Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Guards! Guards!
Book Review: Not Free SF Reader
Summary: 4 Stars
The eight discworld book is a definite improvement on the last couple, and certainly funnier. Much as with everything else in the discworld, the cops are useless, and really don't want to have to work too hard or do much at all. Turning up, having lunch, or supper, or whatever, and then going home is fine with them.
Cults and dragons get in the way, though, and they have to do some policing while Pratchett happily spoofs the cop genre.
Book Review: On Guards
Summary: 4 Stars
Well this is the third of Pratchett's "Discworld" books I've read and probably the last one I'll read for a bit as I have some other stuff to do. Anyway, "Guards! Guards!" was another entertaining and quick read, though I couldn't help thinking it bore a lot of similarities to the later "Going Postal" which I read first. It wouldn't surprise me if many of Pratchett's nearly 40 Discworld books are very similar because in my experience authors develop a certain way of doing things and so do I, although I don't consider myself a true "author" at this point, just a hack writer.
But enough about me and vague generalizations. "Guards! Guards!" is about the laughably inept City Watch, who work the graveyard shift ringing a bell, shouting "all is well," and trying to stay out of the way. This is because the Machiavellian head of the metropolis of Ankh-Morpork, Lord Vetinari, has essentially legalized crime by unionizing thieves and assassins and giving them strict quotas. The head of the City Watch's night shift, Captain Sam Vimes, comes from that Bruce Willis mode of cops in that you can usually find him in a bar or in the gutter afterwards, stinking like a bar.
Things begin to change when a "dwarf" named Carrot arrives from the mountains. Carrot really isn't a dwarf, he's a human taken in by the dwarves since he was a baby and his parents were murdered. When he arrives in Ankh-Morpork he starts throwing the book (figuratively and literally) at the criminal element in the city despite Vimes and his lieutenants telling him to chill out. Meanwhile, a real crime is being purpotrated by a secret society trying to take control of the city by summoning a dragon. They get a lot more than they bargained for and now the only ones who can stop it are the City Watch with the help of the Lady Raskin, one of her pet swamp dragons, and an orangutan librarian.
I think the good thing about this off the bat is that while the book is funny and the cops are inept, they aren't really "Keystone Cops" so much as guys who really don't have an important job and are well aware of this so they just don't care. Some of the plot is predictable but the main twist at the end I didn't really see coming. Like the other two Discworld books I've read (and I'll bet it is the same for most) it features a lot of subtle comedy that makes it laugh out loud funny. As I said earlier, at some point I'll get around to reading more of these because they are high-quality reads that are fun and cover serious topics as well.
Also, as far as comparing this to "Going Postal" they both start off with the "hero" who isn't a hero by any stretch (drunken cop vs. con man) who is embroiled in a much larger game and somewhat reforms, in the process meeting a lady who isn't necessarily a "lady" in terms of decorum. Like I said, I'll bet a lot of the other books in the series follow a similar pattern, but it's a good pattern so that's not really a bad thing.
That is all.
Book Review: One fourth of the series characters start here
Summary: 5 Stars
The Discworld books are mostly about the witches, the wizards, death, or the guards. This book introduces us to the guards and their world.Book Review: One of my favorites of the series so far
Summary: 4 Stars
This was my sixth visit to Discworld, and the most enjoyable stay so far. This is the first of the City Watch sub-series, which fans often nominate as their favorite. These stories focus on the criminally understaffed city guards of Ahnk-Morpork (four employees total), lead by the depressed, sotted, but nearly heroic Captain Vimes. Pratchett gets a lot of heroic fantasy parody material out of this concept, but it also gives him a chance for good character work. In this novel, he also plays around with the stereotypical fantasy dragon and has quite a blast with it (excuse the pun). The story construction is the best Ive read from Discworld. Unfortunately, Ive noticed that my attention always begins slipping in the last third of any Discworld novel; Pratchetts ceaseless comic parading eventually becomes wearisome after two hundred pages of it. Nonetheless, the series continues to strengthen with each episode I read, and I'm eager to read more of the City-Watch series.Book Review: One of the best Discworlds I've read
Summary: 5 Stars
Guards! Guards! by Terry Pratchett
HarperTorch, 1989
355 pages
Discworld; Fantasy; Comic
4.5/5 stars
Source: Library
Summary: A mysterious group decides to summon a dragon in order to overthrow the Patrician and install a king who will malleable to their will. Meanwhile Sam Vimes is an alcoholic captain of the laughable Watch who finds hidden strength when confronting this crisis. [But really the plot's not that important.]
Thoughts: After reading Thud, I really wanted to read more novels of the Watch. This is the first one focused on the Watch and it is far different from the much later Thud. Here the Watch is a joke with four (loyal) members; this is also the novel where he meets his wife, Lady Sybil who I adore. Their love story, which is not the focus if you're someone who doesn't like love stories, was my favorite part.
But there are also a lot of funny bits. Carrot is a human raised by dwarves who does not understand figures of speech and has tremendous strength. He is important to revitalizing the Watch. We also see Nobby and Colon who continue in the Guard. Then there is the Patrician, my third favorite Discworld character (after Death and Moist von Lipwig). He gets some great lines here and I loved getting to read more about him.
Overall: Another funny story with a bit of a romance that really elevates the book for me.
Quotes:
"A book has been taken. A book has been taken? You summoned the Watch...because someone's taken a book? You think that's worse than murder?" -Yes the Librarian does think that, p.108
"Never trust a ruler who puts his faith in tunnels and bunkers and escape routes. The chances are that his heart isn't in the job." -Sound advice from the Patrician, p. 286
Cover: Love the green! And the dragon is fitting.