Guards! Guards! (Discworld, #8; City Watch, #1) in Fantasy-Faction.com

Oct 11, 2012 David rated it it was amazing

Shelves: all-time-favorites, fantasy

LOVED this book! My favorite Discworld novel yet, next to SOURCERY. Great cast, strong plot, swift pace has it rise above its fellow books. Don't get me wrong. They're all worth reading. At least every one I've yet read. Think this is my 10th. ...more

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Jan 20, 2011 Chris Davis rated it it was amazing

Shelves: fantasy

The first in my Terry Pratchett re-read was an easy choice. Guards! Guards! is one of my favorite Pratchett books. Not the best, but it is the first book featuring the Night’s Watch who are without a doubt my favorite characters. Reading about the introduction of Carrot again was certainly nostalgic, but beyond that, this book is an absolute gem–easy to read, good story, and at times hilarious.

Pratchett’s books are set in the fictional Discworld, which itself has a number of different regions an The first in my Terry Pratchett re-read was an easy choice. Guards! Guards! is one of my favorite Pratchett books. Not the best, but it is the first book featuring the Night’s Watch who are without a doubt my favorite characters. Reading about the introduction of Carrot again was certainly nostalgic, but beyond that, this book is an absolute gem–easy to read, good story, and at times hilarious.

Pratchett’s books are set in the fictional Discworld, which itself has a number of different regions and continents. While Discworld is VERY different from our own, a number of the settings do seem to be based on our world. Ankh Morpork is one of the more common settings for Discworld books and it seems to be based on Victorian London.

Guards! Guards! is a book about the creation of the Night’s Watch. At the beginning of the book, the Watch is just 3 people, Vimes, Colon, and Nobby, and they are somewhat ineffective. The new member is Carrot, a six foot plus dwarf, who is sent to live among men. Carrot is incredibly naive, but certainly enthusiastic about his new career. He even has the cheek to arrest a member of the Thieves Guild. He has a lot to learn about life in Ankh Morpork.

It’s a good job the Watch is starting to come together, because there is about to be trouble. A group meeting in secret has been summoning a dragon to help them take over the city. Their logic is faultless really. They will summon a dragon and have it scare the population. They then find some young guy and have him “slay” the dragon. This guy will then be proclaimed as a long lost King and put on the throne (although they will have to build one first). The brotherhood should have no trouble controlling the King, and therefore can control the city. Easy. Kind of which I had thought of it.

All goes according to plan until the Dragon decides that it is not just going to appear when summoned. Magic does not work against the dragon, so the magicians are useless. It is up to the Watch. Captain Vimes enlists the help of Lady Ramkin who keeps small dragons as pets. The relationship between Vimes and Lady Ramkin is actually surprisingly touching which I wasn’t expecting.

One of the most important characters in a Pratchett book is often the general population. In Guards! Guards!, as always, the population of Ankh Morpork is captured perfectly. Pratchett is great at capturing the stupidity of the general population, especially when they act as a crowd. What else could explain them actually buying things from CMOT Dibbler?!

Pratchett’s books often tend to be really great for the first 3/4, before descending into some vague ending that involves magic of other dimensions. It’s a bit like some bad episodes of Doctor Who. This one seemed to be going in that direction. While the Watch was investigating the crime, the Librarian is poking around in the alternate dimensions hidden in libraries and books stores. I thought the ending was going to revolve around this somehow, but it actually just seemed to be dropped and was not picked up again. This meant that the ending was more grounded in reality, although it was slightly unsatisfactory, with a real blink and you missed it explanation.

The Librarian poking around between dimensions did lead to an excellent explanation of second had bookstores:

Books bend space and time. One reason the owners of those aforesaid little rambling, poky secondhand bookshops always seem slightly unearthly is that many of them really are, having strayed into this world after taking a wrong turning in their own bookshops in worlds where it is considered commendable business practice to wear carpet slippers all the time and open your shop only when you feel like it. You stray into L-space at your peril.

Pratchett’s books are generally not about the story anyway, they are about his wit and humour. There are few jokes that work out of context, so you cannot really explain it easily to those who do not read them. Some lines do stand out though. I really enjoyed this comment on the dragon’s diet: “‘What exactly is it that they do eat?’ The thief shrugged. ‘I seem to recall stories about virgins chained to huge rocks,’ he volunteered. ‘It’ll starve around here then.’” Genius.

This is book 8 in the Discworld series, however it does make a great jumping in point for newbies. It explains things like the Thieves and Assassins Guilds, and how Ankh Morpork functions (i.e. badly!). If you have somehow never read any of Pratchett’s books, this is a great place to get involved. You will want to go right back to the beginning at some point, but this is still a sensible place to start.

10/10 ...more

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