History Literature / ThiefOfTime

Meanwhile, another foundling called Lobsang Ludd has been taken away by the History Monks and is taught their disciplines, such as the management and upkeep of history and the running of time, and the time-bending martial art of time-fu. A difficult but know-it-all student, he is apprenticed to Lu-Tze (from ''Literature/SmallGods''), spoken of with fear yet claiming to be only a simple sweeper, and thus outside the system. Via their Mandala, the monks learn of the attempt to reconstruct the Glass Clock, and know that this time there's no hope of repairing history if it strikes. Merely a birth pang of the coming doom causes the room of Procrastinators (time manipulating machines) to go haywire, yet Lobsang somehow instinctively calms them. Lu-Tze, who failed to stop the first clock, is put on the case by the Abbot, a serial reincarnator currently in the body of a baby. He and Lobsang journey down towards Ankh-Morpork...

Meanwhile, another foundling called Lobsang Ludd has been taken away by the History Monks and is taught their disciplines - chiefly chronological kung fu. A difficult but know-it-all student, he is apprenticed to Lu-Tze (from ''Literature/SmallGods''), spoken of with fear yet claiming to be only a simple sweeper, and thus outside the system. Via their Mandala, the monks learn of the attempt to reconstruct the Glass Clock, and know that this time there's no hope of repairing history if it strikes. Merely a birth pang of the coming doom causes the room of Procrastinators (time manipulating machines) to go haywire, yet Lobsang somehow instinctively calms them. Lu-Tze, who failed to stop the first clock, is put on the case by the Abbot, a serial reincarnator currently in the body of a baby. He and Lobsang journey down towards Ankh-Morpork...

* ColourfulThemeNaming: Thanks to [=LeJean=] blurting something out upon first introducing them, the other Auditors are all named Mr or Miss [Colour] -- possibly a ShoutOut to ''Film/ReservoirDogs''. Or else a shout-out to the British board game ''Cluedo'' (named ''Clue'' in the American version), with characters named "Colonel Mustard", "Reverend Green", "Miss Scarlett", "Dr. Black", etc. The naming convention also has a certain resemblance to the Strangers from ''Film/DarkCity''.

*** When Susan and Lobsang meet after time is frozen, she asks if he's got rhythm, then if he's got music. She then observes "And you certainly haven't got a girl. I saw Old Man Trouble just a while ago, you'd best avoid him" which is a reference to the song "Who Could Ask For Anything More" by Music/IrvingBerlin.

* HistoricalInJoke: One of Lobsang's instructors recounts to the Abbot how, in an attempt to embarrass Lobsang into paying attention, he challenged the boy to solve the problem on the blackboard; only Lobsang was looking at the wrong problem, and instead solved part of a lesson that had been impossible even for the advanced students who it had been intended for. This is more or less what happened to George Dantzig in 1939 when he was a graduate student at Berkeley; he arrived late to a statistics class one day and scrawled down what he assumed was part of his homework assignment. Six weeks after he turned it in, his professor came to him and told him he'd solved two rather famous unsolved problems that had been giving mathematicians trouble for years.

** Lu-Tze refuses to nickname the apprentice monk after "[[Series/KungFu a damned insect."]] Actually, Lu-Tze bears a lot of resemblance to Master Po, as an example of BewareTheNiceOnes whose badassery is constantly underestimated.

** Lu-Tze tells Lobsang he won't [[Series/KungFu call him some insect nickname]].

* ElementNumberFive: As in the previous book, it is said that on the Disc the Fifth Element is "Surprise". Fitting the number, Lu-Tze has a 'Garden of Five Surprises' which Lobsang attempts to puzzle out after only finding four of them. [[spoiler:He's convinced it's some meta explanation like Lu-Tze himself being the fifth surprise, but the actual fifth surprise is just a cheap carnival mask Lu-Tze puts on with a "Boo!"]] "I never said it was a ''good'' surprise..."

** An Auditor imparts, what turns out to be fallacious, analogy about the "water in a jug". Where no matter what container the water is placed in it remains unchanged. It's Myria'srealization that it is wrong; for a mind in a body, the "water" is truly changed by the jug.

* FatherTime: Shows up of course, given the title, [[spoiler: Only at the end though when Lobsang ascends to the position. Beforehand hand it's his mother. A striking woman with long dark hair and a red dress, she's quite happy to see her son as before she was stuck wondering her glass castle and weep for the child she could see but never touch.]]

* SophisticatedAsHell: The Fifth Horseman shows Lu-Tze the deleted passage in the Book of Om referring to him: "And the Angel clothéd all in white opened the Iron Book, and a fifth rider appeared in a chariot of burning ice, and there was a snapping of laws and a breaking of bonds and the multitudes cried 'Oh God, we're in trouble now!'"

** There is a brief mention of the grand The Dysk theatre from ''Literature/MovingPictures'' now being a small, shabby regular stage theatre. Nobody remembers it ever being anything else, presumably through a CosmicRetcon by the History Monks.

* AnthropomorphicPersonification: Time; it had previously been hinted in an earlier version of the ''Discworld Companion'' that she was female, because "Time waits for no man"... [[spoiler:except Wen]].

* EnemyToAllLivingThings: The Auditors are this, par for course really. Interestingly this book goes into detail of how their presence causes an increase in malignity - ordinary objects becoming more hostile to non-objects. Buttered bread become [[SlipperySkid tripping hazards]], ropes and hoses tie themselves [[InstantKnots into knots]], wouldn't be suprised rakes get [[RakeTake under foot]] too.

** In the beginning of the book, Susan's inner monologue discusses how lonely she is, and how impossible it is to have a meaningful relationship with a mortal with only five senses. The end of the book has her getting together with [[spoiler: Lobsang]], the son and new personification of Time.

* GreatWayToGo: [[spoiler:Unity's]] ''Death by Chocolate''. Even Death himself and the other Horsemen are impressed.

* HistoricalInJoke: One of Lobsang's instructors recounts to the Abbot how, in an attempt to embarass Lobsang into paying attention, he challenged the boy to solve the problem on the blackboard; only Lobsang was looking at the wrong problem, and instead solved part of a lesson that had been impossible even for the advanced students who it had been intended for. This is more or less what happened to George Dantzig in 1939 when he was a graduate student at Berkeley; he arrived late to a statistics class one day and scrawled down what he assumed was part of his homework assignment. Six weeks after he turned it in, his professor came to him and told him he'd solved two rather famous unsolved problems that had been giving mathematicians trouble for years.
* HorsemenOfTheApocalypse: [[spoiler: Five.]]

* HumanMail: Jeremy gets an Igor mailed to him in a box.

* RealityIsUnrealistic: Lobsang witnesses a sunrise in colors (like "surgical-appliance pink") that no artist would be caught dead using in a ''painting'' of a sunrise.

** As with the third example in Time Stands Still, below, a subtle Shout Out combined with Genius Bonus: the "sweet spot at high slicing levels" sounds awfully like the Islands of Stability at the higher end of the Periodic Table http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Island_of_stability.

* SmokyGentlemensClub: Ankh-Morpork has one, of a sort, where men of the city can get away from women. It's not ''that'' kind of gentlemen's club, which is a little down the street and much better decorated. Women aren't even allowed in this club most of the time. No, it's not ''that'' kind of gentlemen's club either. This is just a place where men who've spent their entire life being told what to do by women can sit down, put their feet up and loosen their belts for a bit. Death is allowed in, because of ''course'' he's a gentleman (he owns property in country, is punctual and impeccably polite). Women are not allowed in. Any woman who does get in obviously doesn't really exist, and can be ignored, as Susan demonstrates when she goes to pay granddad a visit.

** This artficial beauty and the fact that she doesn't quite know how to handle a human body (not always submitting to gravity, having an empty facial expression most of the time, having no body smell at all) lead to Jeremy assuming at first she might be a zombie and to Igor [[UncannyValley feeling highly uncomfortable at her presence.]]

* ItIsPronouncedTropay: The Angel Clothèd All in White of the Iron Book from the Prophecy of Tobrun is keen to remind you that 'Clothèd' is pronounced "cloth-edd". "It's the slanty thing over the E".

* ItIsPronouncedTropay: The Angel Clothéd All in White of the Iron Book from the Prophecy of Tobrun is keen to remind you that 'Clothéd' is pronounced "cloth-edd". "It's the slanty thing over the E".

* PaintingTheMedium: Throughout the book, the word ''tick'' is inserted in-between most scenes. [[spoiler: When Lobsang fails to stop the glass clock, and time stops, the ticking stops as well.]]

* {{Kiai}}: The monks' various martial arts use FunnyBruceLeeNoises, allowing the ArrogantKungFuGuy to turn "ohshee" into "oh shit" when he learns who he's fighting.

* ItIsPronouncedTropay: The Angel Clothèd All in White of the Iron Book from the Prophecy of Tobrun is keen to remind you that 'Clothèd' is pronounced "cloth-edd". "It's the slanty thing over the E".

** See also ColourfulThemeNaming above.