Guards! Guards! | Terry Pratchett | The rummy copper meets the posh bint

Guards! Guards! | Terry Pratchett | Pratchett

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Guards! Guards!

	Guards! Guards! Terry Pratchett HarperTorch, 2001 - 384 pages average customer review:based on 76 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

The rummy copper meets the posh bint

Who but Terry Pratchett could have created a copper like Sam Vimes? Years of "mystery" novels have given us the image of witless, plodding, unimaginative policemen, easily bested by private detective geniuses. When we first meet Sam, he falls right into the stereotype, as well as into a gutter. He doesn't even have the sense to come in out of the rain. That's because his senses have been dulled by Old Bearhugger's - an elixir well suited to numbing the brain to life's injustices. And justice, or the lack of it, is a persistent theme in Sam's life.

Sam's a copper. Policemen are there to enforce the law. In this case, the Patrician of Ankh Morpork has arabesqued normal law enforcement with the creation of Guilds. There's an association of thieves, of burglars, of prostitutes, even of murderers. The latter are known as Assassins - the taking of life is a gentleman's business, not something to be left to the rabble. Against all logic, the Patrician's plan works - the Guilds keep order within their own ranks. That leaves Sam with little to do - and the elixir's appeal is irresistible.

A murder, unlike anything the Assassins might perpetrate, confronts Sam with a novel situation. Assassins, while neat, leave more than a pile of smoking ash in their wake. Nor do they leave such arcane clues as a footprint resembling a raptor's claws. A mystery, indeed. One which could lead to the City terrorized by an unprecedented threat - the arrival of a giant dragon. Neither Sam nor his boss the Patrician want the City subjected to that kind of threat. It's not controllable. It doesn't fit into the design. And it's bloody dangerous.

In pursuing his quarry, Sam wends his way to a home for sick and abandoned dragons. Run by the city's richest . . . umm . . . woman?? If any Pratchett character evades description, it's Sybil Ramkin. We know she's rather Valkyrian, well bred, and consumed with a fervour for swamp dragons. We don't know how old she is [although her family line reaches far into the past], and although matronly in mien, she's not a widow, grass or otherwise. Vimes, a product of the City's Shades [and a few gutters], is daunted, but not overwhelmed. A relationship, however unlikely, builds.

Pratchett draws a fine set of characters in this book. The City's Night Watch, with its cast of unlikely, but wholly believable, characters is introduced. Including a dwarf two metres tall, Carrot Ironfoundersson, who's come to the City to become a Man. Colon, "one of Nature's Sergeants". Nobby Nobbs, whose species remains uncertain. And another whose species is unquestioned, but whose fitness for the City Watch requires further scrutiny. And always, there is Vimes. Vimes, confronted by a dragon metres long and with tonnes of mass, still has an edge. The dragon wants to be king of Ankh Morpork. And Vimes' ancestor, Old Stoneface, once held similar views of justice about kings . . .

Pratchett has a hack at a number of sound, established, institutions. His swipe at the powers of the British Trade Unions through Ankh's Guild system is classic. A traditional association, the Mechanics' Institute, is wonderfully portrayed in the workers' cabal meeting to summon the dragon. It may seem foreign or exaggerated to an American audience. Rest assured it's right on the mark. Pratchett's Patrician shows how effective and subtle the exercise of true power can be. Even in the direst circumstances, his unique personal information network works for him.

For those who are new to Pratchett, this is a fine place to start. PTerry's descriptive wit will keep your attention. It may even grant you some new forms of language. How many of you know a runt dragon is "a total whittle"? How would you play charades with a Librarian? Why does hiring a troll for a pub change the job description from "bouncer" to "splatter"?

For the long-term Pratchett aficionado there are new treasures to enjoy, new concepts to prompt reflection. There are those well-versed in the Discworld Pantheon who rank the Patrician among their favourites. Others rejoice in Sam Vimes as a credibly drawn figure, worthy of imitation [if you can afford the Bear Hugger's]. The cast is impeccably drawn, the story vintage Pratchett. Whether your collection of Pratchett is accumulating randomly or in sequence, this one will fit in admirably and will suffer from being taken from the shelf repeatedly for fresh enjoyment.
[stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada, March 11, 2001]

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Pratchett

This was the first book I ever read in this series. And I thank the book club that I belonged to back in the day for their policy of shipping out novels if you didn't respond in time. Since then I have read them all, from Colour of Magic to Monstrous Regiment, with side forays into Truckers, Diggers, Wings, Strata, the Science of Discworld series and of course the children's books. The Amazing Maurice and his educated Rodents, and Wee Free Men. Thus do I consider myself somewhat of an expert of the author and this book still ranks as my likely #1 or at the very least in the top five. As to others opinions? I just bought my sixth copy of it, the former five were all lent to friends who just happened to 'misplace' it. Bunch of thieves, and I didn't even get a reciept. The City Watch series of novels are my favorites. Perhaps in part because, through all the humor and fantasy, there is a reflection (distorted) of the urban life I live. I really wish that TP would become as popular in the US as he is in the rest of the world. Then perhaps I wouldn't need to have the new novels mailed to me from South Africa. In general I would say to a new reader, start wherever you want. Any book can be your introduction to the Disc. But from personal preference, start with the Watch, and the Watch starts here.

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Simply magnificent

Addictive is what it really is. The characters are dynamic, the city is realistic, and it's hilarious at times. You won't put it down, as any justified person would say.

Guards! Guards!

Many die-hard Pratchett fans hold up "Guards! Guards!" as the high point of the Discworld series. I haven't read them all, but this one is certainly a contender. Introducing the city watch of Ankh-Morpork and a host of delightfully screwy minor characters, this book amply demonstrates Pratchett's talent for cramming different modes of writing into a single story.

It begins when a mysterious character leads a secret society on a mission to summon a dragon as part of a plot to rearrange the city government. It continues when Carrot, a towering dwarf, arrives to join the watch. Conflict soon erupts when Carrot attempts to enforce the letter of the law, being the first person in several generations to do so. Also the Librarian is one the trail of a missing book, a case that he'll eventually solve in most unusual fashion.

In the dragon storyline, Pratchett manages to celebrate and criticize formula fantasy at the same time. "Guards! Guards!" also delivers pointed commentary on law enforcement, politics and the type of people who become politicians, hobbyists, angry mobs, the literary community (look for a hilarious footnote on the eccentricities of bookstore owners), and much more. And he includes some darn fine comedy, especially in the first half. In some later books such as "Feet of Clay" he tries to do too much and occasionally loses some threads of the story. But in "Guards! Guards!", the world's greatest literary juggler manages to keep exactly the right number of balls in the air for the whole time. The result is a delight to read.

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An Excellent Start for the City Watch Discworld Novels

In my humble opinion, the novels about the city watch are the most consistently excellent subset of the Discworld novels, and well worth reading in order. This is the first, and introduces Vimes, an interesting character destined for great things. This book is also a great introduction to Pratchett's humor; where most fantasy novels would give us impressive, glittering beasts with no grounding in physics, in _Guards! Guards!_ we first meet "real" dragons, the swamp dragons: noisy, gurgling creatures capable of eating anything flammable and producing flame via worrying chemical reactions in their complex, gurgling digestive tracts. Unfortunately this also endows them with an unnerving tendency to explode messily when startled. The "noble dragon," by comparison, summoned by magic, seems rather unreal -- how could a creature that heavy actually fly around? But that is the point: the city watch books are the least magical of the Discworld novels, and this means they are not as outrageously funny as some of the others, but they are the most grounded and convincing satires about _this_ world. We meet Lady Sybil, who will be the great woman behind Vimes, helping him to become a great man, and Carrot, a human raised by dwarves who is an innocent abroad, without prejudices, and an oddly heroic born leader. All together it is quite a mismatched crew, but somehow it all works, and watching the whole crew lurch to life is entrancing.

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