Full disclosure: I really like Pratchett, and the Discworld novels. I've read a bunch of them, and enjoyed every one, and have even laughed out loud while reading them on public transport.
Thud! is something like the 30th Discworld book, and the first one I've read that doesn't relate the state of the cosmos in Discworld - the Disc on the backs of 4 elephants standing on a huge turtle who is swimming through space.
Then again, the book is different from earlier Discworld books in that it is subtle in a slightly different way: it's almost like Pratchett's graduated from odd (though ingenious) parallels between the bizarre real world that readers inhabit and the bizarre magical world that the characters inhabit to parallels between big issues in the two worlds. Strangely absent is the word play of "In Sewer Ants" (Insurance) where the Discworld version is a delightfully apt characterisation of the industry, replaced by Sam Vimes' struggle to keep trolls and dwarves from reliving a centuries-old conflict that is based in... but I won't spoil the story by revealing what it is based in!
I particularly like Sam's priority of being home at 6pm to read to his son... regardless of which kings expect his presence at dinner.
It's a Pratchett Discworld book. Wonderful.
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