Thief of Time

First published on 17 May 2001 by Victor Gollancz. It is the twenty-sixth Discworld novel and the fifth (and final) Death sub-series book.

The History Monks are a secret order of monks who maintain the flow of time itself — storing surplus time, redistributing it where needed, and preventing temporal catastrophes. They operate from a hidden monastery and are among the Disc's most powerful and least-visible institutions.

The Auditors are cosmic bureaucratic entities who maintain the physical laws of the universe. They find consciousness — particularly human consciousness — deeply irritating because it is unpredictable. In Thief of Time they try to stop time entirely to eliminate the problem of existence.

In Thief of Time, there is a fifth Horseman — Kaos (Chaos) — who left before the other Four became famous and now makes the world's best chocolate. His return is one of the novel's great jokes.

Not ideally. Susan is richer with knowledge of Soul Music, where she was introduced. But Thief of Time works independently as a philosophical comedy about time, consciousness, and what it means to be truly present.