My Discworld Book Number
This is my 28th Discworld book.
Discworld Serial Number Based on Publishing Date
This is the 25th book in the Discworld series and was published for the first time in 2000.
Introduction to Discworld Series
Discworld is a fictional world created by writer Terry Pratchett. It is a flat world balanced on the back of 4 elephants; they in turn stand on a giant turtle. The turtle’s name is Great A’Tuin. The names of 4 elephants are Berilia, Tubul, Great T’Phone, and Jerakeen.
Pratchett writes stories set in this world. He has written 41 Discworld books. The genre of these books can be broadly said to be fantasy-satire.
Discworld is a satiric reflection of our own world. The flat world should be the first indication of the satire. Because in this world things are as people (as in flat-earthers) want them to be.
Magic is strong in Discworld. Light travels quite slowly because of thick magic in the atmosphere.
In this world different humanoid species (combinedly known as sapients) live together, but not necessarily peacefully.
Premise of The Truth
The books of Discworld series are set in different parts of Discworld with different set of characters and different subjects. The Truth is set in the centre of Discworld civilization, Ankh-Morpork. The topic of this book is newspaper and forms of truth. It is not part of any sub-series of Discworld series. Wikipedia has classified it under Industrial Revolution. But it could have been part of the Watch subseries. All major characters of the Watch appear in this book but the vantage point is the newly established newspaper Ankh-Morpork Times.
Ankh-Morpork’s patrician Lord Vetinary is not fond of books. Those give ideas. But he can’t stop the new innovations, especially when he is embroiled in an assault case and is locked up in prison. The Watch and the newly established newspapers are his only hopes.
Important Characters
WILLIAM DE WORDE
William comes from the rich and influential de Worde family. He is one of those people, who say “my family is rich, I am not.” The feeling is mutual. His father does not think much of him. He earns his money from writing. He writes down the news and gossips of Ankh-Morpork in a letter form. He gets that engraved and put its impression on papers. Then he sends them foreign countries. He gets five dollars from each foreign patron for sending this monthly newsletter. Along this he is a letter writer for those who can’t write (chiefly the dwarfs).
Once he chanced on some dwarfs, who have modified the engraving process. Now a lot pages can be printed in a very short time at a low cost. Thus, newspaper Ankh-Morpork Times came to existence.
Others followed, some tabloids publishing the-alien-stole-my-husband kind of stories in fact sold much better. William can’t care less about sale. He is an idealist young man, who is interested only in the truth. In his mission others joined.
He is invested in the Vetinary case. He feels he is innocent. Can he prove Vatinary’s innocence.
SACHARISSA
This granddaughter of William’s original engraver has a great inclination to be a proper lady. She is a masterclass in writing sensational headings. She becomes valuable inclusion in the team of the Ankh-Morpork Times. She seems to have strange hold over men. This helps her in collecting news.
With William she has a Mills and Boon kind of scenario going on. But she is not the helpless damsel. She is focused on her work. In fact, she has many great ideas about expanding their activities to publish magazines. So, she is independent, dignified, and enterprising.
OTTO CHRIEK
He is the newly appointed iconographer of Ankh-Morpork Times. He is quite an expert in the area. He keeps on experimenting to publish better pictures in the newspaper. He is sincere and he takes low salary. Only problem is he is not a human. He is a vampire. So every time there is a flash from his iconograph he turns to ashes. He has to be revived every time.
In Carpe Jugulum we have read about Vampires, especially how they don’t have to drink human blood. Otto is a black ribbon holding vampire, who don’t drink human blood.
He talks in an Uberwald accent. Pratchett like always written his dialogues as he speaks. It creates some difficulty in understanding his dialogues written with odd spellings.
MR. PIN AND MR. TULIP
The names Mr. Pin and Mr. Tulip sound like the characters from Quentin Tarantino movies. They have more similarities with Tarantino characters. They are motor mouthed and they have affinity towards violent. Now they are in Ankh-Morpork on a contract to help some powerful people. They are nasty people, while one is worse than the other. Mr. Tulip at least edits his memories because of guilt.
THE WATCH
All characters of the Watch are perplexed at the problems at hand, which are Lord Vetinary’s crimes, Lord Vetinary saying “sorry”, and William printing everything in his paper.
‘And don’t write down that I said don’t write that down.’
They are trying to solve the puzzles surrounding Vetinary while trying to reach at a compromise with William. William thinks the rumoured werewolf of the Watch is Nobby while we know it is Angua. Anyways, the trick he uses to mislead a werewolf will be used in later books too.
Some Significant Mentionables
1. Vetinary’s dog Wuffles thinks Vetinary is his personal god.
2. Harry King is an interesting character. I think I met him first time in this book. He turns any kind of garbage into gold. He takes care of all garbage of Ankh-Morpork.
3. Vetinary is physically not very robust. He walks with a stick.
4. Press is like a vampire because it has to be fed constantly. If there is no news then journalists need to seek news and create news.
5. For non-human beings, in the book Pratchett has used both the terms “races” and “species”. I would say specie would be a better description.
6. Are dwarfs naturally inclined to crime?
A dwarf is also very good at making use of things other people have thrown away, even if they haven’t actually thrown them away yet.
7. Dwarfs don’t confirm human ideas of genders and sexuality, as we have seen in other books too.
…they (dwarfs) took the view that what two dwarfs decided to do together was entirely their own business.
8. Gnoll is a humanoid specie, who can’t talk properly. They can shout few syllables. Harry King employs them for garbage disposal as gnolls eat everything. Whatever they don’t eat, they collect.
9. Wish there were a book completely dedicated to imps, the mechanical power proxy of Discworld
10. Sergent Colon and Corporal Nobbs always get the easiest duty reflecting their capability. They are present in every non-event. Their supposedly ignorant conversations always give unique perspectives on important issues like bigotry etc.
11. The Century of the Fruitbat is almost getting over. The names of centuries and years in Discworld remind me so much of the year names in Infinite Jest!
12. I love the way Pratchett depicts developments and innovations of things in Discworld. The everyday things of our world are so similar and yet so different from their Discword avatars. That is always mind-blowingly interesting.
13. And I did not know Bursar has a proper name! It is Dr. Dinwiddie.
14. The slang term for Ankh-Morpork is the Big Wahoonie. Wahoonie is the rarest and most evil smelling vegetable. It is considered as a prize possession because of its rarity, which seems to have cancelled out the evil-smell.
End Words
Overall, a brilliant book! P.S. Many readers frequently ask if they must read the Discworld books in chronological order. One can read in any order they want to. However, speaking from experience I would say the books make more sense if they are read in chronological order. There is always some underlying continuity in the series cutting across the subseries divide. For instance, before The Truth there was no press. Printing anything was discouraged. After this book, newspapers become one of the constants in Ankh-Morpork. The significance of the process can be comprehended only if one reads the series in order.
Musings 
[…] As the representative of media, in the book we have the staffs from The Ankh-Morpork Times. […]