Thief of Time (by Terry Pratchett)

(Amazon UK link)

Terry Pratchett is a very clever writer, combining fantasy, satire, and just about every genre in his popular and ever-increasing Discworld series. I read this one aloud to my teenage sons and we all enjoyed it.

'Thief of Time' features, of all things, a threatened apocalypse. It involves a glass clock which is planned, although eventually the danger is averted. Just as well, or that would have been the end of the Discworld.

The 'auditors' take more of a role in this than in previous books, and Susan, granddaughter of Death, is called in again to assist her grandfather.

Excellent style, as ever, with clever plotting under-woven with numerous subplots. Light humour is mixed, too, with apposite digs at life and human nature.

Moreover, this is the book which introduces the brilliant concept of the 'history monks' - who either add to or steal from our days, thus explaining why sometimes life appears to rush past and at other times it drags.

Well worth reading; excellent to read aloud.