The time thief
The time thief (original title: Thief of Time ) is the twenty-sixth Discworld novel by Terry Pratchett . It was published in 2001 and nominated for the Locus Award in 2002. The action takes place in Ankh-Morpork and the Oi Dong monastery in the Spitzhorn Mountains. The time thief belongs to the series of death stories. The protagonists Susanne Sto Helit and Tod try to prevent a standstill and thus the end of time. The monk Lu-Tze, known from earlier novels, is given a leading role for the first time. The temporal double person Jeremy / Lobsang only appears in Zeitdieb .
action
The auditors have a new plan to destroy chaotic life. This time they want to stop time. You are not allowed to do anything yourself, even if you could. That would be interference and a blatant breach of the rules that they in turn embody.
You send an auditor in the form of the beautiful Lady LeJean to Jeremy, the most ingenious watchmaker in the Discworld, and order a perfect watch, a watch that is 100% accurate. At first Jeremy fends off, he knows his limits. But then he has a dream, and when the lady provides him with an Igor as an assistant, he accepts the job.
Meanwhile, in Quidong, the monastery of the history monks, Lu-Tze , the sweeper, grapples with a novice whom the novice master has declared uneducable and deported to him. Lobsang Ludd, a former thief, is extremely talented, but unfortunately also clever. Lu-Tze quickly realizes that Lobsang is more than he appears to be. So he sends him on the way of the sweeper to find out who or what he has actually accepted as a student. A temporal accident in the Drehersaal (the place where the monks manage and organize time), in which the experienced table master unexpectedly becomes 80,000 years older, forces Lobsang to take over the table reconstruction. He does this with as much skill as if he had never learned anything else. For Lu-Tze, this accident is an unmistakable sign that someone is building a watch again. He was unable to prevent the last incident of this kind, but this time he plans to be there on time.
Meanwhile, Susanne Sto Helit , Tod's granddaughter, has just made herself comfortable as a teacher, when the rat death appears with an invitation. Susanne is angry, but still meets with her grandfather. She actually wants to brush aside his remark “The world will end in a week at 1:00 p.m.” with the remark, “What's that to do with me?”, But lets it go and instead listens to the explanation. Now Susanne is also concerned and decides to do something. Not that she is curious about the son of time who is supposed to be like her. She visits the best midwife ever to give birth to this child and Nanny Ogg tells her how the personification of time got her child.
At the end of the world, the four horsemen of the apocalypse are supposed to go out. When Death tries to mobilize the others, he meets with little enthusiasm. Hunger is too lazy, pestilence is afraid and war is under his wife's slipper. So Death sets out to ride alone.
Lady LeJean gradually comes to appreciate the interesting experiences that the limited human shell offers her. The auditor in her demands that the watch be completed as quickly as possible, while Lady LeJean longs for the continuation of the previous existence. With little carelessness she sabotages the progress that Jeremy and Igor are making in watchmaking. Igor notices this and my fellow auditors are also suspicious. They materialize as a group of five in Lady LeJean's house and demand to be taken to the watchmaker. Under her supervision, Jeremy starts the clock and the time stops.
Nothing moves anymore except the auditors and a few beings who bring their own time. Lu Tze and Lobsang have portable time storage strapped to their backs and are unaffected for a limited time. However, he was again too late to prevent the incident. The streets are full of auditors in human form trying to uncover the secrets of life. The two are separated in a fight and Lu Tze loses his remaining time. The milkman Ronnie Soak picks up Lu Tze. In his presence, Lu Tze can move again. During their conversation, Lu Tze realizes that this is the fifth apocalyptic horseman who had separated from the group for a solo career. Lu Tze tries to persuade him to oppose the auditors. Meanwhile, Lobsang tries to tamper with the clock and is picked up by Susanne. Together they go in search of the watchmaker. In the municipal art museum, Lobsang and Susanne finally meet Jeremy and Lady LeJean, who turns out to be a renegade and reveals the auditors' weak point: chocolate. When Jeremy and Lobsang first touch, they merge into a single person - the son of time. As such, he knows what to do about the watch.
While Lobsang / Jeremy, Susanne, Lady LeJean and Lu-Tze fight their way through the humanized auditors on the ground to get back to the clock, Death meets the auditors in the sky. Hunger, war and pestilence have pulled themselves together and are riding by his side. The four riders threaten to be defeated by the vast majority of the auditors. Finally, Ronnie Soak, aka Chaos, shows up to support his ex-comrades, and the riders can win the battle.
Ultimately, they destroy the clock and the son of time reassembles the shattered historical fabric.
Publications
- Manhattan (Goldmann), 2002, ISBN 3-442-54528-5 ; the final volume with a cover by Josh Kirby.
- Also as (abridged) audio book, speaker Dirk Bach, ISBN 3-89830-419-1 . Unabridged, as download, speaker: Michael-Che Koch.