Thief
of Time is, according to Wikipedia, Terry Pratchett’s 26th
official entry into the Discworld
series. Published roughly six months
after The Truth and six months before
The Last Hero, Thief of Time finds Pratchett in good form, extemporizing on the
scientific quest to put time in a bottle versus more transcendental ideologies
revolving around passive regard to the great clock of life (pun intended for
those who’ve read the book!).
Thief
of Time opens at a monastery where the History Monks keep
the spindles of time greased and spinning eternally. Lobsang Lud, a common monk, averts a major
disaster one day and earns himself an apprenticeship with the master,
Lu-tze. Meanwhile in Ankh-Morpork, a
down-on-his-luck clockmaker, Jeremy Clockson, is commissioned by an Auditor-in-disguise
to build the world’s first glass clock, and is not told that the giant mechanism
will in fact stop time rather than measure it.
Seeking the stoppage of time to have the time to account for all the
matter and molecules in the world, the Auditors send one of their own, Myria
Lejean, to ensure Jeremy performs his commission, little knowing the effects
and influence of mortal life will have on her.
When Lobsang and Lu-tze learn of the secret plot, they rush to
Ankh-Morpork to stop the end of time.
All hell breaking loose—literally and figuratively—when they arrive in
town, it seems everyone on the Disc is a stakeholder in the moment.
