kw: book reviews, science fiction, fantasy, police stories, mysteries
I enjoy reading Terry Pratchett's Discworld series for straight escape with a thoughtful aroma, and plenty of smooth mystery writing. Thud! fills the bill.
Sam Vimes, a recently-minted Duke and Commander of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch (in the current few books) gets a conundrum dropped into his lap that goes back two millenia. While Vimes has integrated the City Watch, deputizing nearly all allegedly sentient species—even, reluctantly, a vampire—the City's trolls ("our esteemed Siliconic citizens") and dwarfs (Pratchett's spelling; heavily-bearded and -armed folk, male or female) are ready to rumble. It's almost like West Side Story (or Romeo and Juliet), but with Rock vs Iron. Or perhaps a Civil War battle re-enactment among the rednecks (both Northern and Southern) who don't like how it turned out.
When some "deep dwarfs" called Grags show up and begin preaching dwarf puritanism, and young trolls begin club training, all leading up to Koom Valley Day, which commemorates an ill-remembered battle at which each side thinks it became the victim. There is action aplenty for all the members of the Watch, not just humans, trolls, and dwarfs, but the newly recruited vampire, a werewolf, and a human who was raised as a dwarf, plus the imp in Vimes's GooseberryTM PDA.
But what really happened, 2,000 years ago? That would be telling.
Pratchett excels in semi-magical fantasy, mystery, and semi-hard SF. The Discword books are his forum for combining them all.
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