to make fun of fantasy rather than participate it. And the whole collective emotional and spiritual vibe in the mine that is described here is just straight-up great worldbuilding. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s something Pratchett crafts so that we understand this almost psychic energy created by a culture that lives its entire life underground. These signs are a method of communication and expression that doesn\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t have a clear analogue to what the other characters understand about graffiti or life in a mine, and I love that!<\/p>\n Also, it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s just so CREEPY. it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s a means of confirming how bad things have gotten or are about<\/i> to get. One phrase hit me the hardest: \u00e2\u20ac\u0153rancid with fear.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d It implies a degradation, a way fear spreads from one to another. It felt notable because of what we learn at the end of this scene: the trolls and dwarfs are gathering for some sort of fight. It\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s like this fear and this aggression are contagious<\/i>, that they can jump from person to person and, collectively, make matters worse than they already are. How do you counter that kind of fear? Quickly<\/i>? I don\u00e2\u20ac\u2122t know! Which makes me think that I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122m about to read something real messed up. I\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d say it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Koom Valley part two, but it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122d be part… 18? 19?<\/p>\n You know what? Maybe that\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s the point of all this. Maybe someone wants<\/i> the dwarfs and the trolls to be at one another\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s throats. That\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s not exactly a radical theory, but I have exactly zero suspects on my list. Who would benefit from another version of Koom Valley? I DON\u00e2\u20ac\u2122T KNOW.<\/p>\n https:\/\/youtu.be\/j-ubj57y3W8<\/p>\n Mark Links Stuff<\/b><\/p>\n – My YA contemporary debut, ANGER IS A GIFT<\/a>, is now out in the world!\u00c2\u00a0<\/strong>If you’d like to stay up-to-date on all announcements regarding my books, sign up for my newsletter<\/a>! DO IT.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" In the tenth part of Thud!, Vimes worries. Intrigued? Then it\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s time for Mark to read Discworld.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[451],"tags":[463,248,554],"class_list":["post-4802","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-discworld","tag-mark-reads-discworld","tag-terry-pratchett","tag-thud"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4802","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=4802"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/4802\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=4802"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=4802"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/markreads.net\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=4802"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}