Thud! by Terry Pratchett (2005, Unabridged, Compact Disc)

Terry Pratchett is the pied piper of satire--he writes and we all follow along, laughing happily! This is one of the Discworld novels that shows incredible insight into human relationships and conflicts. The endearing Commander Vines comes home nightly at 6PM to read to his infant son a book called "Where's My Cow?"--which you can buy as a companion book with its enchanting illustrations. Since I remember a "You're not my Mother" book from childhood, and hours reading to my own daughter, I was touched by the sentimentality, which never interferred with the headlong race by the Watch to forestall a recurrence of a deadly Troll/Dwarf war. The game called Thud is also a war plain, wherein the winner must play both sides, perhaps to learn how the other side sees things. Too bad more diplomats don't read Pratchett--but then EVERYONE should!

Pratchett’s latest Discworld Novel gets its title from a centuries-old strategy game played by Dwarves against Trolls, where the successful competitor must win a match on each side of the table. That Dwarves do not think like Trolls and Trolls do not think like Dwarves – and, in fact, that Trolls and Dwarves don’t think much of each other, either – cause much dissension in the city of Ankh-Morpork. And with a thud of a wholly different sort, someone has clubbed a Dwarf to death.

Everyone knows that Trolls always carry clubs, so Ankh-Morpork is on the verge of civil war. It is up to Sam Vimes, Commander of the City Watch, to solve the crime and stem the ill-will. He does so with a hilarious band of Equal-Opportunity Watchpersons, none of whom naturally likes or trusts each other any more than do the Dwarves and Trolls. Pratchett’s perversely clever satires are populated with creatures who are preposterous exaggerations of our own frailties. Briggs, the official reader of all the Discworld novels, brings them to life with style and pleasure

I have read the book and really enjoyed that. I wanted to see how it would sound with the British accents and Stephen Briggs does an excellent job of doing different voices for the different people speaking in the book. I like that it is Unabridged so that I can hear the whole book instead of selected parts of it. If you have never read/heard Terry Pratchett books, I highly encourage you to read one - they always have several layers of humor so I read them more than once. Enjoy!