Thief of Time
core novel 2001 Discworld
Record
| First published | 2001 |
|---|---|
| Original language |  EN |
| Work type | novel |
| Canon status | core |
| Reader rating | 4.28 (79,485 ratings, collected 2026-09-11) |
| Page count | 427 |
| First-edition ISBN | 9780385601887 |
Synopsis
The Auditors of Reality, who despise the unpredictability that living things bring to the universe, commission the reclusive and unusually gifted clockmaker Jeremy Clockson to build a perfect glass clock capable of measuring time with total precision, not telling him that its true purpose is to stop time altogether. Because the Auditors cannot act directly against the world, Death sends his granddaughter Susan Sto Helit to intervene before the clock can be finished. At the same time, Lu-Tze, an elderly and unassuming History Monk, and his overconfident young apprentice Lobsang Ludd set out from their monastery on their own urgent mission connected to the same threat.
Where it sits
- Universe: Discworld
- Series: Death core; position 5 of 5 in the series' recorded order
- Author: Terry Pratchett
Neighbouring works
Publication order and internal chronology are tracked as two separate orderings and are never conflated: a book's place in one says nothing about its place in the other.
- Publication order, within the series Death: position 5 of 5: previous Hogfather (1996)
Sources
← Discworld dossier · All universes
Part of the Library. Fields without an identified source are omitted, never guessed.