Hardcover, 364 pages
English language
Published Nov. 4, 2002
Commander Sam Vimes of the Ankh-Morpork City Watch had it all.
But now he's back in his own rough, tough past without even the clothes he was standing up in when the lightning struck...
Living in the past is hard. Dying in the past is incredibly easy. But he must survive, because he has a job to do. He must track down a murderer, teach his younger self how to be a good copper and change the outcome of a bloody rebellion.
Excellent story all round. Vimes develops even more as a character and we get history of the Watch and the city. Along with a good exposition about how the many parts of a society work together despite the deprecations of self-interested fools. I needed that reminder amidst the chaos and deliberate pain of this Trump administration in the US.
It's been ages since I read any Discworld, but it seems appropriate that I came back to it with a time travel story involving a rebellion and barricades.
It's an interesting mix of serious and silly, sometimes both at once, often treating serious things as comedy and vice versa. The situation is messy, with good cops, bad cops, really bad cops, time ~cops~ monks, and a rebellion that today's Sam Vimes knows won't accomplish what it hopes to, even if it nominally succeeds. There's plenty of comedy in Vimes mentoring his younger self and trying to clean up the "old" watch just enough to keep history on track, how the ordinary citizens handle the rebellion [2], and yet it can still manage to punch you in the gut when you finally find out what the lilac sprigs in the present are all about.
Night Watch is in the …
It's been ages since I read any Discworld, but it seems appropriate that I came back to it with a time travel story involving a rebellion and barricades.
It's an interesting mix of serious and silly, sometimes both at once, often treating serious things as comedy and vice versa. The situation is messy, with good cops, bad cops, really bad cops, time ~cops~ monks, and a rebellion that today's Sam Vimes knows won't accomplish what it hopes to, even if it nominally succeeds. There's plenty of comedy in Vimes mentoring his younger self and trying to clean up the "old" watch just enough to keep history on track, how the ordinary citizens handle the rebellion [2], and yet it can still manage to punch you in the gut when you finally find out what the lilac sprigs in the present are all about.
Night Watch is in the middle of the City Watch series, but it takes enough time to establish the now that while I still spent a good chunk of the book wondering who I was supposed to already recognize, I had a good sense of what had changed over the years and the future Vimes is fighting to protect -- and how hard it is to put it aside so he can focus on the job in front of him.
Definitely recommended even if you haven't read the other Watch books!
Notes: 1. Even better: Next up in my DS9 rewatch is the episode with the Bell Riots. 2. In Les Mis, there's a point where one of the rebels remarks that they'll know they've lost the support of the people when old women are emptying chamber-pots on their heads. Since it's no longer to ask Terry Pratchett whether this was intentional, I'm going to assume it's a deep-cut reference to the book. hyperborea.org/les-mis/book/low-on-ammo/
Cross-posted on my website: hyperborea.org/reviews/books/nightwatch/
Dark but humorous, this is Terry Pratchetts take on Ankh Morpork's past. Vimes travels through time to 25 years before "present day" and must participate in the Revolution and find his way back to his own time.
5 (Listened to the audiobook.)
Freedom, Truth, Justice, Reasonably Priced Love, and a Hard Boiled Egg!
-- The demands of the Republic of Treacle Street, on the glorious 25th of May.
Since it was just the 25th of May I decided to reread this book. I've read the first in the "guards" series more often, this one less so, but it's still a great book. Featuring Samuel Vimes, now commander of the guard and expecting the birth of his son. Vimes gets tangled up with a killer named Carcer and through an accident of a lightning strike and the Unseen University Library, they both get sent back through time to when young Sam Vimes was a brand new City Watch recruit.
Now Vimes has to catch Carcer before he can truly disrupt the past beyond repair, and ensure that events in the past stay as on-track as possible, so that he has any hope of …
Freedom, Truth, Justice, Reasonably Priced Love, and a Hard Boiled Egg!
-- The demands of the Republic of Treacle Street, on the glorious 25th of May.
Since it was just the 25th of May I decided to reread this book. I've read the first in the "guards" series more often, this one less so, but it's still a great book. Featuring Samuel Vimes, now commander of the guard and expecting the birth of his son. Vimes gets tangled up with a killer named Carcer and through an accident of a lightning strike and the Unseen University Library, they both get sent back through time to when young Sam Vimes was a brand new City Watch recruit.
Now Vimes has to catch Carcer before he can truly disrupt the past beyond repair, and ensure that events in the past stay as on-track as possible, so that he has any hope of merging back into the original timeline and rejoining his own life in time for his own son to be born ...
With lots of on-point commentary about the duties and attitudes around police and politics and the general stupidity of people in general and crowds of people specifically, this book has (alas) never been more topical than right now.
Delivers in the department of keeping one entertained, larded with dry humour.
By magical accident Vimes falls back in time.
Vetinari is becoming one of my favourite characters.
An utterly assured narrative full of comedy, pathos and clever commentary on the human condition and our modern times. Took a little longer to get into as its somewhat confusing with the time shift, but once over that 'hump' this works brilliantly.
Just not enough stars to rate this one.
The perfect Pratchett.
Absolutely the best of the Discworld books I've read (so far...), with thrilling action, a refreshing change of pace for the Watch books, and completely un-put-down-able. Highest recommendation!
