The Truth is Terry Pratchett's 25th novel about Discworld in general and the dirt-encrusted metropolis of Ankh-Morpork in particular--home of the sinister Patrician, the Unseen University of magicians and guilds for everything from Assassins to Thieves, taking in Clowns (but not mimes) along the way. Ankh-Morpork has weathered several influxes of technology in its time--a demon-inspired invention of the movies, the brief fad for Music with Rocks in it--and now it has acquired a free press, dedicated newshounds, dwarf printers with not especially nasty tempers (for dwarves), and people who want to see their amusing vegetables in the "On a Lighter Note" section. The business of politics (attempts by the old aristocracy to unseat the Patrician) is ratcheted up a notch and Vimes, of the City Watch, is in a worse temper than usual. William de Worde, editor, reporter and investigator, is another attractive Pratchett hero, captured for us in the middle of wonderfully parodied routines from old movies and fiction that he, in his world, is doing for the first time. This is inventive farce with touches of high seriousness and ethical good sense, and two of the nastiest doomed hitmen outside Tarantino. --Roz Kaveney

2007-12-26 This book changed my life!

What a title eh? I bet it caught your attention. The book certainly caught mine! While the title may claim too much it most certainly is The Truth. Before I read this I was stuck reading books written by lesser authors with much less imagination and I was beginning to stop reading altogether.

My gran picked this up for me at my local library. I was a kid at the time I suppose or at least smaller than I am now. I was hesitant at first but after the first page I couldn't put it down. The gags came thick and fast and through it all was written something much better than anything I had read up to that point. I'd like to think there was a message in the book because after reading it I felt as if I had found one and I'd hate to think I was wrong lol...

The plot is amazing and although it may not be original it certainly feels as if it is. The characters were wonderful, I was taken in not by William who you have to assume is the main character but by the depth of character and life given to every single character in the book from the man with the funny vegetables to the greatest character ever written - in my opinion - Sam Vimes. I hadn't read any other Discworld before this point so I assumed that Vimes was created solely for this book. How wrong I was...

If you can't get into Pratchett's amazing series of books by reading Colour of Magic then read this. I guarantee you'll feel the same way as I did and you'll end up going back and reading Colour of Magic and every other published Discworld novel you can get your hands on.

Believe the hype because Discworld is in my mind and obviously in the minds of millions of readers the best Fantasy/Sci-Fi series in existence. You'll find the occasional part of some of the novels boring or unnessary but after reading through those couple of pages you'll find once again that you've been sucked back in. Those occasional gaps in the action are merely there to give your brain a break and your lungs a rest ;)

Plot: 4
Characters: 5
Depth: 5
Overall: 5