YMMV / Thief of Time

• Genius Bonus:
  • The depiction of the effects of time dilation is fairly accurate, barring a few fantastical aspects. In particular, because light is more diluted at higher time-speeds, the environment becomes darker. Moreover, because the subject is moving at a considerable percentage of lightspeed (especially by the standards of the Disc), everything in front is blueshifted. There is a Hand Wave thrown in about ghostly versions of light and sound, though, to explain why time-slicers are still able to converse.
  • The brief note on the awful quality of native Ankh-Morporkian chocolate is a subtle reference to very real history of similar food adultery and lackluster quality control in British history. Cocoa powder for drinking and for chocolate, during the 1800s and 1900s, was routinely being cut with, among other things, brick dust, red lead, iron filings, and vermilion. Even in the modern era, British attitudes towards chocolate quality are far less stringent than, say, German or Swedish ones. The British-designed Mars Bar, for example, is routinely known amongst chocolate makers as "the rubbish bar", as standard practice for the nougat center is to make it by melting down and recasting all of the nougat that ordinarily would have been thrown out due to being too substandard to sell on its own.
  • Invar is mentioned as being useful for clockmakers due to being thermally stable. It's a real metal (a nickel/iron alloy) that has a very low coefficient of thermal expansion and as such is often used in applications where thermal stability is important.
  • The glass clock existing partially outside of this universe matches the theoretical description of a wormhole that leads to another universe, which helps explain how it suddenly is also a portal when it is completed. Things that are sucked through it are described as being stretched into a ring shape, which matches the "spaghettification" that is theorized to happen when something passes the event horizon.
• Strangled by the Red String: At the end, Susan Sto Helit and Lobsang Ludd begin to talk as though they have mutual feelings for each other, and (it's implied) begin a romantic relationship. However, there has been nothing vaguely romantic in their interactions up to that point — which is odd, because there was a blossoming awkward romance between Jeremy and Myria/ Unity, and Susan was quite taken with the idea of "someone like her" throughout the book. While Pterry does put in some hints that Lobsang is struck by Susan from the moment they meet, they are pretty subtle and only appear briefly before the urgency of the situation takes over.