I found this fair-condition hardcover at a Salvation Army thrift shop, and nabbed it for another release copy.

I first discovered Pratchett's weird and wonderful Discworld books courtesy of reviews on the BookCrossing forums, and I've been a devoted fan ever since, enjoying the books in text and audiobook form, and re-reading them often.

This is a book about time, and Time-with-a-capital-T, and things that happen in, around, through, or in spite of same, and people who slice time (if they're lucky) and anthropomorphic personifications who can take it or leave it.... No, that doesn't begin to cover it. If you've read any other Pratchett books you don't need much incentive to dive into this one, but if you haven't, just relax and go for it. [Well, you *might* want to consider reading Mort, Soul Music, and Reaper Man first - to get the chronology straight for Death and his household - but it's not strictly necessary.]

About the story:

"Supposing you'd watched the slow accretion of snow over thousands of years as it was compressed and pushed over the deep rock until the glacier calved its icebergs into the sea, and you watched an iceberg drift out through the chilly waters, and you got to know its cargo of happy polar bears and seals as they looked forward to a brave new life in the other hemisphere where they say the ice floes are lined with crunchy penguins, and then *wham!* Tragedy loomed in the shape of thousands of tons of unaccountably floating iron and an exciting soundtrack...

"...you'd want to know the *whole* story."

I might say that this is about a sort of Zen James Bond trying to save the universe-as-we-know-it from a mad scientist and his Igor, but that doesn't really cover it either. Unexpected and quirky - typical Pratchett - check it out. [And always remember Rule One! **]





** Rule One: "Do not act incautiously when confronting little bald wrinkly smiling men!"

[This quip could apply to all manner of stories and films featuring lethal little-bald-wrinkly-men, but it primarily reminds me of Chiun, Master of Sinanju, from the seriously over-the-top "Destroyer" series {grin}.]

See also the TV Tropes page on the book, with lots of fun tidbits.

I left this book in the Little Free Library in the playground (and near a wonderful toothy stone dinosaur-head!) at around 2:45 or so; hope the finder enjoys it!

*** Released as part of the 2016 Tick Tock release challenge. ***