I actually rather disliked Thud!; it feels like it's another "what if guns were evil demons that possessed you?" book like Men at Arms (but this time it's the concept of revenge? or something?), with an added layer of "what if racism was bad?", and in the end it felt like he'd forgotten to write any jokes.

To balance out this non-progressive take, Vimes' character arc is "what if a good cop made cops good?", which probably wouldn't work in real life.