Where's my Cow? Written by Terry Pratchett, Illustrated by Melvyn Grant
Another book in the Ankh Morpork Guards sub-series, Thud! is a good solid laugh. It doesn't sparkle as much as the new Witch/Pictsie books, but is another thoroughly amusing Discworld novel.
A new major element of the book is Commander Vimes relationship with his young son, and what a (pleasurable) shock it is that he finds the most important thing every day is getting home at 6pm to read "Where's My Cow?" at bedtime. This of course leads to several funny scenes throughout the book that I shall not spoil by mentioning them here.
Thud! was co-published with a children's book by Pratchett of the same name, that tells the story of what happens one day when Vimes decides that as his son is never likely to see a Cow, or any other farmyard animal for that reason, he should change the story to characters he is likely to meet ("Where's my Daddy?", "Bugrit, Millenium Hand and Shrimp!", "That's not my Daddy!, That's Foul Ole Ron!"). This story is quite amusing but the artwork leaves me thinking poor young Sam Jnr is deformed or something.
I would rate Thud! 8.5 out of 10, because while it is classic Pratchett he has produced even funnier works in his last two books.
"Where's My Cow?" rates 6 out of 10 because of the horrible artwork.
Cheers Mark
Last modified November 23rd, 2005, 11:34am by Mark