Paperback, 320 pages
English language
Published Nov. 10, 1991 by Corgi Adult.
‘Vimes ran a practised eye over the assortment before him. It was the usual Ankh-Morpork mob in times of crisis; half of them were here to complain, a quarter of them were here to watch the other half, and the remainder were here to rob, importune or sell hotdogs to the rest.’
Insurrection is in the air in the city of Ankh-Morpork. The Haves and Have-Nots are about to fall out all over again.
Captain Sam Vimes of the city’s ramshackle Night Watch is used to this. It’s enough to drive a man to drink. Well, to drink more. But this time, something is different – the Have-Nots have found the key to a dormant, lethal weapon that even they don’t fully understand, and they’re about to unleash a campaign of terror on the city.
Fun, entertaining, light, crazy. I get the feeling this world gets better as it gets bigger, so I may find some more Discworld in a bit.
Quite possible the best Discworld book of all. I love the Night Watch series, they're simply fantastic.
The Unique and Supreme Lodge of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night is a secret organisation that plans to overthrow the Patrician and install a king of their choosing; a puppet under the control of the Supreme Grand Master. Using a stolen magic book to summon a dragon on the people of Ankh-Morpork, the plan is to slay the dragon, rid the city of its tyranny and have their hero take the throne.
Guards! Guards! attempts to parody Hard-Boiled and Noir novels with elements of police procedurals but there is one thing that really doesn’t match this style. Guards! Guards! is writing in third person with an omniscient and reliable narrator, this really seems weird since the style of novel it is trying to parody is often first person and unreliable. I’m not sure if it is the fact that all Terry Pratchett novels are written in the same …
The Unique and Supreme Lodge of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night is a secret organisation that plans to overthrow the Patrician and install a king of their choosing; a puppet under the control of the Supreme Grand Master. Using a stolen magic book to summon a dragon on the people of Ankh-Morpork, the plan is to slay the dragon, rid the city of its tyranny and have their hero take the throne.
Guards! Guards! attempts to parody Hard-Boiled and Noir novels with elements of police procedurals but there is one thing that really doesn’t match this style. Guards! Guards! is writing in third person with an omniscient and reliable narrator, this really seems weird since the style of novel it is trying to parody is often first person and unreliable. I’m not sure if it is the fact that all Terry Pratchett novels are written in the same style but it really didn’t help me connect with the novel, let alone notice most of the parodies.
This is a simple quest plot, The Unique and Supreme Lodge of the Elucidated Brethren of the Ebon Night obviously want to take over the throne but there are a few other plotlines that are on a quest for power. Wonse (The secretary to the Patrician) had power; he could make commands and have them carried out and he quite enjoyed that. Now he has lost this power, he wants it back. The Patrician wishes to hold onto his power as the ruining king, ultimately his calm demeanour is what aids him through the tyranny.
One thing I thought was difficult about this book was the language; while this novel uses modern language there is a lot of in world slang that took a while to get used to. There was an incident where a character got intoxicated and the words started being misspelt for emphasises. This can be effective but you don’t find out this is due to his intoxication till you read through some of his gibberish. Sometimes the language can be effective like when Death speaks, he only uses capital letters and when the dragons are speaking they use italics. Overall it just took so much to get used to. If you are a reader of the Discworld series, this might not seem too difficult but for an outsider like me it really affected my enjoyment of this novel.
This novel wasn’t broken into chapters; it’s just three hundred plus pages of continuous story. I’m not really sure the reason behind this, but the only way the novel switches between the plot and subplot are paragraph breaks. I’m not saying it is necessarily a bad thing but when you want to put the book down, I think it makes it hard to find a decent stopping place.
I’ve been very vocal about my struggle to connect with fantasy novels; I discovered I do enjoy the urban fantasy/noir blends (The Dresden Files, Bobby Dollar series) so I thought maybe this would be similar. Sure this book was funny and some of the parodies worked really well but it missed any crime element to really work for me. To make a good fantasy/noir blended novel, I think it needs to be a lot darker, with some cynical elements; it doesn’t necessarily need a crime but a quest that will cause an inner struggle within the protagonist will help.
If someone has a suggestion for a decent fantasy novel with some noir elements to it, please let me know. Guards! Guards! is a very funny fantasy novel; this is the second Discworld novel I’ve read and while I did enjoy them, I felt like the both lacked something. I guess I much prefer darker stories; this is just light entertainment and sometimes you need that, but it’s not a series I plan to read in its entirety.
This review originally appeared on my blog; literary-exploration.com/2013/05/16/book-review-guards-guards/
Terry Pratchett is easily my favourite author of all time! What's more, the Discworld may just be my favourite fantasy world of all time. It so happens that the very first Discworld book I read was [b:Men at Arms|400354|Men at Arms (Discworld, #15)|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1347687894s/400354.jpg|819071], which is actually the second book in Discworld's so called "City Watch" series (this book is the first in that series). Still, I was able to suspend disbelief and "pretend" that many of the things that were assumed in Men at Arms hadn't happened yet.
This book is all about dragons and kings, which Pratchett describe in his typical humourous style. It's laugh-a-page, and I simply could not put it down. Over the past few weeks while I've been reading it I've had some pretty late nights, resulting in me being quite unable to get out of bed in the mornings, and often arriving to work …
Terry Pratchett is easily my favourite author of all time! What's more, the Discworld may just be my favourite fantasy world of all time. It so happens that the very first Discworld book I read was [b:Men at Arms|400354|Men at Arms (Discworld, #15)|Terry Pratchett|http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1347687894s/400354.jpg|819071], which is actually the second book in Discworld's so called "City Watch" series (this book is the first in that series). Still, I was able to suspend disbelief and "pretend" that many of the things that were assumed in Men at Arms hadn't happened yet.
This book is all about dragons and kings, which Pratchett describe in his typical humourous style. It's laugh-a-page, and I simply could not put it down. Over the past few weeks while I've been reading it I've had some pretty late nights, resulting in me being quite unable to get out of bed in the mornings, and often arriving to work quite late.
I would've rated this book five stars, but for two points where the book moved a little slowly for my liking. Yes, only two - the pacing is otherwise brilliant! About halfway through the book I began to think that it was getting a bit long in the tooth and I thought it should just end. Thankfully, I pushed through, and it was like a whole new story started, a "sequel" if you like. Then around 85% of the way through, the story was over but there were still loose ends to tie up. I caught myself thinking "Yeah, I know all this stuff is necessary, but we all know what happens next, and who ends up with whom. Just finish already!"
Once again, I'm glad I pulled through, though: there are one or two surprises in the wrap-up that I found quite entertaining!
If you like fantasy (or even if you hate it), and love comedy, Terry Pratchett's your man! And this book is a decent place to start reading the City Watch series. Highly recommended!!
The eighth book in the Discworld collection but one of the best to start with, Guards! Guards! introduces the motley crew of the Night Watch and their captain Sam Vimes, not to mention Carrot, a human raised as a dwarf. The story is set entirely in Ankh-Morpork, giving us a very good view of the city at "street level" as the Watch try to come to grips with the new balance of power now that dragons turn out to be real.
I own the British edition of Guards! Guards! and guard it with my life. Another Pratchett masterpiece.
